Full Cycle Accountant & Compliance Lead

Job Description

Job Description

Full Cycle Accountant & Compliance Lead
Optimize Accounting Solutions, a full-service CPA firm, leading with Proactive Tax planning & Advisory
Location: Bay Area, CA
Job Type: Full-Time | Hybrid (In-Office 2-3 Days Per Week)
Compensation: $60,000 - $95,000 + Performance Bonus

ABOUT OPTIMIZE ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONS
Optimize Accounting Solutions is a fast-growing, women-led tax planning and advisory firm led by Parmjit (Pam) Brar, CPA, CTS. We specialize in serving small- to mid-size businesses in the healthcare and technology sectors, as well as high-income professionals, including physicians, dentists, and healthcare and tech executives, primarily across the Bay Area and California.

We hold ourselves to a standard most accounting firms don't reach. Every client interaction is proactive. Every deliverable is on time. Every communication is warm and professional. We call this our white-glove standard: nothing falls through the cracks, no one chases us for an update, and every client feels like they're our only client.

Our services include Tax Planning & Advisory, Tax Preparation, Fractional CFO Services, Monthly Bookkeeping, Payroll Compliance, Government Notice Resolution, and Business Compliance.

Our Core Values
Everyone on our team is expected to work in line with these values:

• We Deliver Excellence: Verified, Every Time
• We Put Our Clients' Future First, Always
• We Always Raise the Bar
• We Invest in People. We Build Leaders.

THE ROLE
We're looking for an experienced, hands-on Accounting & Compliance Lead to own our accounting and compliance function: the small team responsible for ongoing bookkeeping, month-end close, and compliance filings for our full client portfolio.

This is a hands-on leadership role, not a staff bookkeeping position. You are the person who makes sure the accounting side of the firm runs on its own, accurately, on schedule, and without needing to be chased. You'll manage the team's day-to-day work, review it before it's considered done, train and coach team members, own the compliance calendar end to end, and keep leadership informed with real numbers rather than a general sense that things are mostly done.

You'll work closely with our Delivery Manager, who will shift her focus toward tax planning and advisory as this role takes full ownership of accounting and compliance delivery.

If you are a CPA-firm-trained accountant who wants to see the full picture, own outcomes, and build something, this role is for you.

WORK ARRANGEMENT
This role is hybrid. You will work in the office in the Bay Area, CA, for 2-3 days per week on a defined schedule.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Accountability

• Lead and manage a small accounting team (currently ~3 members), including remote team members.
• Conduct regular check-ins to review workload, priorities, deadlines, and outstanding client items.
• Assign tasks, review completed work, and deliver specific, documented feedback rather than general impressions.
• Track recurring feedback: if you have to give the same correction more than once, treat it as a training gap to close, not a one-off note.
• Identify delays early and resolve them before they become client-facing problems.
• If the team hasn't completed something for any reason, step in to get it done, then fix the underlying process so it doesn't recur.
• Build a culture where reliability and follow-through matter as much as technical accuracy.

Month-End Close Ownership

• Own the month-end close calendar across the full client portfolio, with clear internal checkpoints:
• Complete bookkeeping and reconciliations and close the books by the 5th of the following month.
• Financials reviewed and ready by the 10th.
• Final review and client delivery window runs the 10th-15th.
• Monitor outstanding reconciliations, missing documentation, and client questions that put the calendar at risk, and flag them before the deadline, not after.
• Personally review completed month-end work before a client's books are considered closed.

Client Onboarding

• Own new client onboarding independently: kickoff call, QuickBooks Online setup (chart of accounts, opening balances, bank feeds), and transition from any prior system.
• Identify prior-period gaps or compliance issues on day one and proactively communicate a remediation plan, rather than letting them surface later.

Compliance: Ongoing and Deadline-Driven

• Own the firm's business compliance calendar for all clients, including:
• 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC: vendor identification, issuance, and filing by IRS deadlines.
• Statement of Information (SOI) filings and business license renewals.
• Sales tax prepayments and returns.
• Government notice response (CP2000, CP501, CP503, and similar) handled independently through to resolution.
• Maintain a live tracker of every compliance deadline and its status. Nothing is considered done until it is documented as done, and undocumented work is treated as incomplete.
• Provide leadership with a simple, accurate weekly status view: what's on track, what's at risk, and what's overdue across the whole portfolio, not only the items that get asked about.

Training & Quality Control

• Train new and existing team members on accounting and compliance procedures for each client.
• Build Loom or similar training videos for recurring workflows so knowledge doesn't live in one person's head.
• Document client-specific bookkeeping and compliance requirements clearly enough that someone else could pick up the account.
• Review in-house team bookkeeping work before it's considered client-ready.

SOP Documentation & Process Improvement

• Document SOPs for all recurring accounting, payroll, and compliance workflows as you build or refine them.
• Operating principle: if it isn't documented, it isn't done. Verbal updates and “I took care of it” don't substitute for a written, findable record.
• Identify inefficiencies in current processes and propose and implement improvements.

Client Communication

• Ensure all client questions and requests are acknowledged and addressed within 48 hours.
• Maintain professional, proactive communication that reflects the firm's white-glove standard.

Reporting to Management

• Provide leadership with clear visibility into team capacity, client status, and upcoming risk on your own initiative, not only when asked.
• Escalate issues that need leadership input early enough to actually act on them.

