Accounting and Onboarding Manager, Client Accounting & Advisory Services (Restaurant, Franchise, & Hospitality)

Work with a Top 20 CPA and advisory firm that Accounts for Anything. Aprio has 40 U.S. office locations, as well as international office locations and more than 3,200 team members that speak 60+ languages across the globe. By bringing together proven expertise, deep understanding, and strategic foresight for fast-growing industries, Aprio ensures clients are prepared for wherever life or business may take them. Discover a top-rated culture, vast growth opportunities and your next big career move with Aprio.

Job Summary Aprio is seeking a Manager, Client Accounting Advisory Services – Restaurant, Franchise & Hospitality (CAAS RFH) to lead new client onboarding and own ongoing accounting delivery for assigned clients across the restaurant, franchise, and hospitality industries. In this role, you will guide clients from signed engagement through stabilization and into a well-run, recurring accounting relationship — creating structure around timelines, systems, responsibilities, and communication at every stage. You will coach and develop a team of accounting professionals while serving as the primary trusted advisor for your client portfolio, connecting financial results to operational insight and driving continuous improvement across engagements. This is an opportunity to combine technical accounting expertise, project leadership, and people development in a role that shapes both the client experience and the team behind it.

What You'll Gain/ Impact •

New clients will move through onboarding with clear expectations, visible ownership, timely decisions, and fewer avoidable surprises

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Clients will receive accurate, complete, and timely financial reporting they can rely on to run their businesses

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The recurring accounting team will receive complete, documented, and operationally ready engagements, including established workpapers, reconciled opening balances, and clearly identified cleanup items

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Your advisory insights will help clients understand what is driving results and make stronger, more informed decisions

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Your team will have clear priorities, meaningful coaching, and the support needed to grow and deliver consistently

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Onboarding, implementation, and recurring delivery practices will become more consistent, scalable, and effective through thoughtful process improvement and technology adoption

Key Responsibilities New Client Onboarding

• Own each onboarding from internal handoff and client kickoff through stabilization and transition to the recurring accounting team

• Build and manage project plans with clear scope, milestones, owners, dependencies, decisions, and target dates

• Manage onboarding and client initiatives in accordance with the signed scope of services, while promptly identifying, documenting, and elevating potential add-on services or out-of-scope work for approval and separate billing before work proceeds

• Lead kickoff, status, and transition meetings; keep clients and internal stakeholders aligned on progress, responsibilities, risks, and outstanding items

• Identify delays, missing information, cleanup needs, scope gaps, and other risks early; develop recovery plans and escalate when needed

Client Accounting & Financial Reporting

• Own accounting and financial reporting for assigned clients, including agreed-upon deliverables, deadlines, responsibilities, and scope

• Lead month-end and year-end close, using technology and automation where appropriate to improve consistency, identify exceptions, and accelerate routine work

• Prepare and review complete, accurate, and well-supported workpapers that clearly document account activity, reconciliations, conclusions, and the audit trail supporting financial reporting

• Establish consistent workpaper preparation standards and ensure supporting schedules are organized, current, and ready for efficient review

• Apply accounting expertise and professional judgment to surface trends, investigate anomalies, and recommend practical solutions

Client Leadership & Advisory

• Serve as the primary accounting contact and trusted advisor for assigned clients

• Lead financial reviews that connect operational context and financial data, making results and key performance drivers clear and actionable

• Help clients improve reporting, forecasting, and workflows so they gain better visibility into their businesses and make stronger decisions

Client Projects & Technology Enablement

• Lead client initiatives such as system conversions, integrations, workflow redesign, reporting implementations, and process standardization

• Translate goals into actionable plans with defined deliverables, success criteria, resources, budget considerations, and governance

• Coordinate work across accounting, Technology, Accounts Payable, Cash Management, Tax, Operations, and third-party providers, proactively managing dependencies and handoffs to deliver a seamless client experience

• Coordinate system setup, data access, chart-of-accounts and reporting design, workflow documentation, training, and knowledge transfer

• Establish initial accounting workpapers, reconciliations, close schedules, and supporting documentation needed for an accurate and repeatable financial reporting process

• Assess historical accounting records and coordinate targeted cleanup, catch-up, or corrective activity as needed to ensure opening balances, reconciliations, and financial statements are complete and accurate

• Create reusable templates, playbooks, dashboards, and status reporting that improve execution across the portfolio

Team Leadership & Review

• Coach engagement teams, building their technical, advisory, and leadership capabilities

• Provide timely review and feedback while reinforcing firm standards and sound accounting practices

• Set priorities, balance workloads, and foster accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and thoughtful technology adoption

• Take on increasing leadership responsibility across client rela