Accountant II

UWMSN University of Wisconsin Madison; United States; Hybrid; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Wisconsin–Madison seeks an Accountant II to manage budgeting, reconciliations, and financial reporting for the College of Engineering's Department of Mechanical Engineering. The role collaborates with senior staff to ensure accuracy, transparency, and timely financial operations.

Responsibilities include preparing statements, journal entries, and reports, while maintaining compliance with policies.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience processing invoices, travel payments, and allocating expenses.
• Moderate experience with Excel and basic data entry tasks.
• Experience interpreting regulatory frameworks and ensuring compliance.
• Strong customer service skills in administrative settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide budgets and projections based on existing data and policies.
• Assist with reconciliations, journal entries, schedules, and reports.
• Develop and maintain automated financial systems ensuring data integrity.
• Prepare and analyze financial data, identify discrepancies, and implement solutions.
• Organize and update financial statements and reports for reporting needs.
• Prepare and approve financial transactions and payments.

Skills

Invoices processing

Travel payments reimbursements

Excel

Regulatory compliance

Customer service

Education

Associate’s degree or higher

Tools

Workday

Accounting software

Job description

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process. Job Category: Academic Staff Employment Type: Regular Job Profile: Accountant II Job Summary: The Department of Mechanical Engineering is a large, research-intensive department with over 55 faculty, 1,800 students, and more than $36M in annual operational and research expenditures. The department is supported by an innovative and collaborative administrative team of 15. Under general supervision of the Academic Department Manager, Accountant II provides financial management and support for the department working closely with Accountant III, four Research Administrators and two Financial Specialists. The Accountant II organizes, prepares, and updates financial statements, monthly and year-end journal entries, accounts, ledgers, and reports for various financial needs within an automated financial system to ensure accurate recording and reporting of financial transactions. The position prepares and analyzes financial data, reports and records, identifies discrepancies, investigates, recommends, and implements solutions as needed. Assists with accounting and reviewing reconciliations, journal entries, schedules, and reports. Provides and prepares budgets and projections based on existing data and established policies and procedures, and answers questions and provides accounting related information to internal and external stakeholders according to established policies and procedures. This position also helps train and support two Financial Specialists. The successful candidate should: Have the ability to create, manage, and coordinate financial spreadsheets and reports, projects, and programs. Possess excellent organizational skills, a propensity for detailed accuracy, and the ability to organize and coordinate diverse activities. Will be able to make a wide variety of decisions, analyzing situations, and exercising good judgment. Practice excellent interpersonal human relations, and oral/written communication skills. Possess excellent customer service and professionalism. Be courteous, respectful, responsive, cooperative. Have the ability to adapt to and apply new and changing methods, requirements, and priorities. Have excellent time management skills and ability to work quickly and accurately with strict time deadlines and under pressure. Ability to work independently with limited supervision and manage multiple priorities at the same time. Have an interest in working in a cohesive team environment, contribute, and learn with others.

Additional Information: The successful applicant will be responsible for ensuring eligibility for employment in the United States on or before the effective date of the appointment. University sponsorship is not available for this position. This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location. The anticipated hybrid work schedule will be up to two days remote, with 3 days onsite after an initial 6 month training period which will require working 5 days on site.

Department: College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering Compensation: The starting salary for the position is $65,000, but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications.

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Provides and prepares budgets and projections based on existing data and established policies and procedures
• Assists with accounting and reviewing reconciliations, journal entries, schedules, and reports
• Develops and maintains automated financial systems, recommending controls to ensure system reliability and data integrity
• Prepares and analyzes financial data, reports and records, identifies discrepancies, investigates, recommends, and implements solutions as needed
• Organizes, prepares, and updates financial statements, monthly and year-end journal entries, accounts, ledgers, and reports for various financial needs within an automated financial system to ensure accurate recording and reporting of financial transactions
• Prepares and/or approves financial transactions and payments
• Answers questions and provides accounting related information to internal and external stakeholders according to established policies and procedures

Required Qualifications:

• Extensive professional experience processing invoices, travel payments/ reimbursements, allocating expenses to appropriate funds, using and/or managing an employer credit card and other financial transactions.
• Moderate experience using Excel or other spreadsheet applications (comfortable with basic navigation, data entry, simple functions and formatting)
• Moderate experience in a role responsible for interpreting and adhering to regulatory frameworks, including state statutes and organizational policies.
• Extensive experience providing customer service (internal or external customers) in an administrative setting

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience using Workday to process financial transactions and generate reports
• Experience working collaboratively on process improvement initiatives
• Experience supporting non-finance employees and students with financial transactions
• Experience working in a professional position higher education

Education:

Associate’s degree or higher

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals. The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website. To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you. Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment. The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7). The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.

Work with purpose, make an impact, and grow your career. The University of Wisconsin–Madison is committed to equity, inclusion and employee well-being as we proudly work to improve the lives of people in Wisconsin and beyond. UW–Madison offers a wide range of professions that cover various interests and skill levels. We employ everything from accountants to arborists, chefs to custodians, editors to electricians, graphic designers to groundskeepers, HR associates to HVAC technicians, librarians to locksmiths, mechanics to medical assistants, painters to police officers, web designers to welders, and absolutely everything in between! No matter what you are looking for professionally, chances are you will not only find it but will thrive at it while working at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Contact Information:

Alissa Girdler 1513 University Ave Madison, WI 53706 [e-mail]