Financial Controller (Fractional, CPA)

Overview

This is a fractional Financial Controller role with end-to-end ownership of finance. The position starts hands-on and then evolves into building the systems, policies, and team operations that scale the organization’s finance function.

Responsibilities

• Own the books: close every month on schedule and deliver clear financials with a short narrative on what changed and why.
• Work hands-on in the ledger initially, then document processes and lead day-to-day transaction work with a bookkeeping team.
• Plan cash: build budgets, rolling cash forecasts, and runway views used by leadership; answer “can we afford this?” with confidence.
• Build finance controls: approval workflows, spend policies, and an audit trail that applies to everyone, including founders.
• Ensure correct marketplace accounting, including revenue recognition, customer credits and refunds, and operator payables.
• Maintain compliance: own the tax and compliance calendar, including aviation excise taxes and multi-state obligations, and manage an outside CPA firm.
• Serve as the finance voice in strategy by providing quantitative inputs for where to invest next and preparing for investor reporting as the organization grows.

Requirements

• Active US CPA license (hard requirement).
• 5+ years in accounting, including owning the close at a startup or high-growth company.
• Experience building a finance function from scratch.
• Strong marketplace accounting knowledge (gross vs. net; funds held for others; refunds and payables).
• Deep QuickBooks Online experience.
• Hands-on US tax compliance experience, including sales and use tax, multi-state payroll tax, and pass-through entities.
• Uses AI in daily work (the team runs on Claude).
• Ability to explain variances to a non-accountant in a few sentences.
• Absolute discretion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aviation, charter, or travel accounting experience.
• Federal excise tax experience.
• Fundraising and investor reporting experience.
• Experience leading a remote bookkeeping team.

Compensation & Benefits

• Pay depending on experience.

Location

• FinanceUS based (remote).
• US-based; meaningful overlap with US Pacific hours.