Client Accounting Manager Jobs in California

Job Summary

Are you the person everyone comes to when something needs to get figured out? Do you know QuickBooks Online inside and out, but also enjoy managing people, talking to business owners, solving weird accounting problems, fixing broken processes, and making sure things actually get DONE? Do you like the accounting world but have zero interest in spending your entire day buried in transactions and reconciliations? And maybe most importantly... are you capable of taking ownership of an entire department instead of waiting for someone to tell you what to do next? Well, we may have the perfect opportunity for you.

We are looking for an experienced Director of Client Accounting & Business Services to take over the leadership and operation of our bookkeeping & business services department. This is NOT a traditional Senior Bookkeeper position. It is also NOT a position where you simply manage a checklist and report back to ownership. We need someone who can ultimately run this department like it is their own business.

We currently have an established client base, existing systems and workflows, and a team of three bookkeepers who handle the basic day-to-day bookkeeping production work. The Director will oversee that team, manage client relationships, review higher-level accounting work, oversee projects, handle consulting and business services, manage department workflow, and be accountable for the overall success of the department. You will receive extensive training as our goal is to transfer our knowledge, processes, client relationships, and decision-making responsibilities to you until you are fully capable of operating the department independently. And yes — we really mean independently.

The Most Important Part of This Job

You are responsible for department results and outcomes — not merely completing assigned duties. This is probably the single most important sentence in this entire job posting. We are not looking for someone who waits for an owner to notice that a client is unhappy, a project is running late, an employee needs help, a workflow is broken, or a job is losing money. We are looking for the person who notices first.

You should know:

· Which clients need attention

· Which projects are falling behind

· Whether the bookkeeping staff has enough work — or too much

· Whether the books coming back from production are actually correct

· Whether a project was scoped properly

· Whether a client is profitable

· Whether a process needs to change

· Whether a staff member needs additional training

· Whether an issue belongs with you, the tax department, ownership, or an outside professional

The goal is simple:

The department should run smoothly, profitably, and independently without the owners having to manage the day-to-day operation. Your job is to make sure the machine works.

What Does This Department Actually Do?

A little bit of everything related to small-business accounting and administration. Our services currently include:

· Monthly QuickBooks Online bookkeeping

· QBO setup

· Chart of Accounts repair

· Bookkeeping cleanup and catch-up projects

· Bookkeeping estimates and project scoping

· Year-end bookkeeping reviews

· QBO Payroll setup

· Payroll and bookkeeping consulting

· Business consulting

· Financial and operational guidance for small-business owners

· Corporation and LLC formations

· Statements of Information

· S Corporation election application processes

· Fictitious Business Name filings

· Corporate and LLC amendments

· Entity dissolutions

· Other routine business-compliance services

Department Leadership

You will be responsible for the overall operation and performance of the department. That includes:

· Managing department priorities and workload

· Managing workflow from initial client contact through final completion

· Monitoring deadlines and outstanding client information

· Identifying bottlenecks before they become emergencies

· Maintaining quality-control standards

· Improving systems, checklists, templates, and processes

· Monitoring staff capacity and productivity

· Identifying staffing needs and hiring/firing as needed

· Monitoring department profitability

· Making day-to-day departmental decisions

· Solving problems without requiring constant owner involvement

If your natural response to a problem is, “Someone should really fix that,” this probably isn't your role.

If your natural response is, “Got it. Here's what we're going to do,” keep reading.

Client Management

You will become the primary relationship manager for the department's clients. That means:

· Conducting Zoom meetings and client calls

· Meeting with prospective clients

· Determining what services a client actually needs

· Scoping bookkeeping cleanup and accounting projects

· Helping establish project pricing

· Managing client onboarding

· Explaining what we need from clients and why

· Communicating project status

· Conducting final client meetings

· Explaining financial information in normal-human language

· Resolving client concerns

· Identifying additional services that may benefit the client

· Building long-term client relationships

Our clients are primarily small-business owners. Some know exactly what EBITDA means. Others think a Balance Sheet is something they should have received from their bank. We love both. You need to be able to comfortably communicate with all of them.

Bookkeeping & Accounting Oversight

Our production team does the grunt work. You make sure the grunt work is right. You should be comfortable:

· Reviewing QuickBooks Online files

· Reviewing reconciliations

· Reviewing Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss statements

· Reviewing general ledger activity

· Reviewing & preparing journal entries

· Fixing or redesigning Charts of Accounts

· Identifying unusual or incorrectly classified transactions

· Managing bookkeeping cleanup projects

· Resolving higher-level accounting issues

· Performing year-end bookkeeping reviews

· Preparing books for tax preparation

· Reviewing completed work before it gets back to the client

You should be able to look at a set of financials and recognize when something simply smells funny. Accounting-wise, of course.

Team Management

We currently have a 3-person bookkeeping team who perform much of our bookkeeping production work. You will be responsible for overseeing them. That includes:

· Assigning work

· Setting priorities

· Managing deadlines

· Reviewing completed work

· Providing corrections and feedback

· Training staff

· Answering higher-level bookkeeping questions

· Monitoring quality and productivity

· Identifying recurring errors

· Determining when additional training is needed

· Managing workload and capacity

· Holding the team accountable for deadlines and accuracy

We are not looking for a micromanager. We ARE looking for someone who notices when a problem keeps happening and fixes the source of it.

