Project Accountant – Income Producing Properties

  • Location: Edmonton, AB
  • Department: Finance

The Project Accountant is the operational and financial control point between the Income Producing Properties business and Corporate Accounting.

This role ensures that what is happening on the ground - projects, assets, costs, and performance - is accurately captured, coded, and reflected in the financial statements. At the same time, it translates that financial data into clear, reliable inputs that the Finance Business Partner uses to drive decisions, forecasts, and strategy.

You are accountable for the integrity of the numbers and the visibility of the story behind them.This is not a transactional accounting role and not a pure advisory role - it is the intersection of both.

Key Accountabilities

Financial Integrity & Corporate Alignment

  • Ensure all project and asset financials are accurate, complete, and compliant with accounting standards and internal policies
  • Support month-end and year-end close processes, including:
    • Journal entries, accruals, and reconciliations
    • Revenue and cost recognition aligned with policy
  • Maintain integrity of the general ledger for assigned IPP entities and projects
  • Support audit requirements, working papers, and documentation

Invoice Coding & Cost Capture

  • Review, code, and post all project-related invoices with high accuracy and proper cost allocation
  • Ensure alignment between invoices, contracts, budgets, and cost codes
  • Maintain real-time visibility into:
    • Committed costs (contracts, POs)
    • Incurred costs (invoices, accruals)
    • Remaining budget and forecasted exposure
  • Resolve discrepancies directly with operations and vendor
  • Project & Asset Cost Tracking
  • Own project-level cost tracking across the full lifecycle (development → stabilization)
  • Ensure budgets, proformas, and actuals are aligned and continuously updated
  • Track capital vs. expense treatment and ensure proper capitalization
  • Support Finance BP in providing information for lender draws and funding reporting with accurate cost data

Reporting & Operational Insight Enablement

  • Produce accurate monthly project and asset reporting
  • Deliver variance analysis (actual vs. budget vs. forecast) with clear drivers
  • Provide clean, structured data to the Finance Business Partner to support:
    • Forecasting
    • Cash flow modeling
    • Investment decisions
  • Act as the single source of truth for project financial data

Business Partnership (With Guardrails)

  • Work closely with IPP teams
  • Support operational leaders in understanding project financial performance
  • Reinforce financial discipline without becoming a bottleneck
  • Partner with the Finance Business Partner, who leads interpretation and strategy

Systems, Controls & Process Discipline

  • Maintain and improve project accounting systems, data structures, and workflows
  • Ensure consistency in project setup, cost coding, and data management
  • Identify gaps in process or controls and implement improvements
  • Support system adoption and data accuracy across the IPP platform

Success Metrics

  • Data Integrity & Accuracy
    • ≥98% invoice coding accuracy
    • Clean project and asset cost tracking with 100% completeness of committed and incurred costs
    • Minimal audit adjustments or rework required
  • Timeliness & Reporting Discipline
    • Month-end close and reporting delivered within 3 business days
    • 100% of invoices processed within 3–5 business days
    • All material variances (>5%) identified and explained
  • Forecast Reliability & Cost Visibility
    • Forecast vs. actual variance within ±3–5%
    • ≥90% of cost risks identified 60–90 days in advance
    • No material “surprises” in project financial performance
  • What “Great” Looks Like
    • The numbers are right, complete, and trusted—Corporate doesn’t question them
    • The data is current and decision-ready—Operations and the FBP rely on it
    • Every dollar is coded correctly and tied to a real business driver
    • Variances are understood before they are escalated
    • You quietly eliminate noise so leadership can focus on decisions, not reconciliation

Core Positioning of the Role

  • Finance Business Partner → interprets, challenges, and drives decisions
  • Senior Accountant → ensures compliance, reporting accuracy, and controls
  • Project Accountant (this role) → ensures the data is right, complete, and usable

WORK EXPERIENCE

Required
  • Strong grounding in both financial reporting discipline and operational cost tracking.
  • CPA (or working towards/near completion)
  • Experience in project accounting, financial reporting, or real estate/construction. (3+ years)
Beneficial
  • Experience (multi-entity/project-based systems preferred).

EDUCATION

Beneficial
  • Associate's degree in Finance
  • Associate's degree in Business Administration
  • Associate's degree in Mathematics
  • Associate's degree in Statistics
  • Associate's degree in Computer Science