Project Accountant (Greater Chicago Area)

The Project Accountant I plays a key role in the everyday accounting operations by acting as liaison between the project management and accounting management teams. The Project Accountant I will be responsible for ensuring proper project setup, tracking project costs, communicating budget variances, and driving the invoicing process.

Reports to the Supervisor, Project Accounting

Responsibilities will include but may not be limited to the following:

• Upon assignment of the job a complete understanding of the budget in Procore, understanding of the PA’s budgeted time and feedback on if the budget is achievable, and feedback to the your manager on the customer PO and overall thoughts of the project.
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with members of the construction project team(s) including project managers, project / field engineers, superintendents, and project coordinators.
• Enforce Company and client schedule and documentation requirements such as billing cutoff dates, insurance certificates, subcontracts/change orders, affidavits, and waivers, supporting waivers, etc.
• Ensure subcontractor compliance with conditions of prime and subcontract as a means of control of payments.
• Import and export contractual information between JDEdwards and Textura.
• Collect, review, obtain approval and process subcontractor invoices for payment.
• Be the point person for billing/PO issues within the self-performance segment. All billing issues such as change order increases, margin profit reviews, and PO’s needed.
• Weekly or monthly communication on open issues and AR concerns
• In our self-performance/maintenance aspect of the business understand and manage PO usage, labor usage, and ultimately profitability of the business on the risks associated to the work.
• Assist project personnel in quantifying extras for incorporation into change requests or billings to clients.
• Perform project audits to find and communicate system discrepancies / issues. (GMP recon).
• Ensure all financial activities and requirements relating to project close-outs are carried out in a timely manner.
• As part of the process of continually investigating the conformance of subcontractors with payment requirements in their agreements; recommend remedial action such as joint or direct payments to downstream creditors to protect the company.
• Monthly review of project cost reports and contract status reports and the understanding of the over / under billings which turn into WIP Monthly review / comments on Open AR & Open AP aka Continuously auditing to ensure all job costs in JDE are proactively billed to the clients
• Assist with project audits.
• Respond to requests for information and analysis from the Project Managers on various job cost and subcontractor issues.
• Accounts Payable invoice approval, when assigned.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualification Requirements

• Minimum of three years of experience as a cost accountant, preferably within the construction Industry.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills including strong listening skills.
• The ability to effectively prioritize tasks and meet deadlines.
• The ability to identify, analyze and resolve problems and minor work issues.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to work independently and effectively under deadlines and high pressure.
• Previous experience with JD Edwards / Textura accounting software (or similar software) is a plus.
• Advanced Computer skills with Microsoft Office (Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel) required.