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Salary- Job Type: Officer of Administration
- Regular/Temporary: Regular
- Hours Per Week: Full-time
- Salary Range: $75,000-$80,000
The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.
Position Summary
Reporting to the Associate Director, Accounting Operations, the Senior Accountant/Financial Analyst is responsible for providing information to management by assembling and summarizing data, preparing reports, resolution of discrepancies, analysis, and recommendations of data from Accounting & Reporting at Columbia (ARC) and the Student Information System (SIS). The Senior Accountant/Financial Analyst is responsible for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reconciliations for student-related accounts.
Responsibilities
- Managing a variety of complex reconciliations between the University's SIS, which captures data for enrollment, various financial aid funds and student accounts. Assigned relevant responsibilities will include ensuring data transfer integrity, interface management, reconciliations and identifying, clearing variances and booking or approving relevant journal entries.
- Processing the fund receipts of non-automated state grants and scholarships.
- Set up and approval of internal coding to link sub-ledger systems to the ledger.
- Assisting management in the development of automated processes and the creation and execution of institutional policies and procedures to ensure University compliance with federal, state and local laws and regulations related to the financial administration of grants and contracts.
- Ensuring all items rejected from the SIS are investigated and resolved.
- Monitors Title IV withdrawals to ensure compliance with government regulations and follows up with departments to resolve outstanding issues.
- Approves Stipend Control Group and Back-up for Refund Control Group.
- Internal control monitoring, and documenting results, corrective actions, and follow-up as assigned.
- Preparation of financial narratives for internal/external audit purposes.
- Assisting in the development and testing of reporting tools to aid in the financial monitoring and analysis of accounts.
- Preparing financial metrics to highlight efficiencies and effectiveness of operations.
- Assisting management in identifying opportunities to streamline and improve processes, providing input for automating processes, and actively implementing changes, as needed.
- Providing customer service by identifying internal and external customers and providing them with the appropriate support.
- Performs special projects and other related duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business or equivalent
- A minimum of four years of related experience is required.
Preferred Qualifications
At least four years of experience in reconciliation, internal accounting, public accounting or internal audit is highly desirable.
- Prior experience working in a University and working knowledge of university-wide financal systems (ARC-AP, FFE, SDR) strongly preferred.
Other Requirements
- Must be a self-starter and capable of working with minimal supervision.
- Must be able to negotiate issues and resolve problems.
- Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) required.
- Must be comfortable working with databases and computerized financial systems.
- Must be able to identify priorities within multiple assignments in a high-pressured, short-deadline environment, and be able to work with diplomacy and efficiency in such an environment.
- Must be able to demonstrate excellent organizational, analytical, critical thinking, interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.
- In addition, the successful candidate must be able to work well with all levels of management and employees both internally and externally, be flexible in nature, have sound judgment with an open and collaborative style that encourages teamwork and cooperation beyond the immediate team to the broader organization.
- Must have a passion for excellent customer service and commitment to exceptional quality.
Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.
