Operations & Finance Specialist for Ad Agency (Xero Experience Required)

Company: Kingfisher Ads, a US-based advertising agency specializing in Google and Meta ads for the golf industry

About us

We run paid advertising for golf brands. Small team, direct communication, no corporate fluff. We move fast and we want to automate everything worth automating.

Why this role is different

Most ops roles are about doing the tasks. This one is about owning them and making them better.

You'd own the processes that keep the agency running: client onboarding, reporting workflows, hiring admin, our new creator program, and the monthly finances. We care as much about how you improve these processes as how well you run them.

We use AI a lot (Claude especially) and we're building more automation into how we work (Zapier, n8n). You won't be expected to build complex automations alone, that's a team effort, but you should be the person spotting what's worth automating, helping set it up, and handling the exceptions once it's running. If you're the type who asks "why are we still doing this by hand?", you'll do well here.

If you've worked at an ad agency before, you already know the work we're talking about: client reporting, onboarding, campaign admin, the monthly rhythm of it all. If you've improved or automated processes around any of that, especially reporting, you're exactly who we're looking for.

What you'd own

Operations (most of your time)

- Improving our recurring processes and helping automate the ones worth automating, client reporting workflows are a big one
- Building and running client onboarding checklists in ClickUp
- Screening job applicants against our criteria before they reach us
- Documenting SOPs across the agency
- Tracking software subscriptions and flagging waste
- Contractor payment admin as our freelance team grows

Content creator program (new, you'd help build it)

We're building a roster of golf content creators for client campaigns. Creators apply through our website, and you'd help run the program from the ground up:

- Screening inbound creator applications and keeping the creator database current (rates, availability, content styles, past performance)
- Managing creator relationships day to day: coordinating briefs, deadlines, and deliverables across campaigns
- Tracking creator payments alongside the rest of contractor payment admin

Lead generation support

- Building and cleaning prospect lists of golf brands and businesses that fit our ideal client profile
- Keeping the CRM organized and up to date
- Researching prospects before sales calls

Finance (smaller in hours, non-negotiable in skill)

This is the part that has to be done right every month, and it's why Xero experience is a hard requirement:

- Monthly bookkeeping and bank reconciliations in Xero
- Client billing prep: pulling ad spend from Google and Meta, calculating fees, staging invoices
- Completing our monthly cash flow tracking spreadsheet and recommending improvements to how we categorize and track
- Moving clients onto automated payments (ACH)
- A short monthly financial summary: revenue by client, spending trends, anything we should look at

Being "familiar with Xero" isn't enough for this role. We need someone who has owned the month-end process themselves, reconciliations done, everything coded, reports checked, and who stands behind their own numbers.

Requirements

- 2+ years of bookkeeping experience with Xero, including owning the month-end process. This is a hard requirement
- Experience working with US-based businesses
- Strong written English
- Detail-obsessed. Reconciliations that are almost right are wrong
- Comfortable learning new tools quickly
- Own computer, stable internet, and a backup plan for power or internet outages
- Available for a few hours of overlap with US Eastern time (most of the work is flexible)

Big bonuses

- Experience working at or with an advertising or marketing agency, especially on client reporting
- Direct experience managing or supporting ad campaigns (Google, Meta)
- Zapier or n8n experience
- ClickUp or similar PM tool experience
- Daily use of AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude) in your work
- Experience working with influencers or content creators

Pay

Includes 13th month pay. Full time, long-term role. Salary as listed, paid monthly.

Hiring process

Shortlisted candidates will do a short video interview followed by a paid test task. We respect your time and won't ask for free work.

How to apply

Start your application with the word KINGFISHER so we know you read this post.

Then answer these three questions. Applications without answers to all three will not be considered:

1. Describe a repetitive task you automated in a previous role. What tool did you use and what was the result?
2. What's a common mistake you see in how small businesses track cash flow?
3. Walk us through your month-end process in Xero, step by step. What do you check before you consider the month done?

Include the types of US businesses you've done bookkeeping for, and mention any agency or ad management experience.