Probation Accounting Technician - Promotional

Full Job Description

This recruitment is promotional only. You must presently be a full or part-time regular or probationary County of Sonoma, Community Development Commission, Sonoma County Fairgrounds, or Sonoma County Water Agency employee in order to apply for this position.

The Probation Department has requested a department promotional certification to fill an Accounting Technician position.

Only qualified permanent and/or probationary Probation Department employees on the eligible list may be eligible for referral to the department for the advertised position.

This employment list may also be used to fill future full-time or part-time positions as they occur during the active status of the list.

The Probation Accounting Technician will serve as a technical lead to support client, victim, and trust accounting functions. This position will set up and modify accounts, post client payments, and oversee the distribution of funds per state guidelines. Additional responsibilities include:

• Performing monthly reconciliations, including researching and managing victim restitution disbursements
• Computing and posting interest on accounts
• Managing monthly correspondence to clients
• Performing mass importing and exporting of data
• Developing, testing, and maintaining reports and queries to support the operational needs of County accounting staff
• Communicating with other accounting staff to troubleshoot technical problems or to provide solutions within the accounting system
• Providing guidance, by training and leading the work of other accounting staff as needed

The ideal candidate will be proactive and have experience collaborating respectfully and effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds. They will also have experience with accounting and fiscal transactions and will possess many of the following:

• Experience with reading and interpreting court minutes and legislation
• An understanding of legislative changes that affected the collection of court-ordered fines, fees, and restitution
• The ability to communicate clearly regarding processes, instructions, and compliance with court and County guidelines
• Experience with databases, SQL, running queries, and analyzing data
• Excellent attention to detail and strong written and verbal communication skills
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office programs, including Excel, Outlook, and Word

Requirements

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 a two year course of study in accounting, financial analysis, statistics, or a closely related field, and two years of increasingly responsible full-time experience in the review, processing, and maintenance of fiscal transactions and accounts, or statistical data and records, including at least one year interpreting financial data and solving complex financial problems;

OR

Completion of at least six semester or eight quarter units in accounting, financial analysis, statistics, or a closely related field; and four years of increasingly responsible full-time experience in the review, processing, and maintenance of fiscal transactions and accounts, or statistical data and records, including at least one year interpreting financial data and solving complex financial problems.

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.

The position advertised on this announcement does not require possession of a valid California Driver’s License.

Qualifications

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

Working knowledge of: principles and techniques of supervision, training, and performance evaluation; intermediate mathematics to include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, fractions, percentages, 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: understand, coordinate, maintain, and monitor an entire accounting system; exercise judgment and technical accounting skill in performing assigned duties independently; establish, evaluate, and modify clerical accounting systems, procedures, records, and forms; review, code, post, adjust, and summarize fiscal transactions or statistical data; maintain and reconcile control records; prepare financial and statistical reports, statements, charts, and graphs; review, analyze, and evaluate data and reports for accuracy and conformance to standards and procedures; train and supervise others; plan, schedule, and assign work; establish and maintain effective working relationships with the public, coworkers, and administrative and professional personnel; read and interpret laws pertaining to departmental accounting practices and procedures; use and understand common database, spreadsheet, and word processing applications; operate office equipment such as adding machines, calculators, and computers in order to post, balance, summarize, and adjust data.

Additional Information

• 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 application, examination, and department selection processes.

Application submissions require the Supplemental Questionnaire be completed.

Responses to supplemental questions may 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.

Background Investigation

It is the policy of law enforcement and legal offices and departments, in the County of Sonoma, that candidates complete a thorough background investigation process prior to employment.

This policy is imperative to keep the department’s employees and the public safe and to maintain high standards in the law enforcement community.

Candidates referred to departments for a selection interview are typically required to sign authorization and release forms enabling such an investigation.

Failure to sign prescribed forms will result in the candidate not being considered further for that vacancy. Reference information will not be made available to applicants.

The background investigation will include a thorough assessment of a candidate’s personal, employment, educational, criminal, and credit history.

The investigation may include but is not necessarily limited to: the use of prescription and/or other drugs, reports from former employers, friends, family members, educational institutions, law enforcement agencies, credit reports, court reports, public records search, and/or other relevant sources.

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.

All candidates will be required to take a pre-employment medical examination.

The pre-employment medical examination will include drug testing as part of the medical examination for all applicants and for all current employees who are offered employment with the Offices/Departments.

Additionally, candidates may be required to take a pre-employment psychological examination.

The results of these examinations and the background investigation shall be confidential and shall not be available to the candidate for review.

Failure to pass the background investigation will eliminate a candidate from the employment process.

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

Issues that arise during the investigation process will be assessed, and judgment and discretion will be used to determine the employability of the candidate.

Where there is evidence of a candidate’s past use of controlled substances, many factors shall be used to determine the employability of the individual such as a pattern of use, kind of drug used, circumstances of the start of the drug use, treatment, behavior, and attitude since discontinuance, etc.

Please note that a history of using controlled substances does not result in automatic disqualification from the selection process.

Prior to disqualifying any candidate whose profile falls within the provisions of the policy, the candidate shall be given the opportunity to present any and all evidence of mitigating facts that the candidate feels should be considered by the hiring authority.

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: PPB