Financial Controller International E-commerce Brand

We're a fast-growing e-commerce brand selling in multiple countries — and honestly, our finances have outgrown us. We're strong at products and marketing, but nobody on our team has a finance background. Right now we run one simple, combined P&L, and that's it. No forecasting, no per-country view, no proper unit economics. That's where you come in. You'll be our first real finance hire and act as our part-time CFO: you build our entire finance setup from scratch, own it, and explain it to us in plain language. We don't just want reports — we want someone who tells us what the numbers mean and what we should do about them. This is a long-term, part-time freelance role, working directly with the founders. The end goal We want you to build a small set of clear, always-up-to-date sheets/dashboards, so that at any moment we can open a few tabs and immediately see: Overall profit — our full consolidated P&L, updated daily Profit per country — where we actually make money, market by market Unit economics — what each product truly costs and earns, per country Forecast & cash flow — what's coming: expected profit, upcoming VAT payments, inventory purchases, cash position You design the structure, keep it accurate, and make it simple enough that non-finance people (us) can read it at a glance. What you'll do Build our multi-country P&L. Break our single P&L down per country, starting with our best-selling markets. Each country has different margins, break-even points, ad costs, return rates, and tax treatment — we want to see clearly where we make money, rolled up into one accurate consolidated P&L. Later, we go a level deeper: profitability per product, including ad spend per product. Own the daily P&L. Keep profit and loss up to date daily, and flag it early when a market or cost line moves the wrong way. Get our landed costs right. Accurate all-in product costs — purchase price, freight, duties, import fees — per country. Everything else is built on this, so it has to be correct. Connect marketing to finance. Contribution margin per order, break-even ROAS per product per country, CAC vs. LTV. We spend a lot on advertising and want to know exactly above which ROAS a product is profitable in each market. Include the "quiet" costs. Returns and refunds (rates differ a lot per country), payment processor fees, chargebacks, and currency effects — all handled properly so the per-country numbers are real, not flattering. Forecast and budget. Cash flow forecasting (inventory purchases, ad spend, VAT payments due), scenario planning for new product launches and new markets, and simple budgets we can steer by. Calculate unit economics for new launches. Before we launch a product: what it costs all-in, what we should sell it for in each country, and where break-even sits. Keep our data clean. Reconcile Shopify, ad platforms, and payment processors into one reliable source of truth — with tools (e.g. A2X, Finaloop) or well-built spreadsheets, whatever you work best with. Guide us on international tax. We're starting to handle VAT / GST / sales tax in multiple countries (EU, UK, US, and beyond). You don't file everything yourself, but you know the schemes (like EU OSS/IOSS), coordinate with our local tax/filing providers, check their work, and keep us compliant. Teach us as you go. We'll ask basic questions. We want someone who enjoys explaining finance simply, not someone who hides behind jargon. Who we're looking for Solid experience in finance / controlling for e-commerce or another multi-country consumer business — ideally you've built a finance function from scratch before Hands-on with P&L structuring: you can build per-country and consolidated P&Ls from raw data, not just read them Strong with unit economics: landed cost, contribution margin, break-even, and pricing across markets and currencies Comfortable with cash flow forecasting and budgeting for an inventory-based business Working knowledge of international VAT / GST / sales tax (EU OSS/IOSS, UK, US) — enough to advise us, manage filing providers, and spot risks Excellent with spreadsheets; experience with Shopify and e-commerce data (ad platforms, payment processors) is a big plus Proactive and independent: you see the question behind the numbers and come to us with answers and recommendations, not just reports Able to explain finance in plain language to people without a finance background Comfortable communicating in clear English We're open on seniority. Whether you're a sharp mid-level controller ready to own this end-to-end or a senior finance professional who's done this for multiple brands — tell us where you fit and price yourself accordingly. Practical details Fully remote; flexible hours, with some overlap for check-ins Long-term collaboration preferred — we want someone who grows into the CFO-level partner of this business How to apply In your proposal, please include: A short description of a finance setup you've built for an e-commerce or multi-country business — what sheets/dashboards did the owners actually look at, and what decisions did it drive? Your experience with international VAT / sales tax — which countries and schemes you've dealt with Your hourly rate and weekly availability Start your proposal with the word "break-even" so we know you've read this post We review every application personally and will follow up with a short call with our top candidates.