Accounting Assistant, G6

The Accounting Assistant is responsible for scrutinizing source documents, investigating erroneous charges, reconciling accounts, assisting with compliance data transmission, auditing accounting transactions, and providing guidance and training within the Income Tax Unit of the Payroll and Accounts Payable Section, Department of Operational Support. The role supports operational advisory services across the UN Secretariat and ensures adherence to financial regulations and rules.

Responsibilities

• Scrutinizes source documents for completeness, accuracy and validity of charges.
• Investigates erroneous charges and takes appropriate corrective accounting actions.
• Communicates with field offices and funds and programmes regarding missing documentation or any other issues related to discrepancies between their accounts and those maintained at Headquarters.
• Reconciles and reviews suspense accounts and ensure proper clearance procedures have been followed.
• Assists with the compliance data transmission to and from the US tax authorities.
• Records and reconciles more complex accounting transactions.
• Extracts details of income, expenditure, assets and liability from accounting system in order to analyze and verify accuracy and validity.
• Audits various accounting transactions, e.g., payroll, education grants, final payments, income tax returns, travel claims, etc., to ensure correctness of disbursements and adherence to relevant staff rules, financial regulations and rules, ST/AI issuances or practices.
• Serves as Approving Officer for disbursements up to an authorized level.
• Provides guidance and training to colleagues as required.
• Supervises other General Service staff as required and in relation to client service activities and filing requirements of income tax files.
• Drafts/prepares memoranda to various offices, departments and overseas offices.
• Coordinates between business areas as necessary.
• Responds to queries from staff members and third parties.
• Performs other duties as may be required.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.
• A minimum of seven years of experience in accounting, finance, budget, administrative services or related area is required.
• The minimum years of relevant experience is reduced to five years for candidates who possess a first-level university degree or higher.
• A minimum of four years of experience focused on transactional-based accounting activities such as payroll, US income tax, and vendor/travel claims processing is required.
• Experience using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as Umoja, SAP or equivalent is required.
• Experience working with the United Nations or a large global organization’s systems and procedures is desirable.
• Experience with disbursements and adherence to relevant staff rules and regulations including entitlements and financial regulations, rules, and procedures of the United Nations or similar international organization is desirable.
• English language proficiency at UN Level III in reading, writing, listening, and speaking is required.

Skills

• Transactional Accounting
• Payroll Processing
• US Income Tax
• Vendor Claims Verification
• Travel Claims Processing
• Enterprise Resource Planning
• Umoja
• SAP
• Account Reconciliation
• Financial Auditing
• Compliance Data Transmission
• Disbursement Management
• Financial Regulations Adherence
• Staff Rules Compliance
• Accounting Transactions Auditing
• Operational Advisory Services

Languages

English