Controller

Controller

Our client in Scottsdale, Arizona, is seeking an experienced Controller to lead its accounting department and oversee the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of its financial records, reporting, and internal controls. Reporting directly to the Executive Vice President, the Controller will manage the accounting team, lead the monthly financial close, prepare financial statements, oversee cash management and payroll, and ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards and regulatory requirements.

This role combines hands-on accounting leadership with financial oversight, process improvement, and strategic support for executive leadership. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, analytical, and highly organized, with the ability to maintain strong financial controls, manage competing priorities, and communicate financial results clearly to both finance and non-finance stakeholders.

The Controller will play a critical role in protecting company assets, strengthening financial processes, and ensuring leadership has reliable information to support business decisions. This is a fully on-site position based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Key Responsibilities

• General Ledger & Financial Close
• General Ledger Management: Post journal entries, accruals, and adjusting entries using approved supporting documentation, maintaining an accurate and complete general ledger.
• Month-End Close: Lead monthly, quarterly, and year-end closing processes, ensuring financial statements are completed accurately and within established deadlines.
• Reconciliation Oversight: Review reconciliations prepared independently by the Senior Accountant, investigate discrepancies, approve appropriate adjustments, and post approved entries.
• Accounting Operations: Oversee accounts payable, accounts receivable, billing, and fixed asset accounting.
• Accounting Systems: Maintain the chart of accounts and accounting system configuration to support accurate financial reporting.
• Supporting Schedules: Maintain supporting schedules for prepaid expenses, fixed assets, and accruals as part of the monthly close process.
• Financial Reporting & Analysis
• Financial Statements: Prepare accurate balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
• Budget-to-Actual Analysis: Review financial performance against budgets, identify variances and trends, and provide clear explanations and recommendations to leadership.
• Financial Analysis: Prepare special analyses related to margins, costs, profitability, and other business performance metrics as requested.
• Executive Reporting: Provide timely and reliable financial reporting packages to executive leadership, owners, board members, lenders, and investors as needed.
• Decision Support: Serve as a financial resource to management, helping interpret results and identify opportunities to improve performance.
• Cash Management & Banking
• Cash Position & Forecasting: Monitor daily cash balances, maintain banking relationships, and prepare short-term cash forecasts to support liquidity and operational needs.
• Incoming Funds: Review bank activity daily to identify incoming electronic payments and coordinate receipt details with the Staff Accountant for appropriate posting.
• Check Processing Controls: Verify that front-desk check logs are complete before checks are transferred to the Staff Accountant for deposit.
• Cash Application Oversight: Review payments applied against outstanding client invoices, identify short payments, overpayments, disputes, and unapplied cash, and direct follow-up to resolve discrepancies.
• Outgoing Payments: Execute wires, ACH payments, and transfers from funding packages prepared by the Operations team, using dual control and a second authorized approver. No funds may be released based on a single approval.
• Payment Authorization: Review daily wire reports and approve applicable client reserve releases in accordance with established procedures.
• Intercompany & Internal Transfers: Identify the need for transfers between company accounts, coordinate preparation with the Staff Accountant, and approve and execute transfers under dual control.
• Internal Controls & Compliance
• Accounting Policies & Procedures: Develop, document, and enforce accounting policies and internal controls that protect company assets and promote consistent financial practices.
• Separation of Duties: Maintain clear separation between funding preparation, wire execution, platform posting, general ledger posting, check logging, and reconciliation to ensure no single individual controls a transaction from initiation through reconciliation.
• Payment Security: Enforce approval thresholds, dual authorization for outgoing funds, and independent verification of vendor and client banking changes.
• System Access & Monitoring: Establish appropriate read-only system access for the Senior Accountant and ensure the monthly exception log is delivered to the Executive Vice President.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local accounting, tax, reporting, and licensing requirements.
• Accounting Standards: Monitor changes in accounting standards and regulations and update internal practices as necessary.
• Confidentiality: Protect sensitive financial information, personal data, and confidential company plans.
• Payroll Administration
• Payroll Processing: Run and coordinate payroll each pay period through TriNet, including reviewing timekeeping information and benefits deductions.
• Payroll Reporting: Download payroll reports and prepare Excel pivot tables supporting the payroll register, departmental allocations, and year-end W-2 review.
• Independent Verification: Provide the payroll register to the Senior Accountant for independent reconciliation to bank activity and the general ledger.
• Budgeting & Forecasting
• Annual Budget: Coordinate preparation of the annual operating budget with executive leadership and relevant departments.
• Financial Forecasting: Develop and maintain periodic forecasts to support planning, cash management, and business decisions.
• Expense Monitoring: Track spending against approved budgets, identify unfavorable variances, and recommend corrective action.
• Financial Risk Management: Evaluate financial exposure and recommend ways to improve cash flow, cost management, and overall financial performance.
• Audit & Tax
• External Audit Coordination: Serve as the primary accounting contact for external auditors and tax preparers, coordinating schedules, documentation, and supporting requests.
• Audit & Review Support: Coordinate annual financial statement audits or reviews and oversee the resolution of identified findings.
• Tax Compliance: Oversee applicable sales and use tax, property tax, 1099 reporting, and other required tax filings.
• Documentation & Follow-Through: Maintain accurate supporting documentation and ensure audit and tax requests are addressed promptly.
• Team Leadership & Process Improvement
• Team Management: Hire, train, coach, and evaluate the Staff Accountant, while overseeing the Senior Accountant, whether employed in-house or engaged through an external provider.
• Performance & Development: Establish clear expectations, review work, provide feedback, and develop team members' technical skills and accountability.
• Operational Coverage: Provide backup for the Staff Accountant's platform posting and cash application responsibilities during absences, while maintaining established separation of duties.
• Cross-Functional Support: Advise non-finance departments on accounting and financial matters and act as a trusted partner across the organization.
• Process Improvement: Lead accounting systems and process improvement initiatives, including bank-feed automation and platform integrations, to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Team Culture: Build a collaborative accounting function focused on accuracy, confidentiality, ownership, and timely execution.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• Experience: 7+ years of progressive accounting experience, including at least 3 years in a supervisory, accounting management, or Controller-level role.
• Accounting Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of GAAP, financial statement preparation, general ledger management, and month-end close procedures.
• Internal Controls: Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and maintaining accounting controls, separation-of-duties procedures, and financial approval processes.
• Cash Management: Experience managing cash positions, banking relationships, wires, ACH payments, and financial transfers under appropriate authorization controls.
• Payroll: Experience coordinating payroll processing, reviewing payroll reports, and supporting payroll allocations and year-end reporting.
• Audit & Tax: Experience coordinating external audits or reviews and overseeing tax compliance and reporting.
• Budgeting & Forecasting: Ability to develop budgets, analyze financial results, investigate variances, and prepare cash flow forecasts.
• Software & Systems: Proficiency with accounting or ERP systems and Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables, formulas, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and the ability to interpret and maintain existing spreadsheets.
• Certifications: CPA or CMA certification preferred but not required.
• Additional Experience: Experience with multiple legal entities, intercompany accounting, or industry-specific accounting operations preferred.
• Process Improvement: Experience leading an accounting system implementation, automation initiative, or process improvement project preferred.

Key Skills & Attributes

• Leadership: Ability to lead and develop an accounting team while maintaining high standards for accuracy and accountability.
• Attention to Detail: Thorough and methodical approach to financial records, reconciliations, payroll, reporting, and payment processing.
• Integrity & Discretion: Demonstrate