Chief Financial Officer

Financial Leadership & P&L Control Own the full P&L — drive accountability for revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA across all divisions, branches, and service lines. Job-level profitability — establish and enforce job costing and project-level P&L discipline so every contract, crew, and route is measured against budget and estimate. Margin improvement — identify and execute initiatives to expand gross and contribution margins through pricing, labor productivity, materials, equipment utilization, and overhead control. Budgeting & forecasting — build the annual budget and a rolling forecast that account for the seasonality and weather sensitivity inherent to landscape operations. Cash & working capital — manage cash flow, billing cadence, retainage, AR collections, and the working-capital cycle to fund growth and seasonal swings. Construction & Project-Based Accounting Job costing — maintain a rigorous job-cost system that captures labor, materials, equipment, and subcontractor costs at the project and phase level. WIP & revenue recognition — produce accurate work-in-progress schedules and apply percentage-of-completion / ASC 606 revenue recognition correctly and consistently. Contract management — track change orders, retainage, billings vs. costs, and over/under-billings; flag margin fade before it hits results. Maintenance vs. construction — account separately for recurring maintenance contracts and one-time enhancement / install / design-build work, preserving visibility into the recurring-revenue base that buyers prize. Systems, Process & Controls ERP ownership — select, implement, and continuously improve the financial and operational software stack; eliminate spreadsheets and manual workarounds. Process design — document and standardize close, billing, payroll, purchasing, and approval workflows so the business runs on repeatable processes, not individual heroics. Internal controls — establish segregation of duties, approval thresholds, and controls that withstand external audit and buyer diligence. Month-end close — compress and standardize the close calendar; deliver accurate financials on a predictable timeline each month. KPI & reporting infrastructure — build dashboards that connect field operations to financial outcomes (revenue per crew-hour, billable utilization, backlog, route density, etc.). Private Equity Transaction Readiness Diligence preparation — organize a data room, clean up the balance sheet, and ensure books are audit- and QoE-ready well ahead of a process. Quality of Earnings — anticipate and support a sell-side QoE; identify and document EBITDA add-backs and normalizing adjustments defensibly. Recurring revenue narrative — quantify and substantiate contracted / recurring maintenance revenue, retention, and backlog—the metrics that drive multiple expansion. Advisor management — work alongside investment bankers, accountants, and legal counsel; serve as the credible financial voice in management presentations. Post-close readiness — build a finance function capable of meeting a sponsor’s reporting, covenant, and board-package expectations from day one. Inventory Management Tracking of inventory — materials, equipment, tools across warehouses, job-sites and locations.Leadership & Business Partnership Team building — lead, mentor, and scale the accounting and finance team; upgrade talent and capability as the company grows. Operational partnership — embed with branch and operations leaders so financial insight actually changes how work gets bid, scheduled, and delivered. Capital & assets — manage the equipment fleet from a financial lens—capex, financing, lease-vs-buy, utilization, and total cost of ownership. Industry-Standard Software Experience The CFO should bring hands-on experience with the platforms common to landscape and construction finance. Direct experience with a green-industry ERP is strongly preferred; broader construction-accounting fluency is acceptable where it transfers cleanly. Category Representative Platforms Green-industry ERP Aspire (highly preferred), Asset / Include Software, SingleOps, LMN, Real Green / WorkWave—platforms purpose-built for landscape operations and job costing. Construction ERP Sage 300 CRE (Timberline), Sage Intacct Construction, Viewpoint Vista, Foundation, Jonas, or CMiC. General accounting QuickBooks (where the company is mid-transition), NetSuite, or Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. Field & ops Crew scheduling, routing, estimating, and time-capture tools that integrate with the ERP for true job-level data. Reporting & BI Power BI, Tableau, or native ERP dashboards for management and board reporting. Payroll & HR Multi-state, hourly/seasonal workforce payroll platforms (e.g., ADP, Paylocity) including certified payroll where prevailing-wage work applies. Must-Have 12+ years of progressive accounting/finance experience, including 5+ years in a senior finance leadership role (CFO, VP Finance, or Controller). Demonstrated expertise in construction or project-based accounting: job costing, WIP, percentage-of-completion, and ASC 606 revenue recognition. Full-cycle P&L ownership and a track record of measurable margin improvement. Hands-on experience selecting and implementing industry ERP / field-management software. Highly systems- and process-oriented; a builder who standardizes and documents rather than improvises. Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field. Strongly Preferred Direct experience in the landscape, green-industry, or specialty-trade construction sector. Prior involvement in a private equity transaction or company sale—ideally sell-side—including diligence and Quality of Earnings. Active CPA and/or MBA. Experience scaling a founder-owned, lower-middle-market business toward institutional ownership. Multi-branch / multi-entity and multi-state operating experience. Personal Attributes Hands-on and detail-driven, yet able to step back and think like an owner and an investor. Comfortable in the field and on the jobsite—not just behind a desk. Clear communicator who can present credibly to a CEO, a board, and prospective buyers. High integrity; builds books and controls that hold up under outside scrutiny. Thrives in a seasonal, fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment.