Staff Accountant

Location: Brooklyn, NY (currently remote due to COVID-19) 

Target Start Date: April 19th, 2021

Salary Range: $65,000 - $72,000

Benefits: Vision, dental, & medical insurance; 403(b) retirement savings plan; generous vacation policy; parental leave; long-term disability; employee assistance program

Level: Junior

Organizational overview

At Democracy Works, we’re committed to helping Americans vote. By building easy-to-use tools for voters, uplifting comprehensive data for elections, and providing vital support for election officials, Democracy Works is actively making voting more accessible across the country.

• TurboVote is a tool designed to help voters register, request their ballot, and make their voice heard in every election, from local to national. We’ve connected over ten million Americans with TurboVote by building the largest college, nonprofit, and corporate voter engagement coalition in the country, including more than 300 campuses, nonprofits - like Headcount, the Sierra Club, Climate Strikes, and the Hispanic Federation- and companies like Starbucks, Univision, Facebook, Google, and Snap. 
• As the only comprehensive official election dataset, the Voting Information Project (VIP) helps Americans find their polling site and available ballot dropbox locations where they look for it most: online. Across Google products alone, VIP data was viewed nearly 500 million times in 2020. 
• Released in 2020, How To Vote breaks down all the options each state offers for voting, their voter registration rules, as well as unique circumstances like voting overseas and voting rights restoration for the formerly incarcerated. Across Google products alone, our How to Vote guides were viewed over 2 billion times. 
• Our tool Ballot Scout brings transparency and accountability to the vote-by-mail process by allowing elections administrators and voters to track every ballot with the same ease as an Amazon package. helps election administrators track absentee ballots through the mail, providing transparency in the vote-by-mail process and making it easier to follow up when things go awry.
• Co-founded by Democracy Works and the CAA Foundation, Civic Alliance is a nonpartisan group of businesses working together to build a future where everyone participates in shaping our country. In 2020, membership grew to 1,030 companies with an employee reach of 5,163,938.

Team overview

The Finance and Employee Engagement team of Democracy Works aims to give our staff the resources and support they need to do their jobs well. Together, we create internal systems and policies, provide legal counsel, manage an office, run our financial operations, and cover a range of employee engagement tasks. We are a team of seven supporting an organization of about 70 employees in 24 different states. 

As Staff Accountant, you will report to our Finance Manager and be responsible for executing our basic financial obligations. You will help ensure that our financial records are accurately maintained and will follow generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to support our financial policies and procedures.

You will:

• Process semi-monthly payroll for a staff of 70+, including all related tasks
• Manage timesheet processing for seasonal hourly contractors
• Process employee expense reimbursements in accordance with HR policies
• Process accounts payable, including collecting the appropriate approvals and documentation for expenses
• Complete vendor compliance paperwork  
• Manage Accounts Receivable, including receiving and depositing checks 
• Work with program department to invoice partners and follow up on past due invoices
• Reconcile grants and donations with fundraising department
• Reconcile transactions in Quickbooks
• Support the monthly close process, the year end close, and the annual audit process
• Other accounting tasks as needed 

You are:

• A clear communicator in both verbal and written interactions  
• Able to manage frequent and sometimes competing deadlines, prioritizing your work thoughtfully 
• Extremely detail-oriented; able to check for and identify errors
• Excited to independently problem solve when few resources or limited information is provided
• Comfortable making requests of people across the organization, including those outside of your team or in leadership positions
• Proficient in Quickbooks, GSuite, and Excel/Google Sheets. Ideally, you also have some experience with Salesforce

You have experience:

• Applying accounting principles and theory, ideally in a non-profit setting, acquired through a bachelor's degree in accounting or related field of study

Physical demands

This position requires regular, daily use of a computer (including use of GSuite and Slack) to conduct work and communicate with colleagues. For those working out of our Brooklyn office (currently closed due to COVID-19), the F train stops closest to our office, but exiting the station requires the use of four flights of stairs. Our office has an elevator available at street level. Streets and buildings nearby are currently under construction, which can disrupt sidewalks and results in varying levels of construction noise audible from the office. Our offices share a set of gendered bathrooms with other offices on our floor, and there are no gender neutral bathrooms in the building at this time. 

Social expectations

This position involves regular check-ins with your manager and your team. You will be required to have significant daily interaction via Slack, email, and video call with colleagues, as well as external stakeholders. We also encourage developing coaching relationships with members of other teams. 

Time and travel expectations

Democracy Works’s regular operating hours are 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Eastern time. Two times per year, all full-time staff members participate in a five day retreat in our Brooklyn offices. All staff is held each year in May and November when we are able to safely do so. No additional travel is required for this position.