Work at Blurb

Accountant (Revenue Focus)

Blurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the power of books: making, reading, sharing, and selling them. For anyone with a story to tell — whether through photographs, words, illustrations, or any combination of those things — Blurb gives you the tools to put your best work into a real book. We're a creative publishing and marketing platform — we give you the tools to market your books, set your own price, and keep 100% of the markup. We handle the back-end order processing and fulfillment, allowing you to focus on your great ideas, and creating awesome books. Not bad, right?

You're getting us at just the right time too. Blurb reported outstanding growth in 2008, reaching profitability and achieving nearly 3X (200%) year-over-year sales growth, with sales of nearly $30MM. With more than one million books produced, over 750,000 registered users, and a global footprint that extends to 60 countries, Blurb continues to experience high growth amidst challenging economic times. If you're ready to dive right in, get dirty, work hard and have fun, keep reading.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The finance group is also growing, with an outsourced CFO and a full-time Finance Director, A/P accountant, and Business Analyst. We are currently looking to fill the newly created, full-time position of Revenue Accountant reporting to the Finance Director. This position will provide critical support to the Finance and Ecommerce function focusing on revenue recognition and gross margin analysis. It requires a well-rounded and experienced accountant to focus on the revenue cycle and provide additional strength to all areas of the monthly close process. During 2009, additional challenges will include: undergoing our initial audit, review of full-strength ERP systems as we are outgrowing QuickBooks, and building out a global infrastructure to support an increasingly complex international business model.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Primary Responsibilities will focus on:

• Month-end close– especially geared toward sales, COGS, gross margin
• Daily reconciliation with merchant accounts, banks, Ecommerce system
• Daily posting of sales and cash from Ecommerce system and merchant accounts to QuickBooks
• Monthly Merchant Account Bank reconciliations in USD and Foreign currency
• Sales tax return preparation for multiple jurisdictions
• VAT understanding and analysis
• Understanding and analysis of various revenue streams, gross margins, required reserves and provisions

Other Responsibilities may include:

• Fixed Assets
• Bank Reconciliations
• Assisting with managing Merchant accounts
• Balance Sheet account recs
• Foreign Currency transactions
• International consolidation and inter-company eliminations
• Interact with auditors during upcoming initial company audit
• Interact with Business Analyst to analyze trends, variances from forecast, etc.
• Assisting with Annual Plan and ongoing forecasts and updates
• Interact with A/P and Operations manager to understand and dissect COGS
• Support CFO for Board presentations as needed
• Establish, maintain, and coordinate the implementation of accounting and accounting control procedures
• Monitor and review accounting and related system reports for accuracy and completeness
• Recommend, developmanual filing systems

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Degree in Accounting/Finance/Economics required
• Minimum of seven years accounting experience
• Ecommerce experience with a high volume transaction business (merchant account reconciliations, charge-backs, rolling reserves, merchant fees and discounts, etc)
• Expert-level QuickBooks experience and some additional ERP software experience (Great Plains, SAP, Oracle Financials, etc)
• Expert-level experience with MS Excel (nested functions, pivot tables, import/export, etc)
• Proficiency with GAAP accounting principles
• Knowledge of SQL queries a plus
• Experience implementing a robust ERP system a plus
• Experience with PayPal a plus
• Foreign currency experience a plus

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

• Prior work experience in start-up or similar rapid growth environment
• Self-motivated, resourceful, curious and creative in solving problems and understanding the dynamics and nuances of the Blurb business model
• Willingness and desire to roll up sleeves and work at all levels — strategic analysis to data-entry
• Desire to build a great organization and know it from the ground up
• Superior interpersonal and communication skills required
• Attention to detail and respect for confidentiality required

ENVIRONMENT

Blurb is a small, but growing company, which means tremendous challenges and opportunities. We are looking for smart people who learn fast, solve problems, and get the job done. Our products are focused on the user experience, so you'll need to be user focused as well. We have a world-class team drawn from companies such as Apple, Intuit, Corbis, Kodak, Microsoft, Sun, CNET, Yahoo!, Taschen Publishers and Sony.

BENEFITS

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance (PPO or HMO options)
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Employer paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability
• Flexible Spending Account (both medical and dependent care)
• 10 paid holidays
• 15 days paid time off per year
• Free lunch on Wednesdays

HOW TO APPLY

Blurb is committed to attracting and retaining the most highly qualified candidates available. As a Blurb employee you will be consistently challenged to deliver to the best of your ability. If you're up to the challenge, contact us by forwarding your resume as an attachment to operationsjobs@blurb.com, with the subject line “REVENUE ACCOUNTANT”. We know that sometimes it's the stuff that's NOT on the resume that matters most. Please include a cover letter that lets us behind the curtain — what is it about you that we won't learn from the standard CV? What makes you stand out? We’re listening — wow us.