Senior Company Accountant Australian Multi-Entity Group AU Remote

The snapshot

Staffstream is hiring a Group Accountant & Financial Controller for an Australian group of businesses based in Victoria. The group spans a healthcare practice, a professional education business, a technology start-up, and related family trusts, run across seven legal entities, with bookkeeping and activity statement support for several of the owners as well.

This is a senior, hands-on role. The group wants a qualified, commercially minded accountant who takes end-to-end ownership of everyday financial operations: accurate transaction processing, payroll, accounts payable, bank and card control, clinician Service Facility Agreement settlements, BAS/IAS preparation, month-end reporting, cash-flow forecasting, and budgeting. The aim is simple. The owners should know that every material transaction is recorded correctly, people and suppliers are paid on time, tax and super deadlines are protected, and cash commitments are visible well in advance. You'd work closely with the owners and the group's external accountants and tax advisers. This role is open to candidates based in the Philippines.

Worth knowing upfront: this is not a pure bookkeeping role, and it is not a strategy-only CFO role. You'll be doing the detailed ledger, reconciliation, payroll, and payment work yourself, and also owning the broader function and turning the numbers into decisions. The external accountants keep responsibility for tax strategy, annual returns, and financial statements. You own the quality of the data, reconciliations, workpapers, reporting, and implementation behind them.

What you will actually do

Finance ownership and Xero integrity

• Own the day-to-day integrity of every Xero file across the group, including charts of accounts, tracking categories, contacts, user permissions, and document storage, so reporting stays consistent and auditable.
• Capture, code, and reconcile invoices, receipts, reimbursements, bank transactions, merchant settlements, and journals to the correct entity, account, tax code, and period.
• Keep each entity's records, bank accounts, and tax treatment strictly separate, and keep inter-entity charges, loans, and balances reconciled so both sides always agree.
• Resolve unmatched or duplicated transactions promptly, and classify receipts correctly rather than assuming every deposit is sales income.
• Maintain schedules for accruals, prepayments, fixed assets, finance arrangements, and related-party balances.

Accounts payable, cards, and cash protection

• Manage accounts payable from invoice receipt through coding, approval, payment preparation, remittance, and reconciliation, including supplier statement reconciliations.
• Prepare payment batches with enough lead time for approval, and independently verify any change of supplier bank details through a known contact method, never on an email alone.
• Maintain a recurring-payment calendar covering rent, loans, insurance, subscriptions, tax, payroll, super, and cards, plus a credit-card register with statement and due dates for every cardholder.
• Reconcile card statements and confirm funding before due dates, escalating any shortfall several business days ahead so the owners can decide rather than pay avoidable interest or penalties.
• Keep daily and weekly visibility of material bank balances and upcoming large outflows, and flag duplicated subscriptions and avoidable fees.

Payroll and employee-related finance

• Prepare and process payroll for the relevant employing entities, covering approved hours, rates, allowances, leave, reimbursements, and deductions.
• Maintain payroll records, leave balances, STP reporting, and superannuation processing, and reconcile payroll liabilities rather than just processing the pay run.
• Investigate payroll queries quickly and correct errors with a clear audit trail, and support WorkCover and payroll-tax reporting.
• Escalate modern-award, contractor versus employee, and employment-law questions to the appropriate external adviser.

Clinician Service Facility Agreement settlements

• Calculate service facility fees from each clinician's executed agreement, collections, and approved adjustments.
• Reconcile practice-management data to merchant and bank receipts, refunds, and write-offs before finalising each calculation.
• Prepare transparent clinician statements showing collections, fees, adjustments, GST treatment, and the amount payable or receivable, then obtain approvals and process settlements by the agreed deadline.
• Reconcile clinician clearing accounts and resolve discrepancies collaboratively with practice management and the clinicians.

BAS, IAS, GST, and compliance

• Prepare GST and PAYG reconciliations and complete BAS/IAS workpapers for all relevant entities, plus bookkeeping and workpapers for the owners' private profiles, with strict confidentiality.
• Maintain a compliance calendar for every entity and person showing frequency, due dates, funding requirements, approvals, and lodgement status.
• Give the owners draft BAS/IAS figures and funding requirements well before the due date.
• Prepare complete packs for review and lodgement by the registered external BAS or tax agent where lodgement by you is not legally permitted, and seek advice on any uncertain GST or tax treatment instead of assuming.

