Accounting Manager

We are looking for an experienced Accounting Manager to provide leadership and structure for a general ledger team supporting a municipality in Columbia, South Carolina. This Long-term Contract position will play a central role in improving consistency, accountability, and accuracy across core accounting operations. The individual in this role will guide day-to-day execution, strengthen close and reconciliation practices, and help ensure financial activities are completed in line with sound accounting standards.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and support a team of approximately six accounting professionals, providing direction, coaching, and clear ownership of daily responsibilities.

• Build and refine month-end and year-end close procedures to create a more consistent and well-documented accounting cycle.

• Oversee account reconciliation activities and confirm that balances are reviewed, supported, and resolved in a timely manner.

• Evaluate journal entries for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with established accounting policies and internal controls.

• Analyze recurring accounting problems, determine underlying causes, and implement corrective actions to reduce future errors.

• Improve the use of cost centers and related coding practices by identifying misclassifications and guiding proper accounting treatment.

• Identify inefficiencies in current workflows and introduce process improvements that strengthen accountability and operational effectiveness.

• Provide support for technical accounting matters, reporting enhancements, and organizational integration-related accounting activities.

• Help ensure work is routed through appropriate accounting channels and performed consistently across the function.

• Demonstrated experience leading accounting operations with strong knowledge of general ledger management and month-end close activities.
• Hands-on background in account reconciliations, journal entry review, and maintaining accurate financial records.
• Experience supporting financial statement audits and preparing documentation needed for audit readiness.
• Ability to assess accounting issues, research discrepancies, and resolve root causes in a structured manner.
• Strong understanding of internal controls, process standardization, and accounting best practices.
• Experience working in state government, municipal, nonprofit, or similarly regulated environments is highly valued.
• Proven ability to manage staff, clarify responsibilities, and drive consistency across an accounting team.