Financial Controller (US CPA, remote)

SkyAccess is a live marketplace for empty-leg private charter flights. Operators list the repositioning flights they already fly. Travelers book the whole aircraft at one price, with taxes and fees shown at checkout, typically 25 to 75% below a comparable full charter. We aggregate live inventory from hundreds of FAA Part 135 certified operators across the US and Europe, and we have been flying customers since March 2025.

Every trip moves money both ways. A customer pays us by card, PayPal or wire. We pay the operator. Credits, refunds, cancellations, broker commissions and pass-through federal excise tax all land somewhere in between.

We are looking for a Financial Controller to own that money end to end. You are a US-licensed CPA, and you will build the finance function rather than inherit one.

The role

• Contract, part-time to start. About 10 hours a week to start, growing as we scale.
• Remote, from anywhere. An active US CPA license from any state is required.
• Reports to the co-founders. They run finance today and are handing it to you.
• Meaningful overlap with US Pacific hours.

Why this role exists now

A founder and a small bookkeeping team have run our books so far, and we have outgrown that. Money moves through SkyAccess in both directions every day. Customers pay us, we pay operators, and credits, refunds, cancellations and commissions happen in between.

We need one person who owns all of it. That means numbers that are right, cash that is planned, and controls that hold. You will be our first controller. You will work directly with the co-founders and have an experienced finance advisor as a mentor.

What you'll own

You own the numbers end to end: books, close, cash, budgets, controls, tax and compliance. You also become the finance voice in strategy decisions.

Books and month-end close

• Own the general ledger and chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online.
• Run a monthly close: bank, card, payment-processor and clearing-account reconciliations, accruals, and cut-off by flight date.
• Deliver monthly financials (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) with a short narrative. The narrative covers what changed and any open contracts or liabilities.
• Review and direct the work of our offshore bookkeeping, AP/AR and payroll support.
• Write the SOPs that keep this running: revenue, AP, expense reimbursement, payroll and reporting.

Marketplace accounting

• Set and document our revenue recognition policy: gross vs. net, timing by flight date, cancellations, refunds and customer credits.
• Track customer funds held, operator payables and payouts, broker commissions and refunds, so the balance sheet shows what we actually owe.
• Book pass-through charges such as federal excise tax and segment fees correctly.
• Report unit economics: margin per booking and the cost to acquire customers and partners.

Cash, budgets and forecasting

• Build a rolling 13-week cash forecast the founders can rely on. It must show customer receipts landing against operator payments coming due.
• Run quarterly budgets with each department head, including a budget for every event and conference.
• Report budget vs. actual monthly.
• Track burn, runway and reserve targets. Tell us plainly when a hire or project does not fit the budget.
• Model the economics of new products and pricing before we launch them.

Controls

• Set up approval workflows, with a second approver above a set threshold, so no payment goes out unapproved.
• Write and enforce the policies on spend, expense reimbursement, company cards and vendor onboarding. They apply to everyone, founders included.
• Keep a clean audit trail for every dollar in and out.

Tax, payroll and compliance

• Prepare and file federal and state income tax returns and annual reports.
• Manage our outside CPA firm. The firm stays independent for investor-facing financial statements.
• Own sales and use tax: nexus, registration and filing across US states, plus Canadian sales tax on transactions in Canadian dollars.
• Own multi-state payroll tax compliance, including state employer registration as we hire in new states.
• Collect new-hire paperwork (I-9, W-4, state forms) and file 1099s for contractors.

Strategic finance

• Join our strategy meetings with the numbers that decide them.
• Prepare investor-ready financials and a reporting package, and support due diligence when it comes.

Your first 90 days

By day 90 we close the books monthly on a schedule, every department has a budget, and the founders trust one cash number.

Days 1–30: learn it and take it over

• Map how money moves: customer payments, operator payouts, credits, refunds, commissions and pass-through taxes.
• Review QuickBooks, the balance sheet and the P&L. Take ownership of the chart of accounts and the books from the founders.
• Deliver the first 13-week cash forecast in your first two weeks.
• Write the core SOPs: revenue, AP approvals, expense reimbursement, payroll and reporting.
• Build a tax and compliance calendar covering every filing we owe, with owners and due dates.

Days 31–60: make it run

• Close a full month on your own and deliver the financials with a narrative.
• Turn on payment approval workflows and the spend policy.
• Decide and document the revenue recognition policy with the founders.
• Confirm our sales tax, payroll tax and state registration position, and fix any gaps.

Days 61–90: plan ahead

• Run the first quarterly budget cycle with every department head.
• Start monthly budget-vs-actual reviews and burn and runway reporting.
• Assemble an investor-ready financial package.
• Agree with the founders how work splits between you and our outside CPA firm.

What we are looking for

• An active US CPA license. This is the one hard requirement.
• 5+ years in accounting. At least 2 of them as controller, assistant controller, or the person who owned the close at a startup or high-growth company.
• You have built a finance function from scratch: close process, SOPs, controls and reporting, not just maintained one.
• Strong accrual accounting in a marketplace setting. That covers deferred revenue, gross vs. net, customer funds held, payables, refunds and cancellations. You have made the gross-vs-net call before and can defend it.
• Deep QuickBooks Online experience, including AP approval workflows and QuickBooks Payroll.
• Hands-on US tax compliance: multi-state payroll tax, sales and use tax, and entity returns, including pass-through entities with K-1s. You do this work yourself, not only through an outside firm.
• Forecasts and budgets that people actually run the company on.
• You use AI in your daily work for reconciliation, data cleanup and reporting. We run on Claude.
• You enforce controls with everyone, founders included, and say no plainly when the numbers do not support a decision.
• You can explain a variance to a non-accountant in a few sentences.
• Discretion. You will see everything.

Useful, not required

• Marketplace, travel, aviation or property-management accounting, anywhere you held money on behalf of someone else.
• Fundraising support: investor reporting, data rooms, due diligence.
• Canadian GST/HST and multi-currency books.
• Leading an offshore bookkeeping or AP/AR team.
• Sales commission plans and unit economics: customer acquisition cost, lifetime value and payback per partner.
• Workers' compensation and benefits administration.
• HubSpot, Mercury, PayPal and card-processor reconciliations.

How we work

• A small team spread across time zones. We prefer writing to meetings where we can.
• You work directly with the co-founders, not through a layer.
• An experienced finance advisor mentors you and acts as a sounding board on the hard calls.
• An offshore bookkeeping and AP/AR team handles transaction-level work. You set the standard and review it.
• We hire specialists and trust them with real ownership. Nobody will micromanage you.
• Our stack: QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payroll, Mercury, HubSpot, PayPal and card processing, Google Workspace, Slack and Claude.

To apply

Apply here with your CV and a short note. Tell us about a finance function you built or fixed: what was broken, what you changed, and how you knew it worked. That answer tells us more than a list of certifications.

Our process is a short screening call, an interview with the hiring manager, and a final conversation with both co-founders.

We read every application.

SkyAccess is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic.