Construction Accounting Manager

Department: Finance/Accounting
Reports to: Executive Leadership
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Company: Gibson Electrical LLC

Position Overview

Gibson Electrical LLC is seeking an experienced Construction Accounting Manager to oversee the company's accounting operations, construction job costing, financial reporting, and cash-flow management.

This is a hands-on construction finance position responsible for the accounting process from transaction entry through monthly financial reporting. The Construction Accounting Manager will ensure leadership and project managers receive timely, accurate, and actionable financial information.

A central responsibility of this position is maintaining the financial accuracy of every project. This includes job budgets, cost coding, committed costs, billings, change orders, cost-to-complete projections, margin analysis, and reconciliation of job-level reporting to the general ledger.

The Construction Accounting Manager will work closely with project managers, estimators, operations, executive leadership, and outside financial professionals to identify financial risks early, protect cash flow, and support company profitability.
Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a hands-on construction accounting professional with strong experience in job costing, work-in-progress reporting, AIA billing, retainage, cash-flow forecasting, and financial analysis.

This individual is highly organized, analytical, and comfortable taking ownership of the company's accounting processes. The successful candidate can identify inconsistencies, constructively challenge incomplete financial assumptions, and translate complex financial information into clear recommendations for project managers and company leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Construction Job Costing and PL Critical Function

• Own the financial integrity of the job-cost system for all active construction and service projects.
• Ensure labor, material, subcontractor, equipment, permits, burden, and other direct costs are posted to the correct job, phase, and cost code on a timely basis.
• Maintain and reconcile original budgets, approved budget revisions, committed costs, actual costs, billings, and forecasted costs at completion.
• Reconcile WIP schedules to the general ledger and financial statements.
• Coordinate monthly job-cost reviews with Project Managers and Operations to validate percent complete, estimated cost to complete, margin projections, billing status, and known project risks.
• Identify margin fade, cost overruns, unfavorable labor productivity, material variances, unposted liabilities, missing commitments, and other financial risks early and elevate corrective actions to leadership.
• Ensure approved change orders are incorporated into contract values, budgets, billing schedules, and job forecasts; separately track pending or unapproved change orders that create financial exposure.
• Reconcile estimated-versus-actual job performance and provide feedback to Estimating and Operations to improve future pricing, labor assumptions, material allowances, and overhead recovery.
• Own the accounting closeout of completed jobs, including final cost review, final billing, retainage tracking, lien-waiver documentation, and confirmation that all known costs have been captured.
• Establish and enforce job-cost coding standards so project financial data is consistent, understandable, and usable across Finance, Operations, and Estimating.

Financial Reporting and Month-End Close

• Lead the monthly close process and ensure all required reconciliations, accruals, journal entries, job-cost adjustments, and financial schedules are completed accurately and on time.
• Prepare and analyze monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements, including the Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Statement, cash-flow reporting, accounts receivable aging, accounts payable aging, and supporting schedules.
• Prepare a concise monthly P&L narrative identifying material budget variances, gross-margin movement, overhead trends, unusual expenses, cash-flow concerns, and required management actions.
• Present monthly financial results to Executive Leadership no later than the 10th calendar day of the following month.
• Maintain balance-sheet integrity through timely reconciliation of bank accounts, credit cards, payroll liabilities, receivables, payables, loans, fixed assets, deposits, retainage, and other material accounts.
• Ensure accounting treatment is consistent with GAAP and coordinate accounting questions with the company CPA or external advisors when needed.

Accounts Receivable, Billing, and Collections

• Own the accounts receivable process, including customer invoicing, AIA/progress billing, retainage tracking, payment application, collection follow-up, and aging management.
• Ensure billing is supported by contract terms, approved change orders, schedule-of-values requirements, lien waivers, affidavits, and customer documentation.
• Maintain a disciplined collection process and escalate overdue balances before they become a material cash-flow constraint.
• Coordinate with Project Managers to identify completed or earned work that has not yet been billed and resolve billing holds promptly.
• Maintain accurate customer account records and resolve billing disputes, short pays, deductions, and retainage issues in coordination with Operations and leadership.

Accounts Payable and Accounting Operations

• Oversee accounts payable processing, vendor statement reconciliation, purchase documentation, payment scheduling, and coding of expenses to the proper general-ledger account and job.
• Negotiate or coordinate credit and payment terms with key vendors as appropriate to support liquidity and operational requirements.
• Manage the general ledger and ensure all financial transactions are recorded completely, accurately, and in the correct accounting period.
• Oversee payroll accounting and ensure payroll liabilities, taxes, deductions, and labor-cost allocations are properly recorded and reconciled.
• Ensure vendor, customer, and transaction documentation is complete, organized, and audit-ready.