Month-end close, reporting, and forecasting

• Run a disciplined monthly close for each entity, then deliver P&L, balance sheet, and cash-flow reporting by entity plus a group-wide management summary without double-counting intercompany activity.
• Write concise plain-English commentary on what changed, why, whether it matters, and what decision is needed, with every material figure traceable to source transactions.
• Maintain a rolling 13-week cash-flow forecast, annual budgets, and a rolling 12-month outlook, covering payroll, suppliers, tax, cards, settlements, and debt.
• Build practical scenario models for decisions such as hiring, capacity, fitouts, equipment, course launches, pricing, and debt, and help the owners see profit, cash flow, tax payable, and money available to reinvest as separate concepts.

Adviser coordination and year-end

• Act as the main internal finance contact for external accountants, BAS and tax agents, payroll specialists, lawyers, and banks.
• Provide reconciled workpapers and schedules for annual returns, financial statements, FBT, fixed assets, loans, and payroll-tax work, and implement the treatments the advisers approve.
• Keep the books clean enough that the external accountants can focus on review and strategy instead of reconstructing the year.

Controls, documentation, and continuous improvement

• Operate a maker-checker process for payments, using named user accounts, multi-factor authentication, and least-privilege access, and keep a risk and exception log.
• Build and maintain a finance operations manual and illustrated SOPs for payroll, settlements, BAS/IAS, payment batches, card payments, and month-end close, so another competent finance person could take over without rebuilding the process from memory.
• Identify recurring errors, duplicate entry, and weak controls, propose practical fixes and automation, and standardise processes across entities where it makes sense, without ever removing review controls just to go faster.

What you need to bring

• A degree in accounting or a closely related discipline, or demonstrably equivalent senior practical accounting experience.
• At least 5 years of hands-on Australian bookkeeping and accounting experience, ideally across companies, trusts, and multiple related entities.
• Advanced Xero skills, including bank and card reconciliation, bills, GST coding, payroll workflows, journals, tracking, and management reporting.
• Demonstrated payroll, STP, and super experience, with the ability to reconcile payroll liabilities.
• Strong BAS/IAS preparation experience and a clear understanding of what you may legally prepare and lodge, versus what must go through a registered BAS or tax agent.
• Experience with accounts payable, payment batches, cash-flow forecasting, and monthly management reporting.
• High attention to detail and a genuine willingness to do the transactional work personally.
• Strong written and verbal English, and the ability to explain financial issues to non-accountants without jargon.
• A precise, self-directed, discreet, and commercially curious working style. You don't wait for an owner to discover an overdue bill or a looming deadline, you aren't afraid to say “this doesn't reconcile yet, here's what I found, here's what I need,” and you don't guess or leave problems for month-end.

Nice to have

• CA or CPA qualification, or an equivalent professional accounting qualification.
• Registered BAS Agent status.
• Healthcare or other professional-practice experience, including service or facility fee arrangements.
• Trust accounting, related-party loans, and multi-entity consolidation experience.
• Experience with education or events businesses, including course instalments and cohort profitability.
• Technology or start-up experience, including project burn and cash runway.
• Experience writing SOPs and taking over a finance function from an external provider.

The setup

• This role is open to Philippines-based candidates, working fully remote.
• Candidates must have their own reliable computer/laptop and equipment suitable for remote work.
• You'll work closely with the owners and the group's external accountants, tax agents, and other advisers.
• Because you'll handle confidential payroll, banking, and owner information, you'll need a private, professional working environment, secure internet, an approved device with encrypted storage and multi-factor authentication, and a practical contingency plan for internet or power issues. Banking, payroll, and owner data stays out of personal cloud drives and messaging apps.
• You'll join scheduled video calls and share your screen for process work.
• The role prepares and owns the accuracy of finance information. It does not give tax or legal advice, make employment-law determinations, or release material bank payments outside delegated authority, and BAS/IAS lodgement is structured in line with Australian BAS and tax agent requirements.