Senior Manager, Outsourced Finance & Accounting

Senior Manager, Outsourced Finance & Accounting

The Senior Manager, Outsourced Finance & Accounting acts as a leader within the AAO group and will be tasked with building a robust AAO practice. The Senior Manager, Outsourced Finance & Accounting will be responsible for providing exceptional client service and supervising the work products of other professionals on the client relationship team; developing new business and working with the business development and marketing teams as opportunities move through the pursuit process; mentoring and developing the interpersonal and technical skills of the other client relationship team members. The individual in this role will responsibly manage the AAO practice through mitigating risk and managing the financial performance of their respective client portfolio.

Client Service Delivery

• Manages the full-life cycle of all assigned engagements by providing technical expertise in all areas within the finance and accounting function.
• Understands the technology packages clients are using to support their accounting/finance functions; describes the major functions each system performs, and knows how the system performs those functions; explains the purpose and value of system functions that a client may not be using; identifies when a client is not using a technology package in a proper or efficient manner; learns new technology quickly, understands the essence of technologies, how they can be used, how they interact with other technologies and business functions, what the best methods/benefits are for using them, and applies these technologies to an engagement; actively explores what technologies are coming next and why, and how that applies to clients
• Facilitates effective discovery meetings with clients; uses open ended questions to identify what their objectives are, what financial information they value for management/decision making and why; creates a map of their current internal finance and accounting structure; looks for root causes and does not take information at face value; understands the complexity that can lie behind data
• Designs integrated solutions that respond to the specific situation; open to new ideas and solutions, and avoids "locking-in" to a single solution; knows BDO well enough internally to identify when services outside of AAO should be included and describes what these services achieve and how they operate; outlines the solution in a concise document and vets it internally with their leaders and other BDO stakeholders
• Accurately determines the cost of building a client solution; calculates the benefit to a client in dollar terms of the solution, using the pricing process; compares the differences between the perspectives, and if there is sufficient margin in between (given our confidence in our calculations) to have a profitable engagement, proposes a fixed fee based on current scope for review by leadership
• Formulates recommendations to client leadership on technical accounting issues, financial accounting policies and procedures and financial management issues; educates clients on how their finance and accounting needs will evolve as their business grows; helps clients identify next steps and persuades the client to value those unperceived needs; identifies what needs are critical versus what are not; looks at the business of the client holistically
• Periodically reviews solutions with their clients to determine if it is still the right solution for the current state of the business; develops a compelling future vision for a client; communicates in such a way as to inspire clients to take the journey towards that positive future
• Assertively manages conflict; uses negotiation techniques to drive difficult agreements between opposing parties/ideas and generally leaves parties satisfied with the result
• Supports the client through business changes and helps to facilitate the change management process; is comfortable with ambiguity, knows when to create clarity (or when clarity is possible) versus when to make progress without full definition; acts as a partner to clients, as part of their team; diagnoses the relationships and political structure of clients and appropriately navigates these complexities; quickly and accurately assesses people's perspectives
• Gathers and/or reviews information necessary from the client to execute on engagements; creates, develops and maintains strong business relationships with clients, both internal and external
• Understands tax planning considerations/concepts for various business entities; comprehends the information presented on different tax return forms, analyzes this information to draw conclusions and have an intelligent conversation with clients helping clients navigate business decisions and their potential financial and tax implications; appropriately refers tax related matters to Core Tax and Specialty Tax Services

Business Development

• Supports AAO Leadership with business development strategies and service offerings targeted for various industries; builds sales pipeline and close new business; ensures prospect and sales information is entered into CRM as appropriate
• Refines designed solutions and work plans into a compelling proposal document that speaks the language of the client and identifies the value clients will be receiving
• Evaluates clients for acceptance (e.g., general risk matters, regulations that affect our work, international business, background checks, etc.), and develops statements of work based on solutions they have proposed, with support from their leaders
• Develops a strong understanding of the various industry groups and builds relationships with business development resources; has a deep awareness of the impact that different industries and service offerings have on the technical work and final deliverable; actively participates in industry trade groups and networking events
• Identifies new opportunities to cross sell to existing clients
• Explains the Advisory service offerings, as well as the broader firm to a client, prospect, or contact
• Gains an understanding of the BDO Alliance and BRN Network firms

Developing Others

• Fosters a culture that embraces change and accountability
• Ensures AAO Managers and Staff are trained to understand and perform analytics and forecasting at a level where they are capable of interpreting financial results, recognizing trends and gaining insights into business performance improvements
• Provides training on all relevant software, processes and resources, as appropriate
• Evaluates the performance of AAO Managers and Staff, and assists in developing goals and objectives to enhance professional development that aligns with the firm's and AAO's objectives
• Drives recruiting efforts at all levels and assists with the on-boarding process
• Serves as a resource for the team, having developed an in-depth knowledge and understanding of finance and accounting functions, technology for supporting these functions and how tax planning can differ by industry and business structure; knows what is required from a compliance perspective and what is considered a standard or best practice for the industry or business structure

Project Management

• Creates a work plan following best practices of project management (breaking down projects into phases and tasks, estimating time/budget, setting milestones, managing dependencies, and measuring and reviewing progress)
• Bills engagements in a timely and effective manner, appropriate to the client's situation and the state of the work; contributes to economic management matters such as forecasting and monitoring/managing to key metrics
• Aware of how their practice P&L is structured and can interpret common firm metrics (at a practice and an individual level)
• Accurately scopes a new project and constructs a fee estimate/budget that considers all appropriate details, including, but not limited to: architecting, designing and planning/estimating a tailored client solution; identifies resource requirements and developing transition plan and estimates appropriate margins for the practice and the overall picture of the client relationship
• Oversees client satisfaction with quality of work products, assigned staff, and engagement performance
• Reviews engagement economics for multiple clients to ensure continuous improvement in order to attain practice KPI's
• Other duties as required

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Supervises the day-to-day workload of AAO Managers and Staff; reviews final work products for managers, staff and BSC on assigned engagements and schedules; works in a manner that gives as much notice as possible and with generally reasonable workload and deadline demands
• Acts as Career Advisor to AAO Managers and Staff, as appropriate

Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance OR equivalent experience, required
• MBA or other relevant advanced degree (Masters in Accountancy), preferred

Experience:

• Eight (8) or more years of experience performing general accounting transactions and functions, required
• Four (4) or more years of supervisory experience, required
• Consultative or business advisory experience required
• Experience working with outsourced and/or delivery center operations, preferred

License/Certifications:

• CPA certification, preferred

Software:

• Proficient in the use of the Microsoft Office Suite, specifically Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, required
• Experience utilizing industry standard accounting software and BDO Drive platform software such as Intuit's QuickBooks Online (QBO), Microsoft NAV and Bill.com, preferred