Accounting Assistant

**To Apply**:A full job description is displayed below. Interested applicants must provide a current resume and cover letter highlighting their experience and qualifications and how these align with this position.**

**Position Title and Grade**:Accounting Assistant, Grade E

**Reports to**:Accounting & Payroll Manager

**Duration of Contract**:Three-year term

**Position Location**:Burnaby, British Columbia
- Commonwealth of Learning (COL) helps governments and institutions to expand the scale, efficiency and quality of learning by using new approaches, appropriate technologies, and open and distance learning (ODL) methodologies. Headquartered in British Columbia, COL promotes innovation and works with international partners to facilitate learning in support of sustainable development. It is financed by voluntary contributions from Commonwealth Member States._

**Overview of the Position**:
The Accounting Assistant will be responsible to provide support to the Accounting and Payroll Manager in maintaining an accurate and up-to-date accounts payable sub-ledger, coordinating the processing of all payments in a timely manner and preparing routing journal entries for entry into the general ledger, in accordance with the policies and procedures. The Accounting Assistant also provides general support to the smooth functioning of finance and administration requirements including daily reception coverage.

**Duties and Responsibilities**:

- Conducts accounts payable function in accordance with established guidelines - this includes maintaining accounts payable sub-ledger, processing all vendor invoices in a timely manner, entering data, making and checking necessary calculations, answering inquiries, processing payments by cheque, direct deposit or wire transfer, maintaining the vendor contact information and verifying accuracy, approvals and account coding;
- Maintains various accounting logs including associated filing of all records, for example, the Purchase Order (PO) log by issuing PO numbers for approved purchases and matching paperwork with incoming invoices, the Cheque log for all vendors, the USD and CAD drafts and Wire Transfer logs; checks and tracks payments of all contracts and contract commitments to the Contracts Log; and reconciles all approved travel to the Travel Log;
- Enters approved data into the General Ledger - this includes all journal entries, drafts, wires and banking transactions; maintains the ledger printouts, logs and filing associates with these entries, prepares routine and re-occurring entries as well as bank reconciliations and routine reports.
- Provides daily reception coverage, maintains office supplies, collects and distributes mail and performs other duties related to COL’s activities as required;
- Undertakes banking duties including performing bank reconciliations, monitoring balances, requesting bank drafts and making deposits and payments at the bank;
- Maintains, dispenses and replenishes petty cash balance as required and issues travel cash advance and reconciles cash spent with receipts;
- Prepares the Goods and Services Tax return quarterly for review and signature by the Accounting & Payroll Manager and submits to Canada Revenue Agency;
- Performs other duties related to COL’s activities as required.

**Direct Reports**:There are no direct reports in this position.

**Qualifications and Experience**:
**Qualifications**
- Essential: _Post-secondary education at a college certificate or diploma level.
Completion of the second year of a professional accounting designation.
- Desirable: _Ongoing enrolment towards a professional accounting designation.

**Experience**
- Desirable: _Any experience of working in either education or international development. Experience in Microsoft Dynamics NAV would be an added advantage.

**Skills/Abilities**:

- **_Financial Awareness - _**Ability to track and match expenditures incurred and committed against approved documentation in an effective, efficient and judicious manner. Ability to process invoices and other relevant financial information in a timely, reliable and prudent manner.
- **_Attention to Detail - _**Conscious of maintaining high standards of quality and accuracy with a good sense of follow through on tasks with the ability to consistently produce error-free output.
- **_Online Productivity Tools - _**Skills to use online productivity tools at an advanced level to create, retrieve, store and exchange information and with the ability to learn and adapt to new systems with ease.
- **_Organisation and Time Management - _**Ability to organise, prioritise and complete assignments in a manner that efficiently utilises resources and optimises efficiency and to be flexible in accepting variable and diverse job assignments.
- **_Team Orientation -_** Ability to work with other staff members as a productive team member in order to carry out COL’s plan within the results-based management framework.

**Personal Attributes**