Accountant

Respective Collective; New York (NY); On-site; USD 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Respective Collective in New York City is seeking its first dedicated finance leader to design and own the system that tracks revenue, costs, and cash.

Reporting to the COO, you will deliver monthly closes, P&L, balance sheet, and cash forecasts, turning complex numbers into actionable insights for creative leadership.

This build role focuses on creating scalable processes, automations, and dashboards rather than maintenance tasks.

Qualifications

• 4–6 years in accounting with ownership of monthly close.
• Experience building new processes you can articulate.
• Fluency in accrual accounting; senior finance leader in the room.
• Speed and agility; finance answers ASAP, not a week later.
• Meticulous organization; nothing gets dropped.
• Strong spreadsheet capabilities; automate repetitive tasks.

Responsibilities

• Monthly Close: Full monthly close within 10 business days.
• Financial Reporting: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, and COO summary.
• The Freelancer Machine: Onboarding, W-9s, invoice intake, payments, 1099 filings, NYC rules.
• Job Costing: Per-project P&Ls to reveal real margins.
• AR & Client Billing: Billing, AR, and collections across retainers and milestones.
• Cash Management: Rolling 13-week cash forecast.
• Systems & Dashboards: Tooling selection, process docs, leadership dashboards.

Skills

Financial reporting

Monthly close ownership

Accrual accounting

Spreadsheet automation

Cross-functional communication

Process design

Attention to detail

Education

CPA or CPA candidate

Tools

Spreadsheets (Excel)

Accounting software

Job description

Respective Collective is a content strategy agency in New York City. We build fan-driven social content for entertainment, music, and lifestyle brands — powered by a 10-person office, a 15-person core team, and roughly 250 freelancers moving on and off projects.

We're hiring our first dedicated finance person. Reporting directly to our COO, your job is to build the system that tells us — on any given Tuesday — what we've made, what we owe, and what each project actually cost.

This is a build role, not a maintenance role. There is no machine to inherit. You're designing it, running it, and then making it boring.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

• Monthly Close: Full monthly close on a published calendar, landing within 10 business days of month-end.
• Financial Reporting: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, and a one-page summary the COO can actually act on.
• The Freelancer Machine: Onboarding, W-9s, invoice intake, payment runs, 1099-NEC filings, and compliance with NYC freelancer payment and contract rules.
• Job Costing: Per-project P&Ls so we know the real margin on a campaign — not just the one from the pitch deck.
• AR & Client Billing: Client billing, AR, and collections across retainers, milestones, and pass-through costs.
• Cash Management: Rolling 13-week cash forecast.
• Systems & Dashboards: Choosing our tooling, documenting processes, and building leadership dashboards that deliver clear insights.

THE PART MOST ACCOUNTING ROLES SKIP

You'll spend real time explaining money to people who don't think about money — creative directors, producers, account leads. We want someone who can turn a project P&L into a five-minute conversation a producer can act on, without jargon and without condescension.

If someone needs an accounting degree to read your monthly summary, it isn't finished.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 4–6 years in accounting with real ownership of a monthly close.
• Experience building process where none existed — you can articulate what you built and what it replaced.
• Fluency in accrual accounting and comfort being the most senior finance person in the room.
• Speed and agility — production doesn't wait a week for an answer, and neither do we.
• Meticulous organization — nothing gets dropped.
• Strong spreadsheet capabilities — you automate anything you've done manually twice.

NICE TO HAVE

• Agency, production company, or project-based job costing experience.
• Experience managing high-volume 1099 contractors.
• CPA or working toward it (we support this path).

COMPENSATION & LOCATION

• Salary: $100,000 – $125,000 base + discretionary annual bonus.
• Location: 5 days/week in our NYC office. Proximity to our producers and account leads is essential to this role.