Accountant (Vacation Rental & Hospitality)

ABOUT HOWARD FINANCIAL

Howard Financial is a tech-forward outsourced accounting and finance firm founded in 2023, delivering full-cycle accounting, controllership, and advisory services to clients across four verticals: Vacation Rental, Hospitality, Consumer & E-Commerce, and Development & Real Estate. We build lean, high-performing finance teams for our clients and pair them with modern tools and streamlined processes — no legacy bureaucracy, no bloated hierarchies.

ROLE PURPOSE

We are hiring an Accountant with a rock-solid accounting background and deep expertise in Hospitality and Vacation Rentals to support one or more of our high-growth clients.

This is not a bookkeeping role. We need a technically strong accountant who thoroughly understands full-cycle US GAAP accounting, complex revenue recognition, and trust/escrow dynamics specific to the hospitality sector. You will independently own the month-end close cycle, review the work of junior team members, resolve complex technical discrepancies, and serve as the technical backbone of the account — working alongside a Controller or Sr. Controller who oversees overall account strategy.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own Full-Cycle Month-End Close: Lead and execute the complete close process for complex Vacation Rental and Hospitality accounts, ensuring GAAP compliance, precise accruals, and clean balance sheets.
• Complex Reconciliations & Revenue Recognition: Reconcile high-volume, multi-property transaction data, including owner statements, trust/escrow accounts, channel commissions (Airbnb, VRBO, Direct), and merchant processors against PMS data.
• PMS & GL Integration: Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve complex discrepancies in booking, occupancy, tourist tax, and revenue data flowing from PMS platforms into the general ledger.
• Review & Quality Control: Review, audit, and mentor junior accountants/bookkeepers on the account, serving as the first point of escalation for accounting judgment calls.
• Financial Reporting & Analysis: Prepare accurate property-level and portfolio-level financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) and perform detailed variance analysis for leadership and clients.
• Process & Controls Improvement: Maintain and elevate accounting procedures specific to the vacation rental revenue cycle (management fee splits, cleaning fee pass-throughs, owner payouts, and local tax compliance).
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner directly with the Controller/Sr. Controller and communicate technical accounting insights clearly to client-side stakeholders.

MUST-HAVES (Non-Negotiable)

• Solid Accounting Foundation: Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or equivalent. CPA, EA, or progress toward CPA is strongly preferred.
• 3–5+ Years of Proven Accounting Experience: Demonstrable ownership of full month-end close cycles, complex ledger entries, and financial statement preparation (beyond basic transactional bookkeeping).
• Hospitality & Vacation Rental/STR Expertise: Hands-on experience in Hospitality accounting (Hotels, Multi-property, or Short-Term Rentals) with direct experience in Trust/Escrow Accounting and owner disbursement cycles.
• Strong US GAAP Knowledge: Solid technical grounding in US GAAP standards, particularly around revenue recognition, deferred revenue, and accrued liabilities in service/hospitality environments.
• High-Volume Data Mastery: Advanced Excel / Google Sheets skills (complex formulas, nested lookups, pivot tables, large dataset reconciliation models).
• Multi-Entity / Multi-Property Exposure: Proven capability to handle multi-entity or multi-client structures simultaneously without sacrificing accuracy.
• Fluent Professional English: Exceptional written and verbal English skills for daily communication with US-based clients and team members.

NICE-TO-HAVES

• PMS Expertise: Hands-on experience with Vacation Rental PMS software such as Guesty, Streamline, Track, Hostaway, BuildingEngines, or similar systems.
• Modern Stack: Proficiency with cloud tools like QBO, Ramp, Bill.com, or NetSuite.
• Industry Background: Previous experience working at a high-growth vacation rental operator/property management company (e.g., Vacasa, Evolve, Sonder, Awning) or a specialized outsourced accounting firm.

NOT A FIT IF

• Your experience is limited to transactional bookkeeping, AP/AR entry, or basic data input without full ownership of close and financial statements.
• You do not have previous experience in Hospitality, Property Management, or Vacation Rentals.
• You are unfamiliar with Trust/Escrow accounting dynamics or high-volume transactional reconciliations.
• You are looking for a passive back-office role with no technical troubleshooting or client interaction.

WHAT WE OFFER

• 100% Remote Work with a US-based, fast-growing firm.
• Exposure to top-tier clients and business models within the dynamic Vacation Rental and Hospitality space.
• Direct access to Controllers and firm leadership in a flat, modern, non-bureaucratic structure.
• Clear career progression paths into Controller-level scope as the firm expands.