Senior Property Bookkeeper (UK Letting Agency & CMA Specialist)

Job Title: Senior Property Bookkeeper (UK Letting Agency & CMA Specialist)

Job Type: Part-Time (5–10 hours/week) Location: Remote (UK)

The Commercial Objective: We are a growing UK property business currently transitioning our portfolio from an owner-managed structure into a dedicated letting agency model.

We do not need a generalist SME bookkeeper. We need a highly analytical, senior-level property bookkeeping specialist to build, integrate, and flawlessly maintain a watertight, dual-entity financial ecosystem. You will be responsible for securely separating our agency operations from our portfolio ownership, ensuring 100% compliance with UK Client Money Protection regulations.

The 3 Core Outcomes You Must Deliver:

• System Integration: Cleanly execute the initial configuration of the COHO-Xero integration, ensuring perfect mapping of the Chart of Accounts, tax rates, and property Tracking Categories.
• Strict CMA Management: Manage and reconcile our Calmony Client Money Account, accurately calculating agency splits, matching tenant rents, and drafting exact landlord payouts.
• Pristine Dual-Entity Books: Reconcile approximately 100 monthly bank transactions across two separate Xero organisations (Revolut and Starling accounts), including accurate logging of refurbishment costs to ensure we capture all capital allowance tax benefits.

Compensation Structure This role is split into two distinct phases to reflect the initial setup requirements:

• Phase 1 (First 30 Days) - System Architecture & Integration: You will be paid a one-off Implementation Retainer of R8,743.34 - R10,929.17 This covers the intensive setup detailed in our 30-day plan (Xero setup, COHO/Calmony integration, and historical data audits).
• Phase 2 (Month 2 Onwards) - Ongoing Maintenance: Once the financial ecosystem is live and automated, the workload will reduce to steady-state management (approx. 5-10 hours per week). You will transition to an ongoing rate of R218.58 - R262.30 per hour

The Non-Negotiable Requirements:

If you do not meet all of the below criteria, please do not apply. We are strictly vetting for:

• Qualifications: AAT Level 4 qualified (or equivalent UK-recognised accounting certification).
• Experience: Minimum 5+ years of dedicated property bookkeeping explicitly serving UK-based letting agents or property managers.
• CMA Expertise: Verified experience in UK corporate and client accounting regulations (CMA).
• Systems Mastery: Strong, verifiable mastery of Xero (Certification preferred), alongside hands-on experience with COHO (or similar, e.g., Arthur Online/Reapit) and Calmony (or similar, e.g., LetPay).
• Security Discipline: Absolute willingness to work via a secure password manager (1Password/LastPass) and enforce mandatory 2FA in a secure, private workspace.

Who Should Not Apply:

• Generalist bookkeepers without explicit UK letting agency experience.
• Candidates who prefer manual spreadsheet workarounds over automated API integrations.
• Anyone lacking strict operational security hygiene.

Why This Role? This is not a high-volume, low-impact data entry job. This is a critical precision exercise for an operator who values accuracy over speed and reliability over innovation. If you thrive on zero-defect reconciliations and autonomous, high-trust work, we want to hear from you.

Senior Bookkeeper Role – 30+ Day Plan

Your core objective over the next 30 days is to build, integrate, and manage our dual- entity financial ecosystem using COHO, Calmony CMA, Revolut, Starling, and Xero.

You will have complete ownership of this setup, ensuring total compliance with UK Client Money Account (CMA) guidelines.

Phase 1 (First 30 Days) - System Architecture & Integration:

You will be paid a one-off Implementation Retainer

This covers the intensive setup detailed in our 30-day plan (Xero setup, COHO/Calmony integration, and historical data audits).

Phase 1: Week 1 – System Access & New Xero Environment Setup

Objective: Securely access the tech stack, audit existing data, and build our brand-new Xero accounting framework from scratch.

• System Provisioning:
• Log into 1Password using your invitation link. All system credentials for COHO, Xero, Calmony, Starling, and Revolut are stored here.
• Note: Your banking access permissions are strictly configured to "Viewer / Payment Draftor" only.
• Data Quality Audit:
• Conduct a thorough audit of active tenancies, rent schedule due dates, and deposit logs inside the COHO platform.
• Flag any missing tenant profiles or mismatched schedules before initiating data syncs.
• Establish the Chart of Accounts (New Xero Setup):
• As we are completely new to Xero, you will design and implement a bespoke Chart of Accounts for our two separate organizations: Xero YL (Agency Operations) and Xero YH (Property Portfolio).
• Ensure the structure accommodates agency management fees, landlord disbursements, tenant deposits, property tracking categories, and maintenance outgoings.

Phase 1: Week 2 – The Live Sync & Integration

Objective: Connect our tech stack so data flows automatically without manual data entry or duplication errors.

• Establish Bank Feeds:
• Connect the Calmony CMA bank feed into COHO (COHO acts as our master ledger for incoming rent).
• Link the Revolut feed to Xero YL and the Starling feed to Xero YH.
• Execute the COHO-Xero Integration:
• Configure the native COHO Xero Integration Setup. Map your newly created Chart of Accounts and tax rates cleanly between platforms.
• Set up Tracking Categories in Xero so we can easily generate property-by-property reports for individual houses.
• System Workflow Testing:
• Run test transactions through the loop. Verify that when a tenant payment hits Calmony, COHO matches it, splits it, and queues up the matching invoice or bill entries in Xero.

Phase 1: Week 3 – Managing Live Rent Roll & Refurbishments

Objective: Take over day-to-day transaction matching, log active project costs, and establish the agency payout schedule.

• Daily Transaction Reconciliation:
• Manage and reconcile approximately 100 monthly transactions across our accounts.
• Ensure all tenant rental payments landing in the Calmony CMA are instantly matched against active tenancies in COHO.
• Refurbishment & Project Cost Tracking:
• Log and process all refurbishment supplier invoices within Xero YH as they arise.
• Ensure expenses are allocated to correct property tracking codes, differentiating clearly between revenue repairs (for the P&L) and capital improvements (for the Balance Sheet) to optimize tax efficiency.
• Drafting CMA Payouts:
• Draft the weekly/monthly batch payments inside Calmony.
• Transfer the calculated agency management fees to Revolut (YL) and the remaining net rent balances to Starling (YH).
• Notify management when the batch is ready in Calmony for final authorization and PIN approval.

Phase 1: Week 4 – Month-End Close & Financial Reporting

Objective: Standardise month-end procedures and deliver clean visibility into our profitability and asset health.

• Month-End Reconciliations:
• Ensure all statement balances for Calmony, Revolut, and Starling match perfectly with your Xero general ledger balances.
• Management Information (MI) Packs:
• Produce our first automated monthly financial reports for both entities.
• For both YL and YH, you will deliver a Profit & Loss (P&L) statement to track trading performance, alongside a Balance Sheet to track our held liabilities (like tenant deposits) and property equity.
• External Accountant Handover:
• Liaise with our UK-based year-end tax accountant.
• Walk them through your newly established Xero data mapping to ensure they have clean, friction-free access for year-end compliance and corpor