Lead Accounting Technician

Introduction

This position is located in the Finance Operations Assistant Director area, and is established to lead the processing of emergency incident payment processes.

Duties

Team/Work Leader Responsibilities:

• Articulates and communicates to the team the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines and time frames for completion.
• Identifies, distributes, and balances workload and tasks among incumbents in accordance with established workflow, skill level, and occupational specialization.
• Makes adjustments to accomplish the workload in accordance with established priorities to ensure timely accomplishment of assigned team tasks.
• Ensures that each incumbent has an integral role in developing the final team product.
• Monitors and reports on the status and progress of work to see that the supervisor’s instructions on work priorities, methods, deadlines and quality have been met.
• Prepares reports and maintains records of work accomplishments and administrative information, as required, and coordinates the preparation, presentation, and communication of work-related information to the supervisor.
• Estimates and reports to the team on progress in meeting established milestones and deadlines for completion of assignments, projects, and tasks.
• Ensures all team members are aware of and participate in planning for achievement of team goals and objectives.
• Performs limited human resource management functions such as approving leave for a few days or for emergencies only; resolves simple, informal complaints of incumbents and refers others, such as formal grievances and appeals, to the supervisor or an appropriate management official; informs incumbents of available incumbent benefits, services, and work-related activities, informs supervisor of performance management issues/problems and recommends/requests related actions such as:  assignments, reassignments, promotions, tour of duty changes, peer reviews, performance appraisals, awards, and recognition.

Voucher Examiner Work

• Reviews all vouchers to verify the internal control process has been followed.
• Examines transactions for compliance with agency standards and other applicable laws, regulations, and procedures.
• Changes or rejects work that does not meet established standards or fulfill regulatory requirements.
• Reviews voucher costs against payment and cost breakdown data from contractors and evaluates against records of past payments.  Computes and deducts the different types of discounts, and computes points of retention for costs and fees.
• Serves as senior voucher examiner and is responsible for providing technical assistance to other examiners.
• Trains examiners in specific tasks and techniques for paying various contracts, such as cost plus fixed fee, progress payments, construction, service, reimbursable funding, grants and purchase orders.
• Provides training on related topics, such as the propriety of payment, promptness of payment, discount terms, Treasury regulations on the Prompt Payment Act, and cash management techniques.

Customer Service for Accounting Transactions

• Provides customer service to a large and diverse customer base for a variety of different functions, missions, or kinds of work including agency incumbents outside the fire organization.
• Checks records/files in automated accounting systems on status of payments and payment dates, and follows up with operating location as necessary.
• Responds to a variety of diverse and unusual customer inquiries, either orally or in writing.
• Provides information on accounting transactions as well as explanation on all accounting procedures.
• Provides guidance and leadership to lower graded technicians in solving problems, and trains incumbents on new information and updates.

Position Knowledge and/or Requirements

• In-depth or broad knowledge of a body of accounting, budget, or other financial management regulations, practices, procedures, and policies related to the specific financial management functions.  This includes:
  • Knowledge of a wide variety of inter-related steps, conditions and procedures or processes required to assemble, review, and maintain complex accounting, budget, or fiscal transactions;
  • Knowledge of various accounting, budget, or other financial regulations, laws, and requirements to ensure compliance and recommend action;
  • Knowledge of a variety of accounting and budget functional areas and their relationships to other functions to research or investigate problems or errors that require reconciling and reconstructing incomplete information, conducting extensive and exhaustive searches for required information, or performing actions of similar complexity;
  • Knowledge of automated accounting and budget systems to reconcile errors that require an understanding of nonstandard procedures or to provide assistance in the development of automated procedures for clerical operations; and/or
  • Knowledge of extensive and diverse accounting, budget or financial regulations, operations, and procedures governing a wide variety of types of related transactions to resolve nonstandard transactions, complaints, discrepancies, provide advice, or perform other work that requires authoritative procedural knowledge.

Supervisory Controls

The supervisor provides general advice and guidance and suggests techniques for handling unusual or non-recurring situations which have no clear precedents or which require extensive analysis and evaluation.

The incumbent is sufficiently informed of the operations affecting the accounts, and the transactions and accounts affected to proceed with recurring assignments without technical supervisory assistance or instruction.  The incumbent understands what is to be done and how it should be accomplished.  The incumbent plans and carries out the established sequence of steps or techniques for most work assignments and resolves problems and deviations on recurring assignments in accordance with oral or written instructions, policies, training, or previous exposure to accepted agency accounting practices for handling similar situations.

The supervisor spot-checks work for technical soundness and conformity to agency policies and requirements through a review of statements and reports or through other control mechanisms built into the system.  The techniques used by the incumbent in accomplishing the assignment generally are not reviewed in detail.

Guidelines

Established procedural guidelines are available, but due to the variety of tasks or situations encountered, they may not be specifically applicable to a particular assignment or task.

The incumbent must apply a good understanding of accounting procedures and techniques in interpreting the guidelines, determining their applicability to situations not specifically covered, and adapting or deviating from the procedural instructions as necessary and appropriate.  This may require developing approaches and detailed work methods to complete the assignment.

Complexity

The work may include one or more of the following (or equivalent) complicating features:

• Maintenance and reconciliation of accounts that involve features such as varying types of advanced or deferred payments, or numerous modifications to programs or contracts, or transactions involving multiple funds.  The reconciliation of the data is complicated by the many possible sources of error, and it may require examining and reconstructing all transactions that have occurred since the affected accounts were established.
• Maintenance and reconciliation of accounts that involve various types of standardized transactions that affect a number of different control accounts.  The maintenance and reconciliation requires close analysis of the data and accounting situation as different treatment is often required for similar transactions.
• Preparation of statements and reports which require extensive searching to identify, select and convert data which are not always comparable because of differences in accounting classification or treatment, or prior report basis.  Analysis of the data must be made to determine relevance and usefulness of the information in the terms of past and current accounting procedures and the purpose of the statement or report.

Scope and Effect

The work involves treating, analyzing, or investigating a variety of conditions, problems, and questions.

The results of the studies and analyzes performed, and the reports prepared, affect the design and operation of the accounting system and various operating programs.

Personal Contacts

Contacts are primarily with incumbents in the same agency, outside the immediate organization, engaged in a variety of different functions, missions, or kinds of work; or, the contacts are with accounting, budget, or operating personnel of other agencies, or with members; supply, accounting, or financial agents of the general public; and, personnel of vendors, contractors, or manufacturers.

Purpose of Contacts

The purpose of contacts is to resolve differences in costs when price exceeds figures on the original procurement document; or to resolve operating problems concerned with format and timely receipt of data processing documents and reports, or to coordinate work flow between units in the accounting, budget, and finance offices or sections.

Physical Demands

The work is primarily sedentary with some carrying of computer reports, boxes, and ledgers.

Work Environment

• The work is performed in an office setting.