Controller

Ae-Landscape-Borders; Nashville (TN); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual performance bonus

Health / dental / vision

401(k)

PTO

Direct access to the CEO

Job summary

AE Landscape Borders is seeking an in-house Controller to build and scale a finance function across seven locations, from Nashville to the Lena, IL headquarters. You will own full-cycle accounting, close processes, and job costing, reporting directly to the CEO as the first in-house finance leader.

This role demands strategic oversight, multi-state compliance, and strong leadership to drive unit economics and reporting packages used by executives for decisions.

Qualifications

• Progressive accounting experience including leadership roles (Controller/Accounting Manager).
• Multi-location operating experience with distributed branches or crews.
• Job costing fluency with project-level margins.
• Experience with diligence or reporting packages for lenders/investors.
• Evidence of compressing close cycles."
• Strong Excel and accounting systems expertise.

Responsibilities

• Full-cycle accounting for a multi-entity, multi-state, seven-location business.
• Month-end and year-end close, reconciliations, and calendar management.
• Job costing, WIP, and margin analysis by crew/branch/region.
• Cash management, forecasting, and working capital.
• Budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis with CEO and leaders.
• Multi-state tax and payroll compliance coordination.
• Internal controls, policies, and process documentation.
• Systems integrations and the top of the reporting stack.
• Partner with external CPA for tax and advisory.
• Build and lead the accounting team as we grow.

Skills

Multi-location accounting

Job costing

Excel proficiency

Financial reporting

Close cycle optimization

CPA (preferred)

QuickBooks

Tools

QuickBooks

Job description

AE Landscape Borders Controller Doc

A E L A N D S C A PE B O R D E R S · C A R EE R S
Controller
Multi-Location Home Services ($20M → $100M)
NASHVILLE, TN ONSITE / HYBRID $150,000 – $180,000 + BONUS FULL-TIME

Close the books in 7 days. Build the finance function that makes this company worth what it's actually worth.

AE Landscape Borders is a decorative concrete landscape border company operating out of seven offices across Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina. We went from nothing to roughly $20 million in annual revenue in five years, and we're building toward $100 million over the next three to four. Our accounting has been handled externally, and it's been handled well. But an outside firm can close your books — it can't sit in a Monday leadership meeting and tell you why the Fort Wayne crews ran 400 basis points below plan last month. As we scale, we need that capability in the building. This is the first in-house senior accounting hire in company history. You will report directly to the CEO.

Why this role exists

We want to run this business the way a sophisticated buyer would expect it to be run — long before anyone asks us to prove it. That means books that close fast and stay clean, unit economics we can defend line by line, and a finance function that produces numbers our operators actually use to make decisions.

Right now we don't have that. You'd build it.

REVENUE TODAY: $20M

TARGET: $100M

OFFICES: 7

CLOSE TARGET <7 days

REPORTS TO: CEO

What success looks like in your first 12 months

• The monthly close lands in under 7 business days, every month, without heroics. This is the single most important outcome of the job and the one we'll measure you on first.
• A clean, transitioned relationship with our external accounting partner — you own what comes in-house, on a timeline you set, without dropping a stitch.
• Job-level and branch-level P&Ls that our general managers understand and use, with true job costing across crews, materials, and equipment.
• A monthly reporting package that goes to leadership with the same numbers, the same definitions, and the same cadence every single month.
• A defined set of operating metrics — gross margin per crew day, revenue per truck, cost per linear foot, callback cost, whatever proves out — that we manage the business against.
• Books that would survive outside scrutiny. Clean revenue recognition, real accruals, supportable cutoffs, documented policies, an audit trail that holds up.
• A finance function built to scale to $100M, not one rebuilt from scratch at $50M.

What you'll own

• Full-cycle accounting for a multi-entity, multi-state, seven-location business
• Month-end and year-end close, reconciliations, and the accounting calendar
• Job costing, WIP, and margin analysis at the crew, branch, and region level
• Cash management, forecasting, and working capital
• Budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis with the CEO and operating leaders
• Multi-state sales/use tax, payroll tax, and compliance coordination
• Internal controls, accounting policy, and process documentation
• Systems: accounting stack, field/ops system integrations, and the reporting layer on top
• Partnership with our external CPA firm on tax and advisory
• Building and eventually leading the accounting team as we grow

Who we're looking for

Required

• Progressive accounting experience, including time as a Controller, Assistant Controller, or Accounting Manager
• Multi-location operating experience — you've closed books for a business with distributed branches, field crews, or service territories, and you know why that's harder than it sounds
• Job costing fluency. You've owned percentage-of-completion, WIP, or project-level margin in a construction, contracting, field services, or home services environment
• Experience with financial diligence or institutional-grade reporting — a quality of earnings process, a lender or investor reporting package, a sponsor-owned company, or an audit you personally carried
• A demonstrated record of compressing a close cycle. Tell us the before number and the after number.
• Strong Excel and a real command of your accounting systems — not just data entry into them
• Comfortable being the only accountant in the room and the person leadership turns to for the answer

Preferred

• CPA (active or inactive) — strongly preferred, not required if the operating experience is there
• Public accounting foundation, especially audit
• Experience with QuickBooks

You'll be a strong fit

• You think in unit economics, not just financial statements. A closed book that nobody acts on is half a job done.
• You can explain a margin problem to a general manager who has never read a P&L, without condescension and without jargon.
• You're using AI tools in your actual work today — reconciliation, variance narratives, flux analysis, data cleanup, first-draft memos — and you have opinions about where they help and where they'll get you in trouble. We're an AI-forward company and we expect this role to build leverage with these tools, not just tolerate them.
• You want to build something rather than maintain something. There's no playbook here yet. You'd write it.

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary: $150,000 – $180,000, depending on experience and credentials
• Annual performance bonus
• Health / dental / vision
• 401(k)
• PTO
• Direct access to the CEO and a seat at the table on how this company gets built

Location

This role is based in Nashville, TN, onsite/remote.
Expect periodic travel to our Lena, IL headquarters and to branch offices.

AE Landscape Borders · #CurbThePlanet
Lena, IL · Bloomington, IL · St. Louis, MO · Fort Wayne, IN · Indianapolis, IN · Nashville, TN · Charlotte, NC