Senior Bookkeeper

Senior Bookkeeper – Job Description

Overview

The Senior Bookkeeper is responsible for full-cycle accounting across multiple clients, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with U.S. accounting standards. This role handles specialized functions such as management fee calculations, owner distributions, and property-management-specific workflows, while operating with minimal supervision.

The Senior Bookkeeper also performs quality review of financial statements before processing any fees or distributions, leads clean-up and data migration efforts, and provides guidance to junior staff. Strong analytical and technical skills are essential to identify discrepancies, improve processes, and provide actionable insights.

Key Responsibilities

1. Full-Cycle Bookkeeping

• Manage end-to-end bookkeeping using QuickBooks Online and other accounting platforms.
• Record and reconcile bank, credit card, loan, and merchant accounts.
• Maintain accurate general ledgers and chart of accounts.
• Handle AP/AR processes, vendor bills, client invoicing, and collections monitoring.

2. Quality Review

• Perform a comprehensive quality review of financial statements before any management fee calculations or owner distributions.
• Validate month-end balances, supporting schedules, and reconciliations for accuracy and compliance.
• Identify discrepancies, errors, or unusual transactions using analytical skills before final approval.
• Ensure all journal entries, reports, and statements are correct, supported, and audit-ready.

3. Clean-Up & Data Migration

• Lead or assist in accounting system clean-up projects, including correcting errors, standardizing charts of accounts, and reconciling historical transactions.
• Support data migration between accounting systems (e.g., spreadsheets, QBO, property management systems), ensuring accuracy and completeness.
• Validate imported data and reconcile discrepancies during migration or clean-up processes.

4. Management Fees & Owner Distribution

• Calculate monthly management fees accurately based on contracts or property activity, after quality review is complete.
• Record management fee journal entries and ensure alignment with property management agreements.
• Process owner distributions, considering bank balances, reserve requirements, and outstanding payables.
• Reconcile trust/operating accounts before generating owner statements.
• Prepare and review owner statements showing income, expenses, fees, and ending balances.
• Use analytical skills to verify calculations, spot anomalies, and ensure proper allocations.

5. Month-End Close & Financial Reporting

• Execute full month-end close, including journal entries, accruals, amortizations, and cleanup.
• Perform variance analysis and resolve discrepancies across accounts using analytical insights.
• Generate accurate financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) on schedule.

6. Payroll & Compliance

• Knowledge in US Payroll
• Reconcile payroll reports and post journal entries.
• Manage W-9 collection, 1099 preparation, and vendor compliance.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation for all payroll and compliance processes.

7. Client Communication & Relationship Management

• Act as primary accounting contact for assigned clients.
• Communicate clearly regarding financials, processes, and requests.
• Coordinate onboarding for new clients, ensuring accurate setup and migration.
• Provide actionable insights and recommendations based on an analytical review of financials.

8. Process Improvement & Mentorship

• Review and guide the work of junior bookkeepers.
• Recommend improvements to workflows, SOPs, and automation opportunities.
• Assist with training and upskilling accounting team members.

9. Industry-Specific Proficiency

• Experience in property management, e-commerce, and professional services.
• Execute industry-specific reconciliations and reporting, such as tenant ledgers, COGS, inventory, and management fee tracking.
• Apply analytical thinking to resolve complex account issues and optimize reporting processes.

Qualifications

• 3–5+ years of U.S. bookkeeping or accounting experience (multi-client preferred).
• Strong proficiency in QuickBooks Online, MS Excel, Google Sheets, and other accounting software.
• Experience with property management systems (e.g., AppFolio, Buildium).
• Experience with clean-up projects and data migration across accounting systems is a plus.
• Strong understanding of GAAP and full-cycle bookkeeping.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and meet deadlines.
• Excellent analytical skills to identify errors, discrepancies, and opportunities for improvement.
• Strong problem-solving and communication skills.
• High attention to detail and organizational skills.

Preferred Skills

• Familiarity with SOP creation, month-end checklists, and workflow optimization.
• Experience preparing for CPA audits or internal reviews.
• Knowledge of inventory, job costing, cash flow forecasting, or consolidations.
• Ability to mentor and support junior accounting staff.