Project Accountant

Project Accountant

For more than 60 years, Bennett & Pless has been a growing leader in structural engineering, delivering specialized expertise across the markets we serve. We have been nominated 9 consecutive years as a best firm to work for and have offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Dallas, Knoxville, Loudoun, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, and Sarasota. Our projects range in scope from simple site inspections to the design of new facilities, and we work at each stage – feasibility studies, conceptual design, detailed design, and construction administration. Together, our 10 offices have created an energized engineering powerhouse offering enhanced capabilities to our ever-growing client base.

We are looking for a full-time Project Accountant to work out of our Atlanta, Charlotte, or Dallas office. The Project Accountant will report to our Accounting Manager and will be responsible for assisting with various financial aspects of projects including creation, review, billing and revenue. We're looking for someone who has an eye for detail, adaptable, and likes to collaborate.

Responsibilities

As a Project Accountant, your primary responsibilities in this role will be:

• Partner with Project Managers and Operations to manage project financial performance from setup through closeout, including revenue recognition, billing, invoicing, contract modifications, profitability analysis, and ongoing financial reporting.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for project accounting, providing guidance and support to Project Managers, and other team members.
• Review project contracts and proposals to ensure proper financial setup, billing terms, revenue methods, retainage requirements, and compliance with contractual obligations.
• Support Project Managers with new project setup, ensuring accurate project structures, task creation, labor allocations, billing schedules, revenue methods, and reporting attributes within Acumatica.
• Configure complex project records in Acumatica, including multi-phase, multi-disciplinary, and multi-entity projects.
• Maintain project master data, ensuring all project information remains accurate throughout the project lifecycle.
• Monitor project budgets, labor utilization, contract values, change orders, committed costs, and project profitability.
• Analyze project financial performance and proactively identify budget overruns, margin erosion, unbilled costs, revenue variances, or billing issues.
• Prepare and review project billing, progress invoices, time and material invoices, fixed-fee billings, pay applications, and other client billing documentation.
• Support monthly revenue recognition processes, including reviewing percent complete calculations, earned revenue, deferred revenue, and work-in-process balances.
• Review unbilled work-in-process (WIP) as well as other dashboard KPIs and collaborate with Project Managers to resolve billing delays and maximize cash flow.
• Monitor accounts receivable related to projects and partner with Project Managers to support timely collections and resolve client billing disputes.
• Perform project financial reconciliations, including contract value, billed revenue, recognized revenue, collections, and remaining backlog.
• Review project labor allocations and ensure employee time is charged accurately to the appropriate project phases and tasks, reallocate time as needed.
• Prepare recurring financial reports and dashboards highlighting project performance and budget status.
• Provide financial guidance to Project Managers regarding project accounting policies, billing procedures, revenue recognition requirements, and best practices.
• Support month-end and year-end close activities.
• Maintain project financial documentation and ensure audit readiness.
• Identify opportunities to improve project accounting processes, reporting, automation, and internal controls.
• Collaborate with other team members on system testing, process optimization initiatives, and ERP enhancements related to project accounting functions.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field preferred. Minimum 5 years of project accounting experience in AEC industry. Advanced skills in Excel preferred. Ability to create pivot tables, use lookup functions, understand and edit excel formulas etc.

Skills and Competencies

• Knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and standard practices
• Proficiency in specialized project accounting software (e.g. Oracle, Deltek, Acumatica) and other financial management tools (Textura). Acumatica experience is a plus.
• Ability to multitask and have strong attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to convey financial information to different audiences.
• Strong interpersonal skills to build relationships with a variety of stakeholders.
• Ability to adapt to regulatory changes, new technologies and a growing/evolving business environment.

At Bennett & Pless, our vision is to be a place where employees thrive. We're a growing firm committed to empowering employees without sacrificing work/life balance. Our culture is the center of making us who we are and it's our priority to make employees feel accepted and valued.

As a firm, we are highly supportive of the development of our employees. Every year, we kick off Career Development Planning where employees create tailored development goals. Goals are regularly assessed throughout the year to allow employees to advance towards their career growth objectives. We also have monthly Bennett and Pless learning sessions where our senior Engineers and Specialists share their knowledge on a broad variety of subjects.

We have an employee-focused benefits package that includes:

• Company-paid medical, dental and vision coverage for the employee
• Health savings and flex spending accounts
• Group short-term & long-term disability; life and a&d insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Tuition reimbursement program
• 401(k) matching
• Monthly wellness allowance
• Paid time off & paid holidays
• Flexible schedules, including summer hours
• Company retreat

Bennett & Pless is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment and we prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.