Asst. Business Manager (Ideal for Senior Tax Accountants)

Leave tax without starting over

You’ve spent about four years preparing complex individual and business returns at a solid public accounting firm. You’re good at it. You’re also tired of busy season, and you’ve started to worry that every year you stay makes tax the only thing anyone will hire you to do. At the same time, you don’t want to throw those years away by starting over as a staff accountant.

This role is built for that situation. It is a senior-level client accounting and business management role at Leftbrain, a firm that manages the finances of musicians and their teams. It is not a tax position, and you won’t prepare returns. Our Tax department does that. You’ll own a portfolio of client relationships and the accounting behind them, and your tax background is a big part of why you’ll be good at it.

What your tax experience is worth here

Some of it gets used directly. You’ll review returns our Tax department has already prepared and reviewed, checking them against what you know about the client’s current situation and catching what isn’t obvious from the workpapers. Then you’ll walk the client through their return. You’ll also be the person clients and bookkeepers come to when they want to know whether something is a business expense, whether it’s deductible, what a SEP or 401(k) would save them, what records a vehicle deduction needs, or whether stage wardrobe counts.

The rest carries over as technical skill. If you’ve analyzed small and medium-sized companies' financial statements, cleaned up messy books before you could start the return, classified hard transactions, and handed AJEs to a client’s bookkeeper, you’ve already done most of what our monthly close asks. Our systems and close process are fully trained, and for someone coming out of tax they’re a light lift.

The role

You’ll serve as an Assistant Business Manager on one of our client teams, reporting to a Business Manager and working alongside a Bookkeeper and other support staff. Most of your time goes to client relationships and service, but the accounting is the foundation of the role, and it has to be right. You’ll be responsible for:

• Serving as the day-to-day contact and advisor for your clients and their teams

• Leading new clients through onboarding, from gathering documents and account access to getting them running on our systems

• Responding promptly to client requests and keeping clients informed until each one is resolved

• Acting quickly on urgent issues, such as a fraudulent charge or a last-minute payment, and bringing in your Business Manager when the situation calls for it

• Owning the monthly close for your portfolio and reviewing the Bookkeeper’s work

• Reconciling and cleaning up problem accounts, with review-ready workpapers

• Preparing and analyzing client financial reports and managing bill pay

• Using our proprietary tools and automation daily, and giving feedback that helps us improve them

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in accounting from an accredited university

• 4 to 6 years of accounting experience with at least 3 of those years in tax at a regional or larger CPA firm

• Hands-on preparation of both individual and business returns. Individual returns should include complex returns with multiple income sources and schedules. Business returns should include SMB where you analyzed the financial statements and prepared adjusting journal entries for the client’s bookkeeper.

• Experience preparing dozens (but not hundreds) of complex returns a year with proper workpapers and training, under review by a CPA

• The ability to explain tax and accounting issues to non-technical clients, including when the news isn’t good

• Comfort managing competing requests across multiple clients and keeping your Business Manager informed without being asked

• Residence in Los Angeles County for occasional local travel

This role draws on judgment built by preparing complex returns end to end under CPA review. Experience limited to high volumes of simple returns, or to small pieces of a few very large engagements, usually won’t translate as well.

You should like being the person clients call and stay calm when something goes wrong. You’ll hold your own work and others’ work to a high bar, and follow the firm’s processes rather than working around them.

Appreciated

• CPA designation

• Experience with QuickBooks Online and Bill.com

• Background in entertainment or music

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $90,000 to $120,000 base salary

• Bonus: 10% annual target bonus

• Health Coverage: Health insurance, including dental and vision, competitive with top-tier public accounting firms

• Retirement: 401(k) with employer match

• Time Off: Unlimited PTO, plus 10 sick days per year

• Remote Work: $80 monthly work-from-home stipend

About Leftbrain

Leftbrain was founded in 2019 to do business management differently for musicians and their teams. We’ve built proprietary tools that automate low-value work so our people can spend their time on clients. We hire strong people and give them real ownership of their client relationships, along with clear standards. Staff who deliver can grow their careers as fast as their performance supports. That isn’t for everyone, but the results speak for themselves.

Pay: $90,000.00 - $120,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)

• 401(k) matching

• Bereavement leave

• Continuing education credits

• Dental insurance

• Dependent health insurance coverage

• Family leave

• Flexible spending account

• Health insurance

• Health savings account

• Internet reimbursement

• Life insurance

• Mileage reimbursement

• Opportunities for advancement

• Paid sick time

• Paid time off

• Retirement plan

• Unlimited paid time off

• Vision insurance

• Work from home

Work Location: Remote