Lead Accountant

Overview

This Lead Accountant role supports a multi-entity, multi-currency software group in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) market. Responsibilities span monthly and quarterly close, revenue accounting under ASC 606, order-to-cash and collections, and NetSuite operations and migration work for owned areas.

The role is remote in the United States or Canada.

Responsibilities

Monthly and quarterly close

• Own the close calendar across all group entities: publish it, run it, and deliver results on the agreed day.
• Prepare and review journal entries and accruals, including prepaids, deferred revenue, intercompany, and foreign exchange entries.
• Own balance sheet reconciliations: ensure a documented and reviewed reconciliation for every material account each month, with supporting schedules that a third party can follow without discussion.
• Prepare the monthly reporting pack for the Controller’s review, including variance commentary that explains what moved and why.
• When two reports disagree, investigate the cause, fix the issue, and document the reconciliation.

Revenue accounting — execution under ASC 606

• Apply the group’s revenue recognition policy across SaaS subscriptions, hosted and on-premise licenses, support and maintenance, implementation and data migration services, training, and third-party pass-through.
• Own deferred revenue and contract asset roll-forwards reconciled to the contract population.
• Review new and renewing contracts against the revenue checklist and escalate items that do not fit it (e.g., multi-element arrangements, consortium and statewide agreements, mid-term expansions, non-standard terms).
• Maintain supporting schedules for the policy and flag gaps where policy does not answer the situation.

Order to cash and collections

• Ensure billing accuracy across renewals, new business, change orders, and professional services, including the handoff from contract administration into the ledger.
• Own the accounts receivable ledger and collections process, including aging discipline, a documented dunning cycle, escalation paths, and weekly reporting on aging and days sales outstanding.
• Address a specific collections objective: one legacy entity currently carries the large majority of its receivable book past 30 days; improving that aging against an agreed baseline in month one is the primary measurable objective, requiring cross-functional work with sales, customer success, and public sector procurement contacts.
• Own accounts payable: approval workflow, vendor master integrity, payment runs, and 1099 and T4A reporting.

NetSuite — operate and deliver migration work

• Execute finance-side migration work for owned areas, including opening balance validation, sub-ledger tie-out, historical comparatives, and parallel-run reconciliation.
• Operate NetSuite day to day across general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, revenue module, and multi-currency.
• Build and maintain saved searches, reports, and dashboards that replace offline spreadsheets.
• Document configurations and write desk procedures to reduce dependency on personal knowledge.

Supervision and process

• Supervise the Staff Accountant and Accounting Administrator: allocate work, review output, set standards, and develop team members.
• Write desk procedures for the whole team so knowledge is captured beyond individual heads.
• Recommend team structure as the group grows and support the business case.

Audit and control evidence

• Prepare audit and review schedules, manage request lists, and clear items on a timetable.
• Support indirect tax compliance with advisers, including US sales and use tax (including software and SaaS nexus), Canadian GST/HST and provincial taxes, UK VAT, and state/provincial registrations.
• Execute finance-side controls needed for SOC 2 and ISO 27001 readiness, including evidenced approvals, documented segregation of duties in NetSuite, and access reviews for finance systems.

Requirements

• Full ownership of a monthly close in a multi-entity environment, including reviewing others’ work.
• Hands-on ASC 606 experience in a subscription software or SaaS business, including preparing deferred revenue roll-forwards and working multi-element contracts; understand the difference between a booking, an invoice, and revenue.
• NetSuite experience with hands-on migration or implementation exposure preferred.
• Multi-currency and intercompany experience, including translation, remeasurement, and intercompany entries.
• Accounts receivable and collections ownership, with a track record of moving an aging profile you can describe with numbers.
• Supervisory experience managing or closely reviewing at least one person’s work, including delivering difficult feedback.
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance and five or more years of progressive accounting experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPA or CA, or actively pursuing it (completion support available).
• Experience in a private-equity-backed business.
• Experience bringing acquired books onto a group chart of accounts and close calendar.
• Cross-border US and Canada experience, including indirect tax in both.
• Advanced Excel and comfort with data (large reconciliations, Power Query, reporting-tool fluency).

Compensation & Benefits

• Compensation & benefits details were not provided in the description.

Location

• Remote, United States or Canada.