Role Overview

The primary mission of the Accounting Operations Specialist is to ensure the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of Merit America’s core accounting operations. In particular, this role will: manage accounts payable and payment-related relationships with vendors, contractors, and learner program participants, administer corporate credit cards, employee expenses, and banking transactions, maintain fixed asset records, track prepaid expenses and expense accruals, perform data entry, and account reconciliations, and actively leverage automation tools and AI to streamline accounting workflows.

This role offers the opportunity to help modernize and scale accounting operations by leveraging automation, data tools, and modern accounting systems. As a growing organization, our team values individuals who are comfortable improving processes, building documentation, and helping scale systems as the organization evolves.

The Accounting Operations Specialist is a non-exempt role that reports directly to the Financial Controller and works closely with the Accounting Manager and cross-functional teams across Merit America.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Accounting Operations Specialist will include, but are not limited to, the following:

Accounts Payable and Vendor Management:

• Process vendor invoices accurately for on-time payment runs, ensuring proper coding and approvals in accordance with internal policies and maintaining a consistent, reliable accounts payable cycle with minimal processing delays or errors.
• Manage the full accounts payable cycle in Bill.com, including vendor onboarding, invoice routing, and payment approvals.
• Maintain and organize vendor records, W-9s, and documentation to support year-end 1099 preparation.
• Manage payment-related relationships with vendors, contractors, and learner program participants.
• Respond to payment-related inquiries and resolve payment discrepancies promptly and professionally, helping maintain positive relationships and timely resolution of outstanding issues.

Corporate Credit Cards, Employee Expenses & Banking Transactions:

• Administer the corporate credit card and employee expense reimbursement programs in Brex and Expensify, including reviewing and coding employee expense submissions, ensuring compliance with expense policies, and proactively following up on outstanding receipts to maintain timely and accurate expense reporting.
• Process and reconcile employee expense reimbursements, ensuring timely reimbursement to employees and accurate recording in the general ledger.
• Process and reconcile daily banking transactions, including ACH payments, wire transfers, and deposits, ensuring accurate general ledger coding.
• Prepare regular bank reconciliations, ensure transactions are accurately recorded and reconciling items are clearly documented and resolved in a timely manner.

Fixed Assets:

• Maintain the fixed asset register, including recording asset additions, disposals, transfers, and depreciation schedules in NetSuite, ensuring accurate and audit-ready fixed asset records.
• Perform periodic reviews and reconciliations of the fixed asset register to ensure completeness, accuracy, and proper classification in alignment with GAAP.

Data Entry & Account Reconciliations:

• Perform accurate and timely data entry of financial transactions into NetSuite, ensuring consistent classification, strong documentation standards, and high data integrity across the general ledger.
• Prepare monthly account reconciliations for assigned balance sheet and income statement accounts, investigating variances and resolving discrepancies to maintain accurate and reliable financial records.
• Manage the prepaid expense schedule and record monthly amortization entries; prepare and post accrual journal entries to ensure expenses are recorded in the correct period in accordance with GAAP.
• Support the month-end and year-end close processes by preparing assigned journal entries and reconciliation schedules.
• Ensure transactions are processed in accordance with established internal controls and financial policies, escalating issues or control gaps when identified.

Process Automation & Continuous Improvement:

• Partner with the Accounting Manager and Financial Controller to identify opportunities and support system improvements, reporting, automation, and special projects across accounting operations.
• Proactively identify and implement opportunities to automate repetitive accounting tasks and streamline data and accounting workflows using AI tools, Excel automation (macros, Power Query, advanced formulas), and system integrations, helping the accounting team reduce manual work and improve data accuracy.
• Assist with documentation requests and schedules for the annual audit and year-end reporting, including support for 1099 preparation and other compliance filings.
• Document standard operating procedures for assigned key accounting workflows and processes to ensure consistent execution, audit readiness, and scalable processes as the organization grows.

Skills and Competencies

We recognize that some individuals from underrepresented backgrounds may hesitate to apply if they don’t meet 100% of the listed qualifications. Please don’t let that discourage you from applying! We value the unique skills, experiences, and perspectives that each applicant brings, and we encourage you to apply if you believe your background demonstrates the required skills and competencies:

Must Haves for all roles at Merit America:

• Committed to Merit America’s mission to pave pathways to family-sustaining careers, break the poverty cycle, and create upward mobility for low-wage workers
• Demonstrated history of embodying our values, which inform our work and drive our organization's culture
• Shared sense of responsibility and ownership for our collective work in making a positive impact on the community we support, true to our value of Win & Lose Together
• Committed to continuous learning and growth in advancing inclusive excellence and closing gaps across lines of difference
• Passionate about fostering a workplace culture that embraces and values individual differences, aligned with our core value of inclusivity

Must Haves for this role:

Technical Accounting & Reporting

• Meaningful professional experience in accounts payable, general ledger maintenance, account reconciliations, and related accounting operations.
• Solid understanding of basic accounting principles (GAAP) and experience applying them in day-to-day transactional work.
• Experience managing fixed asset records, including additions, disposals, and depreciation tracking.

Systems & Process Excellence

• Hands-on experience with modern ERP and accounting operations systems is essential; direct experience with NetSuite is strongly preferred.
• Advanced Excel proficiency required, including experience building and maintaining macros, complex formulas (e.g., XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, dynamic arrays), and data validation tools.
• Active experience using AI tools and automation solutions to streamline and improve day-to-day accounting tasks (e.g., automating reconciliations, data extraction, workflow management).
• Experience in a high-growth/startup environment where systems and processes require hands-on building and fixing.
• Comfort working with large datasets, importing/exporting data between systems, and structuring financial data for analysis and reconciliation.

Attention to Detail & Execution

• Demonstrated ability to manage high-volume, detail-oriented work with a strong commitment to accuracy and completeness.
• Proven track record of meeting recurring deadlines in a fast-paced environment while maintaining data quality and documentation standards.

Collaboration & Communication

• Ability to communicate clearly with internal stakeholders about expense policies, reconciling items, and documentation requirements.
• Collaborative, team-oriented approach with a willingness to support colleagues and take on tasks outside a defined scope when needed.

Nice to Have:

• Direct experience with Bill.com for accounts payable processing and payment approvals.
• Hands-on experience with Brex and/or Expensify for corporate card and expense management.
• Experience in a nonprofit organization, including familiarity with fund accounting and grant tracking.
• Experience in a high-growth or startup environment where processes are actively being built and improved.

Other Logistics

• This position is full-time: 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)
• Location: Remote
• Salary: $76,000

Our goal is to have competitive and equitable compensation. We have a market-based compensation approach, which means we benchmark each role from reputable data sources. We compare our benchmarks against similarly sized non-profit organizations with comparable annual budgets and geographical areas. We pay the same rate for the same roles and adjust to comply with statutory mandates.