Accounts Payable Lead

Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium

The Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC), located in northern Vermont, was founded by Champlain College, Middlebury College and Saint Michael’s College. The Consortium aims to help its members to lower costs, increase the quality of services and add strategic value to our members.

The Consortium and its members strive to leverage shared technology, create best processes and service our organizations. As a Shared Services organization, we are committed to provide exemplary services which support each College’s strategic plan and facilitates the addition of new members.

We provide a meaningful employee benefits program including health, dental, vision, life, disability, retirement with a generous match, paid time off and a well-being program. This position provides a unique learning and career growth opportunity in an innovative environment. 

Job Title: Accounts Payable Lead  

Location: Hybrid, Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, Shelburne Green, Shelburne, VT  

Reports to: Executive Director  

Job Type: Full-Time  

Position Summary  

Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC) seeks an experienced Accounts Payable Lead to oversee the Accounts Payable department. GMHEC currently serves three members including Champlain College, Middlebury College and St. Michael’s College. The AP lead will supervise and manage the processing of incoming supplier requests and changes, expense audits, payments process, administration of purchasing card programs, and creation and processing of 1099 forms. The role includes data analysis, expense validation, overall accounts payable preparation and processing. The Lead is instrumental in guiding the accounts payable staff and working with the member institutions on continuous process improvement and complex problem solving. 

Key Responsibilities  

The AP Lead provides high-quality, timely service and support to all the departments and employees that rely on our services, as well as our vendors. This position will work closely with the college Finance teams. 

As a part of the GMHEC Accounts Payable Team, this position is responsible for providing a high level of customer service to our member institutions. We are guided by our principles which recognize that our member organizations come first, continuous process improvement is a given, communication is transparent and visible, and we value our unique culture which includes being innovative, flexible and focused on well-being.  

Responsibilities include:

• Leading accounts payable operations, including attention to detail and follow-through; including weekly one-on-one meetings with staff, weekly department meetings, priority setting and escalation support
• Maintaining supplier data
• Reviewing, reconciling and auditing expenses 
• Administering purchasing cards
• Preparing and running payment runs
• Preparing and submitting tax filings
• Validating direct deposit processing and diagnosis, resolving ACH rejections
• Leading quarterly system update testing and validation
• Working with customers on special projects
• Generating required reports to provide audit and validation
• Reviewing, reconciling and auditing accounts payable data 
• Leading creation of training reference guides, websites and videos for customers and training customers in person or over video conference or other methods
• Communicating with customers via phone calls, zoom, emails and in-person utilizing our ticket system, within timeframes contractually agreed upon with our members
• Performing all assigned tasks accurately, efficiently, and in accordance with applicable policies and procedures of the Consortium and, where applicable, the Colleges including following accounts payable rules and regulations
• Ensuring all tax, payment, and foreign national payment laws and regulations as they relate to accounts payable payments are known, understood and consistently followed
• Efficient and accurate accounts payable data management including updating of tax codes, payment types, recording and extraction 
• Collaborating with Finance personnel at our member colleges to ensure information to employees about changes in payment runs is distributed timely and effectively
• Accurate and timely submission of appropriate federal and state payments and reporting
• Responding to governmental and institutional audit requests
• Setting up and maintaining internal controls
• Ensuring adherence to data governance
• Continuously reviewing, recommending and integrating technological tools to enable the Accounts Payable Office to function effectively and efficiently
• Preparing budgets and reviewing actuals to budgets on a regular basis
• Reconciling accounts
• Supervising accounts payable staff
• Serving as back-up for accounts payable co-workers
• Working collaboratively with the Finance Business Analyst
• Other duties as assigned

Ability to:

• Organize and prioritize work, take initiative, resolve problems and manage multiple tasks simultaneously
• Recognize several likely causes of events, analyze relationships among several parts of a problem or situation, and formulate a multi-step response if required
• Build strong, positive relationships with external and internal contacts
• Communicate effectively both verbally and in writing
• Manage and analyze financial data accurately
• Interpret and apply company policies and procedures
• Meet deadlines for daily, weekly, annual and project workload goals
• Maintain confidentiality and appropriately handle sensitive information with tact and discretion
• Work closely as a team member in a small cooperative, open office environment and/or in a remote environment
• Independently achieve results and self-direct work responsibly
• Deeply commit to continual process improvements and learning
• Contribute to a leading edge, creative team that is highly focused on success for our College partners

Knowledge of: 

• Supplier, reimbursement, invoice and payment processing
• Purchasing card administration
• 1099MISC and 1099NEC processing
• Accounts Payable software
• Basic knowledge of general accounting principles
• Tax law
• Internal Revenue Service and other federal and state regulations related to reporting, taxation and compliance 
• Data collection, data entry and reporting
• Microsoft Office: Word, Excel (including pivots and XLOOKUP), Outlook
• Google Suite: Google Drive, Google Calendar
• Adobe Acrobat

Experience:

• Four to six years of accounts payable experience
• Supervisory experience required
• Work within Oracle Fusion preferred, but not required

Education:

• Associate’s degree preferred

Compensation:

$60,000 – 80,000, plus hybrid/flexible work, and robust benefits package. 

Salary : $60,000 - $80,000