Junior Staff Accountant

Job Description

Junior Staff Accountant | LaSalle Network

The Tone:
This is a direct hire role at LaSalle Network’s client, located in Lombard, IL. The position requires an initial onsite commitment for training, with hybrid flexibility available afterward. Our client is a growing organization within the mortgage banking industry, and this role directly supports their accounting team. This opportunity is crucial for an early-career accounting professional seeking to significantly build upon their foundational experience in financial reconciliations, journal entries, and the vital month-end close process. The Junior Staff Accountant will play an integral part in supporting daily accounting operations and collaborating closely with senior team members on various financial initiatives.

The TL;DR
• Role: Junior Staff Accountant / Early Career
• Type: Direct Hire
• Location: Hybrid – Lombard, IL
• Pay: $60000–$80000 yearly + discretionary bonus eligibility
• Team: Works closely with Senior Accounting team members, supporting daily accounting operations and month-end close.
• Mission: To support daily accounting operations, assist with timely month-end and quarterly close processes, and contribute to the accuracy of financial records within the mortgage banking industry.
• Tech Stack: Fiserv Prologue (ERP), Encompass (Loan Operating System), Excel, Power BI

What You’ll Actually Do
• Inbox Management: Monitor and manage the accounting department’s shared inbox, responding to inquiries and escalating non-routine accounting issues to the appropriate team members for resolution.
• Financial Reconciliations: Perform comprehensive bank reconciliations and various general ledger account reconciliations to ensure accuracy, identify discrepancies, and maintain the integrity of financial records.
• Journal Entry Preparation: Prepare and accurately post a variety of journal entries, ensuring all financial transactions are correctly recorded in the accounting system.
• Month-End Close Support: Actively assist with critical month-end close activities, contributing to a 5-day monthly close cycle and an approximately 9-day quarterly close, facilitating timely financial reporting.
• Ad Hoc Projects and Reporting: Provide direct support to the Senior Accountant on diverse ad hoc projects, special reporting requests, and other analytical tasks as needed to further departmental goals.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related field. This role is ideal for an early-career accounting professional looking to expand their expertise.
• Experience: A minimum of 1-3 years of dedicated accounting experience. This must include hands-on experience performing bank reconciliations, account reconciliations, and preparing/posting journal entries. Direct experience within the mortgage industry is a critical requirement for this role.
• Skills: Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel, specifically demonstrating expertise with functions like Pivot Tables and VLOOKUPs for data manipulation and analysis.
• Bonus: Prior experience utilizing data visualization and business intelligence tools such as Power BI.