Research Accountant II

Engineering a world of possibilities

As our next Research Accountant II, you will be responsible for the expense management of research grants and contracts in the Office of Research Administration (ORA). This position is key to the research team and serves as a resource to faculty and administrators regarding the financial administration of sponsored research awards. Essential duties include the set‑up of new awards in the financial system, expense and account monitoring, financial reporting, financial closeout and other post‑award financial analysis and support for sponsored awards.

• Award Set‑Up and Modifications
  • Transactional responsibilities include creating new research accounts and amending existing accounts in the School’s financial system and ORA’s enterprise project tracking system, utilizing information obtained from the legal agreement, proposal documents and other project related documents. Decide appropriate financial codes to input into the School’s financial system to accurately administer and monitor awards in accordance with federal regulations, sponsor terms and conditions, and School policy.
  • Serve as subject expert for sponsor agreement format, financial terms and conditions to perform set‑up appropriately and provide consultation.
• Award Financial Monitoring
  • Monitor, review and reconcile award budgets, balances and expenses, including deficit monitoring and expense review both pre‑expenditure and post‑expenditure, ensuring expenses are allowable, allocable and reasonable in accordance with grant terms and conditions, budget limits and period of performance.
  • Work with other ORA staff to review deficit spending requests and determine acceptable financial risk under current policy and practices.
  • Review, approve, and perform transactional salary redistributions and journal entries as needed to ensure proper expenditure accounting.
  • Identify, investigate and resolve discrepancies or errors found within research accounts, coordinating with faculty, ORA staff, other departments and/or project sponsor as applicable.
  • When allowed, approve faculty requests for no‑cost time extensions, budget deviations and pre‑award spending.
  • Assist the Property Manager to ensure all equipment is titled, accounted and tagged properly within School systems and per regulations.
  • Develop and/or update ad‑hoc reports using data from Workday, Cognos or other database applications for tracking, diagnostic and financial analysis of sponsored activity.
  • Create templates to improve and expedite financial administration of awards such as tuition proportionate to salary calculation, re‑budgeting, closeout workbook etc.
  • Develop and improve effective business practices and standing operating procedures related to award financial monitoring.
  • Serve as subject expert on the financial monitoring of awards.
• Award Reporting
  • Prepare and accurately submit required financial reports within sponsoring agency time frames, analyzing financial statements and supporting documentation for each research account.
  • Prepare and accurately submit required non‑financial reports including Property Reports, Patent Reports, Cost Share reports, etc.
  • Utilize School systems such as Workday, Cognos and ORA’s project software to extract data needed for required reporting and navigate sponsor reporting systems accordingly.
  • Serve as subject expert on financial and non‑financial reporting.
• Award Closeout
  • Determine and perform all closeout actions required by sponsoring agency and School policy and procedures.
  • Maintain detailed tracking of closeout activities and all outstanding accounts receivable actions to coordinate the financial closeout between the grant sub‑ledger and the School’s General Ledger.
  • Perform final expense review and account reconciliation.
  • Serve as subject expert of award closeout.
  • Develop and improve standing operating procedures related to award closeouts.
• Training and Process Improvement
  • Provide guidance, advice and training in policy, procedures and regulations related to research administration to faculty, department administrators, college fiscal officers and other administrative departments.
  • Actively participate in office…