Senior Accountant

Job Title: Senior Accountant

Employer: Shelter Youth & Family Services

Department: Finance

Reports To: Chief Financial Officer

Shelter Youth & Family Services provides emergency housing, community-based services, and support for youth and families in crisis. Founded in 1975, we've grown into a leading voice for child welfare, human trafficking response, foster care innovation, and trauma-informed care in Illinois. With a current budget of $10M and ambitious plans to grow to $15M, our mission is to end the cycle of abuse and neglect by providing safe, healthy, and stable lives for children and families.

Shelter Youth & Family Services is committed to providing safe, inclusive, and supportive resources for youth and families from all backgrounds and identities. We actively strive to create an environment that supports all employees, placing value in contributions from people from diverse backgrounds, and honoring all experiences, perspectives, and unique identities. Our mission is to protect children, strengthen families, and transform communities.

Joining us in this role will give you a chance to help fulfill that mission and help the community. Shelter and its facilities are drug and smoke-free environments.

Learn more at shelter-inc.org.

Shelter Youth and Family Services encourages the application of all bilingual applicants to work with our client community. Applicants who can successfully certify their skill level in reading, speaking, and writing in two languages with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services may receive an additional salary stipend. Certification testing is set by DCFS.

The Senior Accountant is a key member of the Finance team responsible for accurate, timely day-to-day accounting operations and disciplined transaction processing across accounts payable, accounts receivable, foster-care payments, cash activity, and general ledger support. This role helps ensure core accounting workflows are completed consistently, documentation standards are followed, and financial information is reliable for internal and external reporting.

Working closely with the CFO and broader finance team, this position supports the month‑end close calendar, journal entry standards, reconciliation review, billing and collections cadence, payment processing, and internal controls over high-volume financial activities. The Senior Accountant also contributes to 13‑week cash forecasting, personnel allocation controls, Single Audit readiness, and budgeting and reforecasting processes in a multi‑program nonprofit environment.

The ideal candidate is a strong accountant with nonprofit experience, sound judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple recurring workflows while maintaining strong internal controls.

• Manage core accounts payable and accounts receivable operations, including AP/AR processing and foster‑care payments administration, with timely and accurate transaction execution.
• Execute weekly workflows and transaction processing activities, ensuring completeness, accuracy, and adherence to established timelines and documentation standards.
• Support the month‑end close calendar by preparing and posting journal entries in accordance with journal entry standards and maintaining organized supporting documentation.
• Prepare and review reconciliations for assigned balance sheet accounts, including bank and credit card reconciliations across four bank accounts and related cards, and resolve reconciling items promptly.
• Administer accounts payable workflows in BILL, including invoice coding, routing approvals, payment run preparation, and related recordkeeping.
• Execute accounts receivable and billing processes, monitor collections cadence, and prepare aging reports to support follow‑up and cash collection efforts.
• Provide input to the 13‑week cash forecast and support variance tracking by supplying timely cash activity data, trend observations, and follow‑up on key variances.
• Process and monitor foster‑care payment controls, including eligibility and support review, approval verification, exception log…