As a Client Manager at SBO, you are the face of the firm to your portfolio. Clients rely on your accounting expertise, your judgement, and your understanding of their business, and you own that relationship end to end. You run your portfolio through your pod: they handle the day-to-day accounting, you review it, hold the quality line, and keep clients close. When the work calls for it, you are more than capable of getting into the Xero file yourself.
Our clients are typically high-growth product businesses: eCommerce, wholesale and retail, often carrying complex inventory across multiple sales channels and platforms. Understanding how these businesses actually work, and how that flows through the numbers, is central to the role.
Your role will consist of:
- Owning a portfolio of clients end to end. You are their go-to, and keeping them with SBO is your primary measure of success;
- Leading a pod of intermediate accountants and bookkeepers who do the bulk of the accounting. You review it, hold quality, and are the last line before anything reaches the client;
- Ensuring monthly management accounts, BAS and other recurring deliverables go out on time, every time, to standard;
- Maintaining strong client relationships through proactive communication, so no client ever has to chase you;
- Staying across each client’s numbers well enough to be a credible point of contact, spotting risks and opportunities early and bringing in our Advisory team where deeper support is warranted;
- Getting hands-on in the Xero file when the situation calls for it, whether that is onboarding a new client, covering a gap, or working through something complex your team hasn’t seen before;
- Coaching and mentoring your team;
- Improving and holding adherence to internal processes and procedures.
What you’ll bring:
- CA or CPA qualified, or in the final stages. This is a hard requirement;
- 3+ years in accounting, including direct client communication;
- Deep, hands-on Xero and Karbon proficiency. You can do the accounting work, not just review it;
- A firm command of AU compliance deadlines (BAS, income tax, ASIC);
- Strong written communication, and the ability to review work and hold a team to a standard;
- Exposure to inventory accounting and product businesses is a strong advantage: COGS, stock movements, multi-channel sales reconciliation, and the platforms these clients run on (e.g. Shopify, Amazon, and inventory or 3PL systems feeding into Xero). If you haven’t worked in this space but have the accounting depth to pick it up quickly, we still want to hear from you.
The Client Manager role isn’t for everyone. It is a management and relationship role first: most of your time goes on reviewing your pod’s work, staying close to clients, and holding quality. But you also need to be a genuinely capable accountant who can get into the detail and do the work when required. We are looking for someone who:
- Gets their satisfaction from owning client relationships and lifting a team, not from doing all the accounting personally;
- Is technically strong enough to review, stand behind, and when needed produce the work themselves;
- Is comfortable with the complexity that comes with inventory and multi-channel product businesses, rather than only ever having worked with straightforward service-based clients.
If you would rather be heads-down in the numbers all day with no client or team responsibility, this isn’t the seat. Equally, if you want to manage without ever touching a Xero file again, it isn’t either.
Apply here with cover letter and CV: careers@sbo.financial
