Account Clerk I, II, III - Kamakahelei Middle

Hawaii State Department of Education; Lihue (HI); On-site; USD 35,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

The Hawaii State Department of Education is seeking a qualified Account Clerk at the I–III levels to support financial operations for schools. The role involves maintaining ledgers, posting transactions, processing invoices, and reconciling accounts.

Ideal candidates will have strong arithmetic and organizational skills; experience with standard accounting practices and office procedures is expected. Opportunities for advancement exist within the clerical accounting track.

Qualifications

• General Experience: arithmetic and spelling; ability to follow directions; basic writing skills.
• Specialized Experience: posting to accounting records; classifying and recording financial data; preparing financial statements.
• Substitution of education for experience options available as described in the specification.

Responsibilities

• Verifies and enters details of costs, charges or other bookkeeping items to correct accounts or classifications.
• Receipts and deposits cash collections and maintains records; consults manuals for information.
• Performs computations (discounts, interest, ratios) and determines rates, costs, and amounts.
• Prepares requisitions or purchase orders; may place orders for supplies or services; processes invoices and vouchers.
• May maintain inventory control records.
• Reviews clerical work for correct procedures and entries.
• Composes correspondence; determines affected general ledger accounts and posting entries.
• Totals entries, performs trial balance, and reconciles accounts.
• May supervise lower-level clerks.

Job description

The authorized level of the position is Account Clerk III. Applications are being accepted down to the Account Clerk I in the event of recruiting difficulties.

Salary Range

• Account Clerk I, SR-06: $3,141.00 per month
• Account Clerk II, SR-08: $3,266.00 per month
• Account Clerk III, SR-11: $3,606.00 per month

Responsibilities

1. Verifies and enters details of costs, charges or other similar bookkeeping items to correct accounts or classifications;
2. Receives, receipts and deposits cash collections of various kind, and maintains appropriate records; consults or studies specific books, manuals, catalogs or other sources in order to obtain desired information;
3. Performs numerous types of computations such as discount, interest, ratio and percentage; determines rates, costs, amounts or other specifications for various types of items, selecting and using tables or classification data;
4. Explains details of services, methods or policies; prepares requisitions or purchase orders, and may place orders for supplies, materials, equipment or contract services; processes invoices and may prepare vouchers for approval to authorize disbursement;
5. May maintain inventory control records;
6. Reviews the accounts clerical work of others, calling attention to use of incorrect procedures or methods and to incorrect entries or results;
7. Composes correspondence requiring specific knowledge of methods, procedures, policies or other information; determines the general ledger accounts, journals and subsidiary accounts affected and the debit and/or credit entries to be made; summarizes transactions having a like effect and preparing control sheets or other posting documents reflecting the debit and/or credit entries to be made;
8. Totals entries at specified intervals and takes a trial balance of debits and credits; determines corrective entries required to bring accounts into balance; closes and reconciles accounts;
9. May supervise one or more lower-level account clerk or other subordinates.

Experience Requirement

Except for the substitutions provided in this specification, applicants must have had work experience of the kind and quality described below and in the amounts shown in the following table:

• Account Clerk I: General Experience 1/2 years, Specialized Experience 0 years, Total 1/2 years.
• Account Clerk II: General Experience 1/2 years, Specialized Experience 1 year, Total 1-1/2 years.
• Account Clerk III: General Experience 1/2 years, Specialized Experience 2* years, Total 2-1/2 years.

*Some Account Clerk III positions require that applicants possess supervisory aptitude. Supervisory aptitude is the demonstration of aptitude or potential for the performance of supervisory duties through successful completion of regular or special assignments which involve some supervisory responsibilities or aspects; by serving as a group or team leader, or in similar work in which opportunities for demonstrating supervisory capabilities exist; by completion of training courses in supervision accompanied by application of supervisory skills in work assignments or by favorable appraisals by a supervisor indicating the possession of supervisory potential.

General Experience

Work experience which demonstrated knowledge of arithmetic and spelling and possession of the abilities to follow oral and written directions, to write simply and directly and to observe differences in words and numbers quickly and accurately.

