Utilities Accountant - Financial

Position Summary and Qualifications

Salary is just one component of FPUA's excellent total compensation package. As an organization, one of our top priorities is to maintain the health and wellbeing of our employees and their families. To achieve this goal, we offer market leading benefits as summarized under the “Benefits” tab above the Description within this job posting. The salary range shown represents the minimum to midpoint salary for this position. The actual salary offered will depend on qualifications and experience.

This professional accounting position requires knowledge of accounting principles and judgment in planning and organizing. The responsibilities of this position relate to various phases of the accounting, budgeting, and expenditure control phases of fiscal transactions. This includes the application of utility accounting principles, governmental accounting principles, fixed asset accounting principles, budgeting principles, and technical knowledge in enhancing the use of computer systems.

Knowledge of the principles and practices of accounting relating to financial, cost, utility, governmental, and fixed asset accounting.

Experience in a computer environment with knowledge of personal computer application packages.

Knowledge of the laws, rules and regulations controlling budgetary fiscal record keeping, investments, and contract procedures of municipal utilities.

Ability to plan and organize work and make general improvements to the area under control and maximize the use of office personnel by delegation of duties to subordinates.

Ability to prepare complete and accurate financial reports of a complex nature.

Ability to evaluate accounting problems and financial transactions, develop solutions, and implement them.

Ability to make sound, independent decisions and to prepare accurate mathematical documentation.

Ability to communicate effectively, by expressing ideas clearly and concisely, both verbally and in writing.

Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with subordinates, other employees, public officials, auditors, and the general public.

Ability to comply with professional and state ethical standards.

Ability to react to change productively and to handle other tasks as assigned.

Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor's Degree with a major in Accounting, Finance or Business Administration, and three (3) years experience in accounting.

Experience in the use of Microsoft Office is essential demonstrated by achieving a score of at least 80% on basic excel and 70% on basic Word.

A comparable amount of training and experience may be substituted for the minimum qualifications. Utility accounting experience and certification preferred, but not required.

Reports to and receives general direction from the Controller.

Prepares monthly and quarterly operating reports and other special ad hoc reports, as needed.

Prepares monthly entry to record the FPUA donation to MOEC.

Prepares monthly allocation entries for administrative revenue, depreciation and other expenses.

Prepares monthly duplicate charges entry.

Records monthly FPUA CSM utility account payments.

Prepares monthly benefit billing entry.

Reconciles CWIP on a monthly basis. Performs research, prepares journal entries and fixed asset entries to correct as needed.

Reconciles Accounts Payable and Accrued Purchases on a monthly basis. Performs research and prepares journal entries to correct as needed.

Reconciles retainage accounts related to major capital construction projects.

Prepares bi-weekly report of overtime by department.

Prepares the monthly chart for the Rate Comparison item presented to the FPUA Board.

Maintains all Debt and Investment schedules. Prepares journal entries and ACH disbursement requests for the payments of debt principal and interest. Review investment interest income and bank service charges for reasonableness.

Prepares monthly journal entry to record recovery of purchased power and natural gas costs.

Creates other journal entries as needed.

Maintains procedure manual of job functions.

Responsible for updating financial data on the Department of Finance Intranet page.

Calculates performance indicators monthly and for the Annual Budget.

Calculates annual interest rate for customer service deposits.

Responsible for closing blanket projects annually for all systems, reviewing and classifying costs in accordance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) codes.

Prepares a variety of schedules for the annual audit, including Accrued Sick and Vacation Liability and Unbilled Service Revenue.

Prepares a variety of schedules for the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, including Financial Statements, City Distribution, Revenue Bonds Payable, Compensated Absences, Dept Capacity, Financial Trends, and Performance Indicators.

Prepares a variety of schedules for the Annual Budget, including Outstanding Debt, Debt Service, Debt Service Cash Requirements and Performance Indicators, as well as assembling all of the individual files to create the final document with bookmarks in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Trains co-workers in advanced features of Adobe Acrobat Pro, including creating forms and formatting of files.

Serves as Petty Cash Clerk.

Responds to inquiries and determine accounting treatment of transactions, as needed.

There are also secondary back-up functions that the employee will be required to perform, which includes, but is not limited to:

Serves as back up to the Accounting Technician responsible for payroll processing.

Assists with the review and entering of year-end benefit changes.

Assists Assistant Controller and Accounts Payable Accounting Technician with general accounts payable and procurement card processing issues.

Assists the Controller and Assistant Controller in special projects and tasks.