Role & responsibilities

Financial Control & Books

- Own the company's books end to end, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and audit readiness at all times
- Manage the full accounting cycle including month-end and year-end closing, ledger scrutiny, and finalisation of accounts
- Prepare monthly P&L; statements, balance sheets, and management dashboards
- Perform and review monthly bank reconciliations with zero unexplained differences

Statutory Compliance

- Own all statutory compliance including GST filings (GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-9), TDS returns, EPF, ESI, and Professional Tax
- Act as the primary point of coordination with our Chartered Accountant and manage all audit requirements
- Handle statutory notices, assessments, and departmental queries independently
- Ensure the business remains fully compliant as it scales across multiple locations

Revenue & Collections

- Own client-side collections across all programme tiers, including invoicing, follow-ups, and instalment tracking
- Manage the Razorpay payment gateway and reconcile all transactions against bookings and registrations
- Issue GST-compliant invoices and maintain real-time visibility on paid, pending, and overdue accounts
- Build systems that make collections predictable rather than reactive

Payroll & Vendor Management

- Process monthly payroll accurately and on schedule for the full team
- Manage vendor payments, contracts, and payment terms within approved limits
- Track and reconcile coach fees and variable payouts tied to programme delivery

Planning & Business Partnering

- Support the CFO on budgeting, cash flow forecasting, and the 12-month financial model
- Provide financial insight to the founding team on unit economics, programme profitability, and cost control
- Flag financial risks and opportunities proactively rather than reporting them after the fact

Team Building

- Build and document the finance processes and SOPs that will scale as the business grows
- Hire, onboard,



and manage a junior finance executive as volumes increase
- Set the standard for financial discipline across the organisation

Preferred candidate profile

Experience

- 6+ years in accounting and finance, with at least 2 years in a role where you owned the books independently
- Proven track record managing the full statutory compliance stack in India: GST, TDS, payroll, and audit coordination
- Experience working directly with Chartered Accountants and handling assessments or departmental queries
- Prior experience in a small or mid-sized business, or an early-stage company, where you were the finance function rather than one part of a large team

Qualifications

- Commerce degree essential (B.Com, M.Com). CA Inter, CMA Inter, or MBA Finance strongly preferred
- Qualified CA welcome, provided you are genuinely comfortable with hands-on execution and not only review

Technical Skills

- Solid working knowledge of Tally Prime, Zoho Books, or comparable accounting software
- Advanced Excel including pivot tables, lookups, and reconciliation workflows
- Familiarity with Indian payment gateways such as Razorpay is a strong advantage
- Comfortable with ERP systems and open to adopting new tools

What We Are Really Looking For

- Someone who builds systems rather than just maintaining them. If a process is broken, you fix it
- Precision as a default. Numbers cannot be approximately right in this role
- Comfortable operating without a playbook. We are early and much is still being defined
- Able to hold a professional conversation about money with a client without it becoming awkward
- Sound judgement about what needs escalating to the CFO and what you should simply handle
- Discretion. You will have visibility on everything

Practical Requirements

- Based in Chennai or willing to relocate. The role is on-site at our centre in Royapettah
- Fluent English essential, spoken and written. Tamil and Hindi are an advantage
- Working hours 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- Available to join from the 24th of August.

Perks and benefits

Annual bonus

📌 Accounts Head (Chennai)
🏢 Life By Design
📍 Chennai