AR Accounting Assistant

Position Summary

Located 45 minutes from the Nation's Capital, nestled in a history-rich community of southern Maryland, The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) has been twice named in the top 150 community colleges by the Aspen Institute with academic programs in over 100 disciplines. CSM is among America's top 100 producers of Minority associate degrees in twenty categories, according to Diverse Issues in Higher Education. CSM offers excellent health insurance benefits; State Retirement Pension plan; wellness programs; Code Green early closure Fridays in the summer; college closure for spring break and several major holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year; and for several days in March for Spring Break. We are an innovative institution committed to student success and well known for our flexibility to meet student and community needs.

The AR Accounting Assistant communicates for the Bursar Office at the Prince Frederick Campus daily via in person, phone, chat, and email with students, third party billing employers, parents, college personnel and contracted entities. The individual in this position processes cash, checks and credit card transactions for students, third party payers, staff, organizations (scholarships), and other departments. The AR Accounting Assistant interacts daily with partnering student service areas including Admissions, Registrar's Office, Financial Aid Office, Testing Center, Continuing Education and Workforce Development, Veteran's Affairs, College Stores, Accounting, Accounts Payable and Advising in solving problems and answering questions regarding payments, billing, restrictions, protections, current balances due, collections, petty cash, refunds, waivers and student/company tuition assistance processes. The AR Accounting Assistant reports to the Assistant Director of Student Account Services (BUR).

The College of Southern Maryland conducts background checks in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the College's staff and students. The final candidate for this position will be subject to the following background checks: Criminal History Check and Sex Offender Registry Check. This position will also require a credit check.

This position is open until filled. The College of Southern Maryland is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

Essential Functions:

• Fields all incoming Student Accounts Services walk-ups, phone calls, and chats regarding payments, billing, financial aid refund reimbursements, general refunds, payment plans, third party billing, protections, de-registration for non-payments, financial restrictions, and other inquiries.

• Helps students navigate the complexities of student finance and ultimately helps them achieve their educational goals.

• Perform research and account analysis in order to answer questions from students regarding accounts.

• Maintains database integrity and ensures correct registration billing for designated student type.

• Ensures all CSM policies and procedures are adhered to in relation to financial transactions.

• Processes cash, checks and credit card transactions for students, third-party payers, staff, and other departments.

• Processes tuition/fee payments on current term, prior terms and write off, and collections accounts.

• Manually invoices and posts payments for transcripts, testing, clemencies, and other miscellaneous charges.

• Re-bills student accounts for drops, section billing corrections, residency updates, waivers, and appeals.

• Reviews aging reports for balances due, applying financial restriction codes, and mailing statements.

• Adds, updates, and deletes protection codes on student accounts by semester.

• Assists cashiers from other campuses when needed.

• Performs daily session reconciliation: research discrepancies, prepares daily deposit slip and deposit bag for cash transactions, prepares checks for remote deposit, balances integrated data system transactions to actual payment types.

• Distributes petty cash to staff members upon request.

• Scans and links documentation and assists Student Account Services staff with documentation management.

• Uses Adobe PDF software in unison with imaging software to electronically organize and deliver reconciled cashier sessions for review by Accounting Specialist II.

• Provides secondary back up to multiple shared email accounts in the Student Account Services Office.

Additional Duties:

Performs other related work as required.

Minimum Education and Training

• High school diploma required

• Two years of cash handling experience required

• Two years of customer service required

• Preferred experience with an integrated data system, preferable one year with Colleague

• Preferred experience in higher education

• Preferred experience with Microsoft Outlook and Teams platforms

• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks and shifting priorities

• Demonstrated ability to communicate and interact effectively at all levels of the organization

Minimum Qualifications and Standards Required

• Flexibility is required as evening and Saturday hours may be required during peak times

• Will be required to be on campus to provide in-person customer service during operational hours (no remote/telework availability)

• Will be secondary backup to the Leonardtown campus and must be available to provide coverage at other campus locations

• Accurate data entry and word processing skills

• Residential and secure Internet service required for remote work during unscheduled college closure

• Accurate and precise attention to detail

• Able to independently problem solve and address concerns or inquiries professionally

Physical Requirement:

The work is sedentary work which requires exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly.