Associate Director Student Accounting, Billing & Financial Operations

Title: Associate Director Student Accounting, Billing & Financial Operations

Employee Classification: Assoc Dir Student Accounting

Campus: University of North Texas

Division: UNT-Enrollment Management

SubDivision-Department: UNT-Student Accounting

Department: UNT-Student Accounting-150300

Job Location: Denton

Salary: Commensurate with experience

FTE: 1.000000

Retirement Eligibility: TRS Eligible

About Us - Values Overview

Department Summary

Student Accounting is deeply committed to delivering the highest quality of innovative student account and financial services to the UNT community, helping ensure UNT's enrollment and financial success. Our team is responsible for assessing and collecting all tuition and fees, processing waivers, exemptions, veterans' educational benefits, third-party sponsorships, tuition benefit programs, refunds, departmental deposit and financial services, and tax reporting.

Position Overview

The position is responsible for the management and oversight of all tuition and fee assessment, billing, and subledger accounting for over 650M annually. The position oversees a team that manages UNTs largest financial subledger and revenue source (Tuition/Fees Student Accounts) from initial assessment/billing, until the point that each transaction is submitted to the University General Ledger (GL) through the SF Journal process. In addition, this position functions as the student finance liaison for all internal and external audits related to UNT Student Accounting. This position is responsible for leading and executing the request process (including documentation and approval) for all items that will be posted to student accounts as part of the tuition/fee assessment process each semester. The position will lead the efforts to establish and/or update tuition and fee items within the student financials system and coordinate associated projects/requests with senior leaders in Finance/Administration, Academic Affairs, all colleges, and Enrollment Management. The position holds management responsibility for the assessment of over 650M in tuition and fee transactions, which are posted through Student Accounting annually, and is responsible for ensuring that all tuition/fee lines are calculated and validated in accordance with requested parameters and institutional needs. In addition, this position provides management oversight to student tax reporting processes (1098-T) for over 65,000 students annually.

The position serves as a key liaison between Student Accounting and the new Integrated Student Services Center (UNT One Stop) for strategic initiatives related to student billing and 1098-T reporting. These additional responsibilities involve strategic planning and coordination across division and college lines to ensure that decisions are made based on student metrics/dashboards generated from Student Accounting data.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree and six years of progressively responsible experience in a student accounting, billing/receivables, reporting, or related business field or any equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Knowledge working with large scale financial transactions and accounting in a higher education environment or closely related industry. Ability to lead financial operations involving accounting, reporting, and financial decisions. Skill in financial, analytical and process analysis skills. Proficient with complex reporting methodologies and functional expertise of ERP functionalities. Strong project and team management skills. Ability to drive to ensure student success. Detail oriented and function well as a working manager. Ability to manage complex workload with competing deadlines, lead a high functioning team through large scale projects and communicate effectively with students, campus partners and team members. Ability to develop effective working relationships across team, department and division boundaries to ensure that projects and initiatives are successful.

Preferred Qualifications

The preferred candidate will possess the following additional qualifications: Ability to analyze problems and develop solutions. Strong presentation, problem solving, critical thinking and project management skills. Strong organizational, analytical and planning skills. Ability to effectively demonstrate initiative and productivity in the work environment. A preferred candidate will have prior experience in a student accounts/bursars office or experience working with large scale financial transactions in a higher education setting or closely related service-provider environment/industry. In addition, a preferred candidate will have experience developing complex reports/dashboards to support institutional decision making.

Preferred Knowledge:
The individual in this position must maintain a subject matter expert level of knowledge on institutional tuition and fee rates, rules, and multimillion dollar revenue streams. A successful individual in this position will be deeply familiar with enrollment data/trends and will be able to translate tuition and fee requests into efficient tuition and fee assessment methodologies that support university operations and student success.

Preferred Skills:
The individual in this position must have strong financial, analytical, and process analysis skills. In addition, the individual must be proficient with complex reporting methodologies and maintain functional expertise in business processes and financial analysis/reporting tools. A successful individual in this role will possess strong project and team management skills.

Preferred Abilities:
The optimal candidate in this position will possess a high degree of accountability and a drive to ensure student success. The individual will be detail oriented and function well as a working manager. They will be able to maintain a complex workload with competing deadlines, lead a team through largescale projects, and will be able to communicate effectively with students, campus partners, and team members. The individual will be able to develop effective working relationships across team, department, and division boundaries to ensure that projects and initiatives are successful.

