Finance Manager / Controller

Backcountry Brewing | Squamish, BC

Approximately 0.8 FTE | ~32 hours/week | Full benefits

Salary range: approximately $75,000-$85,000 annually (approximately $45-$51/hour)

Backcountry Brewing is looking for an experienced candidate to take ownership of the day-to-day Finance function at our brewery and taproom in Squamish. This is a new position, not a vacancy. We are expanding what our Finance department can do, and this role is part of that.

This is a somewhat unusual Finance job. We are an independent brewery with wholesale, retail and hospitality operations, multiple interconnected business systems, and a Finance function that is more detailed and data-driven than you might expect from a company our size.

Brewing and hospitality are each their own small-business accounting puzzle. We run both under one roof, and the books have to keep them separate enough that we can understand what each part of the business earns, costs and contributes. That takes someone who understands how a brewery and taproom actually operate, not just how they look on a trial balance.

This is not a corporate Controller role with a Finance floor underneath it. You will work with a small team and do real work yourself. We are not looking for someone to sit above the accounting and review other people's work from a distance. We are looking for someone who can own Finance, understand how the machinery works, get into the details when something is strange, and stay in the work rather than above it.

At the same time, this is deliberately not designed as a conventional five-day-a-week Controller position. We expect the role to be approximately 30-32 hours per week, with meaningful flexibility in how those hours are structured.

The goal is a serious professional job that does not necessarily consume your entire working life.

What You'll Own

You will be the on-site owner of Backcountry's day-to-day accounting and Finance function. That includes:

- Month-end and year-end close
- General ledger integrity and reconciliations
- Financial statement preparation and review
- Accounting policies and judgment
- Cash management and treasury
- Financial controls and fraud prevention
- Payroll oversight
- AP and AR oversight
- Inventory and manufacturing accounting
- Tax and regulatory Finance compliance
- Fixed assets and capital accounting
- Routine management reporting
- Coordination with our external accountant
- Finance procedures and documentation
- Supervising our Accounting Operations Coordinator and helping determine how responsibilities divide as the department develops
- Acting as the normal escalation point when something in Finance goes sideways This is a hands-on role.

Sometimes "owning Finance" will mean reviewing a reconciliation or deciding how something should be accounted for. Often it will mean opening QuickBooks, Ekos Brewmaster or a payment system, figuring out why something that should have worked did not, and fixing it.



We want someone comfortable doing both.

The Team

You will work closely with two other people in Finance.

Accounting Operations

Our Accounting Operations Coordinator handles recurring Finance work including AP, payroll processing, AR accounting and payment operations, transaction workflows and day-to-day system activity.

Her responsibilities are expanding as the department develops, and you will help determine how responsibilities divide over time.

We are specifically looking for someone who enjoys teaching, explaining, troubleshooting and handing over responsibility as people become ready for it.

Business Systems / BI / FP&A;

Backcountry also has a separate Business Systems / BI / FP&A; function focused on financial and operational data architecture, costing, forecasting, modeling, dashboards, systems design and bespoke analysis.

You will work closely with this role where accounting, systems and management information overlap intentionally.

The division is roughly

- You own whether the accounting is correct and Finance is functioning properly.
- Business Systems / BI / FP&A; owns whether our systems collectively produce practical information about the business.

Changes that materially affect both accounting and the wider information architecture are worked through together. There will intentionally be overlap.

The Systems

Our current Finance and operating environment includes:

- QuickBooks Online Advanced
- Ekos Brewmaster
- Toast
- MarginEdge
- Dext
- ADP
- Benji Pays
- PayEdge / RBC banking systems
- Various spreadsheets, reports and other small-company connective tissue

You do not need prior experience with all of these. You do need to be comfortable learning systems, understanding how information moves between them, and investigating when two systems disagree. If your instinct when something strange happens is to say, "That's interesting. Let's figure out why," you will probably enjoy this job.

What We're Looking For

We care more about capability and judgment than a perfectly conventional resume. You should probably have:

- Strong practical accounting experience
- Experience running month-end close from start to finish
- A solid understanding of financial controls and reconciliations
- Experience with payroll, AP, AR and general ledger accounting
- Comfort working in accounting software and learning unfamiliar systems
- Enough confidence to make accounting decisions and explain them
- The ability to supervise and develop another employee
- Curiosity about how the business behind the accounting actually works




- The habit of asking what happened on the brewery floor or in the taproom before deciding what the ledger means

Experience in manufacturing, inventory accounting, food and beverage, hospitality, consumer products or another operationally complicated small business would be particularly useful. A CPA designation may be useful, but it is not a requirement. We would rather hire an unusually capable, curious and practical accountant without the designation than make the credential a substitute for fit.

The Kind of Person Who May Like This Job

This role may appeal to someone who has accumulated a broader set of skills than their current job allows them to use.

Maybe you are an Accounting Manager or Assistant Controller who has become tired of being one small piece of a large accounting department.

Or maybe you are the person at a smaller company who gradually ended up running the whole thing anyway.

Maybe you like accounting but also enjoy systems, operations and understanding how businesses actually work.

Maybe you are very good at your job and would also like a weekday for skiing, mountain biking, climbing, family, freelance work, or simply having a life.

We can offer real ownership, an unusual amount of variety, a casual working environment and considerable autonomy. In return, we need someone who will genuinely own the Finance function.

Hours and Location

This is intended to be approximately 0.8 FTE, or 30-32 hours per week.

The role is based in Squamish, BC and needs substantial in-person presence because part of its purpose is to provide local Finance leadership, staff development and hands-on operational support.

We are open to different ways of structuring the working week.

Compensation

Expected salary range is approximately $75,000-$85,000 per year (approximately $45-$51/hour) for the 0.8 FTE role, depending on experience and capability.

The position includes Backcountry's standard full-time benefits and employee perks.

Why We're Hiring

This is a new role. We are expanding the capabilities of the Finance department and separating responsibilities that have historically been concentrated. We are building a Finance structure with clearer ownership, stronger local coverage and more depth across accounting, systems and analysis.

You would be the first person in this job, so there is no predecessor's version of the role that you are expected to inherit unchanged. You will have room to help shape how the department works.

The aim is a department where what we know lives in more than one head, and where we have the accounting, systems and analytical capacity to support the next stage of the business.

If that sounds interesting, we'd like to hear from you.

Pay: $75,000.00-$85,000.00 per year

Benefits

- Casual dress
- Company events
- Dental care
- Disability insurance
- Discounted or free food
- Flexible schedule
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Store discount
- Vision care

Work Location: In person

📌 Finance Manager / Controller (Squamish)
🏢 Backcountry Brewing
📍 Squamish