Business Administrative Associate

Job Summary: The CHST Business Administrative Associate provides college-level support for fiscal planning, budget tracking, financial reporting, business operations, and fund management. This position supports the Dean's Office, academic units, faculty, and staff by arranging faculty and staff travel, monitoring budgets, tracking expenditures, preparing projections, supporting purchasing and transaction workflows, and producing timely financial analyses. The position serves as a key fiscal and business resource for CHST, helping ensure that college funds are planned, monitored, and used effectively. The role also provides limited grant and contract fiscal coordination, including tracking sponsored-project expenditures, assisting with grant budget monitoring, supporting financial reporting needs, and coordinating with campus sponsored-program, grants-accounting, purchasing, and business offices. This position requires strong attention to detail, sound fiscal judgment, excellent organizational skills, and the ability to communicate financial information clearly to faculty, administrators, and staff. Duties Responsibilities: Fiscal Planning, Budget Monitoring, and Financial Reporting : Coordinate and support college-level fiscal planning across operating, personnel, gift, grant, contract, and other fund sources; prepare, maintain, and update budget tracking tools, financial reports, fund summaries, and projections for the Dean's Office and CHST units; monitor spending activity, fund balances, commitments, encumbrances, and projected year-end balances; analyze budget trends, identify potential fiscal concerns, and provide information to support college-level planning and decision-making; prepare routine and ad hoc financial reports for the Dean, associate deans, chairs/directors, program leads, and other college administrators; assist with annual budget planning, mid-year reviews, fiscal year-end activities, and other recurring college budget processes; and support planning for salary, operating, equipment, travel, strategic initiative, and other college-level expenditures. Budget Execution, Reconciliation, and Transaction Support : Review and track financial transactions to ensure accuracy, proper fund use, and timely resolution of discrepancies; support purchasing, reimbursements, transfers, journal vouchers, procurement-card activity, travel-related transactions, and other business processes; monitor and approve transactions and expenditures for compliance with university, campus, college, and fund-source requirements; coordinate with campus business, finance, purchasing, HR/payroll, and accounting offices to resolve fiscal and transaction-related issues; maintain accurate and organized fiscal documentation to support internal review, audit needs, and continuity of operations; track pending transactions, commitments, and approvals to ensure timely budget execution; and assist CHST units with routine fiscal questions, account information, transaction status, and budget availability. College Business Operations and Administrative Fiscal Support : Serve as a fiscal and business operations resource for the CHST Dean's Office and academic units; help develop, document, and improve internal procedures for budget tracking, reconciliations, purchasing workflows, reporting calendars, and financial documentation; support consistent college-level business practices across departments, programs, and administrative units; assist with on-boarding or guiding faculty and staff on fiscal processes, purchasing procedures, reimbursement expectations, and budget tracking practices; coordinate business operations activities that intersect with finance, personnel budgeting, procurement, contracts, grants, and college administration; and support special projects, internal reviews, data requests, and fiscal analyses as assigned. Faculty College Business Operations and Administrative Fiscal Support : Serve as travel arranger for all faculty, administrators, and staff in the college; arrange and ensure all such business travel follows the travel policies and procedures set by both the university and the U of I system; and create and process expense reports for any such travel purchases. Grant and Contract Fiscal Coordination : Provide limited fiscal coordination for CHST grants and contracts, with emphasis on budget tracking, expenditure monitoring, reporting support, and communication with faculty and central offices; assist principal investigators and college leadership by monitoring sponsored-project spending, available balances, budget categories, and projected expenditures; help track grant and contract deadlines related to financial reporting, budget periods, closeout, renewals, and other fiscal milestones; assist with gathering and organizing financial information needed for sponsored-project reports, budget revisions, no-cost extension requests, or closeout preparation; coordinate with sponsored programs, grants accounting, contracts, purchasing, and other campus offices on routine grant and contract fiscal matters; maintain internal tracking tools for active CHST grants and contracts to help the college monitor award status, spending trends, and upcoming fiscal deadlines; and escalate complex compliance, sponsor-specific, proposal, contract, or financial-management questions to the appropriate campus office. Process Improvement, Documentation, and Special Projects : Identify opportunities to improve fiscal tracking, reporting, communication, and workflow efficiency within CHST; develop or maintain dashboards, spreadsheets, templates, checklists, and other tools to support budget monitoring and decision-making; support documentation of standard operating procedures for college fiscal and business processes; participate in special projects related to fiscal planning, resource allocation, budget analysis, process improvement, or college operations; and perform other related duties as assigned.