Financial Accountant - School of Medicine

Brigham Young University • Provo, UT

3d • $73,000 - $95,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Financial Accountant provides financial accounting, transaction support, reporting, budgeting, and compliance assistance for the BYU School of Medicine. This position supports departmental accounting operations and helps research teams manage unrestricted institutional research funds. This position will also provide support to the University Grants and Contracts Office for state, federal, and other externally funded projects as needed.
This position is critical to the success of the BYU School of Medicine, a newly established organization within the university. As the school continues to launch and grow, a successful candidate must demonstrate adaptability and a willingness to take on evolving responsibilities and assignments to support its effective implementation and ongoing operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, public administration, or a related field and three years of progressively responsible financial accounting, budgeting, grants accounting, research administration, or closely related experience; or an equivalent combination of education and directly related experience.
• Working knowledge of financial accounting, reconciliations, internal controls, budget management, financial reporting, and transaction processing.
• Ability to analyze financial activity, identify errors or risks, interpret budget-to-actual results, and communicate findings clearly.
• Strong spreadsheet, reporting, data analysis including experience using Adaptive Planning, Tableau or equivalent analytic software.
• Ability to learn and apply university policies, funding requirements, and research accounting practices.
• Ability to work effectively with faculty, researchers, administrators, central offices, vendors, students, and staff in a service-oriented environment.
• Strong attention to detail, confidentiality, judgment, problem-solving ability, and commitment to accuracy and compliance.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in higher education, academic medicine, research administration, sponsored programs, institutional funds management, Workday Finance, grant accounting, or faculty-facing financial support.
• Experience preparing research project budgets and supporting state, federal, foundation, contract, gift, or other externally funded projects is preferred.
• Experience with Workday Finance, university chart of accounts, grant-management systems, dashboard reporting, and research budget tools.
• Ability to translate complex financial information into practical guidance for faculty and research teams.
• Experience developing standard operating procedures, training materials, financial templates, and process improvements.

Responsibilities

• Review, prepare, and approve routine departmental accounting transactions, including journal entries, budget transfers, and expense corrections.
• Monitor departmental budget to actual results, accounts, cost centers, projects, and funding sources to ensure transactions are accurate and within budget, properly documented, timely, and consistent with university policy and internal procedures.
• Prepare and review reconciliations, investigate discrepancies, resolve transaction issues, and coordinate corrections with faculty, staff, central offices, vendors, and other university partners.
• Support accounts payable, accounts receivable, purchasing card, travel, supplier invoice, customer invoice, refund, and deposit activity for assigned departments or programs.
• Provide occasional secondary support to assistant dean for finance and administrative team members for deposits, invoices, reimbursements, purchase requests, procurement activity, and other departmental financial transactions.
• Maintain organized financial records and documentation to support internal controls, audit readiness, management review, and continuity of departmental operations.
• Provide accounting support for research-related funds including restricted and unrestricted institutional funds used to support research projects.
• Help research teams create operational budgets, track project-level budgets, commitments, expenditures, available balances, and projected funding needs.
• Coordinate with the University Grants and Contracts Office for proper administration of extramural funding activity, including state, federal, sponsored, contract, gift, and other restricted funds. This responsibility includes responding to questions from the Grants and Contracts Office and follow up with principal investigators, helping ensure expenses follow funding requirements and university policy.
• Review institutional research expenditures such as supplies, travel, equipment, personnel charges, subaward or service costs, and project-related purchases for allowability, documentation, and alignment with the approved purpose of the funds.
• Assist with institutional award setup, budget uploads, expense monitoring, cost-sharing documentation, closeout preparation, and sponsor or university financial reporting when applicable.
• Support the Grants and Contract office when Federal and state awards require compliance with Uniform Guidance
• Work with faculty, principal investigators, research administrators, and department leaders to develop project budgets for research initiatives.
• Prepare budget models and projections that include personnel, supplies, equipment, travel, services, facilities, indirect costs when applicable, and other project-specific financial assumptions.
• Help researchers understand available funding, spending constraints, projected burn rates, budget variances, and future resource needs.
• Support proposal and internal funding requests by preparing budget schedules, financial summaries, and supporting documentation.
• Identify potential deficits, funding gaps, compliance issues, or unusual spending patterns and recommend corrective action to researchers and supervisors.
• Design, prepare, and distribute financial and management reports for faculty, research teams, department leaders, and school leadership.
• Analyze budget-to-actual results, spending trends, balances, commitments, projections, and financial performance indicators.
• Provide clear explanations of financial data and help stakeholders understand policy, transaction details, account structure, and budget implications.
• Support month-end, year-end, and periodic financial review processes by gathering data, reconciling activity, and preparing summaries for leadership decision-making.
• Develop reports, processes, and tracking tools that improve accuracy, transparency, efficiency, and service to departments and research teams.
• Interpret and apply university accounting policies, sponsor requirements, and internal school procedures to routine and moderately complex financial situations.
• Serve as a resource to faculty, researchers, staff, and students on accounting procedures, allowable expenses, documentation standards, budget management, and transaction workflow.
• Strengthen internal controls by documenting procedures, identifying risks, recommending improvements, and helping maintain consistent financial practices across departments and research teams.
• Assist with college audits, desk reviews, compliance inquiries, and information requests by gathering documentation, preparing explanations, and coordinating responses with the supervisor and central offices.
• Participate in finance system improvements, report development, cross-training, and other school or university initiatives related to accounting and research administration.

Benefits

• 401k. BYU automatically contributes 8% at no cost to you. Additionally, if you contribute 5%, BYU adds an additional 4% (Rehires may qualify for different retirement plans)
• Excellent work-life balance: 13 paid holidays + 22 days paid vacation + 12 sick days, accrued annually
• Employee assistance program, available to the employee and all members of their household
• Tuition benefits for employees and eligible family members
• Access to athletic facilities
• Excellent medical/dental benefits
• Short/long-term disability benefits
• Paid parental and maternity leave
• Wellness Program
• Free on-campus parking
• Free UTA passes for employees, spouses, and qualified dependents
• Discounts at the BYU Store and for many events at BYU

What This Job Offers

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