Project Accountant

For more than 25 years, Sam Brown Healthcare Communications, a Blue Matter Company, has been the trusted communications partner of the life sciences industry’s most respected, high-performing companies on the cutting-edge of science and medical innovation. Whether you are emerging from stealth, entering Phase 3 studies, or launching your commercial brand, count on our unmatched expertise and unparalleled service to propel your business forward.
We are looking for a Project Accountant to own the day-to-day financial mechanics of how the agency runs — from setting up projects and managing SOW budgets, through time entry, third-party expense approval, monthly accruals, and client invoicing, all the way to AR follow-up and supporting the monthly close. This is a detail-oriented, deadline-driven role at the heart of the agency’s billing, revenue, and project profitability workflow.
You will work side-by-side with the Director of Operations on client SOW health, partner closely with Managing Directors on their account economics, and serve as Sam Brown’s primary point of contact with Blue Matter’s Controller and FP&A team for everything project- and billing-related. The right person is a hands-on operator who genuinely enjoys clean books, accurate invoices, and well-maintained project records — and is comfortable working across multiple systems (Beyond Software, Workfront, QuickBooks, with a planned migration to NetSuite) to keep the data flowing.
This position is fully remote and requires minimal travel.
What you’ll do:  
Project Setup & Maintenance

• Open new projects and maintain existing projects in the project management system, ensuring SOW terms, budgets, rates, and billing structure are accurately reflected
• Close out old and inactive projects, performing write-offs where applicable in partnership with FP&A
• Secure applicable client purchase orders (POs) and ensure they are in place ahead of invoicing
• Execute time transfers within the project management system as needed to reflect accurate project costing

Client Billing & Invoicing

• Own the monthly client invoicing cycle end-to-end: review and approve agency hours and time entries, validate third-party purchases against budgets, produce invoices, and deliver them via email or client portal upload
• Post final client invoices into QuickBooks/NetSuite and provide final billing reports to Blue Matter Corporate
• Approve client-related out-of-pocket purchases and vendor invoices, entering them into the project management system with proper coding
• Post monthly internal platform charge-backs in the project management system

SOW Budget & Project Economics

• Manage client SOW budgets in unison with Managing Directors, running mid-month and month-end reviews to flag overruns, under-runs, and scope shifts
• Support the Director of Operations on SOW pricing reviews and on monthly revenue review and recognition
• Maintain accurate, audit-ready project records and budget-versus-actuals reporting

Accounts Receivable & Accruals

• Review and actively monitor open accounts receivable, partnering with account leads to follow up on aged invoices and resolve client billing questions
• Manage the preparation and review of the monthly client accruals process in unison with the Director of Operations/Managing Directors. 
• Surface AR risks and slow-paying accounts to the Director of Operations and Blue Matter Controller

Payroll & HR Operations Support

• Reconcile hours for part-time employees for HR each payroll period, along with any payroll reimbursements or deductions sourced from Beyond Software
• Provide monthly time-off reconciliation to HR by comparing Beyond Software records to the ADP portal

Monthly Close & Reporting Support

• Support Director of Operations, Blue Matter’s Controller and FP&A team on the monthly close — providing final revenue, project AP detail, expense account reconciliations, client payment receipts, and inter-company transfer support as needed
• Generate and distribute regular billing, WIP, and AR reports
• Recommend improvements to Beyond Software, including new reports and workflow enhancements, in partnership with the Director of Operations

What You Bring:   

• 3–6+ years of project accounting, billing, or agency finance experience — ideally inside a PR, communications, marketing, advertising, or other professional services agency
• Hands-on experience with time-tracking and project management systems (Beyond Software, Workfront, OpenAir, Mavenlink, Kantata, or similar) and accounting systems (QuickBooks, NetSuite, or similar)
• Strong working knowledge of agency billing economics: SOWs, rate cards, billable hours, third-party pass-throughs, retainers, and project budgets
• Comfort moving fluidly between systems, reconciling data across them, and spotting when the numbers don’t tie
• Solid grasp of monthly close mechanics — accruals, revenue recognition, AR aging, AP reconciliation
• Exceptional attention to detail, organization, and follow-through; you treat deadlines as non-negotiable and chase down loose ends without being asked
• A service mindset — you partner well with non-finance colleagues (account leads, Managing Directors), explain financial details clearly, and help the business make better decisions
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related field

Nice to Have:

• Experience supporting a finance team through a systems migration (e.g., QuickBooks to NetSuite)
• Familiarity with ADP or a comparable payroll platform
• Exposure to a PE-backed environment with monthly reporting cadence

Pay Range: $70,000-$100,000. This position is bonus eligible.
Sam Brown is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, or sexual orientation. All applicants will be considered solely on the basis of their qualifications.