My Paysafe: A week in the life of Maria Mitreva
Maria is our head of financial projects and systems for digital wallets, based in Sofia.
Do you have a typical day or week at Paysafe?
Typical is that each day is different. Usually my days start with checking my email and then have a number of regular meetings. But the topics and the projects that I am working on are very different.
Our team is responsible for the automated accounting and reconciliation of digital wallet transactions. This includes the monitoring of existing data transfer processes between Digital Wallet systems and Oracle EBS; troubleshooting and support mainly for finance and reconciliation teams; and development and mapping of new processes or products, including new reports.
We work closely with the product and IT development teams to make sure every new product or process meets the requirements for automated accounting, follows all the approvals and segregation of duty procedures, and operates with full transparency, generating an audit trail between source and accounted data. Everyone in the business understands how important these tasks are for maximising the efficiency and accuracy of financial reporting; it is critical that financial information is processed instantly and with the sufficient granularity to complete the required analysis.
We play an important role. The volume of data is big, the tasks are many. This is why teamwork is very important. You need to rely on and trust the people you work with. I am happy to be part of a friendly team of very smart and hardworking people who respect each other. Without exception I know they are best-in-class in their field.
How has your career at Paysafe evolved during the 15 years you have spent with the company?
When I joined Moneybookers it was a start-up company. I joined as a QA (quality assurance) engineer. It was a very interesting period and I learned a lot about the industry and the specific product that the Moneybookers team was building. Shortly after that I started building a QA team. I am happy to say that some of the colleagues who joined the company during this period are still part of the Paysafe team.
A few years later Moneybookers became Skrill and I changed my career path towards project management. My passion, however, has always been finance and automation related projects and tasks. As the company grew an opportunity arose to set up a new team dedicated to automation and support of accounting and the finance-related aspects of digital wallets.
One of the most interesting projects that I have participated in was the integration of Oracle EBS. We worked closely with two very professional and knowledgeable teams – one from Oracle Bulgaria and one from Technologica Bulgaria. Another substantial and interesting project was the integration between EBS and our Skrill digital wallet for automated accounting and reconciliation.
And today the company is still growing. We are Paysafe now. There are new brands (such as NETELLER) to integrate to our automated accounting and reconciliation system, and also new products (such as Skrill’s cryptocurrency service). We keep upgrading our integration with EBS and our reconciliation system in line with our corporate needs, technology trends, and performance expectations. In short, you can probably tell that I like my job very much.
What advice do you give to the new members of your team?
Do not be afraid to try something new, ask questions, experiment, and challenge the status quo. It is useful, helpful and often mandatory to have rules you need to follow. But we should not suppress the creative and curious part of ourselves. It’s this that helps people and the business move forward.
What do you think about diversity and inclusion at Paysafe?
Paysafe has built a working environment and culture where everyone has equal opportunities and feels able to fulfil their potential regardless of gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
Considering the number of employees, contractors, partners, office locations we have at Paysafe you can meet a range of different people with different senses of humour, from different cultures or ethnic backgrounds, religions, or sexual orientations. It is very interesting to communicate and understand people that are different from you. It broadens your world. It is through understanding these differences that we generate more ideas and work better together. Sometimes it is challenging but in general it is a real treasure and one of the things that make Paysafe a great company.
How have you found having to work from home as opposed to working from the office? Would you explore this opportunity in the future if given the opportunity?
There are pros and cons for both options. On one hand working from home saves me three hours a day of travelling to the office and allows me to spend this time with my family instead. On the other hand, I miss face-to-face meetings with my colleagues. Although the technology allows us to be constantly in touch and we work well together, we are still social human beings.
If we are given the opportunity to work from home, I would say a mixture of working from home and from the office would be ideal for me, for example 50% of each.
Describe Paysafe in three words.
Dynamic, technology-driven and global.
Where do you imagine your career will be in ten years?
That is a very difficult question. We live in very dynamic times. Technology and Paysafe is evolving each year. I believe I will still be part of the evolution.
You should choose to work for Paysafe, because…
You have the amazing chance to be part of a leading company in the fintech industry. The business is dynamic. You can learn a lot and to achieve a lot.
There are many things you can be proud of, being part of Paysafe. There are different corporate responsibility programmes. What makes me proud is also the fact that Paysafe has been certified as a Carbon Neutral Company for 2020 and 2019. The company and the employees keep working hard to reduce our everyday carbon emissions – both at home and in the office.
Maria Mitreva is Head of Financial Projects at Paysafe, Digital Wallets.
She holds a Master’s degree in Accounting and Control and Computer Science. The focus of the team she leads is the automation of financial processes. She describes her role as “a techie” among finance people and “a finance person” among techies.
Outside the office she likes hiking and blueberries.