Accounting Analyst

Detailed Job Description:

Job Description:

• Provide comprehensive accounting, financial analysis, and business support across multiple business units. This position is responsible for executing monthend close activities, including preparation and review of accruals, reclassifications, and financial statement reporting. The role requires strong analytical and validation skills to ensure accuracy in all financial outputs, including budgettoactual monitoring and yearend spending projections. The position evaluates the reasonableness of departmental estimates, identifies anomalies or trends, and communicates findings to management to support sound financial decisions.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Responsibility for month end closing process including journal entries for accruals, reclassifications, etc as well as monthly financial statement reporting.
• Develop and monitor organizational cost performance vs. budget by analyzing variances and cost trends, and developing recommendations for strategy and corrective actions. Provide monthly financial summaries to supported managers and projects.
• Review and validate departmental yearend spending estimates, ensuring they are reasonable, supported, and aligned with historical trends and current-year commitments.
• Ensure accuracy and completeness of financial data through strong validation steps, reconciliations, and analytical reviews.
• Identify opportunities to improve financial reporting processes, validation steps, and templates.
• Intrapersonal/Interpersonal proactive collaboration within department and external customers

Skills/Experience:

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel
• Deep understanding of accounting data relationships, the flow of financial information thru income statements & ability to trace issues to their underlying drivers.
• Proven ability to perform thorough data validation, reconcile complex financial information, and ensure accuracy across reports and analyses.
• Strong criticalthinking skills, with the ability to evaluate assumptions and determine the reasonableness of financial estimates.
• Understanding of General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and best practices.
• Demonstrated focus on developing quality work products with limited oversight and effective at validating expectations.
• Strong presentation and communication skills and the ability to handle oneself professionally and credibly with department managers.
• Ability to work as a team member.
• Ability to establish goals, set priorities, and maintain an awareness of interrelationships among activities

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelors degree from an accredited college or university preferably in Accounting and 5 years of industrial level experience working with financial/accounting/budgeting position, preferably within a large company or profit center;
• OR an AA degree and 7 years of industrial level experience working with financial/accounting/budgeting position, preferably within a large company or profit center,

Desired Skills: IDEAL CANDIDATE

• An ideal candidate for this position would bring experience preparing or reviewing budgettoactual reports, financial forecasts, and yearend spend projections. They would possess strong technical accounting expertise, with a deep understanding of complex cost accounting methodologies, and the ability to apply these principles to real-world business scenarios. They would have strong criticalthinking skills to assess the plausibility of departmental yearend estimates, uncover cost drivers, and challenge assumptions when needed.
• They should have substantial experience working with advanced Excel functionality, including the ability to manage large datasets, create complex financial models & reports, analyze variances effectively, and use structured validation practices to verify data quality. They would also be proficient in WorkDay Financials, and PowerBI software, leveraging these tools to drive accurate financial analysis, forecasting, and reporting.
• In addition to technical proficiency, the ideal candidate would demonstrate excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, enabling them to clearly communicate complex financial information to department managers. They should demonstrate exceptional attention to detail with rigor in validating financial data, identifying inconsistencies, and ensuring the accuracy of reported results.