Consulting & Advisory

Small-business owners rarely call with a question that fits neatly into one little accounting box. A bookkeeping question becomes a payroll question. A payroll question becomes an S Corporation question. An S Corporation question becomes a tax-planning question. And suddenly everyone is talking about buying a truck. Welcome to small-business accounting. You should be comfortable consulting with clients regarding:

· Bookkeeping procedures

· Accounting workflows

· Payroll processes

· Financial reporting

· Internal accounting controls

· Business operations

· Cash-flow visibility

· Owner compensation considerations

· Entity structure considerations

· Accounting implications of business decisions

· General financial management

· With an awareness of tax strategies and benefits

You should also be able to identify situations that may create tax-planning opportunities and coordinate those matters with the tax professionals. You are not expected to provide legal advice or tax advice outside the scope of your professional credentials. Knowing when something needs to leave your desk is part of being good at this job.

Payroll

You will also oversee our payroll-related services, including:

· QuickBooks Online Payroll setup

· Payroll implementation & troubleshooting

· Payroll accounting review

· Assisting clients with payroll processes – but we do NOT run the payroll for them

· Identifying payroll issues requiring additional tax or payroll expertise

Corporation & LLC Services

You will also handle and oversee our business-entity services. These include:

· Corporation and LLC formations

· Statements of Information

· S Corporation election application processes

· Fictitious Business Name filings

· Amendments

· Dissolutions

· Routine state compliance filings

· Tracking filing deadlines and status

· Coordinating filing requirements with clients

These are administrative and compliance services. We are accountants — not attorneys — and we know when to stay in our lane.

What Does Success Look Like?

Once you are fully trained:

Clients come to you.

The bookkeeping team comes to you.

Projects move without the owners pushing them forward.

Problems get solved before the owners and the clients know there was a problem.

Deadlines are met.

Client communication is proactive.

Bookkeeping rework is low.

Staff productivity is strong.

Clients stay.

Projects make money.

Recurring bookkeeping revenue grows.

Processes improve.

The department becomes stronger because you are running it.

That is the job.

Compensation

Compensation during the introductory training period is $125,000 annually. The introductory period will last no more than 90 days, but there is no reason it has to take 90 days. If you demonstrate the technical competency, judgment, leadership ability, client-management skills, and independence required for the position earlier, the training period can end earlier. Upon successful completion of training, your base salary increases to $140,000 annually.

And to be very clear: $140,000 is not the maximum compensation for this position. It is the base salary once you successfully assume the role.

From there, we expect compensation to grow with the position, the department, and your contribution. The Director will also have the opportunity to earn performance-based bonuses tied to measurable department results.

Performance metrics may include:

· Client retention

· Project realization and profitability

· Department profitability

· Staff productivity

· Bookkeeping accuracy

· Cleanup and rework percentages

· Growth in recurring monthly bookkeeping revenue

· Client-service performance

We want the person running the department to benefit when the department performs well.

Who Are We Looking For?

Someone with a solid accounting brain AND people skills. We are particularly interested in candidates with:

· 7+ years of bookkeeping, accounting, CAS, outsourced accounting, or similar experience

· Advanced QuickBooks Online experience

· Strong general-ledger knowledge

· Strong understanding of cash and accrual accounting

· Experience reviewing bookkeeping completed by others

· Experience supervising accounting or bookkeeping staff

· Experience managing remote or offshore staff

· Experience working directly with small-business owners

· Experience conducting client meetings

· Experience managing multiple client engagements at the same time

· Experience with bookkeeping cleanup projects

· Payroll accounting experience

· Familiarity with corporations, LLCs, and business compliance matters

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills – without the use of AI, although it is a great tool!

· Strong organizational skills

· Strong project-management skills

· Excellent judgment

· The ability to make decisions without needing constant approval

· While a CPA and/or EA credential is not required, it is preferred

Experience working in a CPA firm, accounting firm, tax practice, CAS department, outsourced accounting company, or professional bookkeeping practice is particularly helpful.

Credentials

CPA or EA? Fantastic.

Not a CPA or EA? That is okay too.

For this role, practical small-business accounting experience, QuickBooks expertise, judgment, leadership ability, and client-management skills matter more to us than letters after your name.

You Might Be Our Person If...

You love fixing things.

You enjoy small-business owners.

You can manage several moving pieces without dropping half of them.

You are comfortable making decisions.

You can manage people without driving them crazy.

You like technology and don't want to work in an accounting office that still thinks fax machines are exciting.

You understand that being a department head means being accountable for what happens inside your department.

You enjoy autonomy.

You enjoy improving systems.

You don't need someone standing behind you telling you what needs to happen next.

And you are interested in building and leading something — not simply having a job inside it.

Why This Position Is Different?

We are not asking you to create a bookkeeping department from scratch. The clients are here. The production team is here. The systems are here. The services are here. The current owners are here to train you. Your opportunity is to learn what we have built, improve it, make it better, and ultimately take complete ownership of running it.

Our goal is to build a mature, scalable bookkeeping and business-services department that operates independently of its current owners. If the idea of being handed real responsibility, real autonomy, and a department you can put your fingerprints all over sounds exciting rather than terrifying...

We should probably talk.

Pay: $125,000.00 - $140,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee discount
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Paid sick time
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Retirement plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Experience:

• Accounting: 5 years (Preferred)
• Management: 5 years (Preferred)

License/Certification:

• CPA (Preferred)
• Enrolled Agent (Preferred)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Carlsbad, CA 92008