Assistant Controller (Cleveland)

People Architects is excited to recruit for an Assistant Controller for one of our clients.

The Associate Controller owns three areas of work: Assistant Controller support for accounting and reporting, HR and payroll administration for a workforce of ~120, and office management of the administrative team and back-office processes. This is not a role that waits for direction. You will own your work, hit deadlines in a fast-paced environment, and bring problems forward with a recommended fix.

You will partner closely with the Controller and company leadership, take direction-setting responsibility for the admin team (AP, AR, billing), and help the business keep up with its growth.

Key responsibilities:

Accounting and reporting

• Support the monthly close so P&L and financial statements are delivered on time, every month.
• Pull data from QuickBooks (multiple LLCs) into Excel to build monthly P&L, management, and budget-versus-actual reports.
• Maintain and update the annual budget and in-year forecasts as plans change.
• Perform bank, credit-card, and balance-sheet reconciliations.
• Review AP coding and approvals; schedule vendor payments against cash position.
• Oversee customer billing (recurring contract, enhancement/project, snow) and AR aging; drive collection of past-due accounts.
• Support job-costing accuracy by ensuring labor, materials, and equipment are coded to the right job, branch, and service line.
• Flag unusual variances, costs, or trends to the Controller with a recommended next step.
• Help prepare schedules for the outside CPA, insurance audits, and workers' comp audits.

HR and payroll administration

• Process biweekly payroll for ~120 employees across multiple payrolls and entities.
• Verify timecard data from Aspire before payroll is run; resolve discrepancies with field leaders.
• Set up new hires in payroll and systems, and complete onboarding paperwork (I-9, W-4, direct deposit, policies).
• Handle a high volume of hires and terminations driven by seasonal, high-turnover field staff.
• Maintain employee records, pay changes, deductions, and garnishments.
• Administer benefits enrollments, changes, and terminations.
• Coordinate payroll tax filings with the payroll provider and reconcile payroll to the GL.
• Support payroll and onboarding setup for seasonal H-2B workers.
• Keep HR files and documentation audit-ready and confidential.

Office management

• Lead and give day-to-day direction to the administrative team (AP, AR, billing).
• Set recurring deadlines and hold the team accountable for accuracy and completion.
• Cross-train staff so critical tasks have backup coverage.
• Document procedures for recurring accounting, payroll, and admin processes.
• Find manual, repetitive work and streamline or automate it in systems, QuickBooks, and Excel.
• Make sure information flows cleanly between operations, payroll, accounting, and reporting.
• Serve as a member of the leadership team and a go-to resource for managers on admin and finance questions.

Qualifications:

Required

• 3-5+ years of combined accounting and HR/payroll experience, ideally in a fast-paced, growing company
• Hands-on month-end close, reconciliations, and financial reporting experience.
• Full-cycle payroll experience, including multi-entity or multi-payroll environments and hourly field workforces.
• Advanced Excel (pivot tables, lookups, building reports from exported data).
• Strong QuickBooks experience.
• Comfortable learning new systems quickly; strong overall computer skills.
• Experience directing or coordinating the work of an admin or accounting team.

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or business.
• Experience in landscaping, construction, field services, or other job-cost-driven businesses.
• Familiarity with an ERP software (training provided on ours).
• Exposure to H-2B program administration, benefits administration, or workers' comp audits.

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. People Architect and our clients are equal opportunity employers and do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. Applicants for employment with any of People Architect’s clients will ever be asked to provide money (even if reimbursable) as part of the job application or hiring process.

*no external agencies/3rd parties.