Staff Accountant

East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority-EBRPHA

Job Title Staff Accountant

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Summary:

The Staff Accountant is responsible for all fiscal functions relative to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) portability accounting and performing close outs for all Asset Management Project (AMP) within Affordable Housing for East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority (EBRPHA) and for assisting the Senior Accountant with all aspects of the preparation of the financial statements for assigned funds and/or programs.

Essential functions:

• Reviews and approves source documents relative to housing assistance payments to owners/landlord’s accounts payables and receivables as appropriate
• Works closely with the managers and staff of Section 8 and Public Housing to ensure that tenant accounts are accurate and billed timely.
• Communicates with other staff, landlords and program participants to obtain information and answer questions involving payables and receivables
• Ensures all data is reconciled and prepares over 2,000 checks monthly
• Prepares mid-month checks for required adjustments
• Maintains records for funds to be recouped and approved adjustments
• Prepares and analyzes the journal entry transaction report to ensure accuracy of entries
• Prepares the error and suppression report and enters the necessary adjustments to ensure payments are in accordance with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines
• Prints monthly reports inclusive of housing assistance payments (HAP) and utility assistance payments (UAP), status reports, deduction and adjustment reports, utility allowance reports, reports for special programs, and check registers for HAP and UAP
• Receives payments from other housing authorities participating in the national portability program
• Ensures funds are deposited timely
• Prints monthly billing statements and reviews for accuracy
• Communicates with portability manager to resolve discrepancies
• Receives, posts payments from various housing authorities to individual tenant accounts and reconciles for accuracy
• Maintains overall accounts receivable due from each participating housing authority and reconciles records monthly
• Corresponds with housing authorities to resolve discrepancies and collect outstanding balances
• Prepares monthly aged outstanding receivables report by individual tenant and individual housing authority
• Sends invoices with outstanding balances to housing authorities monthly
• Reviews records of account transactions relative to collections, refunds, and account adjustments of over 1,200 Affordable Housing tenant rental accounts to ensure accuracy and completeness of calculations
• Receives tenant information from housing managers for all 15 EBRPHA owned Affordable Housing sites
• Reviews for accuracy and creates entries for adjustments into the housing authority system
• Determines additional amounts owed for reimbursement of work orders for repairs on city-owned units and made by maintenance staff and bills the Office of Community Development.
• Prepares monthly rent statements as well as late notices for distribution to tenants
• Prepares excess utility billings by entering consumption for tenants based on monthly meter readings
• Determines when late fees are to be charged and enters fees into system
• Creates the automatic billing report to reflect balances owed/due to tenants
• Prepares monthly trial balances and reconciles ledger entries to ensure accounts are in balance
• Prepares monthly reports inclusive of rent rolls, vacancy reports, rent and utility statements, late notices, aged tenant ledger, etc.
• Assists in compiling information for reports to EBRPHA’s Board of Commissioners and HUD
• Prepares 1099’s for landlords
• Processes Close Out Folders for Tenants who have moved or died during the month.
• Maintains tenant escrow accounts
• Prepares monthly financial statements for assigned individual programs to be presented to the EBRPHA’s Board of Commissioners during monthly board meetings
• Monitors all transactions of assigned programs for accuracy and ensures individual transactions are posted correctly to the internal general ledger in relation to assigned individual programs.
• Reconciles bank records for all assigned checking accounts.
• Determines any necessary journal vouchers in relation to assigned individual programs, prepares, and enters as needed. Monitor’s revenue and expenditures and reports irregularities to the agency’s administrator

Supervisory responsibilities:

• N/A

Work environment

• In office setting

Physical demands

• Mobility and flexibility to walk, bend, kneel, lift, and reach to perform above duties as stated

Travel required

• Must poses a valid driver’s license

Additional duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Salary Commensurate with Experience

Required education and experience

• A baccalaureate degree with twenty-four semester hours in accounting is required.
• Substitutions for Degree only: Five years of bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, payables experience in any field may be substituted for the required baccalaureate degree (not the 24 hours in accounting).

Preferred education and experience

• N/A