Finance Manager

Finance Manager

Full-Time, In-Office (Dorval, QC) • Reports to the President • A CFO-track role for a newly qualified CPA

About Our Client

Our client is a leading Canadian specialist in the transportation of dangerous goods (TDG). From their Dorval, Québec base, they serve organizations nationwide through three complementary business lines: accredited TDG training for every mode of transport (air, road, marine, and rail); a complete range of compliance products (UN-rated packaging, placards, labels, and publications); and specialist services including compliance audits and DG logistics support. Following a recent ownership transition, they're strengthening the team and technology/financial infrastructure to support significant organic and acquired growth over the next several years.

Why This Role Exists

They're looking for a recently qualified CPA who's ready to move from public practice into a hands-on, ownership-facing role at a growing business. You'll start close to the numbers — reconciliations, receivables, day-to-day accounting and finance — and grow into managing the company's finance function, with a clear path toward becoming CFO as the business scales. Acquisitions will be a notable part of their growth story, so you'll also get real exposure to deal work — financing, analysis, and diligence on acquisition targets — a level of transaction exposure that's rare this early in a finance career. It's a genuine ground-floor opportunity: compensation starts modestly but grows quickly with the business, and for the right person, a real ownership stake can be part of the journey.

The Opportunity

Reporting directly to the President, you will begin by owning our day-to-day accounting operations in QuickBooks Online, eventually working alongside our external accountant and tax advisors on tax and compliance matters. As you learn the business and help establish strong accounting processes — including building real cost and margin visibility across our business lines — we'll hire a bookkeeper to report to you, freeing you to take on management reporting, budgeting, cash flow, and lender/covenant reporting, with the explicit intent that this role grows into a Director of Finance role and eventually the company's first CFO position. You'll also grow into supporting the financing and analysis of future acquisitions as our growth-through-acquisition strategy continues.

Key Responsibilities

Initial Foundation:

• Learn the business and help establish proper best practices and accounting discipline.
• Own monthly reconciliations (bank, credit card, intercompany) and resolve exceptions.
• Manage accounts receivable end-to-end: invoicing, aging review, and proactive collections follow-up.
• Manage accounts payable processing.
• Support month-end close and coordinate with our external accountant on tax filings and compliance.
• Lead a cost accounting initiative to allocate overhead and operating expenses across our business lines, building accurate, data-driven cost and margin visibility by product and service.
• Maintain clean, audit-ready records in QuickBooks Online.

As the role grows:

• Hire and manage a bookkeeper to take over day-to-day transactional work.
• Own monthly and quarterly management reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management.
• Manage lender relationships and covenant compliance reporting.
• Take on increasing ownership of financial compliance and tax matters over time as the role grows toward CFO.
• Support financial due diligence and a first-pass quality-of-earnings analysis on acquisition targets and help structure and manage financing for future acquisitions alongside our advisors and lenders.

What Success Looks Like in Year 1

• Reconciliations, AR, and AP are current, clean, and reliably on schedule.
• Month-end close runs on a predictable, documented cadence with no material surprises for our external accountant.
• You've built a strong working knowledge of the business, positioning you to take on broader financial management and strategic accounting initiatives as the role grows.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Commerce with an accounting major.
• A newly completed, or nearly completed, CPA designation. Training at a regional or mid-size firm is a strong fit for this role; Big Four background is welcome but not required.
• Hands-on proficiency with QuickBooks Online and add-on tools such as Plooto and Dext (or a strong aptitude to learn quickly).
• Genuine interest in moving from public practice into a hands-on, ownership-facing operating role, starting close to the transactional detail.
• Strong communication skills — able to translate financial detail into clear guidance for ownership as the role grows.
• Bilingual (English/French) an asset given our Quebec client and vendor base.
• Experience with cost accounting, overhead allocation, or margin/profitability analysis.
• Enrollment in the CFA Program is a strong asset, though not required.
• Exposure to financial due diligence, M&A, or transaction advisory work is a strong asset, though not required — we'll build this experience together as the role grows.