Accounting / Bookkeeping

THE SUMMERS REAL ESTATE — Summers Multifamily Employment Opportunities

PROPERTY ACCOUNTING AND BOOKKEEPING SPECIALIST

Position Summary

The Summers Real Estate is seeking a Property Accounting and Bookkeeping Specialist to maintain accurate accounting records for multifamily properties, ownership entities, operating accounts, vendors, residents, and capital projects.

The position will support accounts payable, accounts receivable, resident-ledger reconciliation, bank reconciliation, monthly close, property financial reporting, security-deposit records, utility and contract accounting, fixed assets, debt payments, and audit preparation.

The successful candidate must be capable of maintaining accurate books across multiple properties and legal entities.

Property accounting is not simply invoice entry. Each transaction must be assigned to the correct property, entity, account, department, capital project, and accounting period. Property-management records must reconcile with bank and general-ledger records.

The role requires strong internal controls and the willingness to question unusual invoices, credits, ledger adjustments, vendor changes, or unreconciled balances.

Primary Responsibilities — General Ledger and Monthly Close

• ●Maintain general-ledger records for assigned properties and entities.
• ●Record receipts, payments, deposits, transfers, accruals, journal entries, and other transactions.
• ●Maintain property and entity separation.
• ●Complete monthly closing tasks according to the approved schedule.
• ●Prepare and review trial balances.
• ●Reconcile balance-sheet accounts.
• ●Investigate unreconciled and unusual balances.
• ●Maintain supporting schedules.
• ●Assist with property-level and consolidated financial statements.
• ●Ensure that transactions are recorded in the appropriate accounting period.
• ●Maintain an auditable record of journal-entry support and approval.
• ●Coordinate closing questions with property management and asset management.
• ●Escalate material errors before financial statements are issued.

Primary Responsibilities — Bank and Cash Reconciliation

• ●Reconcile operating, security-deposit, reserve, escrow, and other approved bank accounts.
• ●Match deposits and disbursements to accounting and property-management records.
• ●Identify outstanding, duplicate, stale, returned, unauthorized, or incorrectly recorded transactions.
• ●Reconcile electronic payments, checks, ACH transactions, merchant deposits, and resident-payment systems.
• ●Investigate deposit differences.
• ●Maintain bank-reconciliation support.
• ●Coordinate approved correction entries.
• ●Maintain appropriate controls over bank information.
• ●Independently verify changes to vendor payment instructions.
• ●Report suspected fraud or unusual cash activity immediately.

Primary Responsibilities — Accounts Payable

• ●Receive, review, code, and enter vendor invoices.
• ●Confirm that invoices identify the correct property, entity, service period, and scope.
• ●Match invoices with purchase orders, contracts, proposals, delivery records, work orders, and approval.
• ●Allocate expenses correctly.
• ●Distinguish operating expenses, repairs, capital projects, prepaid expenses, deposits, and other accounting categories according to company policy.
• ●Identify duplicate invoices.
• ●Maintain vendor records.
• ●Obtain required tax and insurance documentation.
• ●Prepare payment batches.
• ●Maintain approval controls.
• ●Prevent payment for incomplete, unsupported, unauthorized, or disputed work.
• ●Reconcile vendor statements.
• ●Track deposits, retainage, credits, rebates, refunds, and disputed amounts.
• ●Respond to vendor questions professionally without bypassing approval requirements.

Primary Responsibilities — Accounts Receivable and Resident Ledgers

• ●Reconcile rent charges, payments, deposits, fees, concessions, credits, transfers, write-offs, and other resident-ledger activity.
• ●Compare property-management-system records with bank and general-ledger activity.
• ●Investigate unidentified payments and unapplied cash.
• ●Review returned payments.
• ●Maintain accounts-receivable and delinquency support.
• ●Coordinate resident-ledger corrections with authorized property-management personnel.
• ●Require proper approval for credits, concessions, write-offs, refunds, and adjustments.
• ●Avoid making lease or legal interpretations outside accounting authority.
• ●Support move-out account reconciliation.
• ●Maintain documentation supporting balances sent for collection.
• ●Protect resident financial information.

Primary Responsibilities — Security Deposits

• ●Maintain accurate records of security deposits and other resident-held funds.
• ●Reconcile applicable deposit accounts and property-management records.
• ●Track receipts, transfers, applications, deductions, and refunds.
• ●Support timely processing of move-out statements and approved refunds.
• ●Maintain documentation supporting authorized deductions.
• ●Identify deposit shortages or unreconciled differences.
• ●Coordinate legal and operational questions with approved personnel.
• ●Maintain records in accordance with company policy and applicable requirements.

Primary Responsibilities — Property Financial Reporting

• ●Prepare monthly property financial packages.
• ●Produce income statements, balance sheets, cash reports, accounts-payable reports, receivable reports, and supporting schedules.
• ●Prepare budget-versus-actual reports.
• ●Assist with variance research.
• ●Provide transaction detail to Property Managers and Asset Managers.
• ●Confirm that reported occupancy, rent, collections, and concessions reconcile where applicable.
• ●Support rolling forecasts.
• ●Prepare property and portfolio accounting reports.
• ●Maintain consistency in account coding and reporting.
• ●Correct recurring coding problems.
• ●Support monthly asset-management review.

