About this role
⌘Role Overview
Timeleft has a Portuguese subsidiary, Hello Stranger Timeleft Portugal, Lda: it carries marketing investment, employs people, works with freelancers, and manages its own bank accounts and accounting with a local certified accountant.
You are the person who makes sure the Portuguese entity runs: you close the books on time with the accountant, you deliver P&L and cash position, you pay suppliers and people, you produce reporting for the investors , and when anyone asks a question about this company, you are the one who answers it.
This is a finance and administration role with real ownership of a live entity . You report to the VP Finance in Paris, and work directly with the Head of People and the CEO.
Your mission: make the Portuguese entity reliable and documented: financially, administratively and legally.
Employment type: Part-time — 80% FTE (full-time equivalent)
⌘Key Responsibilities
1. Own the monthly close and financial reporting of the Portuguese entity
- Close the month — accruals, supplier invoices, payroll entries, intercompany elements, bank reconciliations.
- Manage the accountant — own the relationship with our external accounting provider and our certified accountant: brief them, set expectations, review what they produce, challenge what looks wrong.
- Produce the entity P&L every month, with month-over-month evolution and comments : material variances, their cause, your recommendations.
- Reconcile the bank accounts and explain every material movement.
- Prepare the statutory accounts and annual filings with the accountant, on the Portuguese calendar (financial year closes 31 December).
- Maintain the audit trail — every euro in and out of this entity must be documented, justified and retrievable.
2. Supervise payments and treasury
- Control the payments made from the Portuguese entity: invoices issued for the correct entity, amount matches spend, payment executed on time, correctly booked.
- Supervise freelancer and supplier payments — verify invoices, prepare payment runs, confirm execution, resolve disputes.
- Manage the banking relationship — account setup, payment limits, user rights, onboarding of signatories, escalation when a transfer is blocked.
- Monitor entity cash — available balance, committed spend, upcoming obligations. Flag any risk of shortfall before it becomes one.
- Maintain the payment calendar so no deadline (Meta, payroll, tax, social security) is missed.
3. Supervise the EOR employees and freelancers on the entity
- Verify monthly that every EOR employee and freelancer attached to the Portuguese entity has been paid correctly and on time, via Deel.
- Interface with Deel on contracts, amendments, onboarding, offboarding and invoicing for the Portuguese entity.
- Support the setup of local Portuguese payroll with the Head of People and the accountant, then run it once live.
- Hold a monthly review with the Head of People : headcount, contractors, open issues.
4. Own local administration, compliance and corporate housekeeping
- Be the Portuguese-language interface for the accountant, the bank, Autoridade Tributária, Segurança Social and any local counterparty.
- Handle the entity's administrative obligations — registrations, declarations, certificates, RCBE, certidão permanente renewals.
- Manage the registered office in practice — collect and process mail, handle in-person steps, keep the corporate file complete.
- Maintain the corporate document set — statutes, minutes book, powers of attorney, intercompany agreements, contracts: organised, current, retrievable.
- Handle Portuguese contracts and suppliers — review, track, renew, archive.
5. Advise on local budget allocation
- Track budget consumption by cost centre , with landing forecasts against plan.
- Present variances and their causes to the VP Finance.
- Produce a formal allocation recommendation each quarter: where the budget should go next, with the reasoning — plus an ad-hoc one whenever consumption or performance diverges materially from plan.
6. Contribute to cross-entity finance and admin projects
- Support FP&A work with the VP Finance — cost-centre budget reviews, landing forecasts, reporting improvements.
- Take on group administrative work where capacity allows — finance operations, HR administration, workflow documentation, tooling.
- Document what you build — every process you set up should be written down so it survives you.
⌘Expected Outcomes
- Monthly close delivered on time, twelve months out of twelve — target D+5
- Zero late payment on Meta invoices, EOR payroll, freelancers, tax and social security.
- Zero unexplained bank movement at month end.
- A monthly entity report produced and read by the VP Finance, Head of People and CEO: P&L, cash position, budget consumption, written comments.
- A complete, current corporate and compliance file — any document requested produced within 48 hours.
- Statutory accounts filed on time , with no qualification and no penalty.
- Local Portuguese payroll live and running , with all eligible contracts migrated from EOR to local contracts.
