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
Prepare and manage customer/project billings and accounts receivable follow-up. Maintain billing schedules, contract billing requirements, retainage and supporting documentation.
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
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.