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“My family inspire me to do the best I can in everything I do, and I love seeing people around me thrive” – Alex Garlick

Alex has been a part of The Ralph journey since the very beginning. Before our hospital doors opened Alex worked alongside Kim on our Mobile Physiotherapy + Rehabilitation Service. Now, Alex is one of our lovely Accounts Assistants and is currently studying for her bookkeeping qualifications. Alex is a glowing demonstration of how you can turn your hand to anything if you have the passion and drive to achieve…

“I really enjoy working with numbers. I always have done but this has been my first proper numbers-based role. I have a clinical background in both animal and human medicine so being in a hospital environment feels like home. I first trained as a Registered Veterinary Nurse and worked at a first opinion practice for five years. I then re-trained as a Paramedic and worked for the NHS for 18 years. I decided to make the change and start a career in accounting because the shift work was getting harder and harder, and I wanted to be in a job with more regular hours for my family.

Alex with our Customer Care Team member, Shannon.

I spend my days working with the financial side of our patient’s treatments. This ranges from preparing invoices and updating financial statements, to chasing payments and dealing with queries. Whilst the tasks remain the same, each day is very different. I am fortunate to work with a brilliant team and love the support and camaraderie we share; I work closely with two other fabulous accounts assistants, Angie and Sarah, the Finance Manager, Juliette, and the Finance Director, Iqbal. We all get along very well and always have a laugh.

My first job of the day is to look at our accounting system and reconcile the incoming payments with outstanding accounts. We receive most payments via insurance companies, but some pet carers pay directly. I then update the aged receivables list, which details the unpaid invoices, with changes in amounts owed and add any new accounts. I spend a large amount of my day preparing and sending out invoices or statements to our pet carers. This helps to keep them updated with the finances relating to their pet’s treatment.

Alex and Juliette in our Finance Office.

Throughout the day I will chat with our vets about the invoices I am preparing, as well as speaking to carers who have queries about their payments or insurance claims. I never like to leave work unfinished, so before I leave for the day everything needs to be in order. As I have the luxury of living next to a post office, the end of my day usually involves a trip to post medications for our patients and samples to the laboratory for testing.

My family inspire me to do the best I can in everything I do, and I love seeing people around me thrive – be it at home or at work. If you love numbers like me, and are interested in a job in finance, then go for it. There are plenty of easy-access courses available to kick-start your learning at a basic level and to then work your way up.”

Thank you for reading our latest blog. If you can’t wait for the next instalment of our “A day in the shoes of…” series, you can meet the rest of our team here.

Take care,

Team Ralph