What are the responsibilities and job description for the Contracts & Grants Accountant position at The University of Southern Mississippi?
The Contracts & Grants Accountant prepares invoices and financial reports for external funding agencies, reviews and approves expenditures related to sponsored projects, resolves errors, responds to inquiries from researchers and sponsors, and assists with external and internal auditing of sponsored projects. The Accountant provides quality and timely services and engages with internal and external constituents (, faculty, staff, deans, sponsors, subawardees, auditors) while ensuring compliance with university and sponsor policy for an R1 university with approximately $100M annual external funding.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
- Reviews / audits and approves all department submitted University expenditure forms related to external funding, including but not limited to travel forms, remittance vouchers, interdepartmental invoices, and PAF’s, to ensure cost allowability, sufficient funds, appropriate dates, proper signatures, applicability, and reasonableness. Communicates with project directors and support staff concerning inquiries.
- Resolves all grant budget checking errors that include weekly accounts payable, bi-weekly and monthly payroll errors, auxiliary transactions and p-card transactions. This involves communication with project directors, support staff, and the Controller’s Office for resolution. Prepares journal entries for necessary adjustments to funded projects.
- Prepares invoices and financial reports required by external funding agencies. Ensures the University can properly document any cost sharing (matching) requirements and reports the match to the funding agencies. This task involves reviewing and interpreting various regulations such as the Uniform Guidance (UG), federal, state, and funding agency specific guidelines. This task also requires researching, obtaining, and copying official University financial records to satisfy agency documentation requirements.
- Reviews and interprets award documents to understand financial requirements of the funding agency. Ensures proper documentation of expenses and cost sharing requirements. Understands and interprets various regulations such as 2 CFR 200 and other federal requirements, as well as state and funding agency guidelines, which may vary from project to project. Provides detailed information to auditors as requested.
- Communicates with and provides training to project directors, support staff, and subcontractor financial staff concerning financial reporting and audit inquiries. Works with other ORA staff to resolve problems and concerns.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’sdegree in accounting or a related field from an accredited college oruniversity or 4 years of experience in accounting, finance, or research with 1year of experience in a university research administration setting orequivalent combination of education and experience. Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
Preferred Qualifications
Experiencewith restricted fund and government accounting practices
Experiencein a university, nonprofit, or government setting.
Salary : $100
