Accountant - Multi-entity Close (Independent Contractor)

Job Description

Remote, Philippines-based. Independent contractor engagement of approximately 40 hours per week with a privately held hospitality and wine group in the western United States. Client: Privately held multi-entity hospitality and wine group, United States (name disclosed after screening). Location: Remote, Philippines. Engagement type: Independent contractor, ongoing. Approximately 40 hours per week. Working hours: Contractor sets own schedule. Three or more hours of daily overlap with US Pacific business hours, Monday through Friday, set by common accord. Coordinates with: US-based Controller. Oversight: Reviews the work of three Philippines-based accounting contractors covering accounts payable, daily coding, and close support. No hiring, discipline, or compensation authority. Rate: USD $13.00 per hour, invoiced monthly. The rate is set for the start of the engagement. After six months we are glad to review it together and adjust by agreement. Target start: Immediate. The engagement This engagement covers four entities across two states. Three wineries with tasting rooms, restaurants and events, and a hotel with food and beverage. Revenue is direct-to-consumer: wine club subscriptions, tasting room retail, weddings, hotel rooms, restaurant covers, e-commerce. Roughly $28 million combined. The accounting function is being built out under a new Controller. A long-tenured senior accountant in the US currently closes every entity. This engagement takes the two smaller entities off his plate and owns them outright, close through reporting package. On occasion the role will be asked to close a third entity, or all four, for a cycle. Both seats work from the same calendar, the same methods and the same documented procedures. This is hands-on work. Three Philippines-based contractors handle accounts payable, daily coding, and close support work such as prepaids, fixed assets and account reconciliations, and this role reviews what they produce. The close itself stays with this role. The person in this seat posts the entries, reconciles the accounts, signs off on the numbers, and answers for them. Scope of services Own month-end close for two operating entities on a fifteen-business-day calendar. Entries, accruals, reconciliations, close checklist, tie-out. These two entities are yours end to end. Close additional entities when asked, up to all four, for a cycle at a time. Reconcile all balance sheet accounts monthly: cash, credit cards, prepaids, fixed assets and depreciation, accruals, deferred revenue, gift card and wine club liability, equity. Reconcile inventory and support cost of goods sold. Bulk wine, finished goods, packaging materials. Inventory roll-forward and margin analysis. Record and reconcile revenue from point-of-sale, e-commerce and reservation systems, including daily sales integrations and merchant settlement. Reconcile intercompany balances with the entities closed by the US team and clear differences before close. Review accounts payable workflow in bill.com: vendor setup, coding accuracy, approval routing, 1099 tracking. Invoice entry and payment processing sit with other contractors. Prepare the monthly reporting package for each assigned entity: profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, and written variance commentary explaining month over month and budget movements in terms an owner can act on. Review the work of three Philippines-based accounting contractors covering accounts payable, daily coding, and close support schedules. Check accuracy, answer their questions, return items that need correction, and raise anything unresolved with the Controller. Document procedures. Every recurring task in scope should exist in writing and be executable by someone else. Not in scope Tax return preparation. US payroll processing. Accounts payable data entry and payment release. Wine production and excise reporting. Direct contact with lenders or investors. Required Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance. Six or more years of progressive accounting experience, with at least three years serving US-based clients or a US parent and closing books under US GAAP. Multi-entity experience with real intercompany activity. We will ask you to walk us through the entity structures you have worked on, how intercompany balances were reconciled, and how allocations between entities were handled, so please be ready to describe the mechanics in detail. Strong QuickBooks Online skills, gained across several company files rather than a single one. bill.com experience. Inventory accounting, including costing and roll-forwards, in a high-volume environment. Experience carrying a full month-end close from start to finish. Strong Excel. Pivot tables, lookups, reconciliation models. Comfort reviewing a colleague’s work and asking for corrections. This role checks the work of three other contractors, some of it prepared by experienced accountants, and most questions are best settled directly between you rather than passed up each time. Professional spoken and written English. Expect at least three video calls a week with the US Controller and the US accounting manager, working through variances and reconciling items live rather than from prepared notes. Reliable power, internet redundancy, and a private work area. Preferred CPA license or master’s degree in accounting. Hospitality, restaurant, hotel, or beverage accounting. Commerce7, Toast, or comparable point-of-sale and direct-to-consumer platforms. Experience documenting procedures for a function that previously ran on institutional knowledge. Who this suits Someone mid-career who still enjoys doing the accounting rather than supervising it. The company is closely held and the owner is active in the business, so a good deal gets decided in conversation rather than through formal process. Not every procedure is written down yet, and part of this work is writing them. People who are comfortable asking questions early and often tend to do well here. Screening Candidates who advance will complete a short technical exercise covering an intercompany reconciliation and a month-end close checklist, followed by a video interview with the US Controller. We ask for references from US-based clients or supervisors, and background verification is part of finalizing the engagement. To apply Please send a CV together with written answers to the five questions below to roseannaran1920@yahoo.com . The answers matter more to us than the CV, so please take a little time with them and write from your own experience, in your own words. Short answers are fine. Name the entity structures you have closed. How many entities, what kind, and how were intercompany balances between them reconciled? Describe one cost or expense you allocated across entities. What was the basis, and who decided it? How many separate QuickBooks Online company files have you worked in at one time, and how was consolidated reporting produced? Which US-based clients or US parent companies have you closed books for, and for how long? What hours can you work against US Pacific time, and what is your backup for power and internet? The starting rate is USD $13.00 per hour and is the same for every candidate at offer. We are glad to review it together with you after six months. We mention it here so no one spends time on an application that would not suit them. Applications are received by the recruiter handling this search, and every application that includes the five answers will be read. Thank you for your interest. Work Location: Remote