[Hiring] Senior Accountant - Cleanup Manager @Breakwater Accounting + Advisory

Role Description

Breakwater Accounting & Advisory is looking for a Cleanup Manager who gets genuine satisfaction from taking messy financials, figuring out what happened, and turning them into books that leadership can actually trust. This is a role for someone who enjoys variety and problem solving. You'll work on multiple cleanup projects at once, diving into each one, solving the problem, creating a clean handoff, and moving forward.

• Find the mess. Figure out what happened. Fix it. Prove it's right. Move on to the next puzzle.
• Investigate and solve:
  • Dig into messy financial records to understand what happened and why.
  • Trace transactions to uncover errors, missing information, and broken processes.
  • Develop practical cleanup plans and work through them to completion.
  • Reconstruct financial activity when the existing records don't tell the full story.
• Prove the numbers are right:
  • Reconcile and substantiate major balance sheet accounts including cash, payroll, loans, revenue, prepaids, accruals, fixed assets, and equity.
  • Create supporting schedules and documentation that show why the numbers are right.
  • Go beyond “it balances” to create financials that are accurate, explainable, and defensible.
• Make the books make sense:
  • Redesign charts of accounts when they no longer serve the business.
  • Organize financial reporting so business owners can understand what is actually happening.
  • Identify the story behind the numbers and make that story easier to see.
• Fix what caused the problem:
  • Reverse-engineer workflows such as invoicing, payroll, inventory, and expenses to understand where things went wrong.
  • Help create better processes so the same problem doesn't show up again.
• Use your accounting and technology expertise:
  • QuickBooks Online is one of your primary tools. You'll troubleshoot complex issues, untangle stubborn balances, and find solutions when the obvious answer isn't working.
  • We're a tech-forward team. We use modern accounting technology and AI to solve problems and improve efficiency.
• Communicate and collaborate:
  • Work directly with clients to ask smart questions, gather missing information, explain complicated accounting issues, and keep projects moving.
  • Collaborate with the Breakwater team, document your work, and create clean handoffs to the ongoing accounting team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting.
• 5+ years of high-level accounting, audit, or full-cycle bookkeeping experience.
• Strong understanding of how balance sheets actually work.
• Experience with accruals, revenue recognition, depreciation, amortization, and other complex accounting concepts.
• Prior reviewer, senior accountant, audit, or similar experience.
• Proven experience cleaning up messy or inaccurate financials.
• Expert-level QuickBooks Online proficiency.
• Excellent investigative and problem-solving instincts.
• Ability to stay focused and see a problem through to completion.
• Confidence communicating complex financial issues to non-accountants.
• Ability to manage multiple projects without losing the details.
• Experience in an outsourced, multi-client accounting environment is a plus.
• Experience with tools such as Xero, Dext, Ramp, BILL, Gusto, ACS/Realm, and advanced Excel is a plus.

Benefits

• $65,000 to $85,000 salary
• Full-time employment
• Five weeks of PTO
• A collaborative, supportive team
• Challenging accounting work where you get to solve problems every day