Corporate / Controllership Accountant

$80–120/hrrate as listed

Mercor is staffing experienced controllership accountants to build training scenarios and grade AI outputs on close, reconciliation, and financial reporting work. Contributors have observed rates of $80–120/hr, working remotely and asynchronously on their own schedule.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.

What the work involves

You write accounting problems that look like the ones on your own desk — a month-end close with an unreconciled intercompany balance, a fixed-asset schedule with a mid-year disposal, an accrual reversal that got booked twice, a bank rec that won't tie because of an in-transit deposit. Then you either produce the correct treatment and supporting journal entries yourself, or you review what a model produced and mark where it went wrong. Feedback is written and specific: not "incorrect," but which entry is misstated, which ASC guidance or GAAP principle governs, and what a controller would actually do at 9pm on the fourth business day.

A typical task set spans financial statement preparation, journal entries, account and bank reconciliations, period-end close checklists, depreciation schedules, accruals and prepaids, and AP/AR/payroll operations. Some assignments ask you to compare two model responses and justify a preference; others ask you to author a scenario from scratch with a defensible answer key. Volume and task type shift as the lab's research priorities move.

What the platform screens for

Verifiable ownership of a close. Screens probe whether you personally prepared and reviewed entries, not whether you managed someone who did.
Depth under follow-up. Expect a general question, then two or three narrowing ones — materiality thresholds you actually applied, how you handled a specific reconciling item, why you chose one accrual method over another.
Written precision. Feedback quality is the deliverable; vague or hedged writing screens out even with strong credentials.
Calibrated judgment. Many accounting questions have a range of acceptable answers. Evaluators who can distinguish "wrong" from "defensible but not how I'd do it" are valued more than strict rule-checkers.

Logistics

Fully remote, fully asynchronous, contractor engagement. Most contributors work 10–20 hours a week and set their own hours; there are no standing meetings. Onboarding runs through resume submission, a short practice-area form, and often a brief sample task that is itself part of the evaluation. Pay in the $80–120/hr range has been observed for this role on Mercor; actual rates depend on credentials, task complexity, and project.

What they look for

CPA license, or 3–5+ years of corporate/in-house or public accounting experience
Hands-on ownership of the general ledger and period-end close
US GAAP fluency across accruals, prepaids, fixed assets, and reconciliations
Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field
Working knowledge of QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, or comparable ERP
Clear, specific technical writing

Before you apply

Would you pass this screen?

Drawn from what this listing actually requires. Answered in your browser — nothing is sent to us, and we do not store your answers.

Do you hold a CPA license, or do you have at least 3 years of hands-on corporate in-house or firm accounting experience?
CPA or accounting experience threshold · required
Do you have a bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field?
Bachelor's degree in accounting or finance · required
Have you personally owned or led the general ledger and period-end close process in a corporate or firm accounting role?
Hands-on month-end close experience · required
Have you used at least one of the following tools in hands-on day-to-day work: QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, or equivalent accounting software?
Familiarity with standard accounting tools · preferred

0 of 4 answered

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 10 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: Whether the candidate has hands-on operational control of period-end, not just oversight; whether they can articulate the real friction points that AI would need to handle correctly.
A strong answer: The answer names specific accounts (AP aging, fixed assets, intercompany transactions, accruals for things like bonus or rent) and describes a concrete problem they solved—a timing issue, a reconciling item, or a judgment call on when to record something—showing they were making real accounting decisions, not delegating.
Where people lose it: Candidate describes month-end in abstract terms ('we close the books,' 'we reconcile'), never naming the actual accounts or judgment calls they personally resolved, suggesting they managed the process rather than doing the hands-on work.