Assurance Director, Account Advisory & Outsourcing

Job Summary:

Working under the authority of a Practice Leader and/or Managing Director, the Assurance Director, Accounting Advisory & Outsourcing (AAO) will be responsible for assisting Practice Leadership in managing their local office and delivering high value solutions to multiple clients in the areas of outsourced Finance & Accounting.  This role will be charged with managing engagement teams through all stages of advisory engagements to include planning, field work, engagement wrap up and report composition, along with providing recommendations regarding engagement economics and legal risks to the Firm.  The AAO Director will be responsible for ensuring exceptional client service and high-quality engagement deliverables.  This position will also be responsible for developing new business with existing clients and prospects of the Firm.  The AAO Director, in conjunction with the Practice Leader and/or Managing Director, will be responsible for all aspects of project administration including time entry, client contract administration, billings, collections and adjustments to engagement realization when needed.

Job Duties:

Client Service Delivery:

• Oversees the full-life cycle of all assigned engagements by providing technical expertise in all areas within the finance and accounting function
• Identifies opportunities for technological and process improvements to the practice’s service offerings; constructs business cases, develops technical arguments, and persuades leadership on adopting the new approach; implements approved changes effectively across the full practice
• Facilitates effective discovery meetings with large and complex clients; uses open ended questions to identify client objectives, what financial information clients value for management/decision making and why, and creating a map of client’s current internal finance and accounting structure; looks for root causes and does not take information at face value; understands the complexity that can lie behind data
• Designs integrated solutions for large and complex clients that respond to the specific situation; open to new ideas and solutions, and avoids “locking-in” to a single solution; understands BDO well enough internally to identify when services outside of AAO should be included and describes what these services achieve and how they operate; outlines the solution in a concise document and vets it internally with their leaders and other BDO stakeholders
• Accurately determines the cost of building out a solution;  calculates the benefit to a client in dollar terms of the solution; uses the pricing process and understands how to price an engagement to ensure it is profitable proposes a fixed fee based on current scope and reviews the engagement economics on an ongoing basis to ensure the engagement remains profitable
• Advises client leadership on technical accounting issues, financial accounting policies and procedures and financial management issues; uses their broad financial, accounting, business, and industry knowledge to educate clients on how their finance and accounting needs will evolve as their business grows; easily helps clients identify next steps and persuades the client to value those unperceived needs; identifies what needs are critical versus what are not; looks at the business of the client holistically
• Reviews solutions periodically with their clients to determine if it is still the right solution for the current state of the business; develops a compelling future vision for a client; communicates in such a way to inspire clients to take the journey towards that positive future, proactively mitigates conflict; uses negotiation techniques to drive difficult agreements between opposing parties/ideas and generally leaves parties satisfied with the result
• Leads the client through business changes and facilitates the change management process; is comfortable with ambiguity, knows when to create clarity (or when clarity is possible) versus when to make progress without full definition; acts as a partner to clients, as part of their team; diagnoses the relationships and political structure of groups and appropriately navigates these complexities; quickly and accurately assesses people’s perspectives
• Maintains strong business relationships with clients, both internal and external
• Understands tax planning considerations/concepts for various business entities; comprehends the information presented on different tax return forms, analyzes this information to draw conclusions and have an intelligent conversation with clients – helping clients navigate business decisions and their