Accounting Associate: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology - UTK

This position serves as financial support for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, including job functions related to travel support for faculty, students, staff, and visitors. Serves as liaison with college and university personnel regarding information to verify or support financial records and ensure compliance with established university policies and procedures.

Prepares correspondence and answers inquiries regarding accounting information as required. Interprets policies and regulations related to sponsored research grants and contracts, and provides guidance to students, staff, and faculty to maintain compliance.

• Financial Responsibilities -

+ Account reconciliation and analysis.

+ Analyzes, reconciles, and evaluates the accuracy of inquiring on detail balances, including revenues and expenditures.

+ Reviews accounts for adequate documentation, expenditure classifications, and compliance with various policies and regulations.

+ Maintains records to meet record retention policies.

+ Informs Business Manager/faculty/staff/students of financial status including budget modifications, overspent accounts, and account closures.

+ Performs journal entries as needed to ensure accurate ledger accounts.

+ Maintains general ledger account listing spreadsheet for the department including faculty and student research accounts, gift accounts, general notes, funding, other.

+ Processes petty cash reimbursements.

+ Helps organize summer salaries and verifies budgets.

+ Enters T-27s for all special payment to non-contract vendors and assists in the establishment of new vendors.

+ Reviews entered biweekly and monthly time sheets for accuracy.

+ Assists Business Manager with maintenance of activity code balances.

+ Works with the Events Coordinator to help plan EEB related events and assist with financial transactions.

+ Maintains EEB Field Station reservations and creates and sends invoices to users.

+ Collects and distributes payments into appropriate accounts for field station and reconciles vendor accounts, maintaining a reconciliation spreadsheet for tracking.

+ Works with Business Manager on monthly taxes to Controller's Office and annual Unrelated Business Income Reports.

+ Serves as backup to deposits.

+ Primary Effort Coordinator for the department, verifying that payroll is properly aligned with effort on sponsored projects and ensuring that correct projects are charged.

• Travel Responsibilities -

+ Enters travel for all EEB faculty, staff, and graduate students as needed, including travel requests, reimbursements, advances, and prepaid travels.

+ Assists travelers with lodging and airfare reservations within the GetThere Travel system, ensuring consistent and professional interactions with travelers, UT Treasurer's Office, and World Travel Agency representatives.

Required Qualifications

• Education/Experience : High school diploma with 4 years accounting/financial experience.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

+ Ability to perform a variety of accounting transactions, budget development, and analysis.

+ Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work assignments to meet deadlines and facilitate workflow.

+ Strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing.

+ Ability to interpret contracts and related regulations.

+ Ability to understand and interpret policies.

+ Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Word, and the ability to learn new systems.

+ Ability to work with little direct supervision, be detail oriented, and work as a member of a team.

+ Ability to be a quick learner, possessing a strong work ethic.

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without need now or in the future for sponsorship for employment-based visa status.

Preferred Qualifications

• Education/Experience:

+ Associate’s degree with 2 years of accounting/financial experience

+ or bachelor’s degree and 1 year of accounting/financial experience.

• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

+ Knowledge of a large platform ERP, such as Oracle Cloud.

+ Knowledge of Uniform Guidance.

Work Location

• Location: Knoxville, TN
• Onsite

Compensation and Benefits

• UT market range: MR07
• Anticipated hiring range: $47,000-$52,000

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Application Instructions

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments.

• Resume
• Cover Letter

About The Department

EEB is in the top 10% of ecology programs in North America based on research impact ( Keville et al., 2017 ), ahead of peer institutions such as UCLA and UC San Diego. Our faculty and students come from around the globe. Our faculty is a mix of internationally known senior researchers and an energetic group of junior faculty at the cutting edges of their fields.

We train graduate and undergraduate students with research interests in ecology, evolutionary biology, animal behavior, conservation biology, behavioral and population genetics, computational biology, development of theory for evolution and ecology, ecosystem and community ecology, global change biology, diverse areas of organismal biology, and biology education.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has shaped leaders, changemakers, and innovative thinkers since its founding in 1794. The university is home to more than 38,000 students and 10,000 statewide employees—the Volunteers—who uphold the university’s tradition of lighting the way for others through leadership and service.

UT Knoxville offers over 900 programs of study across 14 degree-granting colleges and schools. As Tennessee’s flagship land-grant university, its footprint spans the entire state. The university holds the highest Carnegie classification for research activity and has deep partnerships with industry leaders and the US Department of Energy’s largest multidisciplinary laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Knoxville campus serves and recruits for UT Knoxville, including the Institute of Agriculture and the Space Institute, as well as the UT Institute of Public Service.

UT Knoxville considers its employees its number one asset. With values that focus on work-life balance, compensation, and innovation leadership, all Vols are supported to advance professionally. Employees have access to career development and coaching, continued education, and an extensive list of development and training possibilities.

The Volunteer employee experience implements structures and practices to attract and retain top-tier talent, fostering a strong staff community and supporting a culture of involvement and engagement for everyone.

The university holds a strong commitment to its land-grant mission of learning and engagement, with a tradition of service and leadership that carries that Volunteer spirit throughout the state and around the world.

It has been ranked nationally as “Best Employer for New Graduates,” “One of America’s Best Large Employers,” and “Best Workplace for Women,” and has been designated as “Best Place for Working Parents” by Forbes Magazine.

Apply today and join the Tennessee Volunteer community!