Accounting Specialist

Responsible for safeguarding the financial resources of the organization, the Finance team manages the financial activities of Lili’uokalani Trust (“Trust”). Reporting directly to the Manager, Accounting, the Specialist, Accounting aud​its requests for all payments on behalf of Lili’uokalani Trust while ensuring compliance with government laws and regulations, policies, and performance in accordance with written contracts and agreements. This position requires exceptional attention to detail, strong use of technology, an orientation towards being of service, and a passion for the work of the Trust. The incumbent is the face of the Finance team and the gatekeeper for most questions.  They must have a firm grasp of policies and procedures in order to properly and efficiently route questions, requests and process immediate needs. 
 

Essential Responsibilities

Leadership:

• Lead by example in managing the expenses of the organization by providing support to various levels of the organization.
• Exhibit sound knowledge of best practices in accounting and whose accounting expertise translates into optimized expense control processes.
• Collaborate with internal departments and external vendors to gather, analyze, and interpret relevant financial data.
• Collaborate with intra and inter department team members, providing and exchanging information regarding existing and/or new business processes and projects, and communicating possible implications for the teams
• Set the bar for customer service excellence by providing timely, thorough, and friendly responses to internal and external stakeholder inquiries
• Represent the finance team on cross-functional organizational projects as needed
• Lead projects relevant to the expense disbursement process
• Take direct instructions from the Chief Financial Officer and other executives

Accounting Operations:

• Audits, verifies, and reconciles invoices processed through the Trust’s automated processing system to ensure accuracy and consistency of data of  accounts payable cycle which adheres to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. 
  • Have and maintain an understanding of the organization’s technological resources.  Accounts payable utilizes three software programs across two operating systems. 
  • Transfers data from the Trust’s approval processing platform on the cloud used by all team members. 
  • Extracts and imports data  into a third-party program based on the Trust’s servers as an intermediary process in order to upload into the primary accounting system.
  • Manually reconciles results of extraction and imports to balances and verifies the accuracy of all entries. 
  • Documents and maintain all work performed and reconciliations calculated  in preparation for independent financial audit. 
• Serves as the primary owner and lead of the recurring invoice cycle. Liaise with directors and managers to ensure timely and accurate processing for invoices that recur monthly, quarterly, and annually.
• Verifies vendor accounts, resolves purchase order, invoice, or payment discrepancies.
• Processes ACH transactions and provides detailed reconciliation report for approval review, providing proper support for the funds release process.
• Performs the reconciliation of assigned general ledger accounts, including any follow-up actions/corrections necessary. Addresses and monitors all stale-dated checks and prepares reporting for abandoned property annually.
• Serves as the primary relief for the Accountant’s duties which include, but are not limited to, auditing of employee expense reports, extracting and downloading of Concur data from a cloud platform, reconciling download prior to import into primary accounting system, processing of real property tax payments, and the management of the property management cycle. Has fully cross-trained to serve as backup Accountant if necessary. 
• Provide Controller with weekly cash needs for each week’s disbursement set which gives Controller timely information to make decisions regarding cash management. 

Compliance & Reporting:

• Assists in the development of business and accounting policies to maintain and strengthen internal controls.
• Assists the team with analytical review of expenses monthly noting and providing insight into significant variances.
• Assists Director of Finance and Controller with annual audit, tax, and budget supporting work papers and reconciliations as assigned.
• Produce monthly, quarterly, and annual accounting schedules and reports, including account reconciliations.
• Develop and document business processes and accounting policies to maintain and strengthen internal controls.

Other duties

• Obtains working knowledge of and assists management in properly implementing the Trust’s internal controls and accounting policies and procedures.
• Assists the VP/CFO, Director of Finance and Controller with special assignments as necessary. Provides reports as needed.
• Monitors offsite archiving of financial records, including annual purge. Complies with all legal requirements and company policies.
• Gains working knowledge of newly implemented budgeting system (Axiom) necessary to provide rudimentary assistance to external team members or accurately route questions if necessary.
• Contribute to the Trust’s success by accepting new assignments, helping team members, learning new skills, and striving to improve team and organization results.
• Performs other related duties as required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or associate degree, with major or area of study in accounting or finance OR at least 4 years of relevant work experience at a proven level able to sustain description above.
• Working knowledge of Excel (novice level or higher). Intermediate knowledge of accounting and reporting software with aptitude for learning new financial technology. Must have interest in technology and various platforms and operating systems used by the Trust and ability to maintain up-to-date knowledge of interaction of all software resources. 
• Strong interpersonal skills that contribute to a collegial working environment.
• Self-starter who takes initiative, prioritizes with minimal supervision, and works independently, as well as part of a team.
• Excellent organizational and planning skills with demonstrated ability to create structures to effectively manage personal and team deliverables.
• Demonstrated ability to speak and write in succinct, informative, and friendly manner such that content expectations and timelines are clearly understood by audience
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and is both quick and meticulous, and puts emphasis on accuracy and quality, and strives for continuous improvement. Ability to adapt well to changes and ambiguity.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities from a variety of sources; prioritizing effectively to impact areas of greatest need and meet deadlines.
• Commitment and strong alignment to the mission of the Trust. Commitment to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and/or conflicts