Accounting Assistant

Org. Setting and Reporting

This position is located in the Income Tax Unit of the Payroll and Accounts Payable Section, Division of Administration, Department of Operational Support (DOS). The Department of Operational Support was established to provide operational advisory services to operating entities across the Secretariat, including other departments, offices away from headquarters, field missions, and regional commissions. The Payroll and Accounts Payable Section processes global payroll and payments, income tax claims and provides policy advice and operational guidance, testing and implementation of enhancements to the payroll module and income tax portal of the ERP/UN Tax system. The Accounting Assistant will report to the Chief of the Income Tax Unit.

Responsibilities

Within delegated authority, the Accounting Assistant will be responsible for the following duties:

• Scrutinizes source documents for completeness, accuracy and validity of charges.
• Investigates erroneous charges and takes appropriate corrective accounting actions.
• Records and reconciles more complex accounting transactions.
• Audits various accounting transactions, e.g., payroll, 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.
• Extracts details of income, expenditure, assets and liability from accounting system in order to analyze and verify accuracy and validity.
• Assists with the compliance data transmission to and from the US tax authorities.
• Examines the validity of requests for increases in imprest levels; prepares disbursement vouchers to replenish imprest accounts.
• Communicates with field offices 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.
• Serves as Approving Officer for disbursements up to an authorized level.
• Coordinates between business areas as necessary.
• Provides guidance and training to colleagues as required.
• Supervises other General Service staff as required and in relation to a) the client service activities of the Income Tax Unit; b) the filing requirements of income tax files.
• Drafts/prepares memoranda to various offices, departments and overseas offices.
• Responds to queries from staff members and third parties.
• Performs other duties as may be required.

Education

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five years of experience in accounting, finance, audit, administrative services or related area is required. The minimum years of relevant experience is reduced to three for candidates who possess a first-level university degree or higher. At least four years of experience focused on transactional based accounting activities such as payroll, US income tax, vendor/travel claims processing is required. Experience working with the United Nations or a large organization with decentralized systems and procedures including staff rules and regulations, entitlements, financial regulations and procedures is desirable.

Languages

• English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.

Source: https://careers.un.org/jobSearchDescription/246589?language=en