Job No. 152842
- Job Title:
- Financial Accountant, Wharton Finance & Administration
- Employer:
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University of Pennsylvania
- Location:
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Philadelphia , PA
- Posting Date:
- 22-Apr-2024
- Description:
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Job Description Summary
Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With campuses in Philadelphia and San Francisco, Wharton has over 850 staff, a faculty population of more than 235 renowned professors, and 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year, 13,000 professionals worldwide advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. Wharton is home to a diverse staff population representing a rich array of backgrounds, expertise, and cultures. To learn more, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.
The Financial Accountant reports directly to the Associate Director, Research Centers. The Financial Accountant will serve as an integral member of the Research Centers finance team at Wharton Finance & Administration, preparing and maintaining financial records and reporting for the various Research Centers. The position will have primary responsibility for historical financial analysis, ensuring accounting structures reflect unit activities, and provide reports to leadership on financial performance for the various Research Centers.
This position will be responsible for timely delivery of monthly and ad-hoc financial reporting, managing the various Research Centers Chart-of-Accounts (COA) to ensure accurate charges to revenues and expenses, ability to interpret general ledger and asset positions, investigate and flagging wayward transactions, creating and maintaining a database of external and internal funding agreements, act as the primary COA approver for staff & faculty expense reports, create and track invoice submissions, and deliver historical trends to the leadership. The position will be knowledgeable and comfortable with complex research funding structures and adept at analyzing data from disparate systems to enable fact-based, timely, and collaborative decisions that enhance the mission of Wharton and its respective Research Centers. In addition to the core responsibilities, this role will collaborate with the team and various departments to gain insights and implement streamlined processes for more seamless financial operations.
Job Description
Job Responsibilities
Deliver timely and accurate monthly financial reporting to various Research Centers. Create ad-hoc reports for stewardship reporting related to gifts, endowments, grants, and fee for service. Ability to pull historical financial data on demand. Proactively investigate transactions to ensure accuracy. Research into transactions as requested by team members and centers. Develop Chart-of-Accounts structure to reflect programming and research activities of units as activities and structures evolve.
Create and maintain a database of funding agreements, including gifts, endowments, grants, fee for service, and internal funding agreements between internal departments. Act as the subject matter expert on external and internal agreements as it relates revenues, transfers, and expenses. Ensure transactions are adhering to agreement restrictions. As the status of agreements evolve, track updates on usage ability in database.
Act as the Chart-of-Accounts (COA) approver for various Centers staff and faculty, ensuring that expenses are compliant with university financial policy and are charged to the correct COA.
Create invoices and track receivables to ensure timely cash collection.
Engage in projects related to accounting and reporting improvements via learning and leveraging new technology and best-practices.
Perform additional duties as assigned.
Qualifications
Bachelor's Degree with 5-7 years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience is required. Previous accounting and data management experience. Attention to detail/accuracy. Strong business acumen and accounting skills. Knowledge of Penn's financial systems a plus.
Previous accounting, reporting, and analysis experience required.
Advance technical skills required (spreadsheet proficiency, financial software/data extraction).
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are essential, including professional email writing skills and the ability to enforce policies and guidelines diplomatically but assertively, including with those at higher levels.
- Contact information:
- University of Pennsylvania
- Philadelphia, PA 19104
- United States
- Employer's Website:
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