AP Specialist / Bookkeeper What's Awesome About Our Client? This is one of the more unusual places you can do accounting in Montana. Our client runs a group of ranch and hospitality properties in Paradise Valley, and the accounting team works on site out of a converted cabin with its own kitchen, big windows and the occasional antelope outside the door. The owner started his own career as an accountant, and it shows in how the department is run. Accounting here is a shared service that exists to make life easier for the operations managers, not a back office that generates paperwork for them. At the end of every season, revenue from the properties gets swept into an employee-led community fund. There is a grant cycle each year, and in the spring every year-round employee sits down together and decides as a group where the money goes. This year that was close to $1 million. There are no education requirements anywhere in the accounting department. Their current senior accountant moved up without an accounting degree or a formal accounting background, so internal mobility here is real rather than theoretical. The seat is open because the person who had it got promoted, and the new Director of Finance is deliberately taking her time to get the right person rather than the fastest one. Why This Job - AP Specialist / Bookkeeper Our client operates four ranch and hospitality properties in Paradise Valley, with nine legal entities behind them. There is a heavy summer guest season, an in-depth fall hunting program, and a brand new property that will be their first to stay open year round. Headcount runs close to 120 in the summer and just under 100 in the deep winter. This is the fourth seat on a small accounting team and it reports directly to the Director of Finance. The job splits roughly 70% accounts payable and 30% general accounting. On the AP side, invoices land in a central inbox, the ranch managers code them and give a first-round approval, you consolidate everything into a weekly batch, then you build an approval packet for each property's general manager and cut checks once they sign off. In the busiest months that is 300 to 400 invoices. Alongside it you own corporate credit card processing, the AP reconciliations, 1099s, W9 and ACH files, outstanding check tracking and vehicle registrations. The other 30% is general ledger work, monthly close, intercompany balancing, bank reconciliations, fixed assets and capital expenditure tracking, and helping with the monthly reports and the annual budget. What the job description does not tell you is that the managers are your customers. They are spread across four properties and half of them are out of cell signal most of the day. You will get a text from someone with five minutes of service before they head back out to move cattle, and being the person who sorts it out for them is the job, not an interruption to it. The role is also about to get better. They already run corporate cards on a cloud AP platform and over the next couple of months it is being extended to the AP process itself, so managers can submit and approve from their phones. That is a deliberate move to strip the manual processing out of this seat. The plan for the time it frees up is better work: reviewing coding against budget on the front end, helping the operations managers get their budgeting right, and picking up more analysis. One honest note about fit. This is not a corporate office and the Director of Finance is direct about that. It is five days a week on site in the summer, on a dirt road, in a place where a meeting occasionally runs late because horses are being moved across the road. The people who love it here are the ones who see 200 elk on the drive in and think that is the best part of the morning.

What You'll Actually Do:

Own the weekly AP cycle across nine entities, from the central inbox through manager coding, weekly batching, GM approval packets and check runs. Review invoice entry for correct coding, remittance information, departmental approval and due dates, and chase down the problem invoices rather than passing them along. Run corporate credit card processing, and help implement the new AP platform over the next couple of months. Be the person operations calls when they are stuck on the system, including submitting on their behalf when they have no signal. Prepare the AP reconciliations and be the primary contact for anything payable-related. Maintain the AP, W9 and ACH files, process annual 1099s, and track outstanding checks over 90 days, voiding and reissuing as needed. Handle vehicle registrations across all four properties, and deposit checks and cash weekly for multiple entities. Support general ledger coordination, monthly closing entries, intercompany balancing, bank and balance sheet reconciliations, fixed assets, property taxes and capital expenditures. Help with the monthly financial reports, the annual budget, and the audit and tax workpapers. Over time, move up the value chain: reviewing coding against budget on the front end and helping the operations managers get it right the first time.

What You Bring:

This is a wish list, not a checklist. The Director of Finance said plainly that the right fit and setting someone up to succeed matter more to her than ticking every box. A couple of years of accounts payable at real volume is the ideal, and it is not a gate. A strong administrative or office professional with the aptitude and the personality for this team is a profile our client will look at and train. Genuine Excel ability. You will be handling reports of a few hundred rows every month, and sorting them by hand does not work here. Clear, straightforward communication with people who are not accountants and who are usually in the middle of something else. Strong attention to detail and the organization to keep nine entities and four properties straight. Comfort picking up new software. A new AP platform is landing shortly and the ERP changes in the next year or two. Windows-based accounting system experience and an aptitude for GL systems and interfaces. A high regard for confidentiality. No degree required. There are no education requirements for any role in this accounting department.

Where and How Much:

Location:

On site in Paradise Valley, south of Livingston, MT. Five days a week on site in the summer, with one day a week in a Livingston office available in the shoulder seasons and two in the winter if you want them.

Compensation:

$50,000 to $60,000 salaried, plus an available 5% annual bonus. Raises happen in the spring alongside the bonus.

Benefits:

Around 15 days of PTO plus around 10 flexible paid holidays you can take or bank. 401(k) with company matching, health, dental and vision insurance. An employee assistance plan you can draw on regardless of tenure, up to $5,000 a year for an unforeseen medical or dental cost, an auto accident or a family emergency. A matching gift program where the owner doubles your donation to any 501(c)(3). Guided hunting on the property, which is genuinely unusual for the area. Summer access to the ranch amenities including fishing and horseback riding. Lunch on site all summer. Employee discounts at the bar, retail and food operations. And a seat in the employee-led community fund.

Schedule:

Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, though most of the team currently runs 8:30 to 5:30 and there is about an hour of flex either way. Two of the three people on the team have small children and the schedule is built around school runs.

Pay:

$50,000.00 - $60,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Dental insurance Employee assistance program Employee discount Health insurance Paid time off Vision insurance

Work Location:

In person