Bookkeeping/Accountant for Aus Construction Company

Role Overview
This is a full-time, remote bookkeeping/accountant role supporting a fast-growing NSW-based construction and project management firm operating across private residential, government housing, and manufacturing divisions.

The primary focus of this role is financial ownership — taking control of Xero, reconciliation, payroll, invoicing, and cross-entity cost allocation so the business owner can step back from daily financial tasks and operate at CEO level.

This is not a generalist VA role with bookkeeping bolted on. The financial function is the core, with reporting and operational support built around it. The right person will be very analytically strong, proactively autonomous, and capable of growing into a financial reporting function over time.

Role Details
Employment Type: Full-Time Virtual Tea ---------- mber
Working Days: Monday to Friday
Working Hours: 7:00am – 4:00pm AEST


What Success Looks Like
Within the first 30–60 days, success in this role looks like:

The director opens a weekly report and has a clear picture of every project's financial and operational status — without digging for the data himself.
Reconciliation, payroll, and invoicing are handled accurately and on time, every week.
A financial dashboard is built and maintained across all active projects.
Red flags — budget depletion without milestone completion, cost overruns, allocation errors — are surfaced proactively before the director notices them.
SOPs are documented as each task is handed over, building a reliable knowledge base.

Key Responsibilities
Financial Management & Bookkeeping
Daily bank reconciliation in Xero across all entities
Invoice management: review, allocate and confirm drafts from project management platforms into Xero
Weekly payroll processing for permanent and ad hoc staff
Weekly supplier payments, transitioning from daily to weekly pay runs
Cross-entity expense allocation across residential, remedial and government business lines
BAS and IAS preparation each quarter
Quarterly Xero business line review to catch misallocations across three tracking codes
Monthly P&L compilation
Ad hoc quoting and tender documentation support

Reporting & Financial Dashboard
Build and maintain a weekly financial dashboard across all active projects: contract sum, current costs, forecasted costs and variances
Weekly cash flow reporting and monthly detailed cash flow comparisons (month-on-month and year-on-year)
Cash flow projection modelling including milestone impact scenarios
Extract and compile schedule and progress data for the director's weekly project overview
Proactively flag red flags: budget depletion without milestone completion, cost overruns, allocation errors

Day-to-Day Communication & Task Management
Send a morning WhatsApp message with priorities for the day
Send an end-of-day email report covering completed tasks, work in progress, and items requiring the director's attention or approval
Manage and maintain the Trello task board across daily, weekly and monthly cadences
Assist with scheduling integration through Motion
Maintain a 'car park' list — capturing ideas and medium-term goals raised by the director for follow-up at the right time

Operational & Administrative Support
Project administration: building contracts and paperwork for project commencement and completion
Insurance management: maintaining and renewing workers compensation, vehicle, and business insurance policies
OneDrive document management: updating job folders with revised plans, specs, or documents
Permit and application form completion as directed (ad hoc)
Liaise with the Project Coordinator during the transition period as tasks are handed over
Document SOPs in the handbook as each task is handed over
Occasional external contact with certifiers and suppliers via email and phone when directed
Legacy data extraction from prior system as required during the transition period

Technology Stack

Xero: Primary accounting — reconciliation, payroll, BAS/IAS, batch payments, financial reporting (mandatory, high proficiency required)
WunderBuild: Residential project management: invoicing, scheduling (training provided)
Plexa: Government project management: invoicing, financials, AI invoice scanning; integrates with Xero
OneDrive: Document management and job folder storage
Trello: Task and workflow management across daily, weekly and monthly cadences
Motion: Director's scheduling and note management tool
WhatsApp: Primary day-to-day communication: morning messages and task clarifications

Email (Outlook): Formal communication and end-of-day reports


Qualifications & Experience
Essential
Strong bookkeeping background with hands-on Australian Xero experience — non-negotiable
Familiarity with Australian tax obligations: BAS, IAS, payroll, and GST allocation
Comfortable managing financial complexity across multiple entities or business lines
Analytically strong — capable of building dashboards and reports from raw platform data
Understands project-based financials: milestone tracking, budget vs actuals, cost forecasting
Proactive communicator with strong written and verbal English
Able to work autonomously in a fast-paced environment without daily direction

Preferred
Construction or trades industry exposure — fast learning of industry-specific platforms is essential if not
Degree in accounting or finance (not mandatory if competence is clearly demonstrated)
Experience with Excel for dashboards and reporting
Prior familiarity with WunderBuild or similar construction project management platforms

Who You Are
The person who thrives in this role will recognise themselves in most of the following:

Analytical Thinker — you go beyond processing data to interpreting it. You spot patterns, flag anomalies and ask why when something looks off.
Proactively Autonomous — you don't wait to be told what to do next. You work through your task list and communicate progress without needing to be chased.
Detail-Obsessed — you catch the small things: the misallocated invoice, the GST error, the milestone not ticked but the budget almost gone.
Fast Learner — you pick up new platforms and processes quickly and don't need hand-holding once shown.
Calm Communicator — you can keep pace with a fast-moving, ideas-driven director without getting flustered. You ask the right questions to get clarity.
Systems Builder — you naturally document what you do. You see the value in SOPs and contribute to them without being asked.
Commercially Aware — you understand that the numbers you manage represent real projects, real deadlines, and real consequences.
Reliable Under Routine — you handle repetitive financial tasks with consistent accuracy and never treat routine as low priority.
Initiative-Taker — you don't just tick tasks. You see what's coming, prepare for it, and surface things the director doesn't yet know he needs to know.
Discreet and Trustworthy — you will have access to sensitive financial data across multiple entities and partnership structures. Confidentiality is non-negotiable.

Important Notes for Applicants
A few things to be aware of before applying:

This business operates across multiple entities (residential, remedial, and government), each with separate Xero tracking codes and, in some cases, separate bank accounts. Cross-entity cost allocation is a core task from day one. You must be comfortable managing this complexity.
The director is direct, fast-moving, and high-achieving. He will respond well to someone who pushes back constructively, asks the obvious question, and shows initiative. A passive or overly deferential approach will not be a good fit.
This is not a task-ticking role. We are looking for someone who creates tasks as much as completes them.
The director generates ideas and instructions quickly, not always framed as formal tasks. Capturing everything, distinguishing between 'idea I just had' and 'immediate action', and flagging medium-term items is a core part of the job.
Red flag identification — recognising signals like a milestone not completed but the budget nearly depleted — is a trained skill, not a day-one expectation. However, the analytical mindset and commercial awareness to get there must already exist.

IMPORTANT: To be eligible for review, you must fill out this form with a video as it's easier for me to shortlist in one place: ----------