Price the unfinished work before celebrating the fee
Chief Financial Officer / India
I want an animation project’s financial account to describe the work still required, rather than allow an attractive fee or a reassuring cash balance to settle the question.
Open toBoard appointments · Executive opportunities
Make production obligations visible in financial decisions before another commitment is approved
2016-04 — 2021-0302
Financial Controller
Vezqalni Animation Works
Scope & contribution
Keep production estimates and recorded spending in one reviewable management account
2009-04 — 2016-0303
Production Finance Manager
Vezqalni Animation Works
Scope & contribution
Connect the agreed production brief with a financial estimate of the remaining work
2002-04 — 2009-0304
Project Costing Manager
Drezqavli Project Accounts
Scope & contribution
Reconcile the work described by commercial and production colleagues before comparing costs
1994-06 — 2002-0305
Project-Accounts Assistant
Drezqavli Project Accounts
Scope & contribution
Separate the recorded transaction from the forecast a manager wants to make from it
Enterprise revenue
₹134 crore
FY2025–26; animation and finishing services
Finance team
28 colleagues
Four heads reporting within the CFO remit
Recorded career
32 years
Project accounts through animation-company finance leadership
At the board table
Vezqalni Animation Works
Executive finance presenter; not a statutory director
Board finance and project-commitment reviews
The finance team should ask what work remains before describing what a project has earned. Cash, fees and costs become useful when the obligations beside them are visible to the people making the next decision.
Price the unfinished work before celebrating the fee
In 2019 I accepted an animation project’s ₹1.8 crore expected cost against a ₹2.4 crore fee without making the remaining-work estimate sufficiently explicit. We had already incurred ₹1.1 crore. Production’s revised account required a further ₹1.2 crore, bringing expected cost to ₹2.3 crore and leaving ₹10 lakh before central costs, rather than the ₹60 lakh previously shown. Iqbal challenged the assumption behind my paper. I had allowed the apparent margin to survive because the work still ahead of us was described less precisely than the spending already recorded.
I now lead finance at Vezqalni Animation Works in Bhubaneswar. The 310-person company recorded ₹134 crore FY2025–26 revenue across commissioned animation and finishing services. Twenty-eight finance colleagues work through four heads within ₹4.8 crore annual function expense and a separate ₹1.6 crore systems programme. I report to Nandita, our CEO, and present to directors without holding a statutory seat. I own no personal equity. Production, accounting and contractual decisions retain their qualified owners; my responsibility is to make the financial consequence available before the enterprise commits.
Later reviews concerned customer advances inside a cash balance and an outsourcing proposal whose internal comparison included costs that would remain. In the first, ₹12 crore of an ₹18 crore balance related to commissioned work with ₹9 crore forecast delivery outflow. In the second, a ₹1.6 crore external quote could not be described as a saving against ₹1.4 crore internal cost when ₹1 crore would continue after outsourcing. These are management decision accounts, not revenue-recognition or legal opinions. My next contribution should help a company distinguish the attractive number from the obligation it must still carry. An outside appointment would require further governance preparation, specific assessment and a workable twenty-three-day annual proposal.
The remaining-work estimate changed the project account
₹1.1 crore incurred plus ₹1.2 crore forecast remaining cost left ₹10 lakh against a ₹2.4 crore fee before central costs.
Advance receipts carried an unfinished delivery commitment
₹12 crore customer advances within an ₹18 crore cash balance sat beside ₹9 crore forecast delivery outflow.
The outsourcing comparison retained costs that would survive
Only ₹40 lakh of the ₹1.4 crore internal account was avoidable; the ₹1.6 crore external quote did not remove the other ₹1 crore.
A finance function connected to production judgement
Twenty-eight colleagues through four heads examine project commitments with production owners and the CEO.
Current focus
Project finance that keeps remaining production obligations visible
Conversations I welcome
Finance leadership and a prepared first outside-board contribution
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Bachelor of CommerceTeqvazli Commerce College · 1994
Suvendu explained why the bank balance did not settle our discretionary spending proposal. He made the remaining production commitment visible without claiming the residual was automatically available to spend.
Nandita ZevqorliChief Executive, Vezqalni Animation Works; fictional colleagueThe full record ↗
Contact
Finance leadership and a prepared first outside-board contribution