Sheriff's Office Senior Accounting Specialist - Regular & Extra-Help

Advance your accounting career and join the Sheriff's Office as a Senior Accounting Specialist!

Starting salary up to $38.81/hour ($81,001/year) and a competitive total compensation package!*

• Reconciling bank statements and aligning internal financial records with the County Enterprise Financial System and Civil Case Management System
• Posting payments, preparing and verifying deposits, and ensuring timely processing of cash and check transactions
• Procuring goods through requisitions, including tracking fixed assets
• Monitoring a shared email inbox for correspondence from suppliers
• Preparing invoices, processing journal entries, issuing refunds, and following up on outstanding accounts
• Processing invoices for goods and services
• Maintaining supplier accounts through regular statement reconciliation
• Auditing payment documents and financial statements
• Reconciling deposits for submission to Treasury
• Coordinating staff travel arrangements and processing related reimbursements
• Tracking and reconciling monthly Cal-Card purchases and statements
• Maintaining purchasing, communications, and fleet spreadsheets in collaboration with administrative support staff
• Monitoring purchasing-related email and phone communications
• Issuing uniform chits and boot vouchers, and assisting with uniform distribution and specification updates

• Interest in working within a law enforcement environment
• Strong organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to handle multiple priorities and shift focus as needed
• Bookkeeping or accounting experience, including knowledge of accounting principles, financial transactions, reconciliations, and fund accounting
• The ability to accurately prepare, maintain, audit, and reconcile financial records and transactions
• Strong analytical skills and a high level of comfort working with numbers and detail-oriented tasks
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to interact professionally with staff, managers, vendors, and partners
• The ability to work independently while contributing to a collaborative team
• The ability to address competing priorities and provide exemplary customer service, while consistently shifting focus throughout the day
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Excel and Outlook
• Experience with Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Financials or similar enterprise financial systems

What We Offer

Working at the County of Sonoma offers expansive opportunities for growth and development, the ability to be a part of a challenging and rewarding work environment, and the satisfaction of knowing you're working to better our communities. You can also look forward to flexible work arrangements and excellent benefits* including:

• Salary Advancement - A salary increase after 1,040 hours (6 months when working full-time) for good work performance; eligibility for a salary increase for good performance every year thereafter, until reaching the top of the salary range
• Paid Time Off - Competitive vacation and sick leave accruals, 12 paid holidays, and an additional 8 floating holiday hours per year
• County Paid Health Premium Contributions - 100% premium contribution for the majority of employee-only and employee + family health plan options
• Post-Retirement Health Reimbursement Arrangement - County contributions to help fund post-retirement health insurance/benefits
• Retirement - A pension fully integrated with Social Security
• Paid Parental Leave - May be eligible for up to 8 weeks (320 hours) after 12 months of County employment
• Additional Benefits - Excellent dental, vision, disability, life insurance, employee assistance program, professional development, and more
• Student Loan Debt Relief - County employees may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness through the U.S. Department of Education

Extra-Help Employment

Extra-help employees relieve or augment permanent staff. Temporary, extra-help employees are not in the classified civil service and do not have property rights to permanently allocated positions. In addition, they do not receive most employee benefits such as long-term disability insurance coverage, accrual of vacation, participation in the County retirement program, or eligibility to take promotional examinations. Temporary, extra-help employees are limited in their employment to a maximum of one calendar year. These employees must be off of work for three months before they can be re-employed on an extra help basis. Extra-help employees who meet the eligibility requirements may qualify for a County contribution toward medical coverage.

*Salary is negotiable within the established range. Benefits described herein do not represent a contract and may be changed without notice. Additional information can be found in the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 Memorandum Of Understanding (SEIU MOU) and our Employee Benefits Directory.

This recruitment is being conducted to fill one full-time and one temporary, extra-help Senior Accounting Specialist position in the Sheriff's Office. This employment list may also be used to fill future full-time, part-time, or extra-help (temporary) positions as they occur during the active status of the list. Qualified County employees who wish to be considered for future positions should consider applying to this recruitment. The Civil Service title for this position is Senior Account Clerk.

Application submissions require the Supplemental Questionnaire to be completed.

Education and Experience: Any combination of education, training, and experience which would likely provide the required knowledge and abilities. Normally, this would include completion of 12 semester units or 16 quarter units in accounting, record keeping, business math, or a closely related field; and one year of responsible full-time experience which includes the review, processing, and maintenance of fiscal transactions and accounts, or statistical data and records.

OR

Some coursework in accounting, record keeping, business math, or a closely related field, and two years of increasingly responsible full-time experience which includes the review, processing, and maintenance of fiscal transactions and accounts, or statistical data and records.

License: Possession of a valid driver's license at the appropriate level including special endorsements, as required by the State of California, may be required depending upon assignment to perform the essential job functions of the position.

