Staff Accountant

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE:

For more than 43 million people, blindness is a daily reality; another 295 million suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment. 90% of these people live in low-and middle-income communities where access to eye care is limited and the challenges for those who can’t see are severe. But, there is hope: 80% of this burden is treatable or preventable. For example, 17 million blind people could be cured with a 10-minute cataract surgery. Millions more suffer from corneal blindness, which is often preventable or treatable. At the Cure Blindness Project, we believe avoidable blindness can – and must – be overcome. For more than 25 years, we have worked alongside a capable network of collaborators to help people around the world retain and regain their sight by developing high-quality, cost-effective eye care systems in underserved areas of the world. With the help of partners in more than 25 countries, Cure Blindness Project has provided more than 1.4 million sight-restoring surgeries and screened more than 14.5 million people to provide care and basic treatments. We’ve trained more than 19,500 eye health professionals, and have established 5 eye hospitals. There is more work left to do, but we can overcome the mountain of global blindness, together.

Cure Blindness Project is expanding its team to meet new challenges, scale its work, and broaden its reach. We are seeking individuals who are passionate about changing lives and want to be a part of a team that works together to reach new heights. We want leaders who can aim high, make things happen, and are invested in building a positive team dynamic to bring the work to life.

VISION: We will be the catalyst to create a world in which no one is needlessly blind.

MISSION: We enable countries to end avoidable blindness by developing high quality, cost-effective eye care systems in underserved areas of the world so everyone everywhere can regain or retain their sight.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Staff Accountant will be responsible for supporting activities across all aspects of the accounting function. Accounts payable responsibilities will include assisting in the processing of payables for domestic and international vendors and partners, preparing check requests and bank letters of authorization, and coordinating the coding of monthly credit card charges across the organization. Accounts receivable responsibilities will include assisting in the recording revenue received from all funding sources including wire transfers, on-line donation platforms, stock transfers, and check donations. General accounting responsibilities include the preparation of monthly bank reconciliations, supporting schedules, and journal entries. The Staff Accountant will work in close collaboration with the members of the Finance department to ensure that Cure Blindness Project is adhering to our policies and procedures.

The Staff Accountant will have daily interactions with staff from all departments and be called upon to be a supportive resource for all teams. The candidate must display improvisation and flexibility in a rapidly changing environment and ability to work under tight timelines with multiple priorities.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Review and process payables for complete and proper backup documentation as well as verifying that restricted funds have been allocated accordingly.
• Accurate recording and maintenance of supporting documentation for restricted and unrestricted donations received from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Close cooperation with the Development team to record receivables that may come in the form of wires, checks, or disbursements from donation platforms.
• Record statutory entries for field offices as needed.
• Assist in the preparation of federal funding reimbursement requests and reporting.
• Monthly reconciliations for all bank accounts held by US headquarters and four international field offices.
• Process entries in Sage Intacct. This includes (but is not limited to) entering and paying bills, deposits and credits, funds transfers, monthly journal entries, expense allocations, and adjustments.
• Preparation and maintenance of monthly financial schedules for investments, fixed assets, and other balance sheet accounts as needed.
• Maintain and communicate accounting policies and procedures.
• Maintain internal control and safeguards for costs. Assist in the development and strengthening of internal controls.
• Contribute to refinement of the accounting policy and procedure manual and act as an internal expert on their application throughout relevant parts of the organization.
• Support annual audit activity through the collection and organization of requested samples.
• Perform review of procurement related documentation for policy compliance.
• Record intercompany journal entries monthly.
• Maintain and update the vendor files, including annual SAM & OFAC checks.
• Assist in the annual budget process.
• Generate internal financial reports for management purposes.
• Facilitating approvals of POs and Payment Requests.

Other Responsibilities

• All employees are expected to work as a team and to contribute to any activity that could promote the success of the organization.

QUALIFICATIONS

The Staff Accountant will come to Cure Blindness Project with at least three years’ experience in accounting (preferably in the nonprofit sector) and have actively participated in the development and monitoring of strong financial controls. The Staff Accountant will have the following experience and attributes:

Accounting & Finance Management

• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting
• Experience with complex nonprofit accounting and federally funded programs highly desired
• First-hand experience with procurement payments based on thresholds
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience applying Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
• Strong communication, professional presence, personal initiative, and diplomatic interpersonal skills
• Ability to remain highly organized with a strong attention to detail
• Analytical, detail-oriented, of the highest integrity, and possessing sound judgment

Technology

• Demonstrated experience and familiarity working with Sage Intacct strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Microsoft Excel including advanced formulas and spreadsheet formatting and skills in word-processing required.
• Experience in at least some of the following tools and systems currently in use: Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive, SmartSheet, and DocuSign.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

• Takes initiative and actively seeks to improve systems and procedures in a rapidly scaling organization.
• Proactively takes a solution based approach to problems and prioritizes taking action to ensure forward momentum.

Communications

• Success seeing beyond the numbers and being able to communicate accounting issues in terms that non-accounting staff can understand.
• Is comfortable seeking guidance and input from peers.

Collaboration and Relationship Building

• Skilled at establishing and cultivating strong relationships with peers, across different levels of the organization and externally to reach common goals and objectives.

Team Approach

• Demonstrated ability to find solutions that balance accounting department requirements with competing priorities and demands of individuals across an organization.

Required Skills/Knowledge/Abilities:

• Ability to work effectively and diplomatically with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders including partners, cross functional teams, senior level subject matter experts.
• Strong organizational, communications, relationship, and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and deliver high quality products.
• Detail-oriented with an ability to set clear priorities alongside keen analytic, organizational, and problem-solving skills that drive decision making and projects to completion.
• Set and meet project roadmaps with properly scoped deadlines that have well-defined milestones.
• Ability to thrive and adapt in a fast-paced and evolving environment – virtually and in-person.
• Experience working in multi-cultural environments and ability to successfully collaborate with cross functional teams and leaders to drive results.
• Strong written and spoken English language proficiency.

Experience:

• Minimum of three years of demonstrated experience in a dedicated financial accounting capacity

Additional qualifications include:

• Excitement to join a nonprofit institution poised to expand global operations.
• Outgoing personality that can collaborate with a variety of personalities at all levels of the organization, building relationships and shared goals across departments and partner organizations.
• A sense of discretion and a high degree of professionalism is required, ability to maintain confidentiality of highly sensitive information.
• Demonstrates a highly professional and cooperative demeanor with supervisors, coworkers and partners.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.
• Detail oriented and able to efficiently prioritize tasks.
• Flexibility to adjust and contribute to continually evolving work situations and changing priorities.
• Committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.

Physical requirements:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at a time.

To Apply

We invite qualified candidates to submit a resume and cover letter. Please send materials via email to: jobs@cureblindness.org

The Cure Blindness Project encourages applications from people of all races, religions, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and ages, as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities.