Position Title: Firm Operations Manager (Confidential Client)
Location: Ambler, PA | On-site
Employment Type: Permanent

Compensation

Salary: $61,000–$70,000

Benefits

10/15 days of PTO
3% match for Simple IRA
Our Client pays $300 towards medical benefits, start immediately (it's a basic plan)
6 paid holidays
Business casual atmosphere

Company Overview (Confidential)

Our Client is a CPA firm providing individual tax preparation, business tax returns, bookkeeping/accounting services, tax resolution, and tax notice response work.

Position Summary

Our Client is seeking a highly organized, systems-oriented Firm Administrator / Firm Operations Manager to oversee the firm's administrative operations, client workflow, staff scheduling, production tracking, technology coordination, and internal process improvement.

This is not a traditional administrative support position. The successful candidate will serve as a key operational leader within the firm and will be responsible for ensuring that client work moves efficiently through the firm from onboarding through completion, billing, and delivery.

This person will work closely with firm leadership, tax professionals, bookkeepers, administrative staff, IT providers, software platforms, and AI-enabled workflow tools to improve firm productivity, accountability, internal controls, and client service.

The ideal candidate is a proactive operations leader who enjoys creating order, structure, and accountability. This person should be comfortable managing both people and systems, asking follow-up questions, identifying problems, and creating practical solutions. The right candidate will not simply wait for assignments. They will monitor workflow, identify risks, communicate clearly, and help firm leadership ensure that client work is completed accurately, efficiently, and on time.

Key Success Measures

Improve visibility over firm workflow and deadlines.
Reduce missed steps, last-minute bottlenecks, and unnecessary partner involvement in administrative follow-up.
Improve staff accountability for assigned work and due dates.
Improve turnaround time on client engagements.
Improve tracking of budgets, work status, missing information, billing, and collections.
Help standardize firm procedures across tax, bookkeeping/accounting, notice response, and administrative functions.
Increase effective use of firm technology, automation, and AI-enabled workflow tools.
Provide firm leadership with reliable, timely, and actionable operating reports.

Primary Functions

Workflow Management and Production Oversight

Oversee firm workflow across individual tax preparation, business tax returns, bookkeeping/accounting services, tax resolution, and tax notice response work.
Maintain visibility over all active client engagements, including status, assigned staff, due dates, internal deadlines, budgets, open items, review status, billing status, and completion status.
Assign, monitor, and update internal due dates, milestones, and staff responsibilities for client engagements.
Work with firm leadership and department leaders to balance workloads, identify capacity issues, and reassign work as needed.
Monitor firm output compared to statutory deadlines, internal target dates, assigned budgets, and client expectations.
Identify workflow bottlenecks and proactively recommend solutions before deadlines are at risk.
Coordinate regular workflow meetings with staff and firm leadership.
Prepare weekly and seasonal production reports for partners and managers.
Assist in developing workflow checklists, status codes, project templates, routing rules, and deadline tracking systems.

Process Improvement, Controls, and Efficiency

Evaluate existing administrative and production processes and recommend practical improvements.
Create, implement, and monitor internal controls over client intake, document collection, workflow routing, review readiness, e-file authorization, billing, and project closeout.
Standardize procedures to reduce rework, missed steps, delays, and partner-level administrative involvement.
Develop methods to track realization, turnaround time, budget-to-actual performance, missing information delays, and staff capacity.
Assist firm leadership in improving tax season procedures, extension procedures, bookkeeping workflows, and notice response tracking.
Help design repeatable workflows for recurring services such as monthly bookkeeping, quarterly estimates, business tax returns, and annual individual tax preparation.

Technology, IT Systems, and AI Workflow Coordination

Serve as a key internal liaison for the firm's practice management software, tax software, client portal, document management system, e-signature tools, communication platforms, and related applications.
Coordinate with outside IT providers and software vendors to resolve operational issues and improve system usage.
Assist with implementation, testing, and refinement of technology tools that support client workflow and firm operations.
Help maintain templates, automated task lists, recurring workflows, dashboards, reports, and system permissions.
Work with firm leadership to integrate AI agents and automation tools into appropriate administrative and workflow processes.
Monitor AI-enabled workflows to ensure proper human review, data privacy, accuracy, and adherence to firm procedures.
Identify opportunities to use automation and AI tools to reduce manual follow-up, improve document intake, summarize client communications, monitor due dates, and create management reporting.
Train staff on appropriate use of firm systems, workflow tools, portals, and automation processes.

Staff Coordination and Administrative Leadership

Supervise and coordinate administrative staff responsible for client communications, document collection, engagement letters, billing support, collections, tax season preparation, scanning, portal activity, and other office functions.
Help establish clear responsibilities and accountability for administrative team members.
Coordinate staff schedules, workload assignments, and recurring administrative deadlines.
Assist with onboarding and training of administrative personnel.
Facilitate internal staff meetings and follow up on assigned action items.
Serve as a liaison between professional staff, administrative staff, firm leadership, outside vendors, and IT providers.
Promote a culture of accountability, responsiveness, organization, and continuous improvement.

Client Onboarding and Service Coordination

Oversee the new client onboarding process from initial acceptance through setup in firm systems.
Ensure that engagement letters, client information, prior-year records, portal access, billing arrangements, and service expectations are properly established.
Coordinate annual tax season preparation, including organizer distribution, engagement letter tracking, client document requests, and follow-up procedures.
Monitor missing client information and ensure timely follow-up.
Assist with client communication procedures, including standard email templates, deadline reminders, document request notices, and status updates.
Help ensure a consistent and professional client experience across all firm service lines.

Billing, Collections, and Engagement Budget Monitoring

Coordinate with firm leadership and administrative staff to ensure timely billing of completed work.
Monitor engagement budgets and compare budgeted time or fee expectations to work status and completion.
Assist with tracking work-in-process, completed-but-unbilled projects, unpaid invoices, and past-due balances.
Support procedures requiring payment before release of returns or final deliverables, where applicable.
Provide reporting to firm leadership regarding billing status, collections issues, and budget overruns.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience managing workflow in a CPA firm or tax preparation environment.
Experience with tax season deadline management.
Experience supervising administrative or professional staff.
Experience with client onboarding and engagement letter processes.
Experience with billing, accounts receivable, work-in-process, or budget tracking.
Experience implementing or improving practice management software.
Experience working with AI tools, automation tools, or technology-enabled process improvement.

Firm Operations Manager

Note For Candidate