Account Payable Associate

AP Specialist

The AP Specialist provides operational support and leadership to the Accounts Payable (AP) team within the North American Shared Services Centre located in Vaughan, Ontario. This role requires a strong background in accounting, finance, and internal controls, with responsibilities that include leading investigations, performing reconciliations, resolving issues, supporting process improvements, and maintaining business process documentation. The AP Specialist is also responsible for driving change initiatives, ensuring follow-through on action plans, and delivering service excellence in a fast-paced, growing shared services environment. The role works closely with business leaders to support Treasury and Shared Services objectives through high-quality service delivery and analysis.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership support to the AP team in reviewing and clearing aging and long-outstanding account balances, both on AP subledger and general ledger. This includes reviewing existing account balances of vendors, clearing accounts and other GLs used, owned and/or impacted by the AP team.
• Create and follow-through on action plans to clear long-outstanding balances, understand and evaluate the financial risks and implications and propose write-offs/write-ons to the P&L as needed.
• Lead and close-out any existing recovery audit efforts (e.g. Broniec) and ensure that recovery is complete and recorded properly in the right GLs.
• Assist in reviewing and posting monthly AP transactions, ensuring accuracy and completeness in terms of amounts, documentations, SoD and other controls compliance.
• Review and improve all AP processes relating to recurring invoices (such as utilities, rent, courier, and other corporate charges managed centrally by the shared services team).
• Work with other Accounting groups to accurately and timely close Accounts Payable per the established close schedule. Ensure certain general ledger accounts are reconciled and accounted for to maintain the integrity of the financial statements.

Process Improvement & Internal Controls

• Identify and present solutions to the AP and Shared services leadership, for continuous process improvement opportunities.
• Support the monitoring and execution of internal control procedures to ensure confidential records and company assets are adequately protected.
• Support in maintaining all AP procedural controls to ensure that sufficient evidence is in place and is monitored/tracked in order to adhere to corporate policies.
• Validate and report on all key performance indicators for AP team to Senior Management, for all established process benchmarks.
• Support continuous improvement through automating manual processes to drive efficiencies.
• Assist with internal and external audit & ad-hoc requests as required.
• Work with team to support any escalations from vendors and internal Partners.
• Leverage systems to support the core AP Team with inquiries related to vendor accounts.
• Support ad-hoc ancillary tasks as needed.

Leadership and Team Management

• Provide mentorship and guidance to the team and ensure team members meet reconciliation and audit deadlines.
• Foster teamwork and communication within and across organizational boundaries.
• Support staff training as required.

Knowledge, Skills and Competencies:

• Comprehensive knowledge of standard accounts payable accounting principles, policies and procedures, and internal controls.
• Previous experience working in a multi-entity, multi-database organization structure handling high volumes of data.
• Strong leadership skills and ability to drive and inspire change.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
• Business partnering - internal and external relationships.
• Strong analytical, time management, planning and problem-solving skills.
• Previous experience managing and training large teams.
• Demonstrated ability for leveraging technology to solve complex business process matter.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in an Accounting, Finance or Internal Audit roles. Experience in Payments, Accounts Payable or Procurement role as a Manager or Supervisor is ideal.
• Bachelor's degree with a major in finance, business, procurement or accounting.
• Previous experience with Great Plains or other major Financial ERP system (Microsoft GP is an asset).
• Advanced MS Excel skills.
• Broad based experience in accounting and financial systems. GFL Environmental an equal opportunity employer and encourages women, Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities to apply. We seek to hire individuals with diverse characteristics, backgrounds and perspectives. We strongly believe that world-class talent makes no distinctions based on gender, ethnic or national origin, sexual identity and orientation, age, religion or disability, but enriches itself through these differences.