Required License/Registration/Certifications

Job Duties

• Responsible for delivering exceptional service to all internal and external customers, including campus partners. Maintains positive interactions with others. Provides professional, clear and accurate verbal and written communication. Resolves customer issues, offers alternatives or submits them to the appropriate personnel following the chain of command. Alert Director and AVP of escalating issues, while taking action to resolve as possible.
• Promotes a positive work environment for all team members. Demonstrates respect, flexibility, open-mindedness, and kindness in all interactions with students, team members, and campus partners. Demonstrates a commitment to the mission and vision of Student Accounting, the Division of Enrollment, and the University of North Texas. Serves as an example of positive engagement in the department through active participation in meetings, within committees, and by assisting others. - (Essential)
• Must maintain a working (functional) knowledge of the EIS system, navigate the system, comprehend and explain student accounts, troubleshoot issues and understand processes which affect the student account.
• Leads the efforts to complete tuition and fee validation across all student billing processes and the ongoing Tuition and Fee Continuous Monitoring/Audit framework. Functions as the student accounting liaison for all internal and external audits related to UNT Student Accounting. Partners with UNT Controller, Budget, and other financial stakeholders on all subledger to general ledger reconciliation and audit PBCs (internal and external audits).
• Actively supports initiatives to engage all employees in the workplace. Provides timely communication to team members. Take actions to demonstrate care for team members and to communicate their value as part of the team. Recognizes and promotes accomplishments of team members.
• Provide management and leadership for the assessment of over 650M in tuition and fees for all UNT students. Responsible for ensuring tuition and fee assessment is timely, accurate, and validated prior to posting charges to student accounts each semester.
• Serves as the area supervisor for the SA Billing Operations and Financials team. Supports the overall billing operations for all enrollment related student account transactions, including the maintenance of rate tables within PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. Collaborates with the AVP Student Accounting and department leads to ensure billing and financial processes are efficient and aligned with the strategic goals of the department and UNT. Serves as the primary point of contact across the institution for Student Finance issues and collaborates with leadership on major initiatives.
• Manages the overall planning and execution for all student account functions/process timing each semester from the point of tuition/fee assessment and guaranteed tuition plans. Leads the development and planning of a detailed plan for each semester go live and distributes this information to all departments across the institution.
• Provides leadership and guidance for all internal and external student finance/general ledger reporting requests. Coaches and develops team members as they collaborate with internal and external stakeholders in support of financial reporting needs. Collaborate with campus partners on the completion of required reports that involve student finance data (ex: IFRS - Integrated Fiscal Reporting System/TVC/THECB reporting). Serves as the key point of contact to campus partner offices in regard to student finance data. Maintains catalog of executive level dashboards which provide insight into Student Accounting key performance indicators as well as student payment trends.
• Provides leadership and guidance across the department for all third-party applications which support Student Accounting (SA) operations (ex: NextGen, Perceptive Content, Nelnet QuikPAY, etc.). Serves as a functional lead (alongside other Student Accounting directors) on projects to integrate third-party applications with Student Accounting business processes.
• Serves as a member of the SA senior leadership team and works collaboratively with team members to advance the mission of the department and the university to provide the best possible service to students and their families.
• Completes assignments accurately and in a timely manner with minimal follow-up required. Demonstrates initiative by taking action to provide customer service within scope of position and actively seeks additional assignments from supervisor.

Physical Requirements

Communicating with others to exchange information.
Lifting and Moving objects up to 50 pounds.

Environmental Hazards

No adverse environmental conditions expected.

Work Schedule

Monday-Friday 8am-5pm, with overtime as needed during peak periods.

Driving University Vehicle

No

Security Sensitive

This is a Security Sensitive Position.

Special Instructions

Applicants must submit a minimum of two professional references as part of their application. If needed, additional references can be added after the application has been submitted.

Benefits

For information regarding our Benefits, click here.

EEO Statement

The University of North Texas System is firmly committed to equal opportunity and does not permit -and takes actions to prevent - discrimination, harassment (including sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking), and retaliation on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in its application, employment practices, and facilities; nor permits race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, veteran status, or sex discrimination and harassment in its admissions processes, and educational programs and activities. UNT System Administration promptly investigates complaints of discrimination, harassment, and related retaliation and takes remedial action when appropriate. System Administration also takes actions to prevent retaliation against individuals who oppose any form of harassment or discriminatory practice, file a charge or report, or testify, assist, or participate in a related investigation or proceeding.