Lead Associate, Accounts Payable (P2)

Save the Children

For over 100 years, Save the Children has been fighting for the rights of children. The right to a healthy start in life. To have access to education. To be in a safe environment, protected from harm. We work in some of the world's hardest-to-reach places - over 100 countries, including the U.S. No matter what your role is, when you join Save the Children, you're creating positive, irreversible change for children, and the future we all share.

The Role

As the Lead Associate, Accounts Payable, you'll be integral to our work in helping vulnerable children achieve a brighter future. You will serve as point of contact for an assigned business line representing half of the organization-wide AP portfolio. In this role, you are responsible for providing guidance to internal staff payment requestors, budget holder payment approvers, procurement, and vendors. You will maintain a working knowledge of external regulatory requirements to ensure compliance with GAAP, IRS requirements, state sales and use tax requirements, as well as organization-wide policies, procedures and processes impacting AP, and will be held accountable to ensuring the effectiveness of the AP process for your business line, ensuring quality and timely implementation and proactively escalating issues needing leadership support.

Location

Hybrid - Lexington, KY office locations

What You'll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

Accounts Payable Process Execution (65%)

• Monitors receipt of invoices in AP Jira Helpdesk and ensures timely processing by reviewing and assigning to AP Associates with priority and monitoring ticket quality, complexity, and aging.
• Provides process monitoring and guidance to AP Associates to ensure that payment requests are coded appropriately to revenue, expense or balance sheet account and segregation of financial activity between the three entities (parent 501c3, 501c3 subsidiary and 501c4) and seeks guidance as needed.
• Performs review and completes approval of new and updated vendor records in the Agresso financial system ensuring accuracy, completeness and compliance with established policies and procedures.
• Performs review and approval of AP Approval only invoice transactions in Agresso.
• Monitors Agresso tasks and workflows to ensure timely processing by AP Associates and necessary requirements are met for weekly payment run, month-end and year-end close.
• Registers invoices for organization-wide and/or high-complexity vendors and ensures accounting and budget holder reviews are completed.
• Monitors weekly expense reimbursements and travel advances and provides guidance support to AP Associate when needed.
• Manages weekly payment run processes through Agresso and follow-up with associates.
• Manages AP Calendar for weekly check run preparer, month end close dates and mail sorting.
• Monitors AP Service Now Helpdesk for return payments and bank notices from treasury.
• Reviews and approves journal entries prepared by AP Associates including general ledger entries, reclassifications, deposits, and credit card reconciliations.
• Manages completion of accounting for wire payment transactions totaling $438M USD annual.
• Reconciles vendor statements and communicates results to vendors and internal staff to ensure timely payment processing against vendor payment terms.
• Performs account reconciliation for assigned balance sheet accounts.
• Contributes to month-end and year-end project tasks including month-end checklist, year-end system updates for per-diem and mileage, IRS income reporting, as well as audit requests.
• Manages the execution of the weekly payment process totaling $125M USD annual.
• Performs administration of the credit card (P-card) program and AP Control card as assigned.

Customer Service and Business Team Support (30%)

• Provides guidance to AP Associates and internal staff on minimum standards and interpretation of payment requests compliance against policies, procedures, and business processes.
• Provides support to internal staff and budget holders to troubleshoot situations and provide creative solutions in order to facilitate an efficient and compliant payment process.
• Provides accounts payable training to AP and non-finance staff.
• Prioritizes building a working knowledge of vendors in business line and business requirements therein.

Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement (5%)

• Identifies process issues and recommends improvements to improve controls and increase efficiencies and effectiveness of AP processes.
• Provides input to policies and procedures and distills into workable checklists and desk procedures for AP and non-finance staff use.
• Contributes to and embraces AP priorities to improve linkages to procurement, become paperless, improve automation, increase systems utilization, and integrate the use of data and KPIs in driving process monitoring and performance.
• Performs other duties as may be assigned.
• Lead on testing preparation and perform testing when applicable.

Required qualifications for the role

• Minimum of a High School Diploma or equivalent, plus at least 3 years of relevant experience
• Proven experience utilizing financial software to process accounts payable
• Demonstrated understanding of accounting principles
• Demonstrated adaptability and flexibility to balance multiple competing priorities
• Demonstrated data management and compilation skills using excel and formulas
• Proven attention to detail and ability to work with a high degree of accuracy
• Proven ability to maintain strict confidentiality and the utmost of integrity
• Professional proficiency in MS Office suite
• Professional proficiency in spoken and written English
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering and maintaining and environment of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.

Preferred qualifications for the role

• Experience processing high volume accounts payable

• Experience as a non-supervisory process lead

• Non-profit/fund accounting/finance or cost accounting/manufacturing experience

• Experience implementing accounts payable using a fully integrated procure-to-pay system

Compensation

Save the Children is offering the following salary ranges for this position, dependent on candidate location:

• Geo 3 - Locations significantly below the US National Labor Cost Average: Target Salary for this position is $54,400 - $60,800 base salary

The salary ranges listed above are for US based candidates. For candidates located outside of the US, salary ranges will be based on the salary scales of the local employer of record. Actual base salary may vary based on, but not limited to, relevant experience, base salary of internal peers, business sector, and geographic location (more information on job structure is available here).

About Us

We are looking to build an inclusive team at Save the Children. We offer a range of outstanding benefits to support this goal:

• Flexible schedules and time off: Flexible schedules, generous PTO, 11 paid holidays plus 2 floating holidays and hybrid working opportunities
• Health: Competitive health care, dental and vision coverage for you and your family
• Family: A variety of paid leaves: caregiver, parental/adoption, critical child illness and fertility benefits
• Employee Rewards Program: Annual merit increases and/or additional incentives for eligible employees
• Retirement: A retirement savings plan with employer contributions (after one year)
• Wellness: 15 safety and wellness days annually (if hired on or after July 1, safety and wellness days prorated to 8 days), mental health benefits and support through Calm and company-hosted events
• Employee Assistance Program: free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services
• Learning & Growth: Access to internal and external learning & development opportunities and mentorships

Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in you.

Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse.

Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.

If you require disability assistance with the application or recruitment process, please submit a request to applicantsupport@savechildren.org.