Staff Accountant (FISCAL) GS-0510 9/11

Staff Accountants with the Portland VA Medical Center Fiscal Service, Accounting section, performs technician level work in direct support of budget, accounting, auditing, fiscal, and/or financial management function. With a comprehensive knowledge of theories, practices, policies, and functions sufficient to analyze accounting systems, or to modify and adapt conventional accounting an analytical techniques to solve a variety of accounting problems.Staff Accountants major duties include but are not limited to:

1. Formulating a variety of financial reports; serving as a member of a management team for organizations serviced and recommending the establishment of policies and procedures affecting the accounting system.

2. Advises management on regulatory requirements and changing program operations.

3. Devises accounting structures and procedures to satisfy regulatory or legislative changes.

4. Assists management in applying financial data and recommending alternatives to resolve difficult problems; reconciling cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and other general ledger accounts; correcting all differences between the subsidiary ledger balances and the control account balances in the general ledger.

5. Provides accounting information and guidance to program officials; developing a segment of an automated accounting system,

6. Prepares procedural instructions for the development or implementation of automated accounting systems; reviewing, analyzing, and validating domestic and/or foreign business industry financial and statistical data.

7. Uses cost analysis for various areas in the Medical Center by analyzing buying and selling agreements to ensure the Medical Center recoups all costs.

Work Schedule: Monday – Friday 8:00 to 4:30pm

Position Description Title/PD#: Staff Accountant/#20240-A & #020241-A

QUALIFICATIONS:
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement

Time-in-grade: Applicants must meet time-in-grade requirements.

Specialized Experience: Must have at least 52 weeks of experience that equipped the applicant with the particular competencies to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level.Specialized experience includes, but is not limited to: performing work utilizing knowledge of accounting principles, practices, methods and techniques to perform a variety of accounting assignments; resolves technical problems in executing a computerized, integrated accounting system, analyzing and reviewing account data to identify discrepancies; and working with an automated accounting system.

BASIC EDUCATION: 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

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 non conformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant’s education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements.

SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION FOR EXPERIENCE : In addition to meeting the basic entry qualification requirements, applicants must have specialized experience and/or directly related education in the amounts as follows: For GS-9: 2 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master’s degree or master’s or equivalent graduate degree. For GS-11: 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.d. or equivalent doctoral degree. This education must have been obtained in an accredited business, technical school, junior college, college or university. Applicant must submit copy of transcripts with application to receive credit for substitution.

COMBINING EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION: Equivalent combinations of successfully completed post-graduate school education and experience are also qualifying. The combination described below are those most typical for this position: If education is used to meet specialized experience requirements, then such education must include courses directly related to the work of the position.Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. For example, an applicant with 6 months of appropriate experience equivalent to GS-7 (50 percent of the experience requirement for GS-9) and 27 semester hours of appropriate graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement for GS-9, in excess of that required for GS-7) would be qualified for a GS-9 position (assuming that there is no evidence that the attended college or university requires more than 18 semester hours as equivalent to a year of graduate study).

You will be rated on the following Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other characteristics (KSAOs) based on your application for this position.

KSA 1 – Academic and professional knowledge of accounting principles, theory, and concept, cost accounting, and auditing theories, principles, processes and procedures.

KSA 2 – Knowledge and skill in the operation of several accounting systems and their accounting procedures and techniques sufficient to assist in extracting data and executing complex analysis and interpretations of the data.

KSA 3 – Knowledge and skill in analyzing subsystems in accordance with generally accepted accounting procedures.

If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE . If your resume/application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

Physical Requirements: This is a sedentary position. Requires sitting at a computer for up to 8 hours a day. There is no special functional requirements for this position.

Veterans’ Preference: When applying for Federal Jobs, eligible Veterans should claim preference on the Occupational Questionnaire in the section provided and provide a legible copy of your DD214(s) and/or documentation related to your active duty service which shows dates of service, character of service (honorable, general, etc.), or dates of impending separation.

Additionally, disabled veterans and others eligible for 10-point preference (such as widows or mothers of eligible Veterans) must also submit an SF-15 “Application for 10 Point Veterans Preference” with required proof as stated on the form. For more information, please review the information for disabled Veterans in the application checklist or visit http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/vetpref/index.aspx .

The following documents are required:
Résumé (required)

Responses to the questionnaire (required)

Copy of your transcript. (REQUIRED).

OF-306 “Declaration for Federal Employment” (Revision Oct 2011) ( http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/of0306.pdf )

Current Federal employees must submit a copy of their most current SF-50. If submitting an SF-50, please submit most recent non-award SF-50 (Displays grade, tenure and title. Federal employees may be able to access their SF-50 through the eOPF https://eopf.nbc.gov/va/ ).

Any other documents required by the checklist .

Faxing Applications or Supporting Documents:
You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.

NOTE: If you applied online and your application is complete,do not fax the paper application (1203FX) as this will overwrite your prior online responses and may result in you being found ineligible.

If you completed the occupational questionnaire online and are unable to upload supporting document(s):

1. To fax your documents, you must use the following cover page http://staffing.opm.gov/pdf/usascover.pdf and provide the required information. The Vacancy ID is 1960096.

2. Fax your documents to 1-478-757-3144. If you cannot complete the Application Package online, you may fax all of your materials.

If you cannot complete the Application Package online , you may fax all of your materials. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on Tuesday, June 06, 2017 to receive consideration. Keep a copy of your fax confirmation in the event verification is needed.

To complete the occupational questionnaire and submit via fax:

1. Click the following link to view and print the occupational questionnaire.

View Occupational Questionnaire

2. Print the 1203FX form (http://www.opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/opm1203fx.pdf), follow the instructions and provide your responses to the occupational questionnaire items

3. Fax the completed 1203FX form along with any supporting documents to 1-478-757-3144. Your 1203FX will serve as a cover page for your fax transmission.