Accountant III

This position is open to current Colorado residents only.

Please note: This recruitment may be used to fill multiple vacancies.

Remote Work/Hybrid: In office 2 days a week (Wednesday & Thursday), Remote 3 days a week

Fort Logan 3814 W Princeton Cir., Denver, CO 80236

Most State of Colorado employees are eligible for a great benefit package Please see the Supplemental Information section below for details

Please see the Supplemental Information section below for details

This requires a need for strong analytical skills and advanced proficiency with data manipulation and analysis in Excel, focusing on key functions like VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, and PivotTables. This requires you to pass a practical test demonstrating these core skills for data lookups, aggregations, and reporting, often involving formulas, conditional formatting, and data visualization. You'll need to show you can clean, analyze, and present data effectively to support decisions, potentially using other advanced features like INDEX/MATCH or data validation.

This is an excellent mid management opportunity that will be full of learning and potential to expand both knowledge and role within the department and state system.

Remote Work/Hybrid: In office 2 days a week (Wednesday & Thursday), Remote 3 days a week

Please note: These working arrangements are subject to change.

Fort Logan 3814 W. Princeton Cir., Denver, CO 80236

About this Unit:

The Payroll and Timekeeping Unit at CDHS is responsible for processing accurate and timely payroll for over 5,500 employees across the state of Colorado. CDHS operates 12 distinct programs, including executive offices, 2 mental health institutes, 3 regional centers, the Division of Youth Services, the Behavioral Health Administration, and 4 veterans' homes. We support multiple pay cycles—monthly, biweekly, and 7k schedules—each with its own complexities and requirements.

About this Position:
The Leave Manager exists to (a) supervise assigned payroll leave supervisor's, work lead and program assistant staff , (b) ensure accurate and timely payroll and timekeeping functions related to leave cases are performed effectively, efficiently, timely and in a professional manner to provide accurate payroll payments to employees and to ensure accurate deductions for all applicable taxes, insurance, and other payroll deductions; proper payments are made to third parties; accurate reporting for management, W-2s, and other reporting purposes, (c) prepare documents and reconciliations to respond to audit requests as received by the Office of the State Auditor or other outside auditors (d) advise staff on areas within the department, to correct audit deficiencies, and other issues that arise, (e) ensure critical procedures updated based on current applicable regulations, are trained to necessary staff and are ultimately put into place for performance to maintain the operation of the systems, functions and operations of the Payroll and Timekeeping department. (g) function as back up for the Department Payroll Manager's, Administrator and subordinate staff in their absence. This position is fully accountable for the work product of three direct subordinate positions as well as second level reporting staff. This position assigns tasks, monitors progress and work flow, verifies, schedules work, and establishes work standards.
The purpose of regular work contacts outside of the supervisory chain are often for the purpose of finding information or solving problems where the issues or results are not already known. Summary of Duties:
Review and Analysis:

Determines compliance/noncompliance of payroll/timekeeping practices by researching federal and state rules, accounting practices and regulations. Identifies and resolves management issues that need improvement. Develops, establishes, modifies and implements procedures to maintain compliance.

• Analyzes problem areas and devises resolutions that assure the integrity of the resulting information. Implements altered or new procedures. Analyzes and formulates needed process changes within payroll/timekeeping, based on attendance at meetings requiring the payroll/timekeeping unit's input, view point, participation, or concerning topics that may impact payroll/timekeeping functions and staff. Designs and implements appropriate plans of action.
• Participates in system assessment, design and roll out as applicable to assigned duties for both departmental and state wide systems and projects. Provides insight on over all impacts and participates in a leadership capacity within the payroll department

Supervision:

• Direct Supervision of Accountant I & II's and Program Assistant Staff with Indirect subordinates being Accountants and Accounting Technicians.
• Direct supervision of at least three staff and indirect supervision of direct reports subordinates.
• Supervises assigned subordinates which could include interviewing, training, planning work schedules, leave approval and performance evaluations. Provides payroll and timekeeping guidance and supplies input for job performance evaluations.
• Monitors staff proficiency in assigned duties in order to assess the need for intervention or to recognize success for further skills utilization. Provides guidance to all subordinates regarding policies and procedures. Analyzes changing federal and state rules, selects the most effective and efficient process, implements, and provides direction to necessary staff.

Compliance and Customer Service:

• Applies generally accepted accounting principles, federal, state and department rules and regulations to resolve non-routine issues, disputes and questions concerning hours worked, leave and overtime calculations, and payroll calculations and adjustments for employees. Reviews points in contention, negotiates and mediates a reasonable resolution while assessing if departmental process or procedure changes are necessary. Provides guidance and expertise to subordinate staff and customers in the areas of department assigned duties. Meets with employees and/or supervisors as necessary to explain generally accepted accounting principles, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures that apply to payroll and timekeeping functions. Ensures ongoing compliance with all relevant federal and state legislation, policies, and procedures affecting the assigned areas of responsibility, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA), Colorado Code of Regulations, Colorado WINS agreements, Department of Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director's Administrative Procedures, and the State of Colorado Fiscal Rules.
• Promotes and maintains positive and effective relationships between the payroll team members, human resources, department timekeepers, supervisors, employees, Central Payroll, and other stakeholders. Acts as a liaison with Human Resources and Benefits/Risk Management. Establishes and implements appropriate procedures to prevent and/or resolve issues.
• Reviews existing and proposed legislation affecting employee benefits, timekeeping, payroll, and fiscal control functions and makes recommendations regarding the district's position and required actions.

Interface with auditors

• Gathers and analyzes requested documentation for auditors. Has final accountability for submission of the work product including timeliness, correctness, and soundness.

Back up CDHS Payroll Manager (Accountant III's) & Payroll Administrator

• Serves as a back up to the other CDHS Payroll Managers (Accountant III's). and CDHS Payroll Administrator

You must specifically document your work experience and qualifications on your application. Do not use "see resume" or "see attached. "Experience Only:

• Eight (8) years of relevant experience in an occupation related to the work assigned to this position, specifically accounting, finance, payroll

OR

Education and Experience:

• A combination of related education (coursework requires 27 semester hours completed in accounting or auditing) and/or relevant experience in an occupation related to the work assigned equal to eight (8) years
• Current, valid licensure as a CPA by the Colorado Board of Accountancy will count for six (6) years of the requirement

Please note: This experience must be clearly documented on your application and the supplemental questions must be answered.

Definition of Professional Experience: While not fully encompassing, professional accounting experience is defined by the Colorado Department of Human Services as work that typically involves the following components:

• Analysis of financial transactions to determine accuracy, completeness, and conformance to established policies and procedures and generally accepted accounting standards
• Preparing, analyzing, and interpreting financial reports, statements and records, (e.g. balance sheets, profit and loss statements, amortization and depreciation schedules)
• Assembling data and creating financial projections
• Developing, implementing, modifying and documenting accounting systems
• Reconciliation of accounts using excel or google sheets
• Calculating and estimating effects of proposed changes in operating programs or accounting operations;
• Auditing processes
• Revenue recognition & contract completion recognition