Major Fund Accountant; BFO

King County’s Finance and Business Operations Division, Financial Management section, is seeking a Major Fund Accountant!

This position is located in the County’s central financial reporting team and is assigned one of the County’s largest, most complex agencies to support. In this role, the incumbent has the opportunity to partner with agency staff (accounting and non-accounting professionals alike) as a strategic finance partner to the agency. By gaining an understanding of the business, this position provides high-quality advice regarding the financial reporting impacts of decisions agency staff face, through monitoring ensures proper financial statement presentation of the agency’s activities, and through modeling helps agency staff answer “what if” questions about their business and changes in the economic environment.

In some cases, these large agencies produce their own stand-alone financial statements while in others the agency is only presented discretely in the County’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, or ACFR. In either case, this position prepares the financial statements and supports auditors’ evaluation of their correctness. Additionally, team members at this level are assigned a complex area of accounting in which to become a subject matter expert.

Examples include debt, central services cost allocation, or reporting to the State of Washington under the statewide chart-of-accounts (BARS).

Scope of Job Duties: To be considered for this opportunity, you must at a minimum, demonstrate knowledge, skill and ability to:

• Independently and with minimal supervision, prepare full financial statements and notes for governmental funds on the modified accrual basis of accounting; prepare schedules supporting the statements, and support audits of those financial statements and notes.
• Review the work of accounting and operations staff for errors and omissions which could lead to material misstatement on financial statements, ensuring compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for governments in the United States and industry-specific regulatory requirements.
• Become knowledgeable in the activities of the assigned agency by building collaborative relationships, earning trust, and demonstrating impeccable ethics.
• Offer high-quality financial modeling and advice on strategy and other matters of importance to the agency.
• Participate as a team member in the preparation and review of the County’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, or ACFR including the conversion of modified accrual fund statements to full accrual reporting entity statements if necessary for assigned funds.
• Prepare concise, organized, written and oral responses to inquiries from agency staff, auditors, colleagues, and the public.
• Interpret accounting policies, standards, and audit guides to ensure conformity and compliance with legislation and authoritative pronouncements. Develop and recommend process and procedure changes as necessary.
• Prepare, review, and approve professional accounting activities including chart-of-account changes, revenue recognition criteria, intergovernmental activity, journal entries, and other accounting system configurations.
• Develop, plan, and complete process improvement projects.

• Experience in governmental accounting / financial reporting, governmental audit experience, or combined professional accounting and auditing experience in a non-governmental setting
• Expert-level knowledge in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for governments in the United States
• Ability to prepare and review financial statements and associated notes
• Ability to think critically and perform financial analysis and reporting of complex accounting information requiring high attention to detail
• Ability to communicate technical accounting information to accountants and non-technical audiences alike as meaningful concepts.
• Possess a range of leadership and communication skills that enable effective communication with individuals from diverse backgrounds at all levels of the organization, auditors, and customers outside the organization.
• Intermediate level of technology proficiency…