Bookkeeper - 4-Day Work Week

Bookkeeper 4-Day Work Week | Client Advisory Services | Remote, Across Canada McLenehan and Associates Chartered Professional Accountants

Why You'll Love Working Here

• 4-Day Work Week: Four 8-hour days.
• Remote First: Work from anywhere in Canada. Our Client Advisory Services team is remote by design, not as an accommodation.
• Competitive Salary: $50,000 to $60,000, commensurate with experience. Full-time pay for fewer hours.
• A Book You Can Actually Know: A portfolio of clients you work on daily so you know them well enough to see what their owners should be asking about.
• Real Review, Real Support: Your work is reviewed by a CPA controller who coaches rather than corrects.
• Generous Time Off: 3 weeks of vacation plus a paid week during the December holidays.
• Paid Growth: Firm-funded training and professional development.
• Retirement Ready: RRSP contribution matching to support your long-term financial security.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Prescription, dental, and vision coverage.

The Opportunity

Most bookkeeping jobs are built around the calendar. Files arrive, you process them, they close, and next month they arrive again. The advice, if there is any, happens somewhere above you. This is not that job. McLenehan and Associates CPAs is a growing Winnipeg-based accounting firm serving hundreds of incorporated Canadian small businesses, from monthly bookkeeping and year-end compliance through to Fractional CFO and Virtual Controller services. Our Client Advisory Services team sits at the front of that work. We are inside a small group of client businesses every single day, keeping their books current in real time so their owners can make decisions on numbers that are accurate today, not accurate six weeks ago. That changes the shape of the job. You will carry a portfolio of clients, and you will know those businesses properly. You will handle the daily flow of their transactions and their questions, decide what needs your attention first, and bring your controller the things that genuinely need a CPA. Nobody will hand you a task list each morning. The work is yours to run. We are building this team around capable, self-directed bookkeepers. That is a deliberate choice, and it means real ownership and real influence over how the department operates as it grows. We are not looking for someone to grow into this. We are looking for someone who has already held a book of clients together, made the calls, and kept it clean. If you have been that person and you would like it to be the actual job description rather than the thing nobody notices, keep reading.

What You'll Do

Daily Client Ownership

• Own a daily portfolio of roughly four to ten client files, keeping each set of books current and review-ready: categorizing incoming transactions, clearing uncategorized and unmatched items, and following up with clients on missing documentation.
• Own the daily inflow to your clients’ dedicated accounting email addresses. You are the first point of contact for anything arriving there: sort it, action what you can, and pull in the CPA controller when a question calls for their input.
• Work directly with client-side accounting staff where a client keeps part of the bookkeeping in house. Bookkeeping standards vary widely from client to client, so a meaningful part of the role is reviewing their entries, correcting what comes through before it reaches your controller, and coaching where it will keep the same issue from recurring next month.
• Set priorities across multiple clients and competing deadlines without day-to-day direction.
• Communicate directly and professionally with client contacts through proactive follow-up and consistent delivery on commitments. Full-Cycle Bookkeeping
• Perform full-cycle bookkeeping in QuickBooks Online, including transaction categorization, bank and credit card reconciliations, accounts payable and receivable management, and month-end close to trial balance.
• Prepare GST/HST and provincial sales tax returns before deadlines, and process payroll as assigned.
• Use cloud accounting and automation tools to deliver quality work within client fee expectations.
• Support the onboarding and setup of new Client Advisory Services clients as the team grows. Working With Your Controller
• Prepare working papers and month-end files so your controller is reviewing quality work rather than rebuilding it.
• Know what needs escalation and what does not. Batch your questions and bring your controller the issues that genuinely require CPA judgment.
• Flag process improvements and advisory opportunities as you spot them. You see these books more often than anyone else in the firm. Perform all duties as assigned.

What to Expect in Your First

90 DAYS Taking over a portfolio of live client books takes time, and we do not expect you to carry the full load on day one. Here is how the ramp usually goes. First 30 days: Onboarding to our systems and QuickBooks Online file conventions, working alongside your controller on live client files, and gradually take on clients. You will meet your client contacts, learn the history of each file, and begin handling the daily transaction flow with close review. Days 30 to 60: Your portfolio grows toward its full size. You run the daily inflow on your own files, complete your first full month-end close cycle, and start fielding routine client questions directly rather than passing them up. Days 60 to 90: You are carrying your full portfolio. Month-end close, sales tax filings, and client communication are yours to run, with your controller reviewing your work rather than directing it. By this point we expect you to be raising process improvements and advisory opportunities you have spotted in your own books.

What We're Looking for

What you need:

• Minimum 1 year of full-cycle bookkeeping experience, taking files through to trial balance. Past roles limited to accounts payable or receivable alone will not prepare you for this position.
• Hands-on, current proficiency in QuickBooks Online. This one is essential. It is the platform our Client Advisory Services clients run on.
• Demonstrated experience managing several clients or entities at once, with proven ability to prioritize independently against competing deadlines.
• Working knowledge of Canadian payroll processing and GST/HST and provincial sales tax compliance.
• Strong written communication. You may be working hours ahead of your controller, so clear notes and well-framed questions matter.
• A reliable home office setup and secure, stable internet.
• Legally entitled to work in Canada, with a working day that overlaps substantially with Central Time. You will stand out if you have:
• Experience in public practice, an outsourced accounting or client advisory firm, or a virtual bookkeeping firm serving multiple clients at the same time.
• Experience working with or having your work reviewed by a CPA.
• QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification, or Certified Professional Bookkeeper (CPB) designation completed or in progress. Welcome, but not required.
• Familiarity with receipt capture and workflow tools such as Dext, Plooto, Float, or Karbon.
• Exposure to Xero or Sage.

Who You Are

Top performers will recognize themselves in this list:

• You are self-sufficient. Give you a portfolio and you will run it, resolving most of what comes up without needing someone online beside you.
• You are comfortable with urgency. When twelve things land, you know which three matter this morning, and you do not need that explained to you.
• You are genuinely interested in your clients’ businesses. You will be in the same books daily, and the people who thrive in this work find that depth satisfying rather than repetitive.
• You would rather be reviewed and get it right than be left alone and hope.
• You are diplomatic when you find errors. Some of your clients will have their own staff entering transactions, and par