Dan Deng
Senior Accountant
Finance Department

What are the three job elements you focus on the most—your primary responsibilities?
Accuracy, timeliness, and attention to detail.

I manage the accounts payable process—supervising one staff person. I review all payment requests and make sure we have the appropriate documentation and authorization. At APTA, every request needs a program code so we know where it fits in the budget before we can issue payment. These disbursements go to association members, outside creditors, and APTA staff.

I was recently promoted to senior accountant and assumed oversight of APTA’s grant management process. APTA receives federal grant funding for various association activities. It is my responsibility to monitor these projects and ensure that APTA is compliant with federal audit requirements. Each month, we provide status reports that allow program managers to track spending on these projects and secure additional funding as appropriate.

Do you have direct contact with APTA members? If so, please talk about recent times you’ve helped out a member.
I get a lot of phone calls from members, but they are not usually related to my work. We work as a group in the accounting department, so if people have questions—say, about membership dues—they just call the department. When I get one of these calls, I verify the caller’s information and determine who on the staff should get the call: one person handles membership dues, while another takes care of invoices. We want to make sure the caller speaks to the right person.

What initiatives, projects, or programs have you worked on at APTA that you have taken particular pride in completing?
I have worked on the budget preparation process since 2009—a huge project. We receive a lot of financial data from all APTA departments; my job is to verify the information and enter it in the Excel templates. From experience, I know that APTA spends a lot of money on meetings for our many members. We try to minimize expenses, but always want to provide services that our members expect from us.

This project involves a lot of information and is very time-consuming. We begin the budgeting effort in January each year but don’t complete it until May—five months. Once we balance the budget, everyone at APTA breathes a sigh of relief.

How did you “land” at APTA? How long have you worked here?
I completed my master of business administration degree in 2008 in Washington, DC, and began looking for a full-time position. I saw an ad for a staff accountant in The Washington Post and applied. I will celebrate my fifth anniversary with APTA in March 2013.

Have you held other jobs in the public transportation industry (besides working at APTA)?
No.

What professional affiliations do you have?
None at this time, but I’m working on the Certified Public Accountant exam. That is going to be a major goal for 2013.

Could you tell us something about yourself that might surprise us?
I lost almost 30 pounds within 10 months in 2010. My weight was down to 170 pounds. I didn’t think I could lose all that weight, but I did—in less than a year. When I saw the number on the scale, I realized I’d done it. The bad news is that I will have to do the same thing again, since I gained some weight back.

I came to the U.S. from China in 2005, when I was 26. My girlfriend came to the U.S. first and got a job here. I finally decided we couldn’t live in different countries for a long period of time, so I moved to the U.S. after graduation, to attend graduate school. We’re married now and have a lovely daughter, Chloe Deng. She is almost 16 months old and is getting ready to explore this new world!

Make sure you see Dan Deng’s video, now that you've read this!