- A documented operating manual for the entity — close checklist, payment calendar, compliance calendar, supplier list, contact list.
- Budget consumption tracked against plan with monthly variance analysis, and four quarterly allocation recommendations submitted.
⌘Skills & Competencies
Must have:
- Accounting fundamentals — you can build and read a balance sheet and a P&L, and you know what sits behind each line.
- Monthly close experience — you have been accountable for a close cycle, not just contributed to one.
- Bank reconciliation and treasury basics — payment runs, cash monitoring, banking platforms.
- Portuguese accounting, tax and social security framework — working knowledge (SNC, IVA, IRC, Segurança Social).
- Working with an external accountant — you know how to brief one, review their output and challenge.
- Excel or Google Sheets at a real level — pivots, lookups, building a model someone else can use.
- Fluent Portuguese and fluent English , written and spoken. Both non-negotiable.
Soft skills:
- Rigour — you reconcile to the cent, and you notice when something does not tie.
- Autonomy — the deadlines are given, the method is not.
- Direct communication — you surface problems early, with a proposed solution attached.
- Ownership without a manual — half of what you need does not exist yet. You build it.
- Discretion — you handle salary, banking and investor information.
- Comfort with senior exposure — you present to the VP Finance and the CEO directly, in English, monthly.
Nice to have:
- Experience in a startup or scale-up operating across multiple countries.
- Exposure to intercompany flows, transfer pricing or cross-border recharges.
- Familiarity with Deel, Qonto, Finthesis
- Experience with investor or fund reporting.
- Audit background (Big Four or local firm), or a first experience in a chartered accountancy practice.
- Automation instinct — you have used scripts or AI tools to remove repetitive work from your own job.
⌘ Required experience
Must have
- 4 to 6 years of experience in accounting, finance operations, or administrative and financial management.
- At least one experience where you were personally accountable for a closing cycle and for the accuracy of what was filed.
- Direct experience dealing with external counterparties — accountants, banks, tax authorities.
- Degree in accounting, finance, management or economics , or an equivalent professional path.
- Based in the Lisbon area , able to be physically present weekly.
- Fluent Portuguese and fluent English.
Nice to have
- Experience as the sole finance person in a small entity or a foreign subsidiary.
- TOC / Contabilista Certificado qualification, or progress towards it.
- Experience setting up payroll, banking or accounting for a new entity.
- Experience in a consumer, marketplace, events or hospitality business.
Deliberately not required
- Marketing, growth or commercial experience — this is not that role.
- Team management experience — this role has no direct reports.
- Prior general management or director-level experience.
⌘Objectives for the first 3 months
Month 1 — Take control of the file
- Map the entity — read every corporate, banking, accounting and contractual document. Produce a written inventory of what exists, what is missing, what is out of date.
- Meet every counterparty — accountant, Joongle, bank contacts, Deel account manager, plus the internal owners (VP Finance, Head of People, CEO).
- Build the calendars — monthly close, payments, compliance and filings for the next 12 months.
- Deliver a written diagnostic of the entity's administrative and financial state, ranked by risk.
Month 2 — Close a month yourself
- Run the monthly close end to end with the accountant, and deliver the first entity report: P&L, cash, budget consumption, comments.
- Take over payment supervision — Meta invoice checked and booked, freelancer and supplier payments verified, EOR payroll confirmed with the Head of People.
- Clear the gaps from the month-1 diagnostic — missing documents obtained, expired items renewed, corporate file completed.
- Set up the monthly rituals with the VP Finance, the Head of People and the CEO.
Month 3 — Make it repeatable
- Second close delivered on time , faster than the first, with a documented checklist anyone could follow.
- First investor reporting pack prepared and reviewed.
- Budget consumption tracking live by cost centre, with the first formal allocation recommendation submitted.
- A written operating manual for the entity — close, payments, compliance, contacts.
- A prioritised list of what you would automate next , with your reasoning.
⌘Recruitment process
Introduction Interview (30 min) with Talent Acquisition Lead
Business Interview (30 min) with VP Finance
Case Study (take-home, ~3 hours)
Case Study Q&A (45min) with VP Finance
Final Interview (30min) with CEO
We might ask for references.