Client Accounting Manager — Interior Design
To Apply: Please read the instructions at the bottom and follow all of them. Applications that skip a step won't be reviewed.
About Bookkeeping Brunette
Bookkeeping Brunette is built for people who know both interior design and the books behind it, and who are tired of that combination being a footnote on their résumé. It's built for design firms too: the ones that want a financial partner, not someone to categorize their transactions.
Design accounting is its own animal. Purchase orders, client deposits, job costing, procurement, the whole Studio Designer universe. Most firms treat it as an inconvenience to get through. We built the practice around it, so we can give a designer her real margin on a project instead of a guess.
Our clients come by referral, and they stay, so there's no churn to manage and no sales pressure. We turn down the work we know we'd do badly, which means it doesn't land on you. Most of our clients are design firms; we also look after a handful of businesses outside design that we're glad to have, and you'd work on some of those too.
We're a small team growing deliberately. There are three of us right now. You'd be the fourth, and the first whose whole job is the design side.
We Value
We trust you with your own calendar. One of our team members starts at 6 a.m. because that's when her brain works. Nobody here is watching the clock. The deal is simple: the work is right, it's on time, and your hours are your business.
We don't gold-plate. A straightforward monthly close doesn't need a full set of working papers. Knowing how much rigor a job actually calls for is a skill, and we treat it like one. Nobody here pads hours, and nobody gets side-eyed for finishing something fast.
We know one thing deeply. One industry, one core system, on purpose. Your expertise compounds instead of scattering across ten industries you half-know, and it's why we can answer a designer's question in a minute instead of a week.
We're learning to say no. Not perfectly, not yet. We've been too accommodating in the past and we're actively fixing it. We're an accounting firm, and we're getting clearer about where accounting ends. Operations, HR, and inventory management aren't ours. When work like that lands on you, flag it.
The Role
You'd own our interior design clients: the monthly close, the Studio Designer work behind it, and the client relationship that comes with it.
Right now all of it runs through the owner: the Studio Designer entries, the review, the follow-up it takes to get a month closed. It works, but it doesn't scale, and it means the design side of this practice has never had someone whose actual job it is. That's the role.
The days are a mix. Some hours are heads-down in Studio Designer and QuickBooks. Some are reviewing what the team has already prepared and deciding whether it's ready to go out. Some are recording a short Loom to walk a client through her numbers, or emailing her for the receipt that's holding everything up. If all three sound good, you'll like this job. If you only want one of them, you won't.
You'd start with a handful of accounts and grow toward eight to ten as you ramp.
Key Responsibilities
Own a portfolio of interior design clients from monthly close through delivery.
Be the last set of eyes before work goes to a client: balances tie to statements, reconciliations are complete, loan balances are right, and transactions land in the correct buckets in Keeper. Complete the review checklist on every client and give the team clear notes when something needs another pass.
Work directly in Studio Designer, reconciling transactions to bank and credit card statements
Handle purchase orders and pass-through disbursements.
Manage work-in-progress and job costing for active design projects.
Itemize lump-sum client deposits and prepare Studio Designer reporting.
Untangle commingled merchant transactions.
Handle the back-end procurement entries our design clients depend on: matching vendor invoices to purchase orders, keeping deposits and disbursements straight.
Assemble the monthly reporting package clients receive.
Record short Loom recaps walking clients through their numbers, and follow up directly for what you need to close the month.
Take on catch-up and cleanup projects, heaviest in the fall and at year-end.
Flag work that falls outside our scope instead of quietly absorbing it.
Ideal Candidate Profile
You know Studio Designer, or you know work that looks like it. Ideally you've worked in it and we won't have to teach you anything. If you haven't, but you've done job-costed or project-based accounting elsewhere (construction, architecture, custom fabrication, agency project work). You’re familiar with purchase orders, work in progress, client deposits, progress billing.
You know QuickBooks Online. You can find your way around a messy reconciliation without a map.
Your background can go either way. Maybe you've reviewed bookkeeping at an accounting firm. Maybe you ran the financial side inside a design studio and you're ready to stop doing it for one firm and start doing it for several. We care that you know the work, not where you learned it.
You're comfortable being the last set of eyes. Something goes to a client because you said it was ready, and you're at peace with that.
You move between clients easily, and you right-size the work. You can pick up an account, finish it, and move on without losing the thread. You know when a job needs a deep review and when it needs a clean close, and you don't build a cathedral either way.
You're a self-starter. We'll give you Looms, checklists, and answers whenever you ask. We won't give you a curriculum.
You're fine on camera and in a client's inbox. You'll record Looms and email designers directly. Clear beats polished.
You're curious about tools that save a step. We use software where it earns its place and we're always testing something new. You don't need to be technical. You do need to be willing.
You hit deadlines without being chased, and you're U.S.-based and authorized to work here. Closes are due by the 15th, some accounts the 20th, and client emails get answered within a business day.
What We Offer
Pay: $40/hour to start, moving to $45/hour after a successful 90 days.
Hours: 15–20 a week. Lighter at first while you're learning our clients, building through year-end.
Structure: A 90-day contract position with check-ins at 30 and 90 days, and a clear path to a longer-term role if it’s a fit for both of us.
Studio Designer certification if you need it. Come in without it, and we'll put you through Studio Designer's own Project Management and Accounting certifications inside your first 30 days. We cover the cost.
Where this goes. This role is the first of its kind here, which means its shape is partly yours to set. As the design side grows, the person running it grows with it: more accounts, more advisory work with the designers who want it, and a say in how we serve them. We're not hiring a pair of hands to get through the fall.
Your own schedule. Work when you work. We care that the close is right and on time, not that you were online at 10 a.m.
How we actually work. Small, remote, async by default, with a weekly team call. You'd work alongside two other contractors and the owner. Nobody looks over your shoulder, and nobody leaves you stuck either. Ask a question, get an answer the same day.
A real stack, and an owner who'll change it when something stops earning its place. Studio Designer, QuickBooks Online, Keeper. You'll have opinions about all three inside a month and we want to hear them. Half our process improvements start that way.
A seat that's yours. These would be your accounts and your clients, not a shared pool you pull tickets from.
To Apply
Email jobs@bookkeepingbrunette.com with the subject line "Client Accounting Manager — [Your Name]" and include both of these:
1. A PDF résumé.
2. A Loom video, 90 seconds is plenty. This isn't a hoop. You'll be recording these for clients, so treat it as a work sample. Please cover:
Who you are and where you'd be working from.
Your Studio Designer experience: what you've run in it, and name one report you pull regularly and what you use it for.
What kind of work energizes you, and what drains you. Be honest here. The wrong answer saves us both three months.
Never used Loom? It's free at loom.com. Record your video, then paste the share link into your email. Don't over-produce it. We're looking for clear, not polished.
We won't review applications missing either piece.
Important Dates
Application window: September 10–24, reviewed on a rolling basis.
Interviews: Week of September 28.
Ideal start date: October 15.
Looking forward to your application!