Controller - Onboarding

Overview

This role guides new professional services clients through onboarding and advances them to an ongoing delivery team with a stable financial and operational foundation. The position works with people- and project-based businesses where billing, utilization, realization, payroll, and cash flow drive performance.

The onboarding journey is designed to advance clients within approximately eight weeks. In addition to owning the client experience during this phase, you will help improve the pace, consistency, and quality of the onboarding experience through process improvement, standardization, automation, and lessons learned.

Responsibilities

• Own the client relationship during the onboarding phase of the engagement.
• Lead kickoff and recurring client check-ins; set expectations, maintain momentum, and communicate decisions, owners, deadlines, and next steps.
• Conduct a financial assessment; identify cleanup needs, confirm scope, and establish the technical and operational foundation required for ongoing service.
• Coordinate with the onboarding accountant, ongoing delivery team, CFO, business development, and client experience partners at the appropriate points in the engagement.
• Monitor timeline, hours, scope, blockers, client responsiveness, and readiness to advance; escalate concerns early.
• Teach clients systems, workflows, internal control expectations, and accounting best practices in a clear and approachable way.
• Document client-specific processes, decisions, checklists, workpapers, and task ownership in SharePoint to support a clean handoff.
• Prepare and lead advancement to the ongoing team, including complete handoff documentation, ongoing cadence, open-item visibility, and a post-advancement check-in.
• Capture lessons learned and identify opportunities to strengthen templates, automation, consistency, quality, and reduce timeline across onboarding engagements.

Professional Services Onboarding Focus

• Assess and strengthen accounting structures for service lines, clients, engagements, projects, departments, or locations.
• Establish or refine time capture, project accounting, billing, deferred revenue, retainers, and revenue recognition workflows.
• Build reporting for utilization, realization, effective bill rate, engagement or service-line profitability, and AR aging.
• Build controls around client and engagement setup, contracting, billing approvals, collections, contractors, payroll, and benefits reconciliation.
• Produce baseline financial statements, cash flow visibility, project reporting, and operating metrics that the ongoing professional services team can maintain.

Internal Responsibilities

• Complete internal responsibilities including time tracking, capacity planning, and quarterly initiatives.
• Participate in Client Experience team L10 meetings; share insights, risks, and process improvements.
• Represent the organization’s mission and values through participation in its ambassador program.
• Maintain high standards of service quality, client satisfaction, data security, and protection of client assets.

Requirements

• 7+ years of progressive accounting experience, preferably in public accounting, Client Accounting Services, or another multi-client environment.
• Proven success with client onboarding, implementation projects, financial cleanup, or accounting process transformation.
• Strong technical accounting skills and the ability to quickly assess unfamiliar financial environments.
• Excellent client communication skills; able to explain complex accounting concepts to non-financial audiences.
• Teaching and mentoring ability, with a genuine interest in helping clients build confidence and adopt better practices.
• Project management skills, including coordinating multiple engagements with different scopes, stakeholders, deadlines, and risks.
• Process improvement mindset; ability to improve an established process as the team grows.
• Technical proficiency with QuickBooks; ability to learn additional accounting and industry platforms quickly.
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or equivalent business experience.
• Meaningful experience with professional service business models, project accounting, time and billing, and revenue recognition.
• Experience analyzing utilization, realization, effective bill rates, labor leverage, or project profitability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with professional services automation, practice management, or time and billing platforms.

Success Measures

• Client Launch: client understands the plan, trusts the team, and knows what they own.
• Accounting Foundation: core construction accounting and workflow are in place and stable, documented, and usable.
• Advancement: ongoing team receives a complete handoff with clear scope, cadence, open items, and ownership.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $90,000 - $125,000
• Annual Bonus: Up to 10% of salary
• Comprehensive benefits package including:
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • 401K
  • Life insurance
  • Long and short-term disability
  • HSA, FSA, and dependent care options
  • Professional development opportunities

Location

Minneapolis area (Twin Cities).