Senior Accountant

Description

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Accountant serves as the organization's lead technical accountant and is responsible for general ledger integrity, coordination of the month-end and year-end close, complex accounting and reconciliations, and first-level review of designated work prepared by the Staff Accountant. The position owns key accounting areas including cash and bank reconciliations, specialized revenue and housing-related accounting, deferred revenue, complex accruals, balance-sheet reconciliations, and audit preparation.

The Senior Accountant provides technical guidance and coordinates accounting deadlines but does not have formal personnel-management responsibility unless specifically assigned.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

General Ledger and Month-End Close

• Serve as the primary owner of general ledger integrity and coordinate execution of the monthly and year-end close calendars.
• Monitor close progress, communicate deadlines, identify delays or unresolved issues, and coordinate timely completion.
• Prepare complex journal entries, accruals, allocations, corrections, and other accounting entries with complete support.
• Review designated journal entries, reconciliations, schedules, and close work prepared by the Staff Accountant.
• Ensure material balance-sheet accounts are reconciled monthly and reconciling items are resolved timely.
• Perform analytical review of general ledger activity for unusual transactions, classification errors, duplicate activity, and unexpected fluctuations.
• Coordinate the Finance team general ledger review and track identified items through resolution.
• Support monthly financial statement preparation and develop toward preparing the initial financial statement package for VP of Finance review.
• Support period-close, period-lock, and post-close adjustment procedures.
• Maintain fixed-asset accounting records, including additions, disposals, transfers, depreciation, and reconciliation of fixed-asset schedules to the general ledger.

Cash, Banking, and Treasury Accounting

• Prepare monthly reconciliations for assigned operating, payroll, money market, sweep, investment, and other financial accounts.
• Investigate outstanding checks, deposits in transit, unidentified transactions, stale items, transfers, and other reconciling items.
• Maintain bank-reconciliation support for independent VP of Finance review.
• Monitor cash balances and assist the VP of Finance with cash-flow planning and liquidity management.
• Assist with banking relationships, account maintenance, and implementation of banking controls.

Revenue, Housing, and Specialized Accounting

• Own accounting for housing commissions, hotel rebates, convention subsidies, restricted opportunity funds, and other specialized destination-related activity.
• Coordinate with operational departments to obtain complete and accurate source information.
• Review contractual terms and transaction activity to determine appropriate accounting treatment and timing.
• Prepare or review related invoices, accruals, reconciliations, revenue entries, and supporting schedules.
• Maintain and reconcile deferred revenue schedules and related general ledger accounts.
• Monitor outstanding balances, aging trends, collectability concerns, and unusual items.

Accounts Payable, Payroll, and Staff Accountant Review

• Perform first-level review of AP batches, supporting documentation, approvals, unusual transactions, and duplicate-payment risks.
• Review new vendor setups and vendor-master changes in accordance with established controls.
• Confirm that sensitive vendor banking changes have been independently verified before approval.
• Review designated payroll registers, payroll reconciliations, payroll accruals, and payroll-related journal entries.
• Review corporate card reconciliations, employee expense activity, and other Staff Accountant-prepared schedules as assigned.
• Provide timely technical feedback and require correction of incomplete or unsupported work.
• Review and approve purchase orders in accordance with established authorization thresholds, budget availability, procurement requirements, and segregation-of-duties controls.

Financial Reporting and Analysis

• Assist in preparing accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements.
• Prepare supporting schedules, budget-to-actual analysis, prior-period comparisons, and other financial analyses.
• Investigate significant quantitative and qualitative variances.
• Assist in preparing reports for executive leadership, committees, and the Board of Directors.
• Support annual budget preparation, forecasting, and budget monitoring as assigned.

Audit, Tax, and Compliance

• Coordinate preparation of schedules, reconciliations, roll forwards, and support for the annual financial statement audit.
• Serve as a primary Finance contact for designated auditor requests and coordinate responses across the accounting team.
• Support Form 990, Form 1099, sales and use tax, and other applicable compliance requirements.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation throughout the year and assist…