Finance Professional 3 - Finance Generalist - Military Veterans

Position Overview:
The Finance and Budget unit in the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) is seeking a Finance Professional 3 to join our team. This new position works within the Food, Animal, Nutrition Sciences and Applied Economics Division in support of our successful centers within the division: The Center for Farm Financial Management, the Midwest Diary Foods Research Center and The Plant Protein Innovation Center. The incumbent will be joining a team of experienced professionals who are passionate about providing excellent service and support to faculty and staff. This position works independently and is responsible for performing complex professional accounting requiring the application of general accounting principles and University policies.

Responsibilities include developing sponsored project budgets; preparation of grant proposal administrative and budget related submission documents; interpreting grant and contract regulations; resolving complex pre-award and post-award grant issues; preparing financial reports for internal and external audiences; researching the source and cause of discrepancies in accounting systems; and maintain integrity and compliance in all aspects of job responsibilities.

Major Areas of Accountability:
Grant Preparation and Effort Coordination 35%

• Develop sponsored project budgets in collaboration with university faculty and staff and ensure adherence to sponsor and University research policies and procedures.
• Prepare appropriate sponsored administrative and budget documents as required for submission (i.e., grants.gov packages, other sponsor forms and budgets)
• Act as a liaison to other organizations to develop and obtain subaward proposals.
• Prepare funding proposals in MN-GEMS in collaboration with faculty and staff and ensure that all appropriate signers are included.
• Track funding proposals and respond to SPA and others as needed. Assist with preparation of revised budgets and other documents if requested by the agency.
• Work with PI to provide information required for subaward issuance and requesting pre-award accounts.
• Set up cost sharing per sponsor guidelines.
• Provide pre-award backup support when needed.
• Develop and maintain accurate effort reports per faculty and principal investigator to monitor effort commitments and reportable cost-share
• Verify that paid and unpaid effort have been properly accounted for in the payroll system and ECRT
• Serve as primary effort coordinator for the Center of Farm Financial Management and Food Science and Nutrition's Midwest Dairy foods Research Center. Serve as back up effort coordinator for Applied Economics and Agricultural Education, Communication and Marketing.

• Partner with principal investigators, faculty and staff to manage awarded sponsored research grants and non-sponsored accounts. This includes post-award, accounting, reconciliations, and auditing transactions utilizing UM Analytics.
• Prepare reports and forecasts related to sponsored and non-sponsored activities.
• Regularly meet with Center Directors, Principal Investigators and faculty to support short- and long-term financial planning for their sponsored project and non-sponsored accounts.
• Submit requests to the Financial Operations Center for journal entries, retro distributions and payroll distribution updates as needed.
• Ensure compliance with sponsor's awarded terms and condition as well as University policies and procedures.
• Work with Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) to ensure sponsored requirements are met, as well as the proper set up and close out of awards.
• Work with Sponsored Financial Reporting (SFR) to prepare and analyze detailed reports provided to sponsors for accuracy.
• Review and approve financial transactions to ensure compliance with university, college and departmental policies, as well as state and federal regulations.

• Support Internal and External Sale activities of the centers.
• Serve as a Payment Card Manager for the Center of Farm Financial Management.
• Works with Finance Manager on annual budget preparation.
• Serve as a Certified Approver for the Center of Farm Financial Management.
• Attend professional development opportunities and serve on committees when able.

• BA/BS plus at least 4 years of finance professional work experience or a combination of related education and work experience to equal 8 years.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Experience in proposal preparation and managing sponsored accounts.
• Experience with Excel, Word, Web browsers, grant proposal routing systems, and enterprise financial system.
• Experience in spreadsheet development.
• Able to work independently and as part of a finance team.

• Academic environment experience.
• Experience with grants.gov, NIH ASSIST, and other agency proposal submission portals. Able to identify many variables with many options and explain various outcomes of each situation. Demonstrated ability to manage multiple tasks.
• Ability to provide excellent customer service while maintaining compliance with University and federal policies and procedures.