Finance Associate

Job Title: Finance Associate

Reports to: Manager, Business and Finance Analytics

Role type: Full-time

Salary: $65,000-73,000

Location: Hybrid role - Must be located in or near Boston, MA, for 1-2 days weekly in the office

POSITION SUMMARY

The Finance Associate plays a critical role in supporting the execution of financial, business, and certain administrative operations to ensure timely and compliant workflows, leveraging data and technology to enhance operational efficiency and inform sound decision-making. This role requires a highly organized, analytical early-career professional who is attentive to detail, a strong communicator, and a skilled collaborator.

The Finance Associate coordinates and supports critical workflows to ensure that revenue, expense, data collection, and reporting objectives are consistently met. The role will support key financial processes, including vendor bill collection and processing, client invoicing, contract management, expense reimbursements, ad hoc analysis, and other tactical financial processes. They will assist in aggregating financial data and resolving open financial tasks, create and conduct financial processes, including the month-end close process, cash receipts, and other related tasks.

This role requires a high level of organization and financial acumen, as well as the ability to manage multiple projects across diverse stakeholders with competing deadlines simultaneously. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who can work independently, is open to feedback, seeks clarification, manages work from start to finish, meets all deadlines, and communicates clearly and openly. This position also requires experience and ease in learning and using a variety of online financial tools and software, including AI-forward systems.

We are a dynamic, fast-moving organization that operates at the pace of change in the social and educational sectors. Successful candidates are curious, entrepreneurial, and driven by a growth mindset, thriving in highly collaborative environments. They uphold cultural norms and excellence standards, practice discretion with sensitive data, utilize tools and resources as intended, and adhere to organization-wide expectations. Unlike a traditional nonprofit, we function more like a management consulting firm; our team excels at making rapid pivots, approaching challenges creatively, and iterating beyond conventional groupthink to deliver innovative solutions. This role regularly collaborates with key internal stakeholders across the organization as well as with outsourced partners and consultants. Although primarily dedicated to finance responsibilities, this role may also provide coverage for other associate-level roles on the operations team as needed.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

Support the organization with essential tasks to ensure that financial operations run smoothly and on time. This involves assisting with financial transactions, managing sensitive documents, implementing new technology, and analyzing data.

Finance & Business Processes (90%)

• Process accounts payable (AP) and monthly contractor/vendor billing. Maintain a list of active vendors and their associated budgets/contracts, and help set up new contracts.
• Support accounts receivable workflows and maintain current and accurate records and data entry.
• Prepare and submit client invoices in collaboration with program and operations leads; follow up on outstanding balances as needed.
• Support grant proposal development and reporting to ensure alignment with organizational processes, efficient workflow, timely and accurate calendar maintenance, and excellent documentation management.
• Support fee for service contract development to ensure timely and compliant processes.
• Support the annual audit process to ensure timely and effective documentation sharing and logging.
• Assist with tracking and reporting on project management deliverables in Asana or other project management software.
• Reconcile and validate financial data across multiple systems, including accounting (Xero), budgeting (Budgyt), and CRM (Salesforce), ensuring consistent reporting outputs.
• Maintain an ongoing financial calendar for key dates, insurance renewals, and work plans for the Operations department to ensure that deliverables are handled promptly and with sufficient lead time to gather information from all stakeholders.
• Working with the finance and PE Way team, maintain and document organization-wide policies and procedures.
• Ensure all vendor agreements are up-to-date and alert management when the end date of the contract is approaching.
• Contribute to internal onboarding and knowledge-sharing by keeping process documents, SOPs, and finance-related templates up to date.
• Process paperwork to ensure that all relevant state and federal payroll taxes are set up, filed, and reconciled with the outsourced fiscal partner in an appropriate and timely manner, and accurate records are maintained.

General & Administrative Support (10%)

• Draft, write, and edit quality documents, presentations, and other communications for internal and external use.
• Continuously improve processes through annual reviews and by identifying and eliminating waste, duplication, and errors.
• Provide occasional coverage and cross-functional support for other operations and finance roles to ensure seamless workflow and team continuity.
• Other tasks as assigned.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We want Project Evident to be the place where you do the best work of your career, which means making sure that you are in a role that matches your skills, interests, and goals. Here's what we’re looking for in this role.

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 2 years of continuous, relevant, full-time experience working in accounting and/or finance. This role requires managing multiple workflows and tasks, where careful attention to detail is crucial. To succeed in this role, you need exceptional organizational skills and the ability to prioritize work simultaneously across diverse stakeholders with competing deadlines. We are looking for a proactive self-starter who works independently, welcomes feedback, seeks clarification, manages work from start to finish, meets all deadlines, and communicates clearly, openly, and promptly.

Below is a complete list of requirements for this role:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• A minimum of 2 years of continuous, relevant experience in analytics, accounting, and/or finance, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, and grants and contracts administration.
• Ability to process information, generate reports, and create visuals.
• Proven ability to work under tight timelines, accurately assess problems, and develop solutions.
• Impeccable attention to detail and extremely high standards for accuracy, and the ability to handle sensitive information discreetly and appropriately
• Experience working effectively with multiple stakeholders who may have evolving priorities
• Ability to solve problems and is an active listener who seeks clarification, asks questions, and surfaces solutions.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• High degree of proficiency expected with Google and Microsoft software, especially Google Sheets/Excel, Asana & Salesforce. After training in Xero and Budgyt, proficiency is expected.
• Comfortably communicate with internal teams and external vendors/partners in a clear, timely, and professional manner.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Ability to work with a virtual team. The team works across multiple time zones and expects regular availability between 10:00am - 4:00pm (ET).
• Expected to work 40-50 hours per week, but could fluctuate based on client demands.
• Travel required to meet the needs of the organization.
• 1-2 days required onsite in our Boston office.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Ability to sit, talk, and listen continuously for up to 8 hours per day.
• Requires fine motor skills, such as typing for up to 4 hours continuously.
• Ability to lift at least 30 pounds.

WHY JOIN PROJECT EVIDENT?

We hope you're excited about the possibilities of working at Project Evident! To support you in bringing your best self to work, we offer:

• Comprehensive Benefits – Generous medical, dental, and vision plans, a 403(b) retirement plan with employer match, and life and disability insurance.
• Flexible Time Off – Unlimited vacation days, Summer Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and organizational-wide closure from December 25 to January 1.

ABOUT PROJECT EVIDENT

Project Evident harnesses the power of data, evidence, and technology to achieve greater impact. We believe that by empowering practitioners to drive their own data and evidence building while also strengthening the surrounding ecosystem, we can increase the number of effective solutions in the social and education sectors and scale them faster, ultimately producing stronger, more meaningful, and more equitable outcomes for students and communities.

Project Evident is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce committed to a culture of belonging and accountability.