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Careers

Senior Accountant

Location

Head Office

Overview

Reporting to the Controller, the Senior Accountant will be a key member of the Canadian residential portfolio finance team and responsible for the accounting for various portfolio’s owned by Starlight and/​or large institutional investors. The role will act as a key business partner to the asset management, investments and leasing teams to help provide insightful, timely and accurate financial and operational information to assist with optimizing decisions surrounding the operation of the properties which ultimately allows Starlight to maximize returns for our investors. The role will have exposure to all levels of management and develop and leverage relationships with all internal stakeholders including asset management, investments, leasing, shared service finance teams including treasury, property accounting (CORE), tax and other business lines as required to successful execute their responsibilities. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Financial Analysis and Accounting 

  • Ensure the accuracy, timeliness and completeness of fund and property financial results prepared by the third-party property managers and CORE team to understand and highlight key trends / opportunities to improve financial results. 
  • Review and analyze monthly reporting packages provided by property managers as required to understand key variances and communicate to internal stakeholders (primarily senior management and asset management team) for each property including ensuring commentary reflects the underlying performance of the assets and is complete and accurate.
  • Assistance with the preparation of certain monthly bank reconciliations for corporate bank accounts.
  • Review of consolidated account reconciliations required to support external and internal reporting disclosures.
  • Assist with external financial statement preparation and internal reporting requirements. Support the team with managing the external audits for each Fund as required, including the preparation of working papers and relationship management with audit firm contacts to ensure timely audit completion. 
  • Manage process improvement projects to streamline accounting processes, as required. 
  • Maintain General Ledger, including journal entries and analysis as required to ensure the integrity of financial and operational information. 
  • Utilize business intelligence tool and other standardized reporting frameworks to prepare working papers for monthly reporting to assist auditors complete quarterly/year-end reviews/​audits and tax return preparation.
  • Ensure Canadian residential property and fund results are closely monitored through liaising with CORE and asset management to ensure month-end results are complete and accurate. Highlight any key risks based on financial review to internal stakeholders including asset management, finance leadership and senior management. 

Acquisition and Financing Management 

  • Perform acquisition, disposition and refinancing accounting.
  • Provide support on financial aspects of property acquisitions, dispositions, and property financing activities, as required.
  • Assist with other business transactions to provide financial support, as required.

Cash and Debt Management 

  • Assisting with the management of cash availability, including review of cash position reporting prepared by the Starlight shared service treasury team to ensure accurate cash reporting and forecasting.
  • Assisting with the management of the partnership’s debt portfolios, including ensuring all loan provisions are appropriately complied with.

Investor Reporting

  • Work collaboratively to assist with the standardization and preparation of quarterly investor reporting materials including financial statements, operational performance updates, market trends and other performance indicators including commentary on financial results.
  • Assist with the preparation of budgets and analysis for budget inputs for the properties.
  • Assist with other financial management initiatives or ad-hoc projects, as required.

Requirements

  • University degree in accounting or finance, CPA designation
  • Thorough understanding of accounting principles and GAAP.
  • 1 – 3 years’ work experience, preferably in residential real estate 
  • Yardi experience an asset 
  • Advanced Microsoft Excel skills
  • Microsoft Word and Outlook
  • Strong organizational, analytical and time management skills. 
  • Detail oriented, self-motivated and resourceful, with strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Proactive and self-directed with demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team
  • Able to prioritize, multi-task and able to work in a changing, fast-paced environment
  • Able to deal with confidential information and demonstrate reliability and dependability 
  • Task orientated, able to work well under pressure, willing to work overtime when needed
  • Good written and verbal communication skills