Responsibilities of an Accounting Operations Manager at a Liability Insurance Provider
Jared's role as Accounting Operations Manager involves a balance of routine tasks like "accounts payable, accounts receivable, and account reconciliations," comprising about half of their time. The other half is dedicated to more engaging projects, including "ad hoc reporting" and process improvement initiatives, which allow for impactful contributions to company decisions and provide a rewarding sense of accomplishment.
Account Reconciliation, Financial Reporting, Data Analysis, Project Management, Problem-Solving
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Jared Dodson
Accounting Operations Manager
Liability Insurance Provider
Missouri Southern State University
N/A
Accounting
Insurance
Finance
Honors Student, Took Out Loans, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. Routine tasks such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, account reconciliations, and month-end/quarter-end calculations take up about half of the role. These are common across many accounting settings.
2. The other half involves ongoing and ad-hoc projects, including research into tax savings or process automation opportunities. This part of the role provides opportunities to influence company decisions by preparing reports and presentations for high-level stakeholders.
3. The role offers opportunities to utilize various skills, from routine accounting processes to data analysis and report creation, and even project management related to process improvement initiatives and automation. This demonstrates the diverse nature of an accounting operations manager role within a larger organization.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
I have recurring tasks that I do weekly, monthly, quarterly, and even yearly. This consists of things like accounts payable, accounts receivable. We do a ton of account reconciliations and research.
It's about checking our work and making sure things are being reported correctly. Then, we also have to do a series of month-end and quarter-end calculations and entries. This is all very routine and similar in any accounting setting.
It doesn't matter if it's an insurance provider or a food manufacturer. These things are almost always the same. There are slight differences in the processes, the tools used, and how they're done. But once you see them a few times, you start to notice they're almost always the same.
I spend about half of my time working on these tasks. The other half is split between ongoing projects, which is probably the most enjoyable part of the job, and ad hoc projects. Those are also pretty fun.
By ad hoc, I mean that things are constantly going on within the company. People are meeting and talking, and they need information to make decisions. They come to the finance team for real numbers and trends of what has happened to make those decisions.
This is where the job can be very exciting and actually very fun. You get involved in the details, putting together reports and information, and presenting it to high-powered people. You help them make some of the most important decisions that will impact the company and the team.
It's fairly rewarding to know that you are instrumental in that. You don't have to be the one constantly talking and presenting at meetings, but knowing you put together the spreadsheets and PowerPoints being presented is a big deal. It shows you are involved with the company in a different way.
The ad hoc reporting and ongoing projects are the fun stuff. Other projects might be research into tax savings opportunities or time-saving opportunities by automating processes with software or coding. These things are extremely fun and challenging.
As I keep saying, they are rewarding. If you spend a year working on a project and see it come to fruition, saving the company significantly, you feel great all around. Those are pretty much the key responsibilities in my role.
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