Senior Accountant

Senior Australian Accountant & Team Lead

Australian Public Practice | Tax & Business Services | Remote

Full-Time | Remote | Monday–Friday | 9:00 AM–6:00 PM AEST

Are you a highly experienced Australian accountant who enjoys more than just preparing tax returns

Do you have the technical confidence to review complex work, identify issues before they become problems, and lead a team to produce consistently accurate, high-quality outcomes

Our client, an established Australian accounting practice, is looking for a Senior Australian Accountant & Team Lead to provide technical oversight, quality control, and leadership across its accounting and bookkeeping function.

This is an excellent opportunity for a senior accountant with solid Australian public practice experience who is ready to take ownership of both technical quality and team performance.

You will lead and support a team of approximately 10 bookkeepers and accounting professionals, ensuring work is accurate, processes are followed, deadlines are met, and the overall workflow runs smoothly.

The Opportunity

This is not a role where you will simply sit behind a desk preparing tax returns all day.

You will be a key senior member of the accounting team—reviewing work, solving technical issues, mentoring staff, improving processes, and helping ensure the accounting operation performs at a consistently high standard.

You will act as the important link between the bookkeeping and preparation team and senior leadership, ensuring that work is accurate, complete, compliant, and ready to progress.

Your ability to combine Australian technical accounting expertise with practical leadership and operational oversight will be critical to your success.

What You'll Be Doing

Lead & Develop the Accounting Team

• Provide day-to-day leadership and oversight to a team of approximately 10 bookkeepers and accounting professionals.
• Review work to ensure accuracy, consistency, and adherence to Australian accounting and compliance requirements.
• Provide clear, constructive feedback and help team members improve their technical capability.
• Act as an escalation point for accounting and technical issues.
• Identify recurring errors, knowledge gaps, and areas requiring additional training or process improvement.
• Help build a strong culture of accountability, accuracy, and continuous improvement.

Technical Review & Quality Control

• Review financial statements and Australian tax returns prepared by the accounting team.
• Review work across companies, trusts, partnerships, and sole traders.
• Review BAS and IAS and ensure they align with underlying bookkeeping records.
• Identify accounting errors, inconsistencies, missing information, and potential compliance risks.
• Provide technical guidance across areas including:
• Division 7A
• Capital Gains Tax (CGT)
• Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)
• Trust distributions
• Ensure work is complete, well documented, accurate, and ready for the next stage of review or lodgement.

Improve Workflow & Processes

• Monitor the workflow across the bookkeeping and accounting team.
• Help ensure work is progressing efficiently and deadlines are being met.
• Identify bottlenecks and proactively address workflow issues.
• Improve review processes, SOPs, and quality-control procedures.
• Reduce unnecessary rework by identifying and addressing the root causes of recurring errors.
• Support the ongoing development of scalable and efficient accounting processes.

What We're Looking For

Essential

• 5+ years of solid Australian public practice experience.
• Strong experience preparing and reviewing Australian financial statements and tax returns.
• Experience working with SME clients across companies, trusts, partnerships, and sole traders.
• Strong understanding of Australian taxation and compliance requirements.
• Practical knowledge of Division 7A, CGT, FBT, and trust distributions.
• Strong BAS and IAS experience.
• Advanced experience with Xero and experience with Xero Practice Manager (XPM) or similar workflow systems.
• Previous experience reviewing the work of bookkeepers, junior accountants, or offshore accounting teams.
• Experience leading, mentoring, supervising, or coordinating a small to medium-sized accounting team.
• Excellent attention to detail and strong technical judgement.
• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.
• A proactive, hands-on leadership style.

Highly Regarded

• Experience leading remote or offshore accounting teams.
• Experience managing teams of approximately 5–15 accounting or bookkeeping professionals.
• Improving accounting workflows, SOPs, and review processes whilst working in a high-volume Australian accounting practice.
• Experience managing workflow pipelines and competing compliance deadlines.

Who Will Thrive in This Role

You are a senior accountant who enjoys being the person others come to when something doesn't look right.

You have the confidence to review work critically, challenge errors, and provide clear direction—but you are also a supportive leader who helps people understand how to improve.

You don't just identify problems.

You look for the cause, fix the issue, and improve the process so it doesn't keep happening.

You understand that strong bookkeeping and accounting processes are the foundation of a successful accounting practice, and you take pride in helping a team consistently deliver accurate, high-quality work.

If you enjoy combining technical Australian accounting expertise, quality control, mentoring, and team leadership, this could be an excellent next step in your career.

What Success Looks Like

In this role, you will be successful when:

✓ The team consistently produces accurate, high-quality work.

✓ Errors and compliance risks are identified early.

✓ Bookkeepers and accountants receive valuable feedback and continue to improve.

✓ Workflow is organised, efficient, and progressing smoothly.

✓ Deadlines are managed proactively.

✓ Recurring errors are reduced through better processes and training.

✓ Senior leadership has confidence in the quality and performance of the accounting team.

Why Join

• Permanent work-from-home opportunity
• Senior-level position with genuine team leadership responsibility
• Work with an established Australian accounting practice
• Opportunity to influence processes and improve how the accounting team operates
• Work closely with experienced accounting professionals and senior leadership
• Immediate hiring
• Health insurance coverage for eligible locations