New York
Position: Controller Position Summary The Controller / Director of Finance will own and build the financial operating infrastructure for Ash Staging and Room Service, ensuring the business has accurate reporting, disciplined controls, strong cash visibility, and the financial systems needed to support profitable growth. This is a strategic, hands-on finance leadership role. The right candidate will be comfortable managing the core accounting function — close process, reconciliations, accruals, inventory accounting, A/P, A/R, and cash reporting — while also partnering with leadership on budgeting, forecasting, margin improvement, revenue development, working capital, and new business channel strategy. Ash operates across staging, warehousing, inventory, procurement, logistics, moving, design services, and full-suite furnishings. As the business continues to scale, this role will be critical in building the systems, controls, reporting tools, and financial discipline needed to support a more complex, multi-entity, operationally intensive company. The ideal candidate is not only a strong accountant, but a finance operator and strategic partner: someone who can build structure, implement systems, introduce BI and reporting layers, improve visibility, challenge assumptions, identify margin leakage, support new revenue opportunities, and help leadership make better business decisions. Core Responsibilities 1. Financial Reporting, Close & Controls • Own the monthly, quarterly, and annual close process across entities, • Prepare accurate and timely financial statements, • Build a more consistent monthly reporting package for leadership and operating teams, • Build stronger internal controls across cash, inventory, procurement, warehousing, billing, vendor payments, and expense management, • Create scalable accounting SOPs, approval workflows, close calendars, and reporting cadences, • Develop accounting and finance team 2. Strategic Finance, Budgeting & Forecasting • Partner with the CEO and leadership team on annual budgeting, monthly forecasting, and long-range financial planning, • Build rolling forecasts for revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, cash flow, inventory investment, staffing, and operating expenses, • Track performance against budget, forecast, prior period trends, and business line targets, • Support scenario planning around growth initiatives, new revenue channels, staffing, warehouse capacity, procurement needs, and capital requirements, • Help leadership understand the financial impact of strategic decisions and operating tradeoffs, • Develop KPIs that allow the company to manage proactively rather than reactively, • Bring a CFO-minded perspective to profitability, investment, cash discipline, and organizational planning 3. Revenue Development & Business Line Visibility FP&A • Partner with leadership on financial analysis tied to revenue development and new business channel opportunities, • Build visibility into performance by business line, entity, project type, client type, service offering, and revenue stream, • Support analysis of staging, Room Service, warehousing, logistics, procurement, resale, design services, and other emerging revenue opportunities, • Help evaluate pricing models, service fees, utilization, contribution margin, and revenue channel economics, • Support business cases for new verticals, strategic partnerships, service expansions, and operating investments 4. Inventory, Procurement, Warehousing & Cost Controls • Own inventory and cost accounting across staging inventory, resale inventory, purchased goods, warehouse assets, and Room Service activity, • Ensure accurate capitalization, depreciation, write-offs, and asset tracking, • Partner with warehouse, procurement, logistics, and operations teams on cycle counts, shrinkage controls, inventory utilization, and inventory movement, • Monitor COGS, freight, warehousing, labor, damage, loss, procurement costs, and project-level margin drivers, • Improve controls around purchasing, receiving, vendor payments, transfers, staging usage, disposal, and resale, • Build better linkage between procurement workflows, warehouse operations, inventory systems, and financial reporting, • Identify margin leakage and operational inefficiencies tied to inventory, purchasing, labor, logistics, and storage 5. Cash Flow & Working Capital Management • Maintain weekly cash reporting, • Monitor A/R aging and billing discipline, • Oversee A/P workflow and vendor payment batching, • Improve working capital efficiency across entities, • Support equipment financing and debt tracking 6. Systems, ERP Implementation & BI Development • Lead or support implementation and integration of ERP, financial, accounting, inventory, procurement, and reporting systems, • Improve accounting systems, operational workflows, reporting tools, and finance operating cadence 7. Cross-Functional Leadership & Thought Partnership • Partner closely with Operations, Warehouse, Design, Sales, Procurement, Logistics, and Executive Leadership, • Translate financial data into clear operating insights for non-finance teams, • Help department leaders understand budget ownership, margin drivers, cost controls, project economics, and cash impact, • Build financial controls directly into the operating cadence of the organization, • Serve as a thought partner in leadership meetings around growth, profitability, org structure, systems, and investment priorities, • Help move the company from informal, founder-led decision-making to a more structured, data-driven operating model Qualifications • 12–15+ years of progressive accounting, finance, or operational finance experience, • Strong accounting foundation with experience owning close, financial statements, reconciliations, and controls, • Public accounting experience preferred, • CPA preferred, but not required, • Experience with inventory accounting, cost accounting, procurement workflows, warehousing, logistics, and project profitability, • Experience in multi-entity, operational, project-based, or inventory-heavy businesses, • Background in design, construction, architecture, staging, logistics, warehousing, furniture, interiors, or related industries preferred, • Experience implementing or integrating ERP, accounting, inventory, procurement, or financial reporting systems Success in This Role Looks Like • Clean, accurate, on-time monthly close, • Reliable financial reporting that leadership trusts, • Clear visibility into margin by project, entity, business line, and revenue channel, • Improved budgeting, forecasting, cash planning, and working capital discipline, • Stronger controls across inventory, procurement, warehousing, billing, A/P, A/R, and vendor payments, • Better understanding of project profitability, utilization, pricing, and margin leakage, • Successful implementation or improvement of ERP, accounting, inventory, and reporting systems, • BI dashboards and reporting layers that give leadership real-time operating visibility, • Stronger financial discipline embedded across the organization, • Leadership has the financial insight needed to manage toward EBITDA improvement, new revenue development, and profitable scale Why This Role Matters Ash is at an inflection point. The company is scaling operations, expanding business lines, investing in infrastructure, and working to improve profitability and EBITDA. To support that growth, Ash needs a stronger financial backbone: cleaner reporting, tighter controls, better cash visibility, stronger inventory and procurement discipline, more sophisticated systems, and sharper business line visibility. This role is foundational to that transition. The Controller will help Ash move from entrepreneurial complexity to a more structured, scalable, and financially managed business — giving leadership the tools, systems, and insights needed to improve margins, develop new revenue channels, manage cash, and support long-term growth.