Staff Accountant

Your application will not be considered if you do not currently reside in Middle Tennessee.

Summary

We are hiring our first in-house accountant for 3 related, founder-owned construction companies in Middle Tennessee covering general construction, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing.

This is a full-time, in-office position in Franklin, TN, generally Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The Honest Picture

These are established operating companies doing more than $8 million in combined annual revenue. The companies have over 20 years of history and were built without outside capital.

The accounting infrastructure did not grow with the businesses.

We never had Quick Books or another complete accounting platform before implementing Premier Construction Software by Jonas. Historical information is spread across Excel files, emails, paper records, bank activity, and incomplete uploads.

Premier is only partially implemented. Reconciliations are behind. Some historical costs and labor are mixed between entities. Intercompany procedures, monthly close, WIP reporting, cash forecasting, and dependable management reporting still need to be built.

There is no polished accounting department waiting for you and no full-time controller above you.

This role includes the everyday accounting work of:

• AP and AR
• Billing and cash receipts
• Bookkeeping and transaction review
• Bank and credit-card reconciliations
• GL maintenance and journal entries
• Month-end close
• Intercompany accounting

It also grows into the construction and project side with:

• Job costing
• Budget versus actual reporting
• Percentage-of-completion accounting
• Retainage and pay applications
• Cash-flow visibility
• Historical cleanup
• Completing and maintaining Premier
• Building procedures that do not currently exist

You will not be expected to know every construction accounting concept on day 1. You will be expected to understand US GAAP and full-cycle accounting, recognize what does not make sense, research unfamiliar issues, ask intelligent questions, and take ownership and initiative of finding the right answers and solutions.

Your First Weeks

The first 10 days will be spent learning the 3 companies, active projects, records, current problems, and how the founder and I have operated until now. You will review what exists, ask questions, identify gaps, and help determine what needs immediate attention.

After you get your bearings, we expect to engage a fractional construction controller for a focused period. That person will help with specialized cleanup, close structure, WIP, percentage of completion, reporting, and training.

The controller will not be a permanent boss or a replacement for your ownership of the function. The goal is to build it correctly, transfer the knowledge internally, and give you the support needed to grow into the role.

My primary objective is to ensure whoever fills this role has everything they need from me to succeed.

Who Will Succeed Here

I do not want someone who just wants to fill an accounting seat for the rest of their lives. If you have high aspirations, work hard under pressure, consider yourself a problem solver, and you have the opposite of a '9 to 5' mentality then this position will reward you for being YOU.

We need someone who is:

• Bright, resourceful, and difficult to discourage
• Strong in accounting fundamentals
• Curious about why numbers do not reconcile
• Comfortable researching and solving unfamiliar problems
• Able to work independently without constant supervision
• Willing to challenge me and respectfully say when something is wrong
• Interested in building and growing a function instead of just maintaining one
• Serious about growing beyond an Accounting seat in the future

Preferred, but not required:

• A bachelor’s degree in Accounting
• Two or more years of hands-on accounting experience
• Construction accounting experience

Exceptional accounting graduates with strong fundamentals may still be considered.

Why This is Different

Most Staff Accountants enter a department someone else already built. They inherit a narrow lane, answer to several layers of management, and wait years for someone to decide they are ready for more.

That is Not This Role

You would be the first…