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Arcbridge
Role brief

Bookkeeping and Accounts Assistant

An assistant who keeps client books current and tidy, so accountants and advisors start each month with clean data.

Engagement
Full-time, managed Employer of Record
Working hours
Full-time, with core overlap across Australian Eastern business hours
Experience level
Two or more years in bookkeeping, payroll, or accounts administration. Mid-level.
Primary outputs
  • Bank feeds reconciled and coded against client charts of accounts
  • Bills entered, paid, and matched to suppliers
  • Payroll runs processed against approved timesheets
  • Month-end working papers prepared for review
  • Weekly client-by-client status reporting
Tools and systems
  • Xero
  • MYOB
  • QuickBooks Online
  • Hubdoc, Dext, or similar
  • Microsoft 365

Why this role exists

Advisors and accountants earn from judgement, not from data entry. Yet clean books are the foundation of every advisory hour, and they take steady, careful work to maintain across many clients. Bookkeeping is repeatable, process-driven, and exactly what a dedicated assistant is built to hold.

A dedicated bookkeeping assistant runs the cycle under your direction so accountants come to client work with clean numbers in front of them.

A day in the role

  • Reconcile yesterday's bank feeds across the assigned client list.
  • Enter and code the incoming bills and match them to suppliers.
  • Run a payroll for a client against approved timesheets.
  • Prepare a month-end working paper for accountant review.

What good looks like at 90 days

Client books are current, reconciliations are clean, exceptions are flagged before month-end, payroll runs without drama, and accountants spend their hours on advice rather than data.

Sector context

This role sits inside our professional services sector work, alongside client onboarding, practice administration, and document production.

The Arcbridge difference

You direct the work. Arcbridge holds the employment.

Australian workplace law considers the real working relationship between a business and a worker, not only the contract label. Where an Australian business directly engages an offshore contractor and the practical working relationship resembles employment, classification and Fair Work questions can arise. The Fair Work Commission has scrutinised arrangements of this kind.

Arcbridge is designed to reduce the practical risks of informal offshore contractor arrangements by placing employment, payroll, leave, HR administration, and employment-side process inside a managed structure. Arcbridge or its nominated employment entity employs the team member. The client receives capability and outputs through a service agreement rather than directly engaging an offshore worker.

This is the difference between an informal offshore engagement and a structured offshore team. It is general information only, and is not a substitute for tailored legal, workplace relations, tax, or migration advice on a client's specific arrangements.

Core responsibilities

  • Reconcile bank feeds and code transactions to charts of accounts
  • Enter and pay bills, matching payments to suppliers
  • Process payroll runs against approved timesheets and rules
  • Maintain accurate client records, including contacts and tax codes
  • Prepare month-end working papers for accountant review
  • Handle simple bookkeeping queries
  • Report weekly on the status of each client's books

What this role is not

Clear scope protects the placement. These sit outside this brief, and we will say so before a call rather than after.

  • This role processes transactions and prepares working papers to your direction. It does not provide tax, accounting, or financial advice, which are matters for a qualified professional.
  • It does not sign off accounts or returns.
  • It is not authorised to move funds outside your approved payment workflow.

Best-fit profile

  • Two or more years in bookkeeping, payroll, or accounts administration
  • Numerate, accurate, and methodical with reconciliation
  • Strong written English for query handling
  • Comfortable with cloud accounting tools

What Arcbridge screens for

Depth is the differentiation. These are the capabilities we test before a name reaches your shortlist.

Bookkeeping accuracy

We test accurate coding and reconciliation, because clean books are the data accountants advise from.

Process discipline

We screen for the habit of running the same cycle the same way every period.

Query handling

We assess clear, professional written responses to bookkeeping questions.

Systems fluency

We look for genuine comfort with cloud accounting tools and add-ons.

How we measure success

The signals we hold this role to. These are quality and throughput measures the team member owns, not promises about your commercial results.

  • Bank reconciliations completed on the agreed cadence
  • Bills entered and matched, with exceptions flagged
  • Payroll processed accurately against approvals
  • Month-end working papers prepared on time for review

Who holds what

The managed structure is the point. You direct the work and own the outputs. Arcbridge holds the employment relationship and everything that comes with it.

You direct

  • Your bookkeeping standards, chart-of-accounts conventions, and approval steps
  • Which clients and tasks take priority
  • How exceptions are escalated
Recommended

Arcbridge holds

  • The employment relationship, payroll, and superannuation equivalent
  • Leave, performance management, and HR administration
  • Onboarding, equipment, and day-to-day pastoral support

The commercial case

Clean, current books make every advisory hour more valuable and prevent month-end surprises. A dedicated assistant holds the cycle so accountants do not spend chargeable hours on data entry. The managed structure delivers that capability without directly engaging an offshore worker.

Talk through this role

Place a Bookkeeping Assistant.

Send the role brief or describe the work you need covered. We will confirm whether the role fits the Arcbridge model and arrange a 30-minute discovery call within one business day.

This document is general information only and is not legal, migration, registration, clinical, or tax advice. Arcbridge candidates are employed by Arcbridge or its nominated employment entity. The client receives managed offshore support aligned to the agreed role profile, hours, service fee, and reporting arrangements.