USA Funds Staff Profile: Experience ‘From Both Sides of the Table’

When preparing information for review during routine financial audits, USA Funds^® senior accountant Julie Armstrong has a keen understanding of the types of detail the auditors need to complete their work.

After all, Armstrong once was an auditor herself.

“Auditors will jokingly ask me if I ever get tired of answering their questions,” says Armstrong. “I tell them no, because I’ve worked on both sides of the table.”

Prior to joining USA Funds in 1990, Armstrong was an auditor for the State of Indiana, working alongside fellow future USA Funds staff members Rick Buckingham and Amy Jones. Buckingham now is USA Funds vice president, policy and compliance, and Jones is USA Funds manager of access and outreach financial operations.

Armstrong’s knowledge of auditing procedures and how best to prepare for audits helps to ensure a smoother accounting process for USA Funds.

Her  responsibilities at USA Funds include accounting related to federal default fees for USA Funds and its affiliate Northwest Education Loan Association^®. She also performs a wide variety of other tasks for USA Funds and NELA^® — ranging from handling accounting related to loan defaults, to handling cash accounts, to working with tax forms for contractors employed by USA Funds and NELA.

Armstrong’s work benefits a variety of groups — including taxpayers, on whose behalf USA Funds and NELA collect federal default fees and safeguard federal funds.

“I like the detail involved and the interaction with others to ensure that everything balances,” she says.

Armstrong has been a senior accountant for approximately four years. But she has worked as an accountant for USA Funds since 1990, when she joined the company following her work as an auditor. She also has held accounting positions at a small accounting firm and at a trucking company in rural Indiana.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind.

When she’s not working, she and her husband spend the bulk of their time watching their 13-year-old daughter play volleyball for both club and school teams — and taking her to and from the events.