Accounting Specialist Jobs in Tennessee

INTRODUCTION

This position is responsible for cash management and reconciliation of the University’s system-wide banking activities, which includes, but is not limited to: manually reconciling transactions in DASH; monitoring the University’s banking activity for fraud; providing frequent support to department staff across the University at all campuses; providing ad hoc training to end users; and ensuring that the University’s accounting records are accurate and compliant with applicable standards to ensure that the University avoids issues with internal audit and State audit. This position is critical to the University’s ability to close its books monthly and annually. On average, the position will be responsible for monitoring, reviewing, and reconciling millions of dollars of transactions per week.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Manually check each account for which the position is responsible. Daily, the position will manually reconcile entries on multiple accounts.
• Troubleshooting department questions and concerns.
• Reversing and correcting erroneous entries.
• Monitoring bank activity for fraud.
• Ensuring the disbursements and revenue transactions are accurately and timely accounted for.
• Communicating with department end users to ensure that end users complete necessary tasks correctly and in a timely manner.
• Assist with monthly reconciliation.
• Perform ad hoc training and correction to department staff across the system.
• Interface with other teams, such as AP, AR, Payroll, and Treasury to ensure that UTSA transactions are documented, entered, and reconciled timely.
• Provide feedback to leadership regarding the status of data-feed errors, software issues, or similar problems and perform testing in DASH test environments, as needed.

Miscellaneous duties include:

• Ensuring that the department maintains accurate and comprehensive documentation.
• Advising department staff on applicable policies and procedures.
• Facilitating stop payments on checks, investigating suspicious entries, and making the Controller aware of any issues that might need escalation.
• Support the assistant controller regarding communications and reports to the Chief Business Officers and their designees.
• Performing other duties as assigned.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• High school diploma or GED
• At least 2 years of experience in a professional office setting with at least 1 year of experience within the last 2 years involving bank statements, ledgers, accounting, finance, or a similar position.
• At least 2 years of experience with Word, Excel, and other MS Office products.
• At least 1 year of experience applying policies and procedures, standard operating procedures, or similar rules/regulations to complex sets of data.
• Familiarity with Adobe; Microsoft Office; Oracle/DASH; and the University’s policies and procedures.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Relationship-building skills.
• The ability to approach end users with empathy and patience.
• Basic understanding of banking, accounting, and finance principles, concepts, and activities.
• Basic ability to understand data, data feeds, and information provided by applicable banking institutions, credit-card and debit-card transactions, and similar information.
• The ability to work during University holidays, administrative closings, and during similar periods when financial institutions are open, but the University is closed.
• Attention to detail, basic math skills, and the ability to spot issues in real time.
• The ability to process a high amount of complicated, tedious transactions.
• The ability to manage multiple tasks quickly, accurately, and independently.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• At least 1 year in higher education or government
• At least 1 year of experience with a major ERP system, such as Oracle, SAP, or a similar product
• Knowledge with banking, budgets, government accounting practices, and related topics.
• Excel spreadsheet intermediate skills, such as pivot tables.

APPLICATION PROCESS

For full consideration, applications should be accompanied by a letter of interest, a resume, and three professional references.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Compensation for this position is budgeted for $24.04 per hour to $28.85 per hour ($50,000 to $60,000 / annually).

The University offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits and much more. Additionally, Tennessee residents do not pay a state income tax. For more information on the University of Tennessee benefits, visit https://hr.tennessee.edu/benefits/

The University of Tennessee System is the state’s oldest higher education institution and preeminent public university. The UT System is comprised of campuses at Knoxville, Chattanooga, Pulaski and Martin; the Health Science Center at Memphis; and the statewide Institute of Agriculture and Institute for Public Service. With a presence in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties and through the combined force of education, research and outreach, the University serves students, business and industry, schools, governments, organizations and residents statewide.