Financial Controller

Financial Controller

Owl Bookkeeping and CFO Services

North Loop, Minneapolis | Full-Time

Compensation within the posted range based on demonstrated accounting experience and skills

Own the Accounting Across Multiple Growing Businesses

Owl Bookkeeping and CFO Services is hiring an experienced, hands-on Controller who can independently own accounting engagements, solve difficult accounting problems, and deliver accurate, supported monthly financial statements.

You’ll manage a portfolio of business clients, prepare and review accounting work, guide staff, and communicate directly with business owners. You’ll work alongside bookkeepers, accountants, Controllers, and fractional CFOs who share expertise and collaborate on client needs.

We need someone who can open the general ledger, investigate an unfamiliar balance, determine the appropriate correction, and follow the issue through resolution. You should be equally comfortable completing the work yourself, reviewing someone else’s work, and building a process the team can maintain.

What You’ll Do

• Own monthly closes and financial reporting. Manage client close timelines and prepare and review journal entries, balance sheet reconciliations, supporting schedules, working papers, and financial statements.
• Investigate and resolve accounting issues. Trace discrepancies to underlying transactions and source documents, research accounting treatment, prepare corrections, and verify the results.
• Take responsibility for client engagements. Identify outstanding issues, establish priorities, communicate next steps, and follow through without repeated reminders.
• Review and develop accounting staff. Provide clear direction, identify errors, explain corrections, and determine when to delegate or step in personally.
• Manage time and client budgets thoughtfully. Investigate problems independently, recognize when collaboration will produce a better result, and raise scope or budget concerns early.
• Build reliable accounting processes. Improve close checklists, internal controls, workflows, and SOPs. Document procedures and train staff to maintain them.
• Communicate proactively with clients and colleagues. Explain financial results, request missing information, and flag unresolved issues or delays before they affect deliverables.
• Partner with fractional CFOs. Support cash flow reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and decision-making with dependable financial information.

What You Bring

• 8+ years of progressive accounting experience, including substantial Controller-level responsibility or comparable independent ownership of accounting operations and financial reporting.
• Recent, hands-on ownership of monthly closes, including balance sheet supporting schedules, accruals, adjusting entries, and financial statement preparation.
• Demonstrated experience resolving difficult reconciliations, correcting accounting errors, and completing accounting cleanups.
• Strong QuickBooks Online skills, including transaction-level investigation, general ledger review, reconciliations, and corrections.
• Strong Excel skills, including formulas, lookups, PivotTables, and accounting working papers.
• A solid understanding of GAAP, accrual accounting, and how transactions affect the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow.
• Experience reviewing accounting staff’s work and providing clear, useful feedback.
• The judgment to investigate independently and seek help before an issue consumes unnecessary time or client budget.
• Clear communication, reliable follow-through, and comfort managing competing deadlines.
• A bachelor’s degree in Accounting or a related field.

Experience in outsourced accounting, client accounting services, fractional Controller work, or small and midsize business accounting is especially valuable. Controllers with strong multi-entity experience are also encouraged to apply.

Direct ownership of recurring accounting and monthly close is essential. Candidates whose backgrounds are primarily in tax preparation, audit, or financial analysis should also have substantial recent experience personally preparing and maintaining the books.

How We

Work

Our clients have different systems, accounting needs, and priorities. You may be working through a close when another client needs attention, information is delayed, or a meeting changes.

Success here requires careful accounting alongside practical judgment: knowing what needs further investigation, what can move forward with an open item documented, and when to involve another team member.

We value continuous learning, adaptability, and collaboration. You should be willing to research unfamiliar issues, learn new systems and industries, apply feedback, and consider another approach while maintaining appropriate accounting standards.

Why Owl

• Variety and ongoing relationships: work across businesses and industries while getting to know the owners and teams you support.
• Meaningful ownership: use your expertise to strengthen client accounting and take engagements through completion.
• Collaboration and development: share knowledge with experienced accounting professionals and fractional CFOs.
• Career growth: opportunities through leadership and technical career tracks.

Location and Work Arrangement

This is a long-term position based at our North Loop office in Minneapolis, with regular office attendance Monday through Thursday. Friday is the designated work-from-home day for eligible full-time team members.

Candidates should be comfortable maintaining this arrangement beyond onboarding and training, without expecting additional regularly scheduled remote days.

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Life and disability insurance
• 401(k) with employer matching
• Paid time off
• Designated Friday work-from-home day for eligible full-time team members
• On-site gym

Pay: $95,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Disability insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Application Question(s):

• Describe your recent month-end close responsibilities. What did you personally prepare, reconcile, review, and deliver? How many clients or entities did you support?
• Describe an accounting cleanup or difficult reconciliation you personally resolved. What was wrong, how did you investigate it, and what corrections did you make?
• How have you used QuickBooks Online and Excel in your recent accounting work?
• This position includes ongoing hands-on accounting, staff oversight, and responsibility for multiple clients, with in-person collaboration in Minneapolis. What appeals to you about this working model?
• This is a long-term, in-person position at our North Loop office in Minneapolis. We do have work from home day on Friday. Regular office attendance is an ongoing requirement, including after onboarding and training. Are you willing to commit to this arrangement?

Work Location

In person