Finance and Accounting Associate

About the role I run a fractional CFO and outsourced accounting firm serving owner-operated businesses in the $1M to $10M revenue range across home services, trucking and logistics, marine, manufacturing, construction, and professional services. I'm the lead CFO on every engagement, and I'm hiring one dedicated associate to work alongside me on client delivery. This is not a bookkeeping seat and it's not a pure analyst seat. It's both. You'll own the accounting cycle so the books close clean and on time, and then you'll turn those numbers into models, forecasts, and analysis that I take into owner meetings. If you like the close but hate Excel modeling, or you love modeling but don't want to touch a reconciliation, this isn't the right fit. What you'll do Own month-end close for a portfolio of clients: bank and credit card reconciliations, accruals, prepaids, deferred revenue, fixed assets and depreciation, payroll journal entries, intercompany entries, and balance sheet account reconciliations with supporting schedules. Prepare financial statement packages and tie every deliverable back to source data before it leaves your hands. Build formula-driven Excel models: 13-week cash flow forecasts, budget vs. actual and variance analysis, unit economics, driver-based forecasts, and sensitivity analysis. Hardcoded numbers in a model are a dealbreaker. Write clear variance commentary and insights that a business owner with no accounting background can act on. Handle A/R and A/P support, client data requests, and system cleanup work as engagements require. What I'm looking for 3+ years of full-cycle accounting experience with responsibility for closing a set of books, not just data entry under someone else's review. Strong US GAAP fundamentals, including accrual accounting, revenue recognition, and the ability to explain why an entry is booked the way it is. Advanced Excel. You should be comfortable building a multi-tab model from scratch where every output cell traces back to an input or an assumption. QuickBooks Online proficiency. QuickBooks Desktop and payroll platform experience is a plus. Excellent written English. A meaningful part of this job is explaining technical accounting to non-accountants. Available and responsive during 9am to 5pm Eastern, Monday through Friday. This is non-negotiable because you'll be working with me and with clients in real time, not dropping work into a queue overnight. Detail-obsessed. I audit work before it goes to a client, and I expect you to audit your own first. Tie-outs, checks, and documented assumptions are part of the deliverable, not extra credit. Important: this is a dedicated, full-time role I'm looking for one person committed to this role full-time. Not an agency, not a team account, and not someone stacking this on top of three other clients. In exchange, this is stable, long-term, consistent hours, with real exposure to CFO-level work and direct mentorship from me. If you're currently juggling multiple contracts and plan to keep doing that, please don't apply.