Client Services Manager — Accounting

Maclean Financial; Sydney; On-site; AUD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Maclean Financial in Mascot is looking for a client-facing accounting assistant to be the first point of contact for our small business clients by phone and email, answering bookkeeping and BAS questions in plain English.

You’ll onboard new clients and ensure existing ones feel looked after all year, not just at lodgement time, and sit in on client meetings with our senior accountant, taking routine tasks as you settle in.

Qualifications

• Experience in client-facing roles with small business owners, ideally in accounting or bookkeeping.
• Familiarity with BAS, GST, PAYG and lodgement dates is a plus.
• Excellent phone presence: patient, warm and clear.
• Organised and able to manage multiple client schedules at once.
• Willing to check information with a senior accountant when unsure.

Responsibilities

• First point of contact for our small business clients by phone and email, answering bookkeeping and BAS questions in plain English.
• Onboard new clients and ensure existing ones feel looked after year-round, not just at lodgement time.
• Sit in on client meetings with our senior accountant, and take the routine ones yourself as you settle in.
• Identify when tax planning or a structure review is needed and pass it to the senior accountant.
• You won't prepare BAS or tax returns in this role; that work is handled elsewhere.

Skills

Client-facing communication

Organisation

Phone etiquette

Job description

We're a financial services group based in Mascot covering asset finance, insurance and mortgage broking, and three years ago we added an accounting and tax division. We've funded their equipment, insured their fleets and watched their businesses grow. Now we handle their tax too, and we're looking for someone to own those relationships.

This is a role we've built deliberately. Our systems and tax team carry the compliance work, which means you get to do the part of the job most accountants never get time for: actually talking to clients.

The role

• First point of contact for our small business clients by phone and email, answering bookkeeping and BAS questions in plain English
• Onboard new clients and make sure existing ones feel looked after all year, not just at lodgement time
• Sit in on client meetings with our senior accountant, and take the routine ones yourself as you settle in
• Pick up when a client might need tax planning or a structure review and pass it to our senior accountant. The advice stays with them
• You won't prepare a single BAS or tax return in this role. That work is handled elsewhere in the business.

What you can expect

• Working directly alongside our senior accountant, in front of clients from day one
• Warm relationships, not cold ones. These clients already know and trust us
• Real support while you find your feet, with training on our systems and how we look after clients
• A clear path as the division grows, toward senior client management and advisory work
• A team that backs you. We'd rather you ask than guess

What we're looking for

• Someone genuinely good on the phone. Patient, warm, clear
• You've worked client-facing somewhere, fielding queries from small business owners, ideally in accounting, bookkeeping or financial planning
• Ideally you've prepared BAS yourself or worked closely with people who do, so GST, PAYG and lodgement dates are familiar ground
• Enough judgment to know when a question needs checking before you answer it. "Let me confirm and call you back" is the right answer here, not a weakness
• Organised. You'll be running contact schedules and chasing documents across a lot of clients at once

Why this role

Plenty of accounting jobs promise client contact and deliver a workpaper queue. We've built this one the other way around. If you're the person clients already like dealing with, this is the role that makes that your whole job.