• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $64,350 - $75,000

Position Summary

Reporting to the Assistant Director, Finance and Administrative Services in Residential Finance & Parking, the incumbent is responsible for monitoring, analyzing, reconciling, and reporting on financial activity; processing student rent billing, internal transfers, cash/check deposits, and journal entries; review and departmental approval of financial transactions, including deposits, check requests, and vendor invoices. Primary responsibility for activities related to student units with the University Apartment Housing (UAH) portfolio, encompassing approximately 5,500 student tenants and annual revenue in excess of $60 million. 

The Financial Coordinator performs comprehensive financial analysis, pulling data from multiple systems and reconciling with the ledger to verify that billing is accurately processed; develop budgets and track financial performance; research variances and process corrective journal entries as necessary.  The incumbent serves as primary Residential Finance liaison with the Leasing Office and Student Financial Services (SFS) regarding all student account matters for the UAH portfolio.  The Financial Coordinator, fields and responds to undergraduate and graduate student tenant billing inquiries, reviews and approves deposit batches and vendor invoices up to $10,000,  proactively takes initiative in resolving issues, interfacing with Leasing Office, SFS, and CUFO IT to ensure billing is processed in a timely manner while maintaining strict financial controls. 

Responsibilities

• Prepares a wide array of financial analyses and reports from various systems and data sources used to monitor financial activities within the University Apartment portfolio.
• Directs the integration and reconciliation of related data from multiple databases and the production of associated reports.
• Creates SQL queries against departmental data warehouse to proactively identify discrepancies, variances and prepare reconciliations.
• Under the direction of the Assistant Director, maintain the integrity and accuracy of data, adherence to University and departmental policies and procedures, and efficient processing of financial activity.
• Identifies opportunities for improvements to increase service to clients and to provide reporting/analytics in a timely and efficient manner as practicable.
• Maintains a strong working knowledge of, and relationships with, stakeholders in multiple departments.
• Review and provide DAF approval for deposits, check requests, vendor invoices, and other financial transactions of up to $10,000.
• Assists in the preparation and monitoring of annual budgets and long-term forecasts.
• Processes budget entries and ensures accurate reflection of activity at both the portfolio and individual building level.
• Maintains and develops compelling reports and dashboards to track financials, identify trends, monitor business operations, and forecast revenue and expenses. 
• At the direction of the Assistant Director, Finance and Administrative Services, performs research to identify best practices and gathers benchmarking data from peer institutions. 
• Provides support to the Assistant Director and teams as necessary, including in preparation of  presentations and external reporting.
• Review and record entries necessary for contract lease billings, payments/refunds related to the newer contract billings (bursar process) and new payment plan used by students.
• Create journal entries necessary for all expenses, monthly allocations, internal transfers and miscodes to ensure accurate capture of expenses at the building level (160 sites).
• Record and reconciliation all expenses within the Columbia Residential portfolio such as but not all inclusive: repairs, vacant apt prep, lease/condo charges, service contracts, supplies, furniture, and misc. charges.
• Process cash receipts and prepare check requests/refunds.
• Journal entries to include invoice accruals, prepaid's, miscellaneous year end allocations, supplies, consulting fees, cost transfers, taxes, utilities miscodes, accruals, etc.
• Incumbent will assist the Assistant Director with monthly close to include research on variance explanations between budget and actuals.
• Responsibilities requires utilizing multiple University and departmental databases to include Tenant Management System, PeopleSoft (ARC), Unifier, Maximo, SIS and Tririga.
• Fields and responds to billing inquiries from undergraduate/graduate student tenants, Leasing Office staff, and SFS representatives.
• Assists the Assistant Director, Finance and Administration with monthly close, including research on variances between budget and actuals, assists with preparation of external annual filings of real property income and expense and tax protests with the New York City Department of Finance and other governmental agencies and regulatory entities, and performs related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree and/or its equivalent required; Accounting/Economics/Finance major preferred.
• Minimum of 0-2 years of accounting/reporting /budgeting experience required. 
• Real estate accounting experience a plus.
• Strong technical skills required, including reporting, reconciling and data analysis experience, and advanced Excel and SQL query capabilities.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and organizational skills are essential.
• Must possess critical thinking and practical problem solving abilities.
• Superior communication, presentation, quantitative, and interpersonal skills required.
• Strong research skills and ability to work as a member of a collaborative team while exercising independent judgment is essential.
• Must be able to work independently, handling multiple concurrent projects, and interfacing effectively with staff in other CUFO business units as well as external departments.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.