Bookkeeping Team Leader in Cheltenham

Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. 21–30 hrs / week. Salary: £30,000–£39,000. Contract: Full-time, Permanent (FTE). Flexible. Hybrid working arrangement.

We’re looking for someone to lead our entire bookkeeping service — running a small bookkeeping team, keeping your own portfolio, and ultimately raising the standard of everything we do. Here, the deadline is the floor, not the target. You close the books cleanly. You spot the messy reconciliation before it becomes a problem. You've trained more clients on Xero than you can count, and you quietly fix processes nobody else thought to question.

The role:

• Lead our entire bookkeeping service.
• Around 80 regular monthly clients, a team of two or three bookkeepers — two in the Philippines, one local AAT technician.
• You’ll keep your own portfolio and step in on the complex, trickier work where it counts.

Day to day:

• Own the workflow in Karbon. Plan the jobs, prioritise the team, and spot what's drifting before it slips.
• Every VAT return filed by month-end — ideally the 28th — giving clients a week to ten days' breathing room.
• Review & quality‑control: sense‑check the P&L, review balance sheets, and take things through to draft trial balance where needed.
• Talk to clients like a human: pick up the phone, run a bit of Xero training, keep the relationship warm.
• Keep everyone in sync through our weekly production meeting and the daily 10am huddle.

The toolkit:

• Xero
• Apron
• Receipts
• Karbon
• TaxCalc
• Xenon Connect
• Syft Client reporting
• Payroll experience (BrightPay) is a lovely‑to‑have for emergency cover.

What we stand for:

• Bring the energy — Genuine enthusiasm.
• Above the line — Ownership & accountability.
• Kaizen — Continuous improvement.
• Bring the magic — The extra bit of wow.

Who this is for:

• At least four years in practice.
• AAT qualified ideally — but qualified by experience is absolutely fine.
• A natural organiser who genuinely enjoys untangling problems.
• Independent and self‑motivated, but a real communicator.
• Curious about technology and AI in this industry.

Who this isn't for:

• If you want to keep your head down, do exactly your job description and nothing more.
• If you treat “above the line” as jargon rather than how you actually work.
• If you reach for excuses before ownership when something goes wrong.

A day in the role:

• 7:30 Up, maybe a walk, breakfast.
• 9:00 Laptop on. Check Slack, glance at your week, clear the inbox.
• 10:00 The huddle — quick catch‑up, share your focus.
• 10:15 Coffee, then a proper 60‑minute blast on your priority jobs.
• 13:00 Gym at lunch if that's your thing, back for a bite.
• 14:00 Back at your desk — review bookkeeping progress on Gro.
• 15:00 You might pick up the phone and call a client.

What you get:

• A practice that builds careers around people.
• A modern, tech‑driven practice.
• Generous holiday & pension.
• Work lunches on us.
• Genuine flexibility — hours and shape that work around your life.
• A career that's future‑proof.
• A team that lifts each other.

Sound like you? We're flexible on hours and shape for the right person.