Controller

Private Wealth Law Group•Salt Lake City, UT

12d•$100,000 - $150,000•Onsite

About The Position

This is a dual-mandate, hands-on controllership role. Internally, the Controller is the traditional controller of three (3) professional services companies, responsible for the controllership of Private Wealth Law Group, Private Wealth Tax Group, and Private Wealth Insurance Group, reporting to the Director of Finance. Externally, the Controller serves as a fractional controller to clients of Private Wealth Tax Group, providing controller-type services to those businesses and reporting to the Director of Accounting. The Controller owns the accounting foundation and has technical authority to determine whether accounting work and structure meet firm standards before information is released for advisory or client use.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance, or equivalent demonstrated technical knowledge.
8+ years of progressive accounting experience, including a Controller, Assistant Controller, or senior accounting leadership role.
Strong command of U.S. GAAP, general ledger accounting, financial reporting, and close, with the hands-on ability to review and, when necessary, prepare journal entries, reconciliations, accruals, and financial statements.
Multi-entity accounting experience, including intercompany transactions, allocations, pass-through entities, owner equity, and consolidated reporting.
Experience building or materially improving an accounting function - policies, procedures, internal controls, approval workflows, and documentation standards - in a growing organization.
Experience overseeing accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, cash management, and expense management, and managing or developing accounting staff.
Client-facing accounting experience (public accounting, client accounting services, fractional controller, or advisory) with the ability to communicate directly with business owners and executives.

Nice To Haves

Certified Public Accounting License preferred, but not required.
CPA license preferred; active status not required.
Experience delivering outsourced, fractional, or client accounting services to multiple concurrent clients.
Professional services experience, including service-line and client profitability, utilization, and billing or WIP cycles; audit-readiness experience a plus.

Responsibilities

Monthly, quarterly, and annual close, financial statements, and complete balance-sheet reconciliations for each entity.
Multi-entity, related-party, and intercompany accounting, allocations, and consolidated reporting; proper revenue, expense, payroll, debt, and equity treatment.
Cash visibility, working-capital reporting, and budget-to-actual reporting.
Billing and collection oversight; service-line and client profitability reporting.
Coordination with external tax, banking, and insurance-commission accounting providers.
Own each assigned engagement from transaction processing through completed financial statements: timely closes, reconciled balance sheets, documented adjusting entries, and organized workpapers.
Deliver tax-ready and advisory-ready financials: correct entity and equity accounting; fixed-asset, debt, payroll, and owner-transaction support; identification of unusual or potentially taxable transactions; consistent history; and accurate gross-margin and budget-to-actual detail.
Present results to client owners and management, explain variances, and recommend corrective action.
Define deliverables, deadlines, and client information requirements; identify out-of-scope work before it is performed; and escalate chronic client concerns (including noncompliance).
Track effort, capacity, and engagement economics, and recommend changes in process, staffing, pricing, or scope.
Set the close, workpaper, documentation, and reviewer-signoff standards used across firm and client work; determine whether work meets standards before release; and require problems to be corrected or placed on a documented remediation plan.
Assign work by complexity and capacity, review it, give specific feedback, and address recurring quality failures. The Controller remains accountable for delegated work.
Train staff to resolve root causes rather than repeat corrections.
Design charts of accounts and reporting structures, standardize policies while preserving necessary client-specific treatment, and maintain access, approval, and separation-of-duty controls.
Partner with management to automate repeatable workflows without weakening review, and to ensure data feeding dashboards and analytics reconciles to authoritative accounting records.
Prepare and follow excellence operating procedures (EOPs) designed to ensure systemization.