Accountant

Metropolitan Council • 390 Robert St. N St. Paul, MN

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Metropolitan Council's Regional Administration Division is accepting applications for an Accountant. This position is eligible for a hybrid (both remote and onsite) telework arrangement. The candidate's permanent residence must be in Minnesota or Wisconsin. We are the Metropolitan Council, the regional government for the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. We plan 30 years ahead for the future of the metropolitan area and provide regional transportation, wastewater, and housing services. Metropolitan Council's Finance and Operations department delivers agency-wide financial, administrative, and operational services to efficiently and effectively honor the mission, priorities, and standards of the Council and its divisions. The Accountant is responsible for general ledger accounting functions for basic governmental funds (may include the General Fund, Capital Projects Funds, and/or Special Revenue Funds). This position works with Financial Analysts and Division program staff by performing calculations, preparation, analysis and reconciliation duties. Duties include reconciliation of account balances, preparation of state and federal grant reimbursement billings, creation and review of journal entries, report generation (monthly, quarterly, ad hoc) and preparation of financial statements for the Council's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Under general supervision/procedural control, functions as the primary accountant for a department, or major division, or as an assistant to higher-level accounting personnel. Develops, maintains, and interprets accounting information, analyzes and interprets fiscal data to provide a wide range of clearly-defined accounting services; performs related work as required. Accountant primary concerns are preparation of journal entries, running reports in the financial systems and reconciling account balances. This position will have a focus on monthly bank reconciliation. This work includes comparing the general ledger to the bank statement, researching and identifying variances, and mitigation action for future variances. This work involves extensive cross-functional collaboration across finance teams. This posting will create a six-month eligibility list for current and future openings.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and zero to two (0-2) years of experience.
• Associate degree and two to four (2-4) years of experience.
• High School/GED and four to six (4-6) years of experience.
• Skills in math sufficient to perform calculations of ratios, identify and reconcile variances, and allocate balances across several accounts.
• Problem solving ability sufficient to identify and reconcile account balances using reports, queries, spreadsheets and available tools and information.
• Skills in communicating verbally and in writing sufficient to deliver financial information to co-workers, division program staff, and state/federal agencies.
• Ability to read, analyze and interpret policies, procedures, professional documents, and reporting requirements and apply to job responsibilities.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with PeopleSoft financial systems.
• Governmental accounting experience.
• Knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) evidenced by accounting theory and practice coursework in accounting or related field degree curriculum.
• Experience and demonstrated ability to identify opportunities to integrate equity initiatives meaningfully into work products and processes.
• Skilled with email, word processing, presentation and spreadsheet computer applications.

Responsibilities

• Monitor general ledger accounts for assigned funds and accounts to ensure transactions are accurately recorded in the financial system.
• Prepare journal entries to record monthly accruals, correct posting errors, etc.
• Reconcile grant account balance; prepare supporting documentation, and billing for state or federal reimbursement requests.
• Perform reconciliations and/or allocations of account balances to assure appropriate recording and financial system integrity (may include such accounts as; payroll, cash, investments, inter-fund activity, or other balances as assigned).
• Prepare documents for compliance and audits in accordance with GAAP for assigned funds.
• Run and develop queries and reports from the financial system.
• Respond to inquiries from internal and external auditors about assigned funds and activities.

Benefits

• opportunity to make a difference and positively influence the Twin Cities metropolitan area
• encourage our employees to develop their skills through on-site training and tuition reimbursement
• competitive salary, excellent benefits and a good work/life balance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level