Director of Finance

About Appellation:

Born from the elegant merger of the culinary and hospitality worlds, Appellation is much more than a typical hotel company. Inspired by its name, this new hotel brand brings together the best of local elements in a new way: a hotel collection powered by people, connected by food, and defined by place - All designed to celebrate its destinations’ culture, community, and craftsmanship. Developed by visionary co-founders Charlie Palmer, one of America’s best-known, award-winning chefs and pioneer in the American hotel-restaurant model, and Christopher Hunsberger, a 30-year veteran of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and its former president of North Americas. Join Appellation as its future hotels and resorts take root in 2025. 

Division: Administrative and General (A&G)

Reports to: General Manager with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Appellation Director of Accounting and People & Culture

Salary: $105,000-$135,000 plus bonus potential

Objectives of Position:

Appellation Healdsburg, opening Summer 2025, is seeking a Director of Finance to join the Opening Team. The Director of Finance directs all financial activities of the company. The Director of Finance prepares interim and final financial statements with supporting schedules in a timely manner, leads all of the internal controls on property, guides the operations to achieve budgeted expense ratios, forecasts future business performance including a rolling twelve month budget, calculates all taxes and pays them timely, manages all accounting tasks as assigned to the team, and performs other duties as assigned by Ownership and the Home Office. The Director of Finance is responsible for the company’s financial plans and policies, its accounting practices, the conduct of its relationships with lending institutions and the financial community, the creation and maintenance of its fiscal records, and preparation of financial reports. The position involves supervision over accounting, internal auditing, cost accounting and budgetary controls. This is a position that demands precision, strong analytical and problem-solving skills and high ethical standards.

In this position, you will serve on the Hotel’s Executive Committee, as a member of the leadership team for the company

Job Responsibilities:

Accounting:

• Directs the accounting team to produce accurate, timely monthly financial statements including the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flow.
• Meets all accounting deadlines, including producing a preliminary income statement by the tenth business day of the month for review by the General Manager and Home Office. Incorporates all feedback, reclasses, and accruals received within one business day to produce the final monthly financial statements.
• Authors monthly reports for Ownership in collaboration with the General Manager, Director of Sales, and other executives as need. Report includes Executive Summary, financial statements, an income statement variance narrative, and sales and marketing metrics.
• Actions deliverables identified in the income statement variance narrative by collaborating with hotel executives to achieve superior financial results.
• Presents monthly financial results to Home Office and/or Ownership.
• Leads the accounting portions of the quarterly business review presented to Ownership and/or the Home Office.
• Directs all accounting activities including, but not limited to, maintaining prepaid schedules, completion of bank reconciliations, benefits account reconciliations, cashiering, accounts payable, accounts receivable, house account maintenance, tax calculations, internal controls, and adherence to licenses and permits schedules of due dates.
• Directs the company’s transition from USALI 11 to USALI 12 compliance.
• Maintains and/or creates the company’s systems of accounts and keeps books and records on all company transactions and assets.
• Ensures the accounting team produces timely, accurate daily reports.
• Maximizes reporting abilities of technological tools; constantly assesses whether the most robust, automated reporting solutions are in place. 
• Prepares or supervises the preparation of internal accounting reports, always seeking to implement customization to be more useful and efficient. Furnishes external reports as necessary.
• Responsible for all collection efforts of any outstanding accounts receivable (A/R).
• Responsible for ensuring all receivables collected ideally within 30 days and no later than 60 days.
• Updates management on status of outstanding receivables on a bi-weekly basis.
• Conducts monthly credit meetings with the General Manager and the Director of Sales and Marketing to review any new direct bill applications, report on A/R aging, and voice any credit concerns.
• Safeguards company assets.
• Facilitates all financial audits as requested by Ownership, Home Office, or other entities.

Budgeting:

• Establishes all fiscal objectives for the company in collaboration with the General Manager. Presents recommendations to Appellation Home Office and Ownership.
• Coordinates and directs the preparation of the budget and financial forecasts, institutes and maintains other planning and control procedures (including cost-accounting system) and analyzes and reports variances.
• Budgets by month on a rolling twelve-month basis.
• Monitors and maintains the operations workbooks, identifies actual variances to workbooks, and updates workbooks for future months as part of the budgeting process.
• Creates or delegates the monthly completion of the expense checkbook and properly flexes checkbook amounts to match forecasted revenue vs. budget.

Forecasting:

• Leads the forecasting processes of the company alongside the General Manager and delegates departmental forecasting responsibilities as appropriate.
• Responsible for producing or delegating the completion of 10-day operations forecast to utilize for appropriate departmental scheduling.
• Analyzes the rooms segmentation and identifies trends of actuals vs. budget that should be incorporated into the forecast.
• Development, analysis, and interpretation of statistical and accounting information in terms of profitability, performance against budget, industry trends and standards, and other matters bearing on the fiscal soundness of the company.
• Prepares, maintains reports, and analyzes company cash flow. Presents cash flow analysis to Appellation Home Office and Ownership.

Expense and Labor Controls:

• Constantly monitors actual performance vs. budget and provides daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly operations actions plans as needed to communicate how to flex labor and expenses to meet or exceed budgeted plans.
• Conducts labor meetings if resort executives fail to meet budgeted labor standards.
• Calculates or verifies all bonus payouts by verifying data of calculations tie to source system data, income statement, and team member’s incentive plan.
• Guides all labor controls within the resort and delivers financial results meeting or exceeding budget.
• Leads the annual wage and salary increase recommendations in coordination with the General Manager and Director of People and Culture.
• Directs resort-wide internal controls.
• Champions the use of Avendra and maximizes the savings the platform offers by monitoring usage and recommending improved purchasing decisions.

Financial Planning and Analysis:

• Analyzes and updates Spa pricing and corresponding fixed fees and commissions semi-annually in coordination with the Spa Director to ensure fidelity to budgeted plans.
• Produces Event income statements to report profitability by event.
• Monitors the accuracy of Events billing and reconciles revenue postings for service charge and rental items match the corresponding payroll and accounts payable expenses. Maintains the master list of mark-up dollars and percentages on Events rentals.
• Collaborate with Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Director to review standardized recipes to ensure food and beverage costs meet or exceed budgeted plans.

Capital Expenditures:

• Leads the creation and maintenance of the five-year Capital Expenditures (CapEx) plan and updates the list in coordination with the General Manager, Chief Engineer, and other hotel executives. Presents the CapEx plan to Ownership at least annually, or more frequently as assigned by the General Manager and/or the Home Office.
• Leads the creation and maintenance of any renovation-related CapEx accounting. Budgets the CapEx by project, tracks actuals vs. budget, and keeps the project within budget. Communicates all CapEx accounting updates to Ownership and Home Office.
• Provides technical expertise and project management for technology projects within the resort.

Technology:

• Maintains a high level of operational stability for hotel-based technology.
• Provides proactive strategic solutions to end-user technical problems.
• Implements and maintains back-up and emergency procedures to ensure integrity of programs and data at all times.

Business Skills:

• Expert knowledge of Generally-Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Previous decentralized, full-cycle accounting experience required.
• Previous luxury hotel or resort experience preferred.
• Previous California operating experience preferred.
• Excellent time management skills.
• Excellent knowledge of computers, Excel, Outlook, Word, PMS, and POS.
• Exceptional detail in follow-up.
• Strong budgetary, projections, and cost control skills.
• Strong organization and analytical skills.
• Must have the ability to work under pressure.
• Excellent prioritizing skills.
• Strong forecasting skills.
• Bachelors degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a similar field preferred.