Treasury Accountant I

The City of Alexandria is located in northern Virginia and is bordered by the District of Columbia (Potomac River), Arlington and Fairfax counties. With a population of approximately 150,000 and a land area of 15.75 square miles, Alexandria is the seventh largest city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Alexandria has a vibrant waterfront and is a unique and historic place to live and work. About one-quarter of the City's square miles have been designated as a national or local historic district. We proudly embrace our racially and culturally diverse community. If you are interested in working for the progressive City of Alexandria, we invite qualified candidates to apply for the Treasury Accountant I position.

An Overview

The City of Alexandria’s Finance Department is looking for a motivated, curious, and detail-oriented Treasury Accountant I to join our team. As a member of the Treasury Division, the Treasury Accountant I is instrumental in ensuring that the City’s four accounts receivable systems—real estate tax (PCI RBS), car tax (Personal Property System), business taxes (RevOne), and parking tickets (UPSafety)-- reflect all transactions in an accurate, complete, and timely manner. In addition, the Treasury Accountant will play an important end user role in the ongoing development of the City’s accounts receivable systems and payments systems.

This is challenging work which will call on the Treasury Accountant I to collaborate with all Treasury staff to facilitate a customer-focused operation in a fast-paced and time sensitive environment. This work also involves use of the City’s cashiering system (PCI RCS), the City’s online payment systems (Virginia Interactive and Official Payments), the City’s banking and lockbox system (SunTrust), and the City’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Tyler Munis. The Treasury Accountant I works under the general supervision of the Deputy Treasurer.

What You Should Bring

The ideal candidate is a collaborative, detail-oriented, and insightful financial professional who possesses some knowledge of local government tax collection and accounts receivable and is passionate about providing Alexandria residents, businesses, and visitors with great customer service. Additional knowledge, skills, and abilities include:

• Knowledge of the modern theories, principles, and practices of accounting;
• Knowledge of third-party payment processing, tax service companies, and eChecks;
• Knowledge of financial system implementation and maintenance in a large organization;
• Ability to quickly grasp the concepts behind real estate tax, personal property tax (car tax), parking tickets processing, and various business taxes including license, property and trustee taxes, such as meals tax and admissions tax;
• Ability to perform reconciliations and identify, diagnose, and resolve financial issues;
• Ability to utilize various financial systems for data entry, reporting and analysis;
• Ability to contribute to the creation of accurate, complete, and timely financial reports;
• Ability to manipulate large amounts of data using Microsoft Excel (e.g. pivot tables, vlookup);
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing.

The Opportunity - Examples of Work

• Participate in the resolution of complex financial issues, such as bank and system reconciliation problems, by analyzing account balances, payment/assessment adjustments, and transactions;
• Conducts financial research using the City's ERP Munis and manipulates financial data in Microsoft Excel;
• Performs detailed analyses of accounts, makes adjusting entries and confers with others to ensure compliance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) ;
• Assists Deputy Treasurer with tax refund review processes;
• Collaborates with the General Accounting team to ensure accurate completion of journal entries in the General Ledger;
• Plays a key role in the customer service function of our division by responding in person, on the phone, via email, or via traditional mail to customer issues;
• Researches and prepares correspondence in response to customer complaints and disputes;
• Collaborates with Financial Business Process team to identify, diagnose, and resolve issues in the City’s accounts receivable and payment systems;
• Performs other duties, as assigned.

About the Department

The City of Alexandria's Finance Department is a fast-paced, diverse, and customer service focused operation that is responsible for: the assessment, collection, and enforcement of all City taxes, the management of cash flow and investments, accounting for and reporting the City’s financial position, processing payroll, executing a fair and competitive procurement environment, assessing all real and personal property in the City, managing the City’s risk and safety programs, and managing the City’s pension plans. The Finance Department has seven divisions and in fiscal year 2020 is operating with a total budget of $13.9 million and 108.25 FTE positions. The goal of the Finance Department is to treat all employees, citizens, and business owners professionally, with fairness and compassion.

Minimum & Additional Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related field from an accredited college or university, or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities.

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or a related field; experience with customer service; experience utilizing accounts receivable systems in a large organization; experience working in local government or a related role.