Accountant in United States

Summary The position is located within the Financial Accounting Service. These duties encompass resolving system issues, classifying accounting transactions, maintaining, and reconciling accounts, closing accounts, and preparing reports and statements, analyzing accounting data, and examining accounts. The accountant performs accounting transactions that may include verifying the accuracy and completeness of the accounting data, ledger accounts, journals, and subsidiary accounts. Responsibilities The initial application review cut-off for this job announcement is 50 applications. The first 50 applications received will be considered first. Applications received after the initial cut-off number (50 applications) may not receive consideration unless otherwise requested by management. If management requests additional certificates, applicants will continue to be reviewed in groups of 50 in the order they applied. Note: Submitting multiple applications will change the order in which your application is reviewed. Work Schedule: Monday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Available upon management approval. Telework: Available upon management approval. Duty Location Status: The selectee will be required to report into the office at the agreed upon location – Austin, TX; Washington, DC; or St. Paul, MN. Position Description/PD#: Accountant/PD14196A and PD14197 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Physical Requirements: Work is normally performed in an office while seated at a desk or table. Incumbent occasionally carries books and papers weighing up to 10 pounds to and from meetings away from the work site. This position involves a multi-grade career ladder. The major duties listed below represent the full performance level of GS-12. At the GS-11 grade level, you will perform assignments of a more limited scope and with less independence. You will progressively acquire the background necessary to perform at the full performance level of GS-12. Promotion is at the discretion of the supervisor and is contingent upon satisfactory performance, availability of higher level work, and availability of funds. Promotion is not guaranteed and no promise of promotion is implied. Major Duties: Monitors and controls by timely recording, coding, balancing, and scrutinizing for inaccurate accounts. Prepares, updates and maintains standard operation procedures, instructions and guidance in accordance with the policy governing VA accounting. Reconciles accounts, research transactions, reviews accounting reports, status of fund reports and other financial reports for the preparation of summary statements and reports. Prepares journal vouchers for the accounting system or financial statement application. Meet with customers and other employees to gather information and analyze processes and procedures to improve efficiency and meet the needs of customers. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Individual Occupational Requirements: This position includes an Individual Occupation Requirement. Individual Occupational Requirements are requirements that must be met, in addition to the specialized experience and/or education requirement. Applicants who do not meet it are ineligible for further consideration. Evidence of the Individual Occupational Requirement must be reflected in your application materials (resume/transcript). The Individual Occupational Requirement required for the 0510 Occupational Series is as follows: A. Degree: accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit in business law. (The term “accounting” means “accounting and/or auditing” in this standard. Similarly, “accountant” should be interpreted, generally, as “accountant and/or auditor.”) OR B. Combination of education and experience: at least 4 years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge. The applicant’s background must also include one of the following: Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law; A certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; or Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester-hour requirement of paragraph A, provided that (a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full-performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering or financial institution examining; (b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in paragraph A; and (c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant’s education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements. AND In addition to meeting the individual occupation requirement above, to qualify at the GS-11, you must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-09 level in federal service. For GS-11 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-09 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized Experience is defined as: Applying generally accepted accounting principles, practices, and techniques to perform accounting assignment with the supervisory oversight; Assisting with validating a variety of accounting data, reconciling accounts, preparing reports, statement, investigating, and correcting out-of-line and out-of-balance conditions. OR Applicants may substitute education for the experience required for the GS-11 level. Education: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as: Accounting/Accountancy, Taxation, or Finance. OR Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at the GS-11 level. Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages. For GS-12 Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized Experience is defined as: Applying generally accepted accounting principles, practices, and techniques to independently perform accounting assignments of a more complex nature with limited supervision. Independently validating a variety of complex accounting data, reconciling accounts, preparing reports/statement, investigating, and correcting out-of-line and out-of balance conditions. Applying conventional accounting and analytical techniques to independently solve accounting problems and making recommendations for improvements/ enhanced organizational efficiency. Scope and depth of required experience is greater than that required for the GS-11 level. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management’s website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Education There is an educational substitution at the GS-11 grade level. There is no educational substitution at the GS-12 grade level. A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/. Additional Information Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant’s criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information. VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors if applicable, and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM’s Career Transition Resources website which can be found at https://www.opm.gov/. Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee’s credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.