Full-Charge Bookkeeper / Accounting Operations Lead at PatentVC in Los Altos, California

Full-Charge Bookkeeper & Accounting Controls Lead

Trademarkia, PatentVC, and affiliated businesses are seeking a highly detail-oriented Full-Charge Bookkeeper & Accounting Controls Lead to manage day-to-day accounting, reconciliations, internal controls, refund workflows, IOLTA/client trust-accounting support, and management reporting across a global, multi-entity business.

This role is responsible for keeping the books accurate, current, reconciled, and ready for outside CPA review. The ideal candidate has strong QuickBooks experience, understands accrual-basis accounting, can work across multiple entities and bank accounts, and is comfortable identifying errors, missing support, unusual transactions, and control issues.

This is not a basic data-entry bookkeeping role. The person in this position will help protect the integrity of the company's financial records across more than 20 bank, credit-card, payment, trust, and treasury accounts, while supporting seven different businesses and providing monthly financial reports and charts to management.

Primary Mission

• Maintain accurate books in QuickBooks across multiple affiliated businesses.
• Record vendor invoices, customer payments, refunds, reimbursements, payroll-related entries, bank activity, credit-card activity, Stripe activity, Wise/TransferWise activity, IOLTA activity, and line-of-credit transactions.
• Maintain accrual-basis accounting records.
• Ensure invoices are recorded when received, not only when paid.
• Review AP, AR, vendor balances, customer balances, payroll entries, and intercompany activity.
• Identify miscoded expenses, duplicate entries, missing invoices, unapplied payments, unrecorded liabilities, and unusual transactions.
• Support monthly and year-end close processes.

Reconciliations Across 20+ Accounts

• Reconcile more than 20 financial accounts monthly, including bank accounts, credit cards, Stripe, Wise/TransferWise, IOLTA/client trust accounts, lines of credit, and other payment accounts.
• Ensure QuickBooks balances match account statements and supporting records.
• Investigate and resolve discrepancies promptly.
• Maintain organized reconciliation files and supporting documentation.
• Review old or unreconciled transactions and help clean up historical accounting records.
• Ensure all 2025 transactions are complete, properly categorized, reconciled, and ready for outside CPA review.

Internal Audit & Controls

• Support internal audit procedures across seven affiliated businesses.
• Help maintain strong financial controls over payments, refunds, transfers, reimbursements, credit cards, bank accounts, and trust-accounting activity.
• Flag transactions lacking proper authorization, invoice support, business purpose, or management approval.
• Identify and escalate unusual vendor payments, credit-card overpayments, refund issues, duplicate payments, rewards-points misuse, unauthorized purchases, or other anomalies.
• Maintain clear segregation of duties where possible.
• Help ensure that no single person has unchecked authority to initiate, approve, record, and reconcile funds.
• Report control concerns clearly and directly to management.

IOLTA & Trust Accounting Support

• Support IOLTA and client trust-accounting workflows.
• Reconcile trust-account activity to bank statements and internal records.
• Help ensure client funds are properly tracked, documented, and separated from operating funds.
• Review trust-related deposits, disbursements, refunds, transfers, and balances.
• Escalate any discrepancy, unsupported transfer, or unusual trust-account activity immediately.

Refunds, Payments & Money Movement

• Process and track customer refunds, payment reversals, vendor refunds, and account credits.
• Ensure refunds are properly approved, documented, recorded, and reconciled.
• Review Stripe, Wise/TransferWise, bank, and credit-card refund activity.
• Track refund status and resolve discrepancies between payment platforms and QuickBooks.
• Help maintain controls around money movement, transfers, reimbursements, and vendor payments.

Outside CPA Coordination

• Work directly with the outside CPA to provide schedules, reconciliations, reports, account details, and supporting documentation.
• Support 2025 tax-readiness work by helping clean up, categorize, and reconcile accounting records.
• Track open CPA requests and ensure timely responses.
• Prepare workpapers and supporting schedules for year-end tax review.
• Assist with R&D tax credit documentation and other CPA-requested information as needed.
• Maintain books in a condition suitable for tax preparation and outside CPA review.

Monthly Reports, Charts & Management Dashboards

• Prepare monthly financial reports for management.
• Create charts and summaries showing cash balances, receivables, payables, expenses, refunds, revenue trends, vendor payments, and account activity.
• Build and maintain Google Sheets or Excel reports for leadership review.
• Track KPIs and financial trends across seven businesses.
• Present findings clearly, including issues requiring management attention.
• Help improve reporting visibility across the global business.

QuickBooks, Systems & Process Improvement

• Maintain and improve QuickBooks chart of accounts, classes, entities, rules, bank feeds, and reconciliation workflows.
• Help automate recurring entries, bank feeds, categorization rules, and reporting processes.
• Improve documentation, close checklists, refund procedures, reconciliation processes, and control workflows.
• Help reduce manual data entry and improve accuracy through better system setup and process discipline.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Economics, or a related field.
• 3+ years of bookkeeping, accounting operations, full-charge bookkeeping, or similar experience.
• Strong QuickBooks experience, including bank feeds, reconciliations, journal entries, chart of accounts, AP, AR, and month-end close.
• Experience reconciling bank accounts, credit cards, payment platforms, and loan or line-of-credit accounts.
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills, including formulas, reports, charts, and data analysis.
• Experience preparing schedules and supporting documentation for an outside CPA.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to identify errors, missing support, duplicate transactions, and unusual activity.
• Ability to work across multiple entities, accounts, departments, and stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• High integrity, confidentiality, and willingness to raise concerns when something does not look right.
• Authorized to work in the United States.
• Able to work in person in San Jose approximately 3-4 days per week.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with IOLTA, client trust accounting, law firm accounting, or professional-services accounting.
• Experience with Stripe, Wise/TransferWise, Chase, bill-pay systems, payroll platforms, expense systems, or treasury tools.
• Experience supporting a company with multiple entities or affiliated businesses.
• Experience with internal controls, internal audit, refund workflows, or payment controls.
• Experience cleaning up prior-year books for tax filing.
• Experience managing or reviewing the work of junior bookkeepers or offshore accounting support.
• Interest in legal technology, intellectual property, AI, startups, or global operations.

What Success Looks Like

• Keep QuickBooks accurate, current, and reconciled.
• Reconcile 20+ accounts monthly.
• Help close and clean up 2025 records for outside CPA review.
• Maintain strong documentation for all payments, refunds, transfers, and reconciliations.
• Prepare useful monthly reports and charts for management.
• Catch errors, duplicate payments, missing invoices, refund issues, miscoded transactions, and unusual account activity.
• Support IOLTA and trust-accounting workflows with care and accuracy.
• Help strengthen accounting controls across seven businesses.