
ACCOUNTANT
Chicago, ILFull-time$69K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today
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Requirements
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Job overview
The City of Chicago’s Department of Planning & Development, Bureau of Finance, seeks an Accountant to perform intermediate-level professional accounting duties under supervision. The role works independently on moderately complex assignments, including financial reporting, account reconciliation, grant and project fiscal administration, and payment processing. The position is based at City Hall and is open to the public and eligible City employees covered by specified bargaining units.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Full job description
Description:
BID/JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
ACCOUNTANT
DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
BUREAU OF FINANCE
Number of Positions: 1
(Additional vacancies possible pending budget approval)
Starting Salary: $68,616.00
This position is open to the public and all current City employees covered under the City’s collective bargaining agreement with AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES (AFSCME) – BARGAINING UNIT 1, 3, 4 & 5. Only employees in City job titles in this bargaining unit are eligible to bid.
BID INSTRUCTIONS: Apply on the bid site: https://chicago.taleo.net/careersection/103/jobsearch.ftl?lang=en AND
1. Check the box on your profile titled “Currently employed by the City of Chicago”
2. Enter your employee ID (located on your pay stub labeled ‘payee/employee number’)
3. Select your correct bargaining unit
FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS WILL RESULT IN A REJECTED BID APPLICATION
Applications for this position will be accepted until 11:59pm CDT on 11/17/2026
Under supervision, performs professional accounting duties at the intermediate level where the position works independently on moderately complex accounting assignments, and performs related duties as required
ESSENTIAL DUTIES
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Codes, records, and updates journal entries (e.g., expenditures, account transfers, budget revisions) using manual and computerized spreadsheets
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Audits financial documents to ensure entries are accurate, appropriately allocated to accounts, and comply with contract and funding guidelines, and documents errors and reconciles accounts, as required
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Monitors account balances and adjusts spending levels and fund re-allocations to ensure the availability of funds to cover expenditures
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Prepares various reports (e.g., program and operating budgets, financial statements, balance sheets, financial reports) of a moderately complex nature using computer spreadsheets
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Analyzes historical records and anticipated economic trends and forecasts future expenses and revenues
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Participates in the compilation and analysis of fiscal data for inclusion in complex financial reports
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Processes payments for various parties (e.g., editing, reapplying, and confirming receipt of payments, processing direct and order payment vouchers for grant-funded programs)
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Calculates and prepares grant/project revenue collection reimbursement
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Reviews grant/project applications and awards
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Examines sub-grant agreements for any fiscal related requirements
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Reviews departmental requests for appropriating funds, authorizing grant/project obligations, monitoring and reporting grant/project expenditures, recording receivables and collections and closing out grant/project awards
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Coordinates and submits final close-out reports to various grantors
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Maintains and reports in-kind awards and expenditures incurred by the sub-grantees
Additional duties may be required for this position
Location: City Hall, 10 th Floor
Days: Monday – Friday
Hours: 8:30am – 4:30pm
THIS POSITION IS IN THE CAREER SERVICE
Qualifications:
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Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor's degree or higher in Accounting or a directly related field, plus 15 semester hours in Accounting, OR
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Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, plus licensure as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
SELECTION REQUIREMENTS:
This position requires applicants to complete an interview which will include a skills assessment as part of the interview. The interviewed candidate(s) possessing the qualifications best suited to fulfill the responsibilities of the position, based on the oral and written parts of the interview will be selected.
For Information on our employees benefits please visit our benefits website at: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/fin/benefits-office.html
For Information on our salary and title structure visit our classifications website at:
APPLICATION EVALUATION: Initial evaluation will be based on information provided on the application and the documents submitted. Department of Human Resource staff will review applications after the final posting date. Staff will follow any and all required Employment/Hiring Plan provisions, federal, state and local laws, and Collective Bargaining Agreements when applicable. Staff will apply hiring preferences as required by the municipal code. Placement on an eligibility list is not an offer or guarantee of an interview nor employment with the City of Chicago.
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY: To further our commitment to hiring applicants with diverse experience the City of Chicago has adopted the following ordinances 2-74-020 and 2-74-075. The ordinances provide a preference to applicants who meet minimum qualifications and who are veterans of the Armed Forces, and/or residents of Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Areas (SEDA) and/or Chicago Public School (CPS) high school graduates to be referred to departments for consideration. These hiring preferences do not apply to bidders, as Collective Bargaining Agreements define the hiring process for bidders. For positions covered by a collective bargaining agreement, bidders will be considered before external candidates. To learn more about our hiring practices click here. (https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dhr/provdrs/emp.html)
ALL REFERENCES TO POLITICAL SPONSORSHIP OR RECOMMENDATION MUST BE OMITTED FROM ALL APPLICATION MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR CITY EMPLOYMENT.
The City of Chicago is an Equal Employment Opportunity, Military Friendly, and Fair Chance Employer.
City of Chicago
Brandon Johnson, Mayor
How this job compares
Set against the 3,444 open Accountant jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 4, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$69K/yr
- Illinois median$84–104K/yr72 salary ranges
- US median$76–100K/yr1,018 salary ranges
This rate, $69K, is 26% below the Illinois median midpoint ($93K) — in the lowest quarter of Accountant salary ranges in Illinois.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 105 open Accountant jobs in Illinois and 3,444 across the US. 4% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Hiring the most in Illinois
- Robert Half Finance & Accounting30 open
- Robert Half Accountemps8 open
- Wipfli Advisory LLC3 open
- Experience
- Accountant postings that state a minimum ask for 3 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 2 to 5 years (2,268 postings).
- Education
- 1,851 of the 3,444 open Accountant jobs (54%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 4, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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