Considerable knowledge of: methods, practices, and terminology used in financial and statistical clerical work, including working knowledge of costs and budgetary accounting principles, and double entry bookkeeping; government and departmental policies, regulations, and procedures in order to satisfactorily perform assigned account or statistical record keeping functions, resolve the related problems, or assess acceptability of work performance and procedures; department services, organization, and functions to proficiently plan, prioritize, coordinate, implement, direct, review, and perform work assigned to a clerical accounting section.

Working knowledge of: basic arithmetic to include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and derivatives in order to count, calculate, balance, check, and adjust fiscal and/or statistical data; modern office methods and procedures; database, spreadsheet, and word processing applications.

Ability to: exercise judgment and technical skill in performing assigned duties without direct supervision; work with tabular detail such as codes, figures, and numbers; set up and revise account or statistical record keeping procedures and records; review, code, post, adjust, and summarize fiscal transactions or statistical data; maintain and reconcile control records; prepare final reports and statements; oversee the maintenance of financial and statistical records, and act as a subject matter resource to other workers; provide lead direction to other clerical accounting staff; make arithmetic computations rapidly and accurately; use and understand common database, spreadsheet, and word processing applications; transcribe data and record information neatly and legibly; establish and maintain effective working relationships with coworkers and the general public; operate office equipment such as adding machines, calculators, and computers in order to post, balance, summarize, and adjust data; type accurately.

• Your application information and your responses to the supplemental questions are evaluated and taken into consideration throughout the entire selection process.
• You should list all employers and positions held within the last ten years in the work history section of your application. Be as thorough as possible when responding to the supplemental questions.
• You may include history beyond ten years if related to the position for which you are applying. If you held multiple positions with one employer, list out each position separately.
• Failure to follow these instructions may impact your competitiveness in this process or may result in disqualification.

Please visit Getting a Job with the County of Sonoma to review more detailed information about the hiring process, including the application process, examination steps, and department selection process.

Application submissions require the Supplemental Questionnaire to be completed.

Responses to supplemental questions will be scored using position-specific criteria. Please provide specific and detailed responses of a reasonable length to allow for a thorough assessment of your qualifications. Responses that state, "See Resume" or "See Application" may be considered insufficient and therefore may not be scored.

The selection procedure will consist of the following examination:

An Application and Supplemental Questionnaire Appraisal Examination (weight 100%) will be conducted to evaluate each applicant's application and supplemental questionnaire for satisfaction of minimum qualifications (pass/not pass); and for educational coursework, training, experience, knowledge, and abilities which relate to this position. Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed from the standard application fields and applicable attachments. This PII blind screening practice redacts a candidate's personal information that could potentially influence or bias the scoring process. Personal information includes the applicant's name, former last name, address, phone number, email, driver's license number, school name, education start and end dates, age, date of birth, gender, and race. This PII blind screening practice helps contribute to a fair and equitable examination process.

Each applicant will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Relevance of work history, related experience, and achieved level of education and/or training as described in the application and responses to the supplemental questions.

Candidates demonstrating possession of the minimum qualifications will be placed on an employment list in order of most qualified to least qualified based on the achieved score received in the Application and Supplemental Questionnaire Appraisal Examination which evaluates the education, training, experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, and other qualifications that you demonstrate in your application and/or response to the supplemental questionnaire. Please be aware that resumes and cover letters are not typically evaluated in the Application and Supplemental Questionnaire Appraisal Examination. Scores may be adjusted based on such factors as the number of candidates, anticipated vacancies, past practice, and natural breaks in the scores achieved by this group of candidates.

Additional Information

Being part of the Sheriff's Office and being expected to keep the public safe requires a thorough background investigation process. This process includes an assessment of prior work history, verifying educational experiences, court reports, public records searches, and understanding past patterns relating to drug usage, financial patterns, etc. This entails gathering a significant amount of information from job candidates and speaking to former employers, friends, family members, etc. Polygraphs, drug tests, and medical and physical examinations are also part of this process. Candidates must be honest and forthcoming about information that may arise during the background process. Deception during any portion of this process is grounds for disqualification, even after employment. This process can take anywhere from 3-5 months. Many factors are taken into consideration and one should not assume a credit issue or prior drug use is automatically disqualifying. Candidates will be given the opportunity to present mitigating information they feel should be considered. You are encouraged to be as responsive as possible while this process is taking place to help expedite the timeline, and we encourage you to stay patient and interested in this great career opportunity while this process is taking place.

You may also review the Job Classification Screening Schedule to determine the requirements for this position.

Please read the Sheriff's Office Pre-Employment Drug Use Guidelines (Download PDF reader) for further information.

How to Apply

Applications are accepted online at www.yourpath2sonomacounty.org. Paper applications may be submitted by person, fax (707-565-3770), email, or through the mail. All applications and appropriate supplemental information as outlined in the job bulletin must be received by the time and date specified on the first page of this job announcement. Applications received after the recruitment closes will not be accepted.

The County of Sonoma values diversity and is dedicated to creating a workplace environment that provides individuals with a sense of belonging. We are committed to having a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. The County is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer where all aspects of employment are based on merit, competence, performance, and business need.

HR Analyst: KK

HR Technician: NM