Qualifications

Must Have

• Minimum of 3-5 years of hands-on, full-cycle bookkeeping experience, ideally within a CPA firm or professional accounting environment.
• Strong working knowledge of QuickBooks Online, including troubleshooting, reconciliations, and reporting.
• Experience with payroll platforms (ADP, Gusto, and/or Paychex) and payroll-to-QBO journal entry mapping.
• Demonstrated experience managing, supervising, or serving as lead for an accounting or bookkeeping team.
• Solid understanding of business compliance requirements: 1099 filings, SOI/business license renewals, sales tax, and IRS notice response.
• Strong understanding of reconciliations, general ledger activity, financial statements, and month-end close.
• A track record of meeting deadlines consistently, not just doing accurate work eventually. We will ask for specific examples in the interview process.
• Comfortable documenting your own work and holding others accountable to documenting theirs.
• Clear, professional communication with clients, team members, and management.
• Ability to manage multiple client accounts and deadlines simultaneously without items falling through the cracks.
• Ability and willingness to keep up with new technology and AI tools in order to work more efficiently and stay current in the field.
• High integrity and sensitivity to confidential financial information.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States.

Strong Plus

• Active CPA license, CPA candidate, or EA.
• QBO ProAdvisor certification.
• California-specific compliance experience.
• Experience with TaxDome or similar practice management software.
• Experience with AI-assisted accounting or research tools.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $60,000-$95,000, based on experience.
• Performance Bonus: tied to client satisfaction, client retention, on-time deliverables, team accuracy, and team performance, not just attendance.
• Yearly salary review.
• Medical insurance (company-sponsored).
• Retirement plan with employer match.
• 80 hours paid vacation annually.
• 40 hours paid sick time annually.
• 10 company-paid holidays annually.

Growth Path

We promote on performance, not tenure:

• Accounting & Compliance Lead (starting title)
• Accounting & Compliance Supervisor: clients managed independently, client satisfaction consistently 8 or higher out of 10, zero missed deadlines for 3 consecutive quarters.
• Accounting & Compliance Manager: full department leadership, mentoring, driving firm-wide systems improvements.

HOW TO APPLY
We review every application personally. To be considered, please submit:

• Your resume, with specific accounting/bookkeeping firm experience listed.
• A brief cover letter or video recording answering two questions: (1) Walk us through how you'd onboard a new client into QuickBooks Online, from kickoff call to first month-end close. (2) Tell us about a time a deadline was genuinely at risk on your watch. What happened, and what did you do?
• CPA/EA status and any relevant certifications (e.g., QBO ProAdvisor).

Strong candidates will be invited to a phone screen, followed by a technical assessment and an in-depth interview with our leadership team. We move quickly for the right person.

Optimize Accounting Solutions is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse, high-performing team.

Optimize Accounting Solutions is a women-led tax planning and advisory firm founded and led by Parmjit (Pam) Brar, CPA, CTS, based in the Bay Area, California. Pam brings more than 20 years of individual experience in tax strategy and planning, and founded OAS in 2014 to bring that level of expertise to a dedicated, proactive advisory firm. Over more than a decade, OAS has built a strong foundation of client trust and results, and we are now in an active growth phase, expanding our team and capacity to serve even more clients at the same high standard. We specialize in serving small- to mid-size businesses in the healthcare and technology sectors, as well as high-income professionals such as physicians, dentists, and executives, across the Bay Area, California, and other states. Our services include Tax Planning and Advisory, Tax Preparation, Fractional CFO Services, Monthly Bookkeeping, Payroll Processing and Compliance, Government Notice Resolution, and Business Compliance for clients locally and nationwide.

We hold ourselves to a white-glove standard: every client interaction is proactive, every deliverable is on time, and every client feels like they are our only client. We help business owners and professionals avoid overpaying in taxes and maximize their financial outcomes, all while operating with the highest moral and ethical standards.

We invest in our team the same way we invest in our clients. At OAS, you will find a firm where A-players own outcomes, performance drives growth, and the work you do directly impacts the clients and communities we serve. We offer a meaningful career, real ownership of your work, and a clear path to leadership for those who earn it. Everything we do is grounded in four core values.

Company Description

Optimize Accounting Solutions is a women-led tax planning and advisory firm founded and led by Parmjit (Pam) Brar, CPA, CTS, based in the Bay Area, California. Pam brings more than 20 years of individual experience in tax strategy and planning, and founded OAS in 2014 to bring that level of expertise to a dedicated, proactive advisory firm. Over more than a decade, OAS has built a strong foundation of client trust and results, and we are now in an active growth phase, expanding our team and capacity to serve even more clients at the same high standard. We specialize in serving small- to mid-size businesses in the healthcare and technology sectors, as well as high-income professionals such as physicians, dentists, and executives, across the Bay Area, California, and other states. Our services include Tax Planning and Advisory, Tax Preparation, Fractional CFO Services, Monthly Bookkeeping, Payroll Processing and Compliance, Government Notice Resolution, and Business Compliance for clients locally and nationwide.\n\nWe hold ourselves to a white-glove standard: every client interaction is proactive, every deliverable is on time, and every client feels like they are our only client. We help business owners and professionals avoid overpaying in taxes and maximize their financial outcomes, all while operating with the highest moral and ethical standards.\n\nWe invest in our team the same way we invest in our clients. At OAS, you will find a firm where A-players own outcomes, performance drives growth, and the work you do directly impacts the clients and communities we serve. We offer a meaningful career, real ownership of your work, and a clear path to leadership for those who earn it. Everything we do is grounded in four core values.