Accounts Payable Lead

Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium

The Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC), located in northern Vermont, was founded by Champlain College, Middlebury College and Saint Michael’s College. The Consortium aims to help its members to lower costs, increase the quality of services and add strategic value to our members.

The Consortium and its members strive to leverage shared technology, create best processes and service our organizations. As a Shared Services organization, we are committed to provide exemplary services which support each College’s strategic plan and facilitates the addition of new members.

We provide a meaningful employee benefits program including health, dental, vision, life, disability, retirement with a generous match, paid time off and a well-being program. This position provides a unique learning and career growth opportunity in an innovative environment. 

 

Job Title: Accounts Payable Lead  

Location: Hybrid, Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, Shelburne Green, Shelburne, VT  

Reports to: Executive Director  

Job Type: Full-Time  

Position Summary  

Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC) seeks an experienced Accounts Payable Lead to oversee the Accounts Payable department. GMHEC currently serves three members including Champlain College, Middlebury College and St. Michael’s College. The AP lead will supervise and manage the processing of incoming supplier requests and changes, expense audits, payments process, administration of purchasing card programs, and creation and processing of 1099 forms. The role includes data analysis, expense validation, overall accounts payable preparation and processing. The Lead is instrumental in guiding the accounts payable staff and working with the member institutions on continuous process improvement and complex problem solving. 

Key Responsibilities  

The AP Lead provides high-quality, timely service and support to all the departments and employees that rely on our services, as well as our vendors. This position will work closely with the college Finance teams.��

As a part of the GMHEC Accounts Payable Team, this position is responsible for providing a high level of customer service to our member institutions. We are guided by our principles which recognize that our member organizations come first, continuous process improvement is a given, communication is transparent and visible, and we value our unique culture which includes being innovative, flexible and focused on well-being.  

 

Responsibilities include:

• Leading accounts payable operations, including attention to detail and follow-through; including weekly one-on-one meetings with staff, weekly department meetings, priority setting and escalation support
• Maintaining supplier data
• Reviewing, reconciling and auditing expenses 
• Administering purchasing cards
• Preparing and running payment runs
• Preparing and submitting tax filings
• Validating direct deposit processing and diagnosis, resolving ACH rejections
• Leading quarterly system update testing and validation
• Working with customers on special projects
• Generating required reports to provide audit and validation
• Reviewing, reconciling and auditing accounts payable data 
• Leading creation of training reference guides, websites and videos for customers and training customers in person or over video conference or other methods
• Communicating with customers via phone calls, zoom, emails and in-person utilizing our ticket system, within timeframes contractually agreed upon with our members
• Performing all assigned tasks accurately, efficiently, and in accordance with applicable policies and procedures of the Consortium and, where applicable, the Colleges including following accounts payable rules and regulations
• Ensuring all tax, payment, and foreign national payment laws and regulations as they relate to accounts payable payments are known, understood and consistently followed
• Efficient and accurate accounts payable data management including updating of tax codes, payment types, recording and extraction 
• Collaborating with Finance personnel at our member colleges to ensure information to employees about changes in payment runs is distributed timely and effectively
• Accurate and timely submission of appropriate federal and state payments and reporting
• Responding to governmental and institutional audit requests
• Setting up and maintaining internal controls
• Ensuring adherence to data governance
• Continuously reviewing, recommendin