Controller for Fractional CFO Firm — Multi-Client Close & Reporting

ABOUT US ScaleRedi is a small, CPA-led fractional accounting and finance practice - two people today. You would be the third, and you would own the full accounting cycle for your assigned clients: customer invoicing, vendor payments, transaction categorization, the monthly close, and the reporting. We are the controllership and advisory layer for growing companies. We close the books, build the reporting, and explain to the CEO what the numbers actually mean. Our clients span professional services, SaaS, biotech, and manufacturing. Our standard is not "the books are done." It is "the books are right, they close on time, and the client understands them." WHAT YOU'LL OWN You'll start on one client account and build to a portfolio of five to eight as the engagement grows. Concretely: - Run the monthly close start to finish: accruals, prepaids, deferred revenue, fixed assets, lease accounting (ASC 842), stock compensation expense (ASC 718), intercompany, payroll allocations - Reconcile every balance sheet account and maintain clean, reviewable support schedules - Produce the monthly reporting package: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, budget-vs-actual, KPI summary - Write the variance narrative - the "why," not just the "what" - Clean up what arrives messy from client-side and tighten the coding so it stops arriving messy - Build and deliver the year-end tax package to each client's tax preparers: trial balance, supporting schedules, fixed asset rollforward - and own the back-and-forth when they come back with questions - Improve the close: build checklists, tighten workpapers, automate what repeats - Join client calls with me to walk through results, and grow into running those calls yourself This is a full-stack seat. In a practice this size you touch everything from the invoice to the CEO conversation. What makes it a controller role rather than a bookkeeping one is that the judgment is yours too - the accounting treatment, the review, the narrative, and the client relationship. No tax return prep. If you want a seat where someone else handles the transactions and you only review, this is not it. WHAT YOU NEED - 5+ years of accounting experience, including full ownership of a monthly close on a deadline - US GAAP fluency - you can explain revenue recognition and accrual cutoff without looking them up - Deep QuickBooks Online - Excel that goes past pivot tables - you build reconciliations other people can follow - Written English strong enough to draft a variance narrative a CEO reads without edits - Comfort being on camera with a client WHAT PUTS YOU AT THE TOP OF THE RANGE - 8+ years, with 4+ in a controller or assistant controller seat - Hands-on ASC 842 lease accounting and ASC 718 stock compensation - Multi-entity closes and consolidations - Audit and review preparation - CPA or CMA - Prior work inside another fractional, outsourced, or CAS firm - NetSuite, Sage Intacct, or Xero alongside QuickBooks Online - SaaS metrics: ARR, deferred revenue, churn - You use AI tools to make the close faster, and you can tell me specifically how HOW WE WORK Async-first, deadline-driven, and small. You'd work directly with the owner - no layers, no waiting on approvals to fix something obviously broken. Some client procedures and close checklists exist today; not all of them. You'd help build the rest. We care that the close calendar gets hit and the workpapers are reviewable, not what hours you keep. A note on AI: I use it and I expect you will too. Client financial data does not go into consumer AI accounts - only into tools and plans we have approved with the appropriate data terms. If you are not sure whether something qualifies, ask me first. RATE AND HOURS $50 to $110 per hour depending on experience and assessment results. 20 to 30 hours per week to start, growing as the portfolio grows. Fully remote, US business hours overlap required for client calls. The range is wide on purpose - I am hiring for level, not title. If you are a controller with real ASC 842 and 718 reps and multi-entity close experience, you are at the top of it. If you are a strong senior accountant ready to step into a controller seat, apply anyway. We would start in the lower half of the range, I would stay closer to the work at first, and the rate grows as you take on more. PROCESS 1. Application plus the screening questions below 2. 20-minute intro call 3. Paid technical exercise - a SaaS month-end close: the adjusting entries, the reporting package, and the SaaS metrics. About two hours. I pay a flat $250 for it whether or not you are selected. 4. 45-minute interview where you walk me through your own work the way you would present it to the client on a monthly call 5. Reference check, then we start on one account TO APPLY Start your proposal with the word RECONCILE so I know you read this. Proposals that don't will not be reviewed. Then tell me about the messiest set of books you ever cleaned up and what you found. That tells me more than a resume does.