Grant Accountant
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
Full-time
Accounting
Posted on June 14, 2019
The Grant Accounting Office is a central administrative department within Finance and Operations that reports to the University Controller. Grant Accounting offers the following post-award services (pre-award services are provided by Sponsored Programs).
The Grant Accountant performs a broad range of complex analysis and oversight functions for a subset of grants and contracts from various Federal agencies, assuring compliance with award terms and conditions, and sponsor, federal, and University policies and procedures.
Job Responsibilities Include:
- Review complex sponsor agreements, financial information, and related policy and guidelines to identify award restrictions, reporting and other requirements.
- Interpret applicable sponsor regulations and determine how requirements apply in various circumstances.
- Work with Assistant Director to resolve compliance issues.
- Provide guidance to other central administrative staff, departmental staff and researchers.
- Suggest improvements, contributing in departmental discussions and provide feedback in the implementation of policies and procedures.
- Maintain grant files in an orderly and consistent manner; retain supporting documentation that is useful and necessary.
- Monitor account balances, identify concerns and work with appropriate departmental staff to resolve.
- Perform annual and final review of expenditures on sponsored awards and follow-up with the department/PI regarding any issues.
- Respond to inquiries from faculty, staff, and sponsors regarding financial transactions, financial statements, and budgets.
- Prepare and submit basic and some complex financial and material reports and supporting documentation for University and sponsor agencies.
- Reconcile external information to resolve discrepancies on sponsored awards.
- Assist in responding to audit or other external reviews by obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation.
- Initiate original and correcting journal entries.
- Review and approve workflow transactions.
- Open/close grant and cost share accounts within University guidelines.
- Demonstrates the ability to convey thoughts and express ideas effectively using speech in individual or group situations; attend to and fully comprehend what other are saying.
- Demonstrates the ability to express ideas, thoughts and concepts clearly in writing, using correct grammar, organization and structure.
- Provide accurate, consistent information on all supporting documentation and official reports, schedules and analysis.
- Provide information in a useable format and on a timely basis to others who need to act on it.
- Demonstrates ability to establish productive working relationships and provide excellent customer service to the University research community, and external sponsoring agencies.
- Review and update data and records in ePost, UIRIS, PeopleSoft GL, Grant Budget, Pay CV, Web CV, ProTrav and University Workflow systems. Understand the relationships between the systems and impact of actions; and how to resolve errors.
- Demonstrate knowledge of and ability to use MS Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, and Adobe Acrobat.
The University of Iowa is one of the nation’s premier public research universities, with 11 colleges offering internationally recognized programs in disciplines ranging from otolaryngology to fiction writing, printmaking to space science, hydraulic engineering to dance. Iowa draws nearly 33,000 students from more than 100 countries and all 50 U.S. states, and employs about 29,500 faculty and staff.
Application details
Applicants who fail to submit all the required materials will not be eligible for an interview.
Job openings are posted for a minimum of 14 calendar days. This job may be removed from posting and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended. For questions or additional information, please contact:
Audra Haddy
Successful candidates will be subject to a criminal background check.
References will be requested at a later date in the hiring process.
Education Requirement
A Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance or related or an equivalent combination of education and experience
Experience Required
- Minimum six months of compliance, accounting or financial experience, to include account reconciliations, preparing financial reports, setting up, monitoring, and closing accounts;
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
- Ability to multitask and meet deadlines;
- Experience gathering and organizing data from a variety of systems/sources to perform a task;
- Strong critical thinking and problem solving skills;
- Proficient with MS Excel.
- Experience interpreting and ensuring compliance in accordance with policies and/or state and federal regulations;
- Experience in post-award research administration;
- Fund accounting work experience;
- Knowledge of applicable policies and regulations, including 2 CFR 200, the NIH Grants Policy Statement, HHS Grants Policy Statement, or other sponsor specific policies;
- Experience with the University’s financial systems and knowledge of the University of Iowa Operations Manual.
