Finance and Accounting Associate (nonprofit)

Project Evident • Boston, MA

30d • $65,000 - $73,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Finance and Accounting Associate plays a critical role in supporting the execution of financial, business, and certain administrative operations to ensure timely and compliant workflows, leveraging data and technology to enhance operational efficiency and inform sound decision-making. This role requires a highly organized, analytical early-career professional who is attentive to detail, a strong communicator, and a skilled collaborator. The Finance and Accounting Associate coordinates and supports critical workflows to ensure that revenue, expense, data collection, and reporting objectives are consistently met. The role will support key financial processes, including vendor bill collection and processing, client invoicing, contract management, expense reimbursements, ad hoc analysis, and other tactical financial processes. They will assist in aggregating financial data and resolving open financial tasks, create and conduct financial processes, including the month-end close process, cash receipts, and other related tasks. This role requires a high level of organization and financial acumen, as well as the ability to manage multiple projects across diverse stakeholders with competing deadlines simultaneously. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who can work independently, is open to feedback, seeks clarification, manages work from start to finish, meets all deadlines, and communicates clearly and openly. This position also requires experience and ease in learning and using a variety of online financial tools and software, including AI-forward systems. We are a dynamic, fast-moving organization that operates at the pace of change in the social and educational sectors. Successful candidates are curious, entrepreneurial, and driven by a growth mindset, thriving in highly collaborative environments. They uphold cultural norms and excellence standards, practice discretion with sensitive data, utilize tools and resources as intended, and adhere to organization-wide expectations. Unlike a traditional nonprofit, we function more like a management consulting firm; our team excels at making rapid pivots, approaching challenges creatively, and iterating beyond conventional groupthink to deliver innovative solutions. This role regularly collaborates with key internal stakeholders across the organization as well as with outsourced partners and consultants. Although primarily dedicated to finance responsibilities, this role may also provide coverage for other associate-level roles on the operations team as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• A minimum of 2 years of continuous, relevant experience in analytics, accounting, and/or finance, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, and grants and contracts administration.
• Ability to process information, generate reports, and create visuals.
• Proven ability to work under tight timelines, accurately assess problems, and develop solutions.
• Impeccable attention to detail and extremely high standards for accuracy, and the ability to handle sensitive information discreetly and appropriately
• Experience working effectively with multiple stakeholders who may have evolving priorities
• Ability to solve problems and is an active listener who seeks clarification, asks questions, and surfaces solutions.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• High degree of proficiency expected with Google and Microsoft software, especially Google Sheets/Excel, Asana & Salesforce. After training in Xero and Budgyt, proficiency is expected.
• Comfortably communicate with internal teams and external vendors/partners in a clear, timely, and professional manner.

Responsibilities

• Support the organization with essential tasks to ensure that financial operations run smoothly and on time. This involves assisting with financial transactions, managing sensitive documents, implementing new technology, and analyzing data.
• Process accounts payable (AP) and monthly contractor/vendor billing. Maintain a list of active vendors and their associated budgets/contracts, and help set up new contracts.
• Support accounts receivable workflows and maintain current and accurate records and data entry.
• Prepare and submit client invoices in collaboration with program and operations leads; follow up on outstanding balances as needed.
• Support grant proposal development and reporting to ensure alignment with organizational processes, efficient workflow, timely and accurate calendar maintenance, and excellent documentation management.
• Support fee for service contract development to ensure timely and compliant processes.
• Support the annual audit process to ensure timely and effective documentation sharing and logging.
• Assist with tracking and reporting on project management deliverables in Asana or other project management software.
• Reconcile and validate financial data across multiple systems, including accounting (Xero), budgeting (Budgyt), and CRM (Salesforce), ensuring consistent reporting outputs.
• Maintain an ongoing financial calendar for key dates, insurance renewals, and work plans for the Operations department to ensure that deliverables are handled promptly and with sufficient lead time to gather information from all stakeholders.
• Working with the finance and PE Way team, maintain and document organization-wide policies and procedures.
• Ensure all vendor agreements are up-to-date and alert management when the end date of the contract is approaching.
• Contribute to internal onboarding and knowledge-sharing by keeping process documents, SOPs, and finance-related templates up to date.
• Process paperwork to ensure that all relevant state and federal payroll taxes are set up, filed, and reconciled with the outsourced fiscal partner in an appropriate and timely manner, and accurate records are maintained.
• Draft, write, and edit quality documents, presentations, and other communications for internal and external use.
• Continuously improve processes through annual reviews and by identifying and eliminating waste, duplication, and errors.
• Provide occasional coverage and cross-functional support for other operations and finance roles to ensure seamless workflow and team continuity.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Benefits – Generous medical, dental, and vision plans, a 403(b) retirement plan with employer match, and life and disability insurance.
• Flexible Time Off – Unlimited vacation days, Summer Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and organizational-wide closure from December 25 to January 1.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees