Staff Accountant, Bursar's office

Engineering a world of possibilities

The Staff Accountant in the Bursar's Office is responsible for managing financial operations related to student housing facilities, meal plan elections, and coordinating special tuition programs. This position is responsible for ensuring accurate financial record-keeping, processing housing, meal plan, and special tuition-related financial transactions, and providing support to students, parents, and university staff regarding these programs. They partner with university staff and external stakeholders, in particular with the Office of Residence Life and Student Life Business Operations, to ensure accurate financial information and compliance with regulatory requirements and to understand the annual student housing and meal plan processes. This position will also provide regular support to other positions within the Bursar’s Office team.

Primary Responsibilities

Financial Operations

• Using Banner and the StarRez housing system, this position is responsible for processing all financial transactions related to student housing, including rent, late fees, gas, electricity, and damage charges.
• Using StarRez, this position is responsible for working directly with Residence Life staff to enter housing rates and meal plans to ensure consistency and accuracy.
• Using Banner and the StarRez system, position will process all financial transactions related to student meal plans, including commuter plan charges.
• Partners with external departments to coordinate special tuition programs and processes all special tuition rates.
• Work with Residence Life to process 3 annual scholarship award cycles in partnership with the Financial Aid Office.
• Process all employee and dependent tuition waivers and fee waivers, ensuring all requests are reviewed for eligibility.

Reconciliation

• Partners with Residence Life staff to complete a monthly reconciliation of housing and meal plan charges and credits, correcting all discrepancies collaboratively.
• Complete a quarterly reconciliation of special tuition accounts, correcting all discrepancies.
• Partners with the Student Health Insurance Plan Coordinator to complete a quarterly reconciliation of student insurance charges and credits, correcting all discrepancies.
• Complete some monthly reconciliation for Student Accounts Receivable. This requires an extensive review and reconciliation of multiple clearing AR accounts and an understanding of how the Accounting System student subsystem relates to the Finance system.
• Prepare and submit journal entries to correct errors found.

Customer Service

• Advise students, sponsors, and parents about tuition, fees and other related charges. Responsible for heavy volume of oral and written correspondence with students, sponsors, and parents.
• Coordinate with Residence Life, Financial Aid, Admissions, the Registrar's Office, and other departments to lead resolution for student issues related to tuition and fees.
• Respond to email and telephone calls with professionalism and clarity. A general knowledge of campus activities is required to be able to direct questions to the appropriate department/individual.

AR & Collection Support

• Assist the AR & Loan Analyst with the collection of past due accounts.
• Assists with the reconciliation of tuition collection accounts using Banner and the OnBase system.
• Assist with the reconciliation of Perkins and institutional loans between the University, our third-party servicer, and the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).
• During reconciliation, this position has the responsibility make adjustments to student accounts or submit corrections to the collection agency as needed.
• This position will review, add, or remove student holds based on the reconciliation information.

Minimum Qualifications

Education and Experience:

• A bachelor’s degree in Accounting or related field with at least 21 credit hours of accounting classes.
• At least 2 years of professional accounting.
• Experience in an A\R module within Banner or a similar system.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong analytical skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong desire to collaborate and work with different departments across campus to best support students.

Preferred Qualifications

Education and Experience:

• Experience working with the CASHNet system, or a similar software.
• Experience working in a higher education institution.

Salary and Benefits

$58,000 – $62,000