Research Billing System Analyst I

Colorado School of Mines • Colorado Springs, CO

27d • $59,000 - $63,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

At Mines, the Billing Systems Analyst I is responsible for the billing management of sponsored research projects in the Office of Research Administration (“ORA”). This is a key member of the research team and serves as a resource to sponsors, faculty, and campus administrators. Billing for sponsored research is complex and includes many different components which requires critical thinking skills in addition to a strong accounting background. The Billing Analyst will apply accounting theories and understand generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) in order to meet the job requirements and responsibilities. Essential responsibilities include cash management, billing, accounts receivables, financial reporting, systems monitoring, and customer service. You will work independently, use your ability to research and resolve issues, strategically analyze financial reports, and consistently review processes and procedures, making recommendation for improvements. You will be responsible for handling a large amount of data, where attention to detail and timeliness is essential. Sound like you? Apply today! Currently, this is a hybrid work environment; on campus presence is required on a regular basis based on business needs.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration or the equivalent in experience
• Two or more years of working knowledge of accounts receivables, cash receipts, and account reconciliations
• Aptitude for understanding and using complex federal invoicing websites
• Proficiency at reading and understanding terms and conditions in a legal document
• Demonstrated customer service skills, the ability to work effectively with a wide range of sponsor representatives in a diversity of businesses to include federal and state, and constituencies in a vibrant campus community
• Ability to meet multiple deadlines and deliver a quality, error free product
• Working knowledge of federal and other pertinent external research regulations.
• Ability to use spreadsheets, databases, presentation software, and enterprise financial systems
• Demonstrated customer service skills, the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community and ability to meet multiple deadlines
• Analyzation and problem-solving skills including the ability to use independent judgment
• Effective oral and written communication skills
• Knowledge of standard invoice standards formatting, invoicing business processes.

Nice To Haves

• Higher Education, and/or government accounting experience
• GASB knowledge and experience
• Uniform Guidance knowledge

Responsibilities

• Billing set-up and modifications
• Transactional responsibilities include: Create new billing schedules and amend existing billing schedules in the School’s financial system and ORA’s enterprise project tracking system. Utilize information obtained from the legal agreement, proposal documents and other project related documents. Assign appropriate invoice type to awards as it aligns with the project instrument and billing payment terms. Register to sponsor sites as necessary in order to perform drawdowns or invoice submittal on a biweekly/monthly basis. Become familiar with Sponsor agreement format, financial terms and conditions to be able to perform billing setup appropriately. Become familiar with the School’s financial system in order to perform billing schedules correctly and also have the ability to perform corrections.
• Invoicing Process, review, and submit the monthly, quarterly, and annual sponsor billing, paying close attention to detail. Have a thorough understanding and the ability to navigate through sponsor websites for submitting invoices or drawing down payments. Comprehend the different types of sponsor identification numbers to ensure invoices are approved and paid without difficulties. This position is responsible for ensuring that all invoices or requests for payment comply with the terms and conditions of the agreements. Understand and complete complicated sponsor required payment remittance forms, that require reconciling Mines’ chart of accounts with Sponsor predetermined cost categories. You must be knowledgeable in Excel with the ability to write formulas and create checks and balances to ensure sponsor remittance form is correct. Retrieving supporting documentation from the Mines financial document storage system(s) (receipts, financial detail reports, etc.) to attach to invoices upon submission as required by certain sponsors. You will need the ability to read and comprehend the School’s standard financial system reports for issues when a bill is not processing. This position also requires fully understanding the School’s financial system screens and functions of each. Recognize and research if a sponsor short pays an invoice. Follow-up with the appropriate ORA staff members to ensure the issue is resolved in a timely manner. Work with the Controller’s office when issues arise due to incorrect balances between the general ledger and sub-ledger account receivable activity. Be able to understand the issue how it occurred and what actions are needed to resolve the concerns. This position is responsible for the resolution. Monthly reconciliation of the School’s financial system unbilled report. Analyze and research any discrepancies, along with the necessary action to take (if applicable) in order for the expenses to be billed in the following month. Ability to read and interpret standard accounting reports produced monthly. Ability to use reasoning and judgement to determine report is accurate and contains no deviations requiring further review. Process disbursements to discharge Mines’ financial obligation to the sponsor (refunds) by reviewing award transaction history, verifying payments and expenses, and determining reason for refund. Complete all necessary forms as required and save back-up documentation. Complete billing review for award closeout by verifying billing is correct, payment made in full, and there are no unresolved billing discrepancies. Ensure that sponsor contact information is current so that invoices are sent to the appropriate contact person, email, and/or address, or required online system. Participate in the closeout process of an award by reviewing that a project has been fully invoiced and fully paid. Resolve any billing issues that may cause the delay of a closeout. Work in partnership with the Research Accountants to accomplish successful closeouts. Develop and/or update ad-hoc reports using data from Mines Financial System, Cognos or other database applications for tracking, diagnostic and financial analysis of sponsored activity. Be familiar with Mines fiscal policy and federal regulations related to billing and unallowable expenses.
• Apply Payments Daily monitoring and recording of cash receipt transactions based on source documents and the electronic bank statement integration into Mines’ financial system. Perform payment application with precision. Researching as necessary to validate source for award to be credited. Recognizing when payment amount being applied is different than the amount due for an award. Determine what steps need to be taken to understand if account is financially correct. Monthly review of the grant holding account to verify payments listed are in the process of being posted to the correct award. Maintain proper supporting documentation for each cash receipt. Communicate to others in a timely manner when a cash receipt issue arises. Perform correction to misapplied payments, ensure a proper audit trail. Become familiar with sponsor payment types
• Accounts Receivable Collections Prepare, understand, analyze, review, and research each account in the Aging Report in regards to collections. Perform collections on a daily/weekly basis to ensure outstanding invoices are being addressed. Using judgment of situation determine the most appropriate action to collect amount due in a timely manner. Escalate delinquent accounts to the Assistant Director of Post Award for further necessary action
• Training and Process Improvement Actively participate in office wide process evaluation and reengineering efforts. Critically evaluate process and procedures with a goal of efficiency and optimal resource utilization. Make recommendations for improvements to management and lead improvement efforts if approved. This position is expected to maintain current procedural statements and manuals.

Benefits

• Flexible health and dental care options
• Generous sick/vacation time: 13 paid holidays per year – including a week-long winter break for entire campus.
• Fully vested retirement plan on first day of employment, with generous employer contribution
• Tuition benefits (6 credits per year for employees, 50 percent discount for dependents)
• Free RTD Ecopass
• All Mines employees also have access to discount programs through the State of Colorado and free tickets for Mines Athletics home games, as well as access to the state of the art Recreation Center (fitness classes and training, swimming pool and more) and equipment rentals through the Outdoor Rec Center.
• We are proud to have recently opened an on campus daycare center.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees