Junior Accountant

Junior Accountant

New York, New York, United States

Fairstead is a purpose-driven real estate firm dedicated to building affordable communities across the country. Headquartered in New York, with offices in Colorado, Florida, and Washington DC, Fairstead owns and manages a portfolio of more than 30,000 apartments, including pipeline, across 28 states. As an integrated owner, operator, and innovator, Fairstead brings development, construction, and property management under one unified platform to deliver high-quality affordable housing that serves our residents at scale.

At Fairstead, we believe affordable housing should be thoughtfully designed, professionally managed, and responsibly operated. We seek to create and preserve housing that serves residents while delivering long-term value to communities, partners, and stakeholders.

Fairstead challenges industry norms through our tech-forward, entrepreneurial approach to affordable housing. In addition to core real estate capabilities, we operate innovative service lines designed to improve resident outcomes, strengthen communities, and drive operational efficiency. We embrace digital transformation, data-driven decision-making, and emerging technologies, including AI, to build scalable systems that support sustainable growth, grounded in a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation, partnership, dedication, and integrity.

The Junior Accountant supports full-cycle accounting, cash and treasury operations, and financial reporting across a portfolio of affiliated entities. This role assists with day-to-day bookkeeping and reconciliations, supports month-end closing, helps manage banking and cash movement across numerous entity accounts, and assists with tax and regulatory filings under the guidance of senior finance staff. The role requires strong attention to detail, willingness to learn multiple accounting systems (QuickBooks, Expensify, NetSuite, Bill.com, Yardi), and the diligence to flag issues and missing information proactively across a diverse, multi-entity environment.

Responsibilities:

Month-End Close & Financial Reporting:

• Support month-end and year-end close across multiple entities, including recording GL activity, verifying accruals, confirming intercompany eliminations tie out, booking amortization and prepaid expense entries, and identifying discrepancies to resolve.
• Assist with tax preparations and state compliance filings, including communication with tax preparer for federal and state annual returns, quarterly and annual state and local tax filings and managing annual state registration and franchise fee filings.
• Provide ad-hoc reports at the request of operations and management.

Accounts Payable, Billing & Expense Management:

• Perform key accounts payable actions in Bill.com, including inputting, coding and allocating invoices, onboarding vendors, and assisting with 1099 reporting and filing.
• Review employee corporate credit card and personal expense reimbursements submitted through Expensify, including reviewing that receipts and invoices provided are in line with policy and that credit cards are reconciled on a timely basis.
• Review monthly invoicing procedures, communicating with operations to ensure billing is correct and monitoring that invoices are collected on a timely basis.

Treasury Functions:

• Cash Funding & Movement: assist with monitoring daily cash positions; support bi-weekly payroll funding across multiple entities ahead of each pay date; process weekly payment runs, checks, and bill disbursements.
• Banking User Maintenance: support administration of online banking platform access across entity accounts — help set up, modify, and deactivate authorized users under supervision; maintain permission-level documentation in line with internal controls; assist as a point of contact for bank portal access issues.
• Treasury & Cash Reporting: help prepare liquidity reports for management review; retrieve and reconcile monthly bank statements across multiple banking relationships; perform monthly/quarterly bank reconciliations and flag outstanding items to senior staff.
• Account Opening & Management: assist with opening new bank accounts for new entities or projects, including gathering documentation and supporting KYC requirements

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, Finance, or related field
• 0–2 years of relevant accounting experience
• Familiarity with QuickBooks and Expensify, NetSuite, or Bill.com preferred; exposure to Yardi and Expensify a plus
• Solid foundational reconciliation and bookkeeping skills, with the ability to stay organized across multiple entities and deadlines.
• High attention to detail and a proactive approach to identifying and resolving discrepancies
• Good communication skills for coordinating with entity stakeholders, bank relationship managers, and outside tax preparers under senior staff guidance.
• Advanced Excel skills; experience with Smartsheet a plus.

Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.

Salary Range

$60,000 - $90,000 USD

Diversity in backgrounds and experiences is key to Fairstead's success. Being an equal opportunity employer is a central tenet of our philosophy that shapes who we are and the communities we serve. Our goal is to ensure competitive total compensation that is commensurate with experience, location, and other market benchmarks.