|
A candidate-centric job description is essential to attracting qualified applicants. While you want to mention specific duties and responsibilities, discussing the culture and what it’s like to work for your brand each day is equally important. Write using second-person pronouns, and start with the assistant controller job description template, to speak directly to qualified applicants.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the job outlook for the financial sector to grow at a rate of 7 percent in upcoming years. Stable employment options drive candidates to education and training for financial jobs, but every successful company needs financial and account employees. Your posting for an assistant controller has to stand apart from the crowd to attract the best candidates. Use the assistant controller job description template below, along with the best practices and tips, to create your own brilliant job posting.
||
Assistant Controller Job Description Template
Job Summary:
This is a unique opportunity for a bright and passionate accounting professional to join our quickly growing technology company as a young leader. Alongside our Controller and CFO, you’ll be an integral part of ensuring that our organization’s accounting function can scale and support growth, and you’ll be a key member of a talented, committed finance team.
As assistant controller, you’ll get the opportunity to take responsibility for the financial operations and insurance and corporate records of the company, including the production of periodic financial reports, maintenance of an adequate system of accounting records, and oversight of a comprehensive set of controls and budgets designed to mitigate risk, enhance the accuracy of the company’s reported financial results, and ensure that reported results comply with generally accepted accounting principles or financial reporting standards.
Job Responsibilities: Management
- Oversee the operations of the accounting department, including the design of an organizational structure adequate for achieving the department’s goals and objectives
- Manage the company’s expense and payments function via a staff of two.
- Oversee the vendor payment process flow from invoicing to payment of expenditure.
- Oversee the fixed asset process from expenditure request through capitalization of project.
- Ensure that accounts payable are paid in a timely manner and bank reconciliations are completed.
- Maintain an orderly accounting filing system as well as a system of controls over accounting transactions.
- Issue timely and complete financial statements.
- Coordinate the preparation of the corporate annual report.
Transactions
Reporting
Compliance
- Coordinate the provision of information to external auditors for the annual audit.
- Monitor debt levels and compliance with debt covenants.
Job Skills & Qualifications:
Preferred:
- 1 year experience managing a team of 2 or more
- Performance management experience
- CPA completed or in the process of being completed
Required:
- 1+ years at a fast-paced, ever-changing company
- 1+ years experience with Salesforce
- 3-5 years analyzing & tracking budget expenses, developing budgets
- Experience with commission payment process
- Demonstrated experience w/Microsoft Office – particularly Excel
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance
What to Include in a Winning Assistant Controller Job Description Template
A job description should be easy to read and have a conversational tone, as if you’re sitting down and telling a friend about the job. It’s important not to overuse business jargon or fluffy content. Job seekers are likely to spend only a minute looking over your description, so you need to make each word count. Job postings created with an assistant controller job description template should contain these four components.
Job Summary: Provide a general overview of what the role entails. Be sure not to get into too much detail, as specific tasks are best reserved for other sections. Talk in generalities, using friendly marketing language to gently sell the role and encourage the reader to apply. Give them an idea of the professional success they’ll enjoy working in this position.
Duties & Responsibilities: For this section, you can include detailed bullets of specific tasks, as well as who the assistant controller will be reporting to (likely the head controller). For an assistant controller, duties such as preparing financial reports, income statements and balance sheets are appropriate. When possible, use action-oriented language.
Skills: Compose a set of required skills (those that are absolutely necessary) and nice-to-have skills (those that are preferred, but not a deal breaker). A required skill for assistant controllers might be knowledge of governmental regulations, as they often prepare special reports for these types of agencies. Preferred skills might refer to education level beyond the minimum requirements (typically a bachelor’s degree) or other special certifications related to finance.
Company Overview: Communicate specific reasons why a candidate should work for you instead of another company. What sets your company apart from the pack? This section is the place to answer these questions. Existing marketing copy or the company’s About Us page is a good place to start.
Making better hires starts with building better job descriptions
• Browse 100s of templates across 40+ industries
• Customize your template with your company info & job requirements
• Post it to 20+ job boards in seconds – for FREE!

Get a professional, candidate-centric job description quickly & easily with MightyRecruiter
Assistant Controller Job Description Writing Do’s & Don’ts
- Do include information about any awards as well as statements about the organization’s overall reputation. These are big contributors towards a candidate’s decision to apply.
- Don’t overlook the importance of including a metatitle, tags and descriptions for each job posting listed on your site. Include accounting-related position names in the meta for SEO purposes.
- Do focus on writing a description using an assistant controller job description template with candidate needs in mind. Candidate-centric postings perform better than company-centric postings.
- Don’t forget to make your list of available jobs mobile-friendly; many job seekers use their smartphone to complete a search.
- Do mention benefits and discuss work-life balance; candidates may want to know if compensation or additional time off is provided for working extra during busy times such as tax season.
- Don’t hesitate to use subheadings to break up the content of the posting. This format makes it much easier for a job seeker to scan.