Accountant

City of New Hope; New Hope (MN); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Life insurance

Paid time off

Job summary

The City of New Hope is seeking a dedicated accountant to maintain the general accounting records, prepare and reconcile monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports and budgets. You will guide clerical staff and work with HR on benefits enrollment, payroll, and related tasks in a supportive community.

Responsibilities include general ledger reviews, chart of accounts maintenance, monthly closings, journal entry reviews, and coordination of annual audits and reports.

Qualifications

• Associates/Technical degree with coursework in business, or related field and moderate accounting experience.
• Strong knowledge of governmental accounting practices is required.
• Experience with preparing and reconciling financial reports.

Responsibilities

• Reviews general ledger coding for capital assets and projects and proposes changes to accounts payable coding and re-classifying entries.
• Maintains the chart of accounts.
• Reconciles daily cash activity to the general ledger and prepares monthly reconciliation files.
• Reviews journal entries before posting to the City's ERP.
• Assists in annual financial closing, audit coordination, and annual financial report publication.
• Assists in budget preparation and sets up reports and budget cycle in ERP.
• Coordinates payroll processing and distribution of payroll reports and W-2s.
• Supports HR on benefits enrollment and payroll-related inquiries.

Skills

Governmental accounting

Financial reporting

Accounts payable

Invoices & reports

ERP software

Microsoft Excel

Payroll basics

Attention to detail

Education

Associates/Technical degree in business or related field

Tools

ERP/Accounting software

Job description

Join a hard-working, fun team in a supportive community. The City's accountant maintains the general accounting records system, preparing and processing financial data required to produce and reconcile monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports, statements and budgets, giving work direction to department clerical staff for the completion of routine daily tasks, and related work as apparent or assigned. Work is performed under the general direction of the director of human resources and administrative services. The accountant is also a partner to the human resources specialist, especially during the benefits open enrollment process. The individual appointed will perform these duties while enjoying excellent benefits including medical, dental and life insurances and paid time off. The New Hope City Hall, built new in 2019, provides a comfortable, safe environment.

Qualification Requirements

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable an individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Functions

• Reviews the general ledger coding for capital assets and projects and proposes changes to accounts payable coding and re-classifying entries, as needed.
• Maintains the chart of accounts.
• Completes a periodic reconciliation of general ledger accounts, including a review of accounts monitored by the accounting technician.
• Reviews journal entries prior to posting to the City's ERP.
• Assists the financial consultant in the coordination of the annual financial closing, independent audit and annual financial report publication.
• Assists the financail consultant in the preparation of the annual budget.
• Sets up reports and administers the budget cycle in the City's ERP/financial solution.
• Assists the financial consultant with generation and distribution of financial reports.
• Reviews accounts payable reports generated by the accounting technician for accuracy, provides recommendations on coding revision and reclassification, and provides oversight and review for electronic payment of claims.
• Maintains payroll portion of employee record database.
• Prepares bi-weekly payroll, reviews employee self-service timecard entries for accuracy, W-4 and banking changes for employees.
• Reviews payroll reports and recalculates tax and other deductions for accuracy.
• Processes payroll liability claims and coordinates electronic payment to payroll vendors.
• Issues W-2’s to employees and maintains related files.
• Prepares quarterly payroll tax returns including a quarterly 941 reconciliation; files reports with the appropriate regulatory agency.
• Monitors daily cash balance and communicates with the financial consultant when a transfer of cash is necessary.
• Reconciles daily cash activity to the general ledger and prepares the month-end reconciliation files for the finance consultant.
• Reviews accounts receivable reports generated by the accounting technician, provides recommendations on coding revision and assists with monthly balancing; provides oversight to the accounting technician and assists other departments with collection of aged receivables.
• Reconciles escrow and deposit subsidiary ledgers (planning cases) to the general ledger.
• Completes a review of daily receipts and post them to the general ledger.
• Coordinates with the utility billing clerk on review of special assessment reports generated by the accounting technician and facilitation of the reporting process to the County.
• Coordinates the preparation of the annual Municipal Construction and Development Fee Revenue and Expenses Annual Report and files it with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
• Completes the annual Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fee calculation and return; remits payment and files the report with the Internal Revenue Service.
• Works in partnership with the HR team on benefit set up, annual enrollment and maintenance through the year, including answering questions received from staff on administration.
• Coordinates with the director of human resources and administration on succession planning for their position and the accounting technician.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Ability to understand and apply governmental accounting practices in the maintenance of financial records.
• Comprehensive knowledge of accounting documents and processes.
• Thorough knowledge of standard accounting policies, practices and procedures.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with other staff members and the general public.
• Comprehensive skill reviewing and composing invoices, statements and financial reports.
• Thorough skill operating standard office equipment and applicable hardware and software systems.
• Thorough skill operating standard accounting software.
• Ability to make arithmetic computations using whole numbers, fractions and decimals.
• Ability to compute rates, ratios and percentages.

Education and Experience

Associates/Technical degree with coursework in business, or related field and moderate experience working in accounting, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Physical Requirements

This work requires the occasional exertion of up to 25 pounds of force; work regularly requires sitting, using hands to finger, handle or feel and repetitive motions, frequently requires walking and occasionally requires standing, speaking or hearing, reaching with hands and arms, pushing or pulling and lifting; work requires close vision; no special vocal communication skills are required; hearing is required to perceive information at normal spoken word levels; work requires preparing and analyzing written or computer data, operating machines and observing general surroundings and activities; work has no exposure to environmental conditions; work is generally in a moderately noisy location (e.g. business office, light traffic).

TENTATIVE TIMELINE

• Sept. 28 - Applications due at noon, interview invites will be sent by end of day
• Oct. 1 - Interview with Staff
• Oct. 5 Evening - Interview with Personnel Board
• Online Office Skills Testing
• Oct. 14 - Interview with City Manager and Director
• Background and reference checks for preferred candidate
• Early November - Tentative time frame to start employment