Senior Accounting Specialist - ANTICIPATED

Position Definition: The Senior Accounting Specialist shall be responsible for overseeing accounting operations, preparing financial statements, providing accounting support and analysis, assisting with the budget process, internal and external audits, billing functions, and financial reporting for the Intermediate Unit.

Relationship: The Senior Accounting Specialist shall be responsible to the Director of Business Services.

Qualifications: 

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance/Accounting/Business Administration or similar required.
• CPA/CMA/MBA/MS in Accounting or similar preferred.
• Five � Seven years' experience working in an accounting-related field.
• Three - Five years in school business preferred.
• Proficiency and daily use of accounting software.

Skills/Knowledge:

• Demonstrates knowledge of fund accounting.
• Demonstrates mastery with financial and numeric data.
• Demonstrates advanced proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office Suite and accounting software.
• Demonstrates the advanced ability to work collaboratively with external and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrates the ability to maintain complete confidentiality.
• Demonstrates excellent interpersonal skills, demonstrated by patience, understanding, and congeniality.
• Demonstrates excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrates organizational and time management skills in carrying out all duties, tasks, and responsibilities with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrates the ability to prioritize assigned tasks.
• Demonstrates attention to detail and accuracy to use reasonable judgment for estimates if defined elements are not known.
• Demonstrates the ability to work independently and maintain departmental deadlines.
• Demonstrates the ability to make professional decisions.
• Demonstrates the ability to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
• Demonstrates skills to provide the highest level of customer service, with patience and knowledge of the department's services.
• Ability to attend work regularly at assigned work hours subject to lawful leave rights and responsibilities.

Physical:

• Ability to stand, bend, stoop, sit, lift, reach, communicate (vision, hearing, and speech), and carry or convey sufficient weight to safely and effectively carry out functions, duties, and responsibilities.
• Ability to independently ambulate in and around work locations.
• Ability to travel to and from assigned work locations without employer support.
• Ability to travel in and drive a CLIU #21 vehicle.

• Ability to exhibit appropriate manual dexterity to effectively carry out functions, duties, and responsibilities.

   

Authority: The Senior Accounting Specialist will have the authority to perform all functions listed below, in accordance with established policies and procedures.

Functions/Duties/Responsibilities: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function/duty/responsibility at acceptable standards. In accordance with both state and/or federal law, reasonable accommodations will be considered upon employee request.

Essential:

• Applies knowledge and understanding of business, fiscal, and accounting practices in the development and application of Business Office protocols, procedures, and internal controls.
• Supports all accounting operations of the Business Office.
• Coordinates budget development, reviews, monitors and provides reporting of identified grants.
• Assists with Intermediate Unit financial schedules, including payroll reconciliations, for the annual CLIU financial audit.
• Assists with the Final Expenditure Reports for federal and state grants.
• Prepares quarterly cash reconciliations for state and federal grants, as required in the eGrants system.
• Maintains the Grant Master listing.
• Assists with the Annual Financial Report as required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE).
• Prepares, coordinates, or reviews reports required by PDE and other federal, state, or local agencies, as required by identified grants.
• Maintains the Chart of Accounts in compliance with PDE and accounting standards.
• Maintains the Budget Code Changes file for staff changes (i.e. hires, resignations, position changes, etc.).
• Maintains the Cumulative Benefits file, processes copay journal entries, and communicates required corrections to Human Resources.
• Researches and communicates new accounting issues or changes that impact Intermediate Unit operations.
• Develops ad-hoc financial reports as needed.
• Maintains detailed and accurate filing per departmental guidelines.
• Posts bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly payroll-generated transactions to Fund Accounting.
• Calculates and uploads monthly benefit, administrative fee and indirect cost, and other recurring journal entries, as required.
• Reconciles balance sheet accounts monthly in accordance with departmental guidelines.
• Reviews and processes all departmental journal entry requests and maintains journal back-up archive files.
• Maintains employee payout dates in the Human Resources database and maintains the annual severance file used for compensated absence calculations.
• Monitors purchases of equipment for fixed asset additions, collects documentation, and updates the fixed asset software.
• Reviews asset disposal to identify tagged assets and notes the disposal, in accordance with department guidelines.
• Updates the PSDLAF Flex Account daily with transaction/invoice information and balances the PSDLAF Flex Spending account monthly during the bank reconciliation process.

Secondary:

• Assists in onboarding of the Staff Accountants and Budget Analyst.
• Functions as backup for the Staff Accountants and Budget Analyst and receives and records cash/checks received in the Business Office in the absence of the Department Administrative Assistant.
• Assists with special departmental projects and reports as requested by the Director of Business Services.
• Acts as a secondary to the Fiscal Coordinator for the following areas:
  • Access financial reporting
  • Daily cash management
  • Non-Public Grant monitoring
• This Job Description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position. Employees will be required to perform other duties as assigned.