Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Sam Brown Healthcare Communications is a trusted communications partner in the life sciences industry. They are seeking a Project Accountant to manage the financial mechanics of agency operations, including project setup, client billing, and accounts receivable.
Responsibilities
- Open new projects and maintain existing projects in the project management system, ensuring SOW terms, budgets, rates, and billing structure are accurately reflected
- Close out old and inactive projects, performing write-offs where applicable in partnership with FP&A
- Secure applicable client purchase orders (POs) and ensure they are in place ahead of invoicing
- Execute time transfers within the project management system as needed to reflect accurate project costing
- Own the monthly client invoicing cycle end-to-end: review and approve agency hours and time entries, validate third-party purchases against budgets, produce invoices, and deliver them via email or client portal upload
- Post final client invoices into QuickBooks/NetSuite and provide final billing reports to Blue Matter Corporate
- Approve client-related out-of-pocket purchases and vendor invoices, entering them into the project management system with proper coding
- Post monthly internal platform charge-backs in the project management system
- Manage client SOW budgets in unison with Managing Directors, running mid-month and month-end reviews to flag overruns, under-runs, and scope shifts
- Support the Director of Operations on SOW pricing reviews and on monthly revenue review and recognition
- Maintain accurate, audit-ready project records and budget-versus-actuals reporting
- Review and actively monitor open accounts receivable, partnering with account leads to follow up on aged invoices and resolve client billing questions
- Manage the preparation and review of the monthly client accruals process in unison with the Director of Operations/Managing Directors
- Surface AR risks and slow-paying accounts to the Director of Operations and Blue Matter Controller
- Reconcile hours for part-time employees for HR each payroll period, along with any payroll reimbursements or deductions sourced from Beyond Software
- Provide monthly time-off reconciliation to HR by comparing Beyond Software records to the ADP portal
- Support Director of Operations, Blue Matter’s Controller and FP&A team on the monthly close — providing final revenue, project AP detail, expense account reconciliations, client payment receipts, and inter-company transfer support as needed
- Generate and distribute regular billing, WIP, and AR reports
- Recommend improvements to Beyond Software, including new reports and workflow enhancements, in partnership with the Director of Operations
Skills
- 3–6+ years of project accounting, billing, or agency finance experience — ideally inside a PR, communications, marketing, advertising, or other professional services agency
- Hands-on experience with time-tracking and project management systems (Beyond Software, Workfront, OpenAir, Mavenlink, Kantata, or similar) and accounting systems (QuickBooks, NetSuite, or similar)
- Strong working knowledge of agency billing economics: SOWs, rate cards, billable hours, third-party pass-throughs, retainers, and project budgets
- Comfort moving fluidly between systems, reconciling data across them, and spotting when the numbers don't tie
- Solid grasp of monthly close mechanics — accruals, revenue recognition, AR aging, AP reconciliation
- Exceptional attention to detail, organization, and follow-through; you treat deadlines as non-negotiable and chase down loose ends without being asked
- A service mindset — you partner well with non-finance colleagues (account leads, Managing Directors), explain financial details clearly, and help the business make better decisions
- Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related field
- Experience supporting a finance team through a systems migration (e.g., QuickBooks to NetSuite)
- Familiarity with ADP or a comparable payroll platform
- Exposure to a PE-backed environment with monthly reporting cadence
Benefits
- This position is bonus eligible.
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