Bookkeeping Manager – Client Accounting Services
PDC Accounting Evolved Professional Corporation · Ottawa/Kelowna · Full-time, Permanent · $80,000–$100,000 per year
About us
PDC Accounting Evolved Professional Corporation is a CPA firm serving Ottawa and Eastern Ontario from offices in Kemptville and Perth, and Kelowna BC. We work with owner-managed businesses, not-for-profits and charities, public sector entities, and condominium corporations.
Our client bookkeeping practice is growing faster than we can manage it file by file. We are hiring a Bookkeeping Manager to own it — the clients, the team, and the standard the work has to meet.
The opportunity
This is a manager role, not a senior bookkeeper role
You will own a portfolio of client relationships, direct the bookkeepers working on those files, review what comes off their desks, and decide when a file is ready to go to the year-end team. You’ll also build the thing — the workflows, the onboarding process, the templates, the tech stack .
If you’re currently a bookkeeping or cloud accounting manager at a large firm and you’re tired of the layers between you and the decision, this is the version of that role where you actually get to set the standard.
What you’ll do
Client portfolio ownership
- Act as the primary point of contact for a portfolio of client files across a range of industries — owner-managed businesses, professional practices, not-for-profits and condominium corporations.
- Meet with clients regularly to walk through their numbers in plain language, flag what needs attention, and answer the questions they’re actually asking.
- Lead the onboarding of new bookkeeping clients: chart of accounts setup, opening balances, app and integration configuration, and documenting the ongoing process before handing the recurring work to a bookkeeper.
- Take on the complex files and the clean-ups yourself — the inherited QBO file that’s never been reconciled, the two years of catch-up work, the migration off desktop.
Team oversight and quality control
- Assign, prioritize and distribute work across the bookkeeping team based on client deadlines and file complexity, and manage capacity across the group.
- Review and approve work before it goes to the client or to the year-end team — reconciliations, month-end close, payroll runs, HST filings.
- Write review notes that explain the reasoning, so the same point doesn’t come back on the next file.
- Coach and develop junior and intermediate bookkeepers, and take a hands-on role in hiring and onboarding as the team grows.
- Identify recurring issues and fix them at the process level rather than one file at a time.
Compliance and payroll
- Oversee full-cycle payroll for multiple client accounts — wages, salaries, overtime, deductions, and the source deduction remittances behind them (CPP, EI, income tax).
- Oversee preparation and filing of T4, T4A and T5018 slips and summaries within CRA deadlines.
- Oversee GST/HST return preparation and filing across monthly, quarterly and annual filers, and reconcile sales tax accounts to the general ledger.
- Manage CRA correspondence and portal work on behalf of clients, and resolve remittance and account discrepancies before they become penalties.
- Keep WSIB, EHT and other statutory filings on schedule where applicable.
Year-end handoff
- Deliver year-end working paper packages that the compilation and tax team can actually work from — balance sheet accounts reconciled, supporting schedules complete, shareholder loan continuity, fixed assets and prepaids documented.
- Coordinate with the year-end and tax group on adjusting entries, prior-year carryforwards, and questions coming back from the file.
- Push bookkeeping problems back to source rather than letting them get papered over at year end.
Building the practice
- Own our bookkeeping technology stack and keep it current — QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage, Dext, Hubdoc, Plooto and payroll platforms.
- Develop standardized procedures, checklists and file templates across the team.
- Work with the partner on scoping, pricing and renewals so service levels and fees stay aligned with the work actually being done.
What you bring
- 6+ years of full-cycle bookkeeping experience, with a meaningful portion in public practice or a multi-client environment.
- Demonstrated experience managing or supervising bookkeepers — assigning work, reviewing it, and having the conversation when it isn’t right.
- Strong Canadian small-business compliance knowledge: GST/HST, payroll and source deductions, T4/T4A/T5018, CRA portals and filings.
- Proven ability to own client relationships directly — you can present financial information to a business owner without an accountant in the room.
- Experience preparing year-end working paper packages to a standard a CPA can rely on.
- Expert-level proficiency in QuickBooks Online; Xero and Sage 50 experience strongly preferred.
- Comfort with cloud integration tools (Dext, Hubdoc, Plooto, cloud payroll) and a genuine interest in making the work faster.
- CPB designation, an accounting diploma, or CPA (or in progress) — an asset, not a requirement. We care more about what you’ve actually run.
- The judgment to know what’s a real issue and what’s a preference, and the organization to hold multiple client deadlines at once without being chased.
What we offer
- Salary of $80,000–$110,000, based on experience and the size of the book you can carry.
- Health and dental coverage · paid vacation · personal days ·
- Professional dues and continuing education support.
- Full-time, permanent, year-round work — no long tax-season crunch.
Why work with us
- Real ownership. You set the standard the work has to meet, and you have the authority to send it back.
- Direct access to the partner. No department head, no regional lead, no committee. You raise it, we decide it.
- You build the department, not inherit someone else’s. The processes, the tech stack, the hiring — that’s yours to shape.
- A client base with substance. Owner-managed businesses, professionals, not-for-profits, charities and condominium corporations across Eastern Ontario and B.C. with a CPA tax and assurance team behind you.
- Stability. Permanent, full-time, year-round — not a seasonal role.
How to apply
Send your resume and a short note (a paragraph is plenty) about a client file you took over in bad shape and what you did to fix it. We read those.
We are committed to an inclusive and accessible process. If you require accommodation at any stage, let us know and we will work with you.
Pay: $80,000.00-$110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: Remote