Cash-Flow and Treasury Management

• Monitor cash position and liquidity requirements and provide leadership with timely visibility into expected inflows, outflows, and funding needs.
• Develop and maintain a rolling 13-week cash-flow forecast, updated weekly, using expected collections, payroll, vendor payments, debt service, taxes, capital expenditures, and other commitments.
• Use AR aging, AP aging, billing schedules, backlog, payroll requirements, and project cash demands as leading indicators of liquidity.
• Coordinate payment timing and collection priorities with leadership to protect vendor relationships while maintaining adequate operating liquidity.
• Manage banking relationships and recommend practical cash-management improvements when appropriate.

Budgeting, Forecasting, and Financial Analysis

• Assist Executive Leadership in preparing the annual operating budget, departmental budgets, and financial forecasts.
• Monitor actual performance against budget and provide clear variance analysis with recommended corrective actions.
• Partner with Project Managers and Estimators to maintain financially accurate job budgets, forecasts, and job financial statements.
• Analyze revenue, gross profit, overhead, labor efficiency, cash conversion, backlog, and other financial trends that affect company performance.
• Support ROI analysis for capital expenditures, hiring decisions, software investments, equipment, and other major financial commitments.
• Translate financial information into concise, actionable recommendations for non-financial managers.

Internal Controls and Process Improvement

• Develop, document, and enforce accounting policies and procedures that improve accuracy, timeliness, control, and operational efficiency.
• Maintain appropriate segregation of duties, approval limits, purchasing controls, payment controls, and documentation standards.
• Identify weaknesses in accounting workflows, software integrations, job-cost reporting, billing, or data entry and lead corrective process improvements.
• Protect the integrity and confidentiality of financial records and company financial information.
• Maintain reliable interfaces between QuickBooks and construction/project-management systems and identify reconciliation issues created by system integrations.

Tax, Audit, and External Coordination

• Coordinate with the company CPA and external tax advisors to prepare year-end schedules, tax documents, and other required financial information.
• Ensure timely completion of required financial, payroll, sales/use tax, and other accounting-related filings within the scope of the Finance function.
• Coordinate internal and external audit requests and maintain supporting documentation in an audit-ready condition.

Team Leadership and Collaboration

• Supervise, train, and mentor accounting personnel as the department grows; assign responsibilities, establish standards, and hold the team accountable for accurate and timely work.
• Work directly with Operations, Project Managers, Estimators, and Executive Leadership to ensure financial information reflects current project reality.
• Participate actively in WIP, cash-flow, budget, and management meetings and provide clear financial insight, risks, and recommended actions.
• Promote financial accountability across departments by helping managers understand how operational decisions affect job margin, cash flow, overhead absorption, and company profitability.

Minimum Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related field.
• Five or more years of related accounting experience, including meaningful construction accounting experience.
• Demonstrated experience with job costing, WIP reporting, AIA/progress billing, retainage, and construction financial reporting.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office products.
• Fundamental working knowledge of GAAP and sound accounting controls.
• Experience with QuickBooks and current accounting/reporting systems.
• Strong analytical, organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to challenge incomplete or inaccurate project financial assumptions constructively and follow issues through resolution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Construction accounting certification(s) or specialized construction-finance training.
• CPA license or CPA-track experience.
• Working knowledge of Bluebeam.
• Experience with construction project-management software such as Procore, BuildOps, or comparable systems.
• Experience in electrical contracting, specialty trades, commercial construction, or industrial construction environments.

Performance Metrics/Expectations

• Accounts Receivable Aging - $0.00 in accounts receivable aged more than 60 days, excluding documented retainage, formally disputed items, or balances specifically approved by Executive Leadership. All exceptions must have a documented collection or resolution plan.
• Month-End Close & P&L Presentation - Complete the full monthly close, including required reconciliations, accruals, job-cost/WIP entries, and preliminary financial statements, and present the monthly P&L and supporting financial package to Executive Leadership no later than the 10th calendar day of the following month.
• Job Cost & WIP Accuracy - Review 100% of active jobs each month for financial completeness. The WIP schedule must reconcile to the general ledger, and all material job-cost, contract-value, billing, committed-cost, and cost-to-complete discrepancies must be identified, assigned, and resolved or documented before the monthly financial presentation.
• Billing & Unbilled Work Discipline - Submit 100% of required AIA/progress billings by the applicable contractual billing date and maintain no approved change order or otherwise billable completed work unbilled for more than 30 days without a documented reason and assigned corrective action.
• Cash Forecast & Balance-Sheet Control - Update the rolling 13-week cash-flow forecast every week and maintain all material bank, credit-card, payroll-liability, debt, AR, AP, and other balance-sheet reconciliations in current status as part of each monthly close. Material forecast variances or unreconciled balances must be explained and accompanied by a corrective action plan.

These metrics are intended to create clear ownership and measurable accountability. Management may revise thresholds as systems, reporting quality, and company scale improve.