Specialized Experience

Work involved in posting to accounting records and other systematizing of fiscal information; i.e., computing, classifying and recording numerical data to keep sets of financial accounting records complete and to derive reports therefrom. Such experience must have demonstrated knowledge of standard accounting classification and terminology pertinent to accounts maintenance operations and office practices and procedures relating to the processing and recording of transactions and accounting information. For levels III, this work must have involved reconciling accounts (i.e. checking for errors, balancing, and going back to original source document for verification); and the preparation of standard financial statements.

Non-Qualifying Experience

Experience as an inventory clerk, stock clerk, supply clerk or other related work which is primarily concerned with posting non-fiscal data or checking accuracy of computations and which does not involve or require any fiscal record keeping knowledge is not considered qualifying specialized experience.

Substitution of Education for Experience

1. Graduation from high school with courses in basic English and arithmetic may be substituted for six (6) months of general experience.
2. Successful completion of a substantially full-time equivalent accounting curriculum leading to a degree or diploma at an accredited business school, community college or other comparable institution which included accounting courses in double-entry procedures in analyzing, recording and summarizing transactions; and the preparation and interpretation of financial statements, may be substituted for specialized experience on the basis of one (1) year of such training for one (1) school year of experience, up to a maximum of two (2) years.
3. Completion of one (1) school year of (more than one-year program) substantially full-time accounting curriculum which normally leads to a degree or diploma at an accredited business school, community college or other comparable institution which included accounting courses in double-entry procedures in analyzing, recording and summarizing transactions; and the preparation and interpretation of financial statements may be substituted for one (1) year of specialized experience.
4. Education in an accredited university in a baccalaureate program may be substituted for specialized experience in the following basis:
   • A baccalaureate degree in accounting will be deemed to have met the experience requirements for the Account Clerk V level.
   • Fifteen (15) semester hours of training may be substituted for six (6) months of experience, up to a maximum of three and one-half (3-1/2) years, provided the training included at least three (3) credits per semester of accounting courses such as accounting theory and methods used to record and report financial information; analysis of methods for valuing the assets, liabilities, and ownership; etc.

Salary

The advertised salary is based on full-time employment and includes shortage and school year differentials, if applicable.

Requirements

Applicants must meet all the requirements for the position they are seeking as of the date of the application, unless otherwise specified. Unless specifically indicated, the required education and experience may not be gained concurrently. Calculation of experience is based on full-time, 40-hour workweeks. Part-time experience is pro-rated. Example: Twelve months of experience at 20 hours/week is equivalent to six months of experience, not one year. Also, hours worked in excess of 40 hours/week will not be credited. Example: Twelve months of experience at 60 hours/week is equivalent to one year of experience, not one and a half years.

Temporary Assignment

Claims of Temporary Assignment (TA) experience to meet the minimum qualification requirements must be verified and attached to the application using one of the options below:

1. A copy of the applicant’s TA History Report or equivalent system-generated report;
2. A signed letter from the applicant’s supervisor that includes the applicant’s name, his/her TA job title, the TA start and end dates (from mm/yy to mm/yy), his/her specific TA duties performed, and either the TA hours worked per week or total TA hours worked; or,
3. Copies of the applicant’s signed SF-10 Forms.

Documents

Attach all relevant supporting documents to your application. Documents that were attached to applications submitted before November 16, 2023 do not automatically attach or transfer to applications submitted on and after December 16, 2023. All submitted documents become the property of the Hawaii State Department of Education.

Information About Temporary Positions

Temporary positions may be extended year to year, dependent upon funding and departmental needs. Making yourself available for temporary positions increases your employment possibilities and may lead to permanent opportunities. A person hired for a temporary position may also become a temporary employee upon satisfactory completion of the initial probation period of at least six months. Once a temporary employee, you would be eligible to apply for promotion and transfer opportunities to permanent as well as other temporary positions. You may also enjoy other rights and benefits as afforded to an employee in a permanent position, with the exception of return rights and placement rights associated with a reduction-in-force.