Virtual Bookkeeping Team Leader Wanted
We are looking for a full time, virtual bookkeeping team leader based in Canada. Apply now!
(As of Feb 21, 2021)
Join An Amazing Culture
Back Office Stars is a 3-year-old cloud-only bookkeeping company led by a marketing entrepreneur, not an accountant. That makes our culture a little different than your typical cloud accounting firm.
We don't have the cultural baggage of an old-school desktop accounting firm that's being dragged slowly into the cloud era. We have only ever lived and breathed cloud accounting. We are flexible and innovative in our approach.
We are well-managed, with good clients and you can expect coaching and support from your manager, Jonathan. Jonathan is a former Procter & Gamble Brand Manager with extensive training and experience in managing remote teams.
You can read about Jonathan on his LinkedIn and Strategy Cube pages. We are based in Burlington, ON.
Our team of virtual bookkeepers tell me they appreciate:
- Being part of a team for support and encouragement.
- The flexibility of the role allows them to take care of their families and still enjoy meaningful work and build their careers.
- The quality of the clients we attract and the rewarding feeling of building good relationships with them over time.
- The learning they get from exposure to sophisticated clients using cutting-edge accounting and business management tools.
- The coaching and support I provide.
- That we use state-of-the-art software tools that they find efficient and useful.
Watch as Jonathan explains the role.
Why Us Over One Of The Bigger Cloud Accounting Firms
- You'll get to have more breadth of ownership and impact with us than at a larger firm. Why do I say that?
- We are a smaller firm (7 of us) and 3 years old. We still have a lot of our culture and systems yet to define.
- At a larger firm, your role will be narrowly defined because large firms have to organize that way for efficiency and performance. They have a person for every different role and they have clearly defined boundaries between the roles for the sake of clarity and ownership. They don't really want you to stray out of your defined role. We have demanding clients and the challenges that come with that. We need people who are eager to contribute to take initiative to solve problems and we can give you lots more scope and freedom than you'd get at a big firm.
- At a larger firm, almost all the processes and systems will have already been built and you'll just have to follow them. With us you can play a leadership role in building new processes and systems.
- At a larger firm, if you have ideas on how to improve things, you'll be one of 80 people with ideas. With us, you'll be leading the charge.
- Tremendous growth opportunities: As we grow we will need someone to lead all our bookkeeping operations. You would be the most likely candidate. That could happen in three years but it might be necessary in as little as a year.
What You'll Be Doing
- Successful entrepreneurs are rarely strong at keeping their books organized. You'll be helping some of Canada's brightest entrepreneurs get their books & systems organized so that they can manage their business well and keep their staff, customers and the CRA happy. You'll give them the gift of peace of mind and they will love you for it.
- We do important work but we have fun doing it and our culture is highly collaborative, supportive and light-hearted.
- You will be doing full-cycle bookkeeping including monthly reconciliations, sales tax management, payables & receivables, payroll, invoicing and bill payment for your own set of clients. You will maintain, monitor and reconcile GL accounts, including but not limited to cash, bank reconciliations, prepaid expenses, accounts receivable, accounts payable, accrued liabilities and inter-company and point of sale (POS)/system uploads. You will identify issues and errors, investigate discrepancies and develop resolutions. You will also communicate with the CRA regarding information requests, assessments and instalments.
- The most complex client work we have will be assigned to you. This will include a fast-paced marketing agency and e-commerce clients that use multiple interconnected software systems beyond the accounting software.
- There is a current team leader who will assist in onboarding and training you.
- As the client base grows, you will help us hire part-time bookkeepers and you will onboard and manage their work.
- You will use Financial Cents to manage all your and your team's work.
- Our clients are smart, urban business people, mostly in software, tech, e-commerce, agencies, professional services, virtual events, holding companies, real estate, massage therapy and chiropractic or physiotherapy clinics. They are mostly in Ontario and BC. We have no restaurants, physical retailers, manufacturing, farming or trades clients.
- We only use Xero and QuickBooksOnline for accounting and we use Hubdoc and Excel extensively. You must be strong in all four of those.
- You need to be comfortable learning new web-based software quickly. In addition to the above, we use Plooto, Wagepoint, KnitHR, ReceiptBank, WayPay, G-Suite, Slack, Harvest and Zoom but there are new tools coming out on a regular basis and we will always want to help our clients use the latest and best tools.
Your First Year
- Your first three months would be spent working closely with our existing Team Leader, learning the role, our clients, our systems and processes.
- Your next three to six months would be spent with you managing a full workload of client work, without a team under you.
- Around roughly seven to nine months into the role (and that timing is a rough estimate and may change based on the firm's workload) we would aim to bring on the first more junior bookkeeper to work on your team.
- We'd look to build your team up from there in line with your capabilities and goals.
Job Fit Criteria
To be considered a good fit for this team leader role, you need to meet the following criteria:
- You are legally able to work in Canada and you are physically based in Canada.
- You speak, read and write English at a native speaker level.
- You are a qualified, certified bookkeeper with a bookkeeping or accounting certification from a recognized Canadian college or program. We have a very positive view of candidates with the Certified Professional Bookkeeper certification from CPB Canada. You must have formal bookkeeping or accounting training - you cannot be self-taught.
- You have a minimum of 5 years (if you have foreign experience before that) or 8 years of cumulative Canadian bookkeeping experience (if all of your career has been in Canada).
- You have worked under a CPA in a Canadian accounting or bookkeeping firm for at least 2 years.
- You are looking for between 30 to 40 hours per week of primarily 9-5 daytime, ongoing, steady, bookkeeping work with monthly retained clients. There is flexibility in when you do the work but our clients expect weekday, daytime availability.
- You are certified and very proficient in Xero and Quickbooks Online. Xero and QBO are the only accounting systems we use. Quickbooks Desktop experience is not sufficient.
- You have your own computer, fast internet and a suitable, professional office or a quiet room in your home to conduct video conference meetings from during the day.
- It would make you a strong candidate if you have supervised or managed the work of other bookkeepers or have suitable and relevant experience managing other teams, but this is not essential.
To apply, please carefully fill out the form below
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