Administrative Assistant / Office Manager

Kent-based CPA practice is seeking a full-time Administrative Assistant to support the Firm in various ways. This position is great for candidates with previous client-facing office experience and an interest/experience in marketing and lead generation. This is a great position for someone looking to establish a career in the accounting field in a professional and dynamic workplace with many opportunities to learn new skills and make meaningful contributions to our team.

Our ideal Administrative Assistant has:

• 2-3 years of administrative experience dealing directly with clients and the public. Alternatively, customer service experience in a non-administrative role may be paired with less administrative experience to meet the overall experience criterion.

• Above average skills with Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office Suite including Excel

• Previous experience with CRM software (Salesforce, Centricity, Zoho, OfficeTools, etc). The program itself is less important than the ability to learn and navigate this type of system.

• Prior job history of providing direct support to a company owner or C-level executive

• No fear when it comes to making or answering phone calls. While you won’t be cold-calling, a great phone presence is critical when interacting with our existing client base and assisting potential new clients.

• Sales and/or appointment setting experience.

• Proficiency with various social media platforms, particularly connected business profiles for Facebook, Yelp and LinkedIn.

• The ability and desire to learn new systems and do your own research to familiarize yourself with our programs, processes and best practices in the accounting industry.

• Ability to understand the importance of direction, focused attention and taking notes. There will be interruptions and you will have to be able to adjust the day around new priorities popping up.

In a typical day, you will:

• Answer phones and greet walk in clients

• Schedule and confirm appointments

• Assist clients with questions regarding the status of their projects.

• Take detailed messages and resolve as many inquiries as possible before transferring a call to the principal CPA.

• Take calls from potential new clients directed to us from the web or referrals from past clients or networking partners. You will describe our services, answer their questions, and get information from them about how we can help them with their accounting needs.

• Respond to new client inquiries from email, our website, and Yelp.

• Email: Send confirmations of appointments, payments, firm requests to client, onboarding information, sort incoming files, manage assignments, receive/transmit faxes.

• Compile, copy, sort, and file records of office activities, sales follow up actions, business transactions, and other activities. Operate office machines, such as

• copiers and scanners, fax machines, voice mail systems and personal computers.

• Maintain forms libraries and make updates as needed

• Maintain CRM and status of client projects; assist owner in prioritizing and optimizing workflow.

• Provide recommendations for updates to various social media sites and the company website to keep content fresh and reach expanded target audience

• Take the lead in creating content for a variety of marketing communication materials, including collateral, advertisements, newsletters, brochures, emails, interactive media, whitepapers, direct mail, online marketing tools (eg: MailChimp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, Google), and more.

• Assist in maintaining relationships with referral and networking partners.

• Required skills to be successful in this position:

• Associates Degree or Bachelor’s Degree strongly preferred

• Excellent oral & written communication and interpersonal skills are necessary.

• Must be highly organized with a strong commitment to customer service, attention to detail and have strong computer skills.

• Must be comfortable and experienced in the Windows operating realm – we don’t use Macs here

• Demonstrate strong keyboarding/typing and 10-key skills

• Demonstrated knowledge of word usage, grammar and punctuation, and the ability to review and edit documents for grammatical context to meet professional standards. This is a professional office, and everything that goes out makes a statement about the Firm and its overall level of professionalism and attention to detail.

• Be able to work in an environment with many interruptions and multitask with composure.

• Must recognize the sensitivity of the client data being handled, and do so with the utmost discretion and professionalism. Prior applicable experience could include medical, legal, or other office experience that includes interacting with clients/patients daily and/or work experience as an Executive Assistant with a variety of responsibilities. Any prior experience in an accounting firm or an interest in accounting is a plus. This list is not exhaustive – if you have other experience that you know makes you a strong candidate for this position be sure to tell us about it in your cover letter.

  Interested parties should specifically include in their cover letter information how they are uniquely qualified for the multi-faceted aspects of this position. Examples of previous work in marketing or social media is a plus.

  Applicants will need to pass a criminal background and credit check and be willing to sign non-disclosure and non-solicitation agreements. Position is full time, 40 hours per week, normal business hours.

• Troubleshoot problems involving office equipment, such as computer hardware and software. What is important is that you are willing to try to fix things and know who to call when it is out of your expertise

• Other tasks as assigned – we are a small office and the term “not my job” does not apply here.