Associate Accountant

We are partnered with an innovative SaaS start-up that is looking for an Associate Accountant to join their Finance Team. This position is fully on-site 5 days per week in Downtown Chicago (River North).

Role Overview

We are looking for a dependable, organized Accounting Associate to support our Finance team with the day-to-day transactional accounting that keeps our operations running smoothly. This is a supporting role — you will work closely with and take direction from our Controller, executing with accuracy and attention to detail across expense management, vendor processing, and routine accounting tasks.

This is the right fit for someone who takes pride in doing the fundamentals well, is eager to learn in a fast-moving environment, and understands that strong execution at the transactional level is the foundation every great finance team is built on.

Responsibilities

Travel & Expense Management

• Process and review employee expense reports submitted through our expense management system, ensuring policy compliance, accurate coding, and proper documentation.
• Reconcile corporate credit card statements and bank accounts monthly, ensuring all transactions are accurately coded to the correct GL accounts in NetSuite.
• Manage expense tickets end-to-end — coordinating with employees to resolve missing receipts, unapproved charges, and policy exceptions through our expense ticketing system.
• Administer our corporate travel booking platform, assist employees with travel arrangements, and maintain the T&E tracker to surface spending trends and policy exceptions to the Controller.
• Serve as a day-to-day point of contact for the expense management platform, supporting employee questions and ensuring consistent usage across the organization.

Transactional Accounting Support

• Process vendor invoices and assist with accounts payable, ensuring timely and accurate payment runs.
• Assist with accounts receivable by tracking incoming payments and following up on outstanding balances.
• Support month-end close by preparing assigned journal entries, bank reconciliations, and balance sheet reconciliations in NetSuite.
• Maintain organized and audit-ready records across all transactional accounting functions.
• Enter and verify data in NetSuite with precision, maintaining accuracy and consistency across the general ledger and supporting clean month-end close.

General Finance Support

• Respond to internal requests for financial data, receipts, and documentation in a timely manner.
• Assist with vendor onboarding, W-9 collection, and 1099 preparation at year-end.
• Support audit preparation by organizing workpapers and pulling supporting documentation.
• Contribute to process improvement efforts as the finance team builds out its operating infrastructure.
• Take on ad hoc projects and administrative finance tasks as assigned by the Controller.

Qualifications

Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field — required.
• 1–3 years of relevant experience; internship experience in accounting or finance is acceptable.
• Solid understanding of basic accounting principles and the importance of accuracy in transactional work.
• Comfort working in Excel and picking up new software quickly; NetSuite experience strongly preferred. Familiarity with travel booking or expense management platforms is a plus.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail — you catch things others miss.
• Reliable, professional, and communicative; you follow through and flag issues early.
• Comfortable in a small team where everyone is visible and accountability is high.
• A positive attitude toward doing foundational work well — no task is beneath you.