Temporary Senior Accounts Payable Specialist

Forbes is an iconic global media brand that has symbolized success for over a century. Fueled by journalism that informs and inspires, Forbes spotlights the doers and doings shaping industries, achieving success and making an impact on the world. Forbes connects and convenes the most influential communities ranging from billionaires, business leaders and rising entrepreneurs to creators and innovators. The Forbes brand reaches more than 140 million people monthly worldwide through its trusted journalism, signature ForbesLive events and 49 licensed local editions in 81 countries. Forbes is seeking an experienced, analytical, and highly independent Senior Accounts Payable Specialist for a temporary assignment to serve as a key operational partner to the AP Director. This hands-on role takes ownership of day-to-day accounts payable activities, anticipates issues, resolves complex exceptions, and helps ensure that invoices, approvals, payments, and reporting move accurately and on schedule. The ideal candidate combines strong accounting fundamentals with sound judgment, initiative, and the ability to understand how AP activity affects the broader business. This is not a people-management role. This is a three month assignment with the potential to extend. Preference will be given to candidates in the New York/New Jersey tri-state area. Responsibilities: - Daily AP Operations & Ownership: Independently manage daily AP priorities across invoice intake, coding, approval follow-up, exception resolution, and payment preparation; monitor work in progress and proactively address bottlenecks and approaching deadlines.

- Hands-On Processing & Review: Process and review invoices and Concur expense reports for accuracy, proper coding, documentation, approvals, and policy compliance; remain comfortable handling transactional work as business needs require. - Analytical Problem Solving: Investigate complex or recurring invoice discrepancies, duplicate payments, vendor disputes, and missing information; identify root causes, recommend practical solutions, and escalate material issues with a proposed course of action. - AP Aging & Month-End Support: Review AP aging and open items, investigate unusual or stale balances, support reconciliations and accruals, and partner with the accounting team to support an accurate and timely month-end close. - Payments & Controls: Prepare and initiate domestic and international wire and ACH payment runs in accordance with approval requirements, segregation-of-duties controls, and established security procedures; flag unusual or urgent payment requests. - Vendor Management & Compliance: Coordinate vendor onboarding, maintain accurate vendor master data, obtain and review W-9/W-8 documentation, respond to vendor inquiries, and support annual 1099 reporting. - Communication & Judgment: Serve as a reliable point of contact for employees, vendors, and Finance colleagues; resolve routine operational issues independently while keeping the AP Director informed of significant risks, exceptions, and trends. - Process Improvement & Reporting: Use ERP reports and Excel to identify errors, recurring issues, and opportunities to streamline workflows; recommend practical improvements using system functionality, automation, and approved AI tools where appropriate. The ideal candidate: - 5–7+ years of progressive accounts payable or related accounting experience, including substantial independent ownership of AP workflows. - Strong understanding of general ledger coding, accruals, reconciliations, internal controls, and the impact of AP activity on financial reporting and cash requirements. - Demonstrated ability to analyze data, recognize patterns, investigate exceptions, and solve unfamiliar problems without step-by-step direction. - Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, and analysis of large transaction lists; proficiency with Microsoft Office.