Primary Responsibilities — Utilities, Contracts, and Recurring Expenses

• ●Maintain utility account schedules.
• ●Review water, sewer, electricity, gas, waste, telephone, internet, and other recurring property charges.
• ●Identify unusual usage or billing.
• ●Allocate utility invoices appropriately.
• ●Maintain contract-payment schedules.
• ●Track recurring vendor agreements, escalation provisions, deposits, and renewal dates in coordination with property operations.
• ●Accrue material services not yet invoiced.
• ●Avoid duplicate or continued payment after contract termination.
• ●Support utility-recovery and resident-billing reconciliation where applicable.

Primary Responsibilities — Capital Projects and Fixed Assets

• ●Establish accounting records for approved capital projects.
• ●Track contracts, purchase orders, invoices, change orders, payments, retainage, and commitments.
• ●Confirm that spending remains within approved project authorization.
• ●Maintain construction-in-progress or project schedules.
• ●Coordinate project coding with asset management.
• ●Identify invoices that combine operating and capital work.
• ●Maintain fixed-asset and depreciation support schedules.
• ●Record acquisitions, transfers, replacements, and disposals according to approved accounting policy.
• ●Support project closeout.
• ●Maintain documentation for lenders, auditors, insurers, and tax professionals.
• ●Avoid making tax determinations outside assigned authority.

Primary Responsibilities — Debt, Escrow, and Reserve Accounting

• ●Maintain schedules for property debt, debt service, lender reserves, escrows, and related balances.
• ●Record principal, interest, fees, and approved lender transactions.
• ●Reconcile debt statements.
• ●Track recurring payment dates.
• ●Coordinate property-tax and insurance escrow records.
• ●Maintain reserve-withdrawal support.
• ●Support lender reporting.
• ●Report payment or reconciliation concerns immediately.
• ●Maintain debt documents and accounting support according to access authority.

Primary Responsibilities — Payroll and Employee Cost Allocation

• ●Coordinate approved payroll information with internal or external payroll providers.
• ●Review payroll reports.
• ●Allocate payroll costs to the appropriate property and department.
• ●Reconcile payroll funding and payroll liabilities.
• ●Maintain employee reimbursement support.
• ●Review time or allocation information for obvious discrepancies.
• ●Protect employee compensation and personal information.
• ●Refer wage, classification, tax, and employment questions to qualified personnel.

Primary Responsibilities — Audit and Tax Support

• ●Maintain audit-ready property accounting records.
• ●Prepare requested schedules and supporting documents.
• ●Coordinate confirmations, samples, invoices, leases, bank records, debt records, and other information.
• ●Respond accurately to auditor and tax-professional requests.
• ●Maintain open-item lists through completion.
• ●Support annual third-party audits.
• ●Assist with property-tax, sales-tax, business-tax, unclaimed-property, and other reporting as assigned.
• ●Refer tax positions and interpretations to qualified professionals.
• ●Maintain document-retention standards.

Primary Responsibilities — Internal Controls

• ●Follow company authorization limits.
• ●Maintain separation among invoice entry, payment approval, bank release, and reconciliation where staffing permits.
• ●Require written support for material adjustments.
• ●Verify changes to vendor banking information through an independent process.
• ●Protect system credentials.
• ●Maintain secure access to resident, bank, vendor, and employee information.
• ●Report suspected fraud, theft, conflicts of interest, altered invoices, duplicate payments, or unauthorized activity.
• ●Maintain a complete audit trail.
• ●Do not process transactions merely because an employee or vendor states that the matter is urgent.

Required Qualifications

• ●At least three years of bookkeeping, property accounting, real estate accounting, construction accounting, multi-entity accounting, or related experience.
• ●Strong knowledge of accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, and bank reconciliation.
• ●Proficiency with accounting software and Microsoft Excel.
• ●Exceptional accuracy and organization.
• ●Ability to maintain records for multiple properties and entities.
• ●Ability to identify and investigate reconciliation differences.
• ●Understanding of accrual-based accounting.
• ●Ability to protect confidential resident, employee, vendor, and company information.
• ●Strong written communication and follow-through.
• ●Ability to meet monthly closing deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• ●Associate or bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related discipline.
• ●Multifamily property-accounting experience.
• ●Experience with Yardi, RealPage, Entrata, MRI, AppFolio, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, or comparable systems.
• ●Experience with resident-ledger and security-deposit reconciliation.
• ●Experience with capital-project and fixed-asset accounting.
• ●Experience supporting property audits and tax engagements.
• ●Certified Bookkeeper designation.
• ●Certified Public Accountant license or progress toward professional accounting certification.
• ●Experience with a private real estate company, REIT, family office, or property-management organization.
• ●Experience with Florida multifamily properties.

Measures of Success

Success will be measured by accurate monthly closes; clean bank reconciliations; correct property and entity allocation; accounts-payable accuracy; resident-ledger reconciliation; security-deposit reconciliation; financial-reporting timeliness; audit readiness; capital-project accounting; vendor-record accuracy; internal-control compliance; ability to identify errors before reports are issued; and reduction in recurring accounting corrections.

How to Apply

Please submit: a current resume; a cover letter describing your bookkeeping or property-accounting experience; a summary of the number of properties or entities for which you have maintained records; a list of the property-management and accounting systems you have used; and copies or descriptions of relevant accounting credentials. Employment may be contingent upon verification of qualifications, references, professional credentials, and other lawful job-related screening requirements. No recruiters or staffing agencies.

The Summers Real Estate is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics.