The Division of Finance & Administration/Office of Budget & Finance at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) invites applications for the Financial Specialist II. Reporting to the Director of Accounting and Financial Compliance in the Office of Budget and Finance, the Financial Specialist II provides support for the administrative, analytical, budgetary and accounting functions for the campus. This position manages restricted state appropriations and supports the Facilities Space Survey as well as preparation of the Facilities & Administrative (F&A) Rate Proposal. The Financial Specialist II approves establishment of new expenditure and revenue accounts in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), UT policies and procedures, and National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) guidelines and assists in facilitating a successful fiscal year-end closing process.
• Campus oversight of UTK and UTSI research programs, including UTK and UTSI restricted state appropriations: State of Tennessee's Governor's Chairs program, THEC Centers of Excellence and Chairs of Excellence program. These programs involve unique and diverse budgeting and funding processes depending upon the program and faculty appointment base including shared appointments with ORNL.
• Establish new funds for the research programs that involve complex funding arrangements; approve budgets and monitor expenditures; determine budget redistributions as needed and oversee reporting to stakeholders.
• Assists departments with ORNL Joint Faculty research program, working with ORNL to obtain updated FFY fringe rate and resolve any invoice issues; monitor weekly unpaid ORNL non-sponsored dunning report to ensure invoices are paid timely. Complete annual UT-B independent financial statement audit of non-sponsored outstanding invoices.
•Assists with the annual Facilities Space Survey that requires verification of 22,000+ rooms.
•Monitors Sponsored Project Matching clearing fund 2199999, supporting departments as needed by providing training, assisting with analysis and journal entries to clear after each month-end close. Fund must be zero by FYE to be in compliance with Controller’s Office guidelines.
•Instrumental in the development and preparation of the Facilities and Administrative (F&A) proposal, this position applies research related knowledge to accurately analyze and classify research expenditures across various functions and pools to determine the indirect cost recovery rate applicable to sponsored projects.
•Central support to UT Systems Administration (UTSA) for internal funding programs including Grand Challenge Grants, Wellness Grants, and other UTSA funded internal grants awarded to faculty. Work with departments on budget updates and extensions and provide FYE funding requests to UTSA as needed to distribute funding to College Reserve funds.
•Facilitate year-end close by:
•Adhere to reporting deadlines and provide training as needed