Staff Accountant in Chicago, Illinois at Vosges Haut-Chocolat

Daily and Weekly Accounting Operations

• Process vendor invoices, confirm appropriate coding, match invoices to purchase orders or receiving documentation, and maintain accurate payment status in the accounting system.
• Apply customer payments accurately, review aging and deductions, research unapplied cash, and escalate material shortages, disputes, or duplicate invoices.
• Maintain current bank and credit card activity by importing, coding, and supporting transactions; respond to routine vendor inquiries and clear exceptions before month-end.

Cash, Treasury, and Payment Processing

• Prepare weekly bank and credit-card reconciliations for assigned accounts and document outstanding or unusual items for Controller review.
• Maintain bill pay schedules and supporting documentation, confirm approved payments, and reconcile clearing or finance payable accounts.
• Update the weekly cash-flow workbook with actual activity and provide clear support for significant variances or timing differences.

Revenue and E-commerce Accounting

• Reconcile sales, invoices, payments, fees, and deposits across the accounting system and operational platforms such as e-commerce, CRM, inventory, retail, and payment-processing systems.
• Prepare supporting schedules and routine entries for deferred revenue, gift-card liabilities, customer deposits, payment holding accounts, undeposited funds, and service fees; research and document source to general-ledger differences.

Month-End Close and Reconciliations

• Prepare assigned month-end journal entries, reconciliations, roll-forwards, and supporting schedules in accordance with the close calendar.
• Reconcile assigned balance sheet and income-statement accounts, including cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, accruals, payroll, prepaids, fixed assets, leases, debt, interest, and sales tax accounts.
• Identify reconciling items, missing invoices, cutoff issues, unusual trends, and classification errors; document the cause and prepare recommended corrections for Controller approval.
• Maintain organized, reviewer ready workpapers and close documentation with clear source references and evidence of completion.

Compliance, Controls, and Process Improvement

• Prepare support for sales tax reconciliations, recurring tax payments, compliance reports, payroll entries, and commission calculations as assigned.
• Follow established approval, documentation, and segregation of duties controls; immediately escalate control exceptions or potentially material errors.
• Communicate professionally with vendors and internal stakeholders, standardize recurring workpapers, and identify opportunities to reduce manual processing without weakening controls.

Must-Have Qualifications

• Three to five years of progressive, hands on accounting experience, including meaningful participation in a monthly close.
• Working knowledge of accrual accounting, journal entries, account reconciliations, account classification, period cutoff, and operational accounting activities.
• Strong proficiency with QuickBooks Online or a comparable accounting system.
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills, including pivot tables, lookups, SUMIFS, data cleanup, and reconciliation of detailed datasets.
• Ability to reconcile information between multiple systems, trace balances to source documentation, and prepare clear, reviewer-ready workpapers.
• Strong organization, attention to detail, and judgment about when to escalate an issue while managing recurring daily, weekly, and monthly deadlines.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively with the Controller, vendors, and cross-functional partners.
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related field, or equivalent directly relevant accounting experience.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience in consumer products, food manufacturing, retail, wholesale, or e-commerce.
• Experience with Shopify, HubSpot, Fishbowl, Bill.com, Paylocity, Settle, Amazon, Stripe, or similar platforms.
• Experience reconciling multi-channel sales, gift cards, customer deposits, deferred revenue, deductions, or payment-processor clearing accounts.
• Familiarity with inventory accounting, cost of goods sold, and inventory to general ledger reconciliations.
• Exposure to cash forecasting, sales-tax compliance, lease or debt schedules, process improvement, or accounting automation.