Accountant

Join a hard-working, fun team in a supportive community. The City's accountant maintains the general accounting records system, preparing and processing financial data required to produce and reconcile monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports, statements and budgets, giving work direction to department clerical staff for the completion of routine daily tasks, and related work as apparent or assigned.  Work is performed under the general direction of the director of human resources and administrative services. They are also a partner to the human resources specialist, especially during the benefits open enrollment process. The individual appointed will perform these duties while enjoying excellent benefits including medical, dental and life insurances and earning paid time off. The New Hope City Hall, built new in 2019, provides a comfortable, safe environment.Qualification Requirements
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable an individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Functions

• Reviews the general ledger coding for capital assets and projects and proposes changes to accounts payable coding and re-classifying entries, as needed.
• Maintains the chart of accounts.
• Completes a periodic reconciliation of general ledger accounts, including a review of accounts monitored by the Accounting Technician.
• Reviews journal entries prior to posting to computer system.
• Assists the finance consultant in the coordination of the annual financial closing, independent audit and annual financial report publication.
• Assists the finance consultant in the preparation of the annual budget.
• Sets up reports and administers the budget cycle in the City's ERP.
• Assists the Finance Consultant with generation and distribution of financial reports.
• Reviews accounts payable reports generated by the Accounting Technician for accuracy, provides recommendations on coding revision and reclassification, and provides oversight and review for electronic payment of claims.
• Maintains payroll portion of employee record database.
• Prepares bi-weekly payroll, reviews employee self-service timecard entries for accuracy, W-4 and banking changes for employees.
• Reviews payroll reports and recalculates tax and other deductions for accuracy.
• Processes payroll liability claims on city computer system and coordinates electronic payment to payroll vendors.
• Issues W-2’s to employees, maintains files for completed W-2’s, updates employee information on computer.
• Prepares quarterly payroll tax returns including a quarterly 941 reconciliation; files reports with the appropriate regulatory agency.
• Monitors daily cash balance and communicates with the finance consultant when a transfer of cash is necessary.
• Reconciles daily cash activity to the general ledger and prepares the month-end reconciliation files for the Finance Consultant.
• Reviews accounts receivable reports generated by the accounting technician, provides recommendations on coding revision and assists with monthly balancing; provides oversight to the accounting technician and assists other departments with collection of aged receivables.
• Reconciles escrow and deposit subsidiary ledgers (planning cases) to the general ledger.
• Completes a review of daily receipts and post them to the general ledger.
• Reviews special assessment reports generated by the Accounting Technician and facilitates the process of reporting to the County, reviews the special assessment system for accuracy.
• Coordinates the preparation of the annual Municipal Construction and Development Fee Revenue and Expenses Annual Report and files with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
• Completes the annual Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Fee calculation and return; remits payment and files the report with the Internal Revenue Service.
• Works in partnership with the HR team on benefit set up, annual enrollment and maintenance through the year, including answering questions received from staff on administration.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Ability to understand and apply governmental accounting practices in the maintenance of financial records.
• Comprehensive knowledge of accounting documents and processes.
• Thorough knowledge of standard accounting policies, practices and procedures.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with other staff members and the general public.
• Comprehensive skill reviewing and composing invoices, statements and financial reports.
• Thorough skill operating standard office equipment and applicable hardware and software systems.
• Thorough skill operating standard accounting software.
• Ability to make arithmetic computations using whole numbers, fractions and decimals.
• Ability to compute rates, ratios and percentages.

Education and Experience
Associates/Technical degree with coursework in business, or related field and moderate experience working in accounting, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Physical Requirements
This work requires the occasional exertion of up to 25 pounds of force; work regularly requires sitting, using hands to finger, handle or feel and repetitive motions, frequently requires walking and occasionally requires standing, speaking or hearing, reaching with hands and arms, pushing or pulling and lifting; work requires close vision; no special vocal communication skills are required; hearing is required to perceive information at normal spoken word levels; work requires preparing and analyzing written or computer data, operating machines and observing general surroundings and activities; work has no exposure to environmental conditions; work is generally in a moderately noisy location (e.g. business office, light traffic).Tentative Timeline:
Feb. 18 - Applications due at noon
Feb. 25 - Interview with Staff
March 4 Evening - Interview with Personnel Board
Online Office Skills Testing (online)
March 7 - Interview with City Manager and Director
Background and reference checks for preferred candidate
Late-March - Tentative time frame to start employment

Salary : $95,294 - $119,118