Project Accountant

Position Summary

The Project Accountant owns customer/project billing, accounts receivable, project financial reporting and detailed project-accounting support. The role is a highly involved financial partner to Project Managers and ensures billing, billed-to-date and WIP information are accurate and tied to the accounting records.

Core Accountabilities

• Project Billing & AR: Prepare and manage customer/project billings and accounts receivable follow-up. Maintain billing schedules, contract billing requirements, retainage and supporting documentation.
• Project Financial Reporting: Maintain project-level financial information and provide PMs with visibility into billing, cost, WIP and receivables. Perform month-end tie-outs between invoicing, billed-to-date and WIP.
• Job Cost & WIP: Support job-cost accuracy and WIP preparation/review. Investigate differences between project systems, billing and accounting records.
• PM Partnership: Work closely with PMs on T&M documentation, billing support, change-order impacts and project financial questions.
• Compliance Support: Support billing/payroll documentation related to Davis-Bacon, AIS and other project-specific compliance requirements as assigned. Coordinate with HR/payroll/compliance personnel rather than independently owning technical compliance interpretation.
• Month-End: Complete project-accounting schedules and reconciliations on the Controller's close calendar. Tie project balances to applicable balance-sheet and income-statement accounts.

Key Working Relationships & Role Boundaries

• Controller: Controller owns intercompany billing and overall accounting policy; Project Accountant owns customer/project billing and project AR.
• Project Managers: Serve as a highly involved financial partner while PMs retain responsibility for project execution and commercial decisions.
• Payroll: Provide backup/support where trained and assigned; payroll ownership remains with the designated payroll role.

Key Performance Indicators

• Billing timeliness and accuracy
• AR aging and collections visibility
• WIP/billed-to-date tie-out accuracy
• Project financial reporting timeliness
• T&M documentation completeness
• Month-end project reconciliations

Authority & Decision Rights

• Prepare customer billings and request required project documentation.
• Escalate billing/AR issues and project discrepancies to Controller/PM leadership.
• Does not independently change contract terms, approve write-offs or alter accounting policy.

Qualifications & Leadership Expectations

• Mid-level construction project-accounting experience preferred.
• Strong billing, AR, job-cost and WIP skills.
• Ability to work directly with PMs, meet deadlines and reconcile detailed financial information.

Definition of Success

Customer billing is timely and defensible, project AR is visible, WIP and billed-to-date reconcile, PMs receive useful financial support, and project accounting does not become a bottleneck to close or cash collection.