Transaction Support Analyst - Nashville

Benchmark International offers an accountant, with two to four years of experience in financial analysis of multiple businesses or business lines, the opportunity to branch out into the fields of finance, and mergers and acquisitions, while continuing to grow in the field of accounting. We do not provide the standard tax and accounting services of an accounting firm but rather assist owners in selling their businesses. This process, at its core, is numbers-driven. As a result, careful analysis of the seller-client's financial reports, tax returns, and internal accounting documents plays a crucial role in the success of our business. We have an opening in our Nashville office for an accountant to work on a multi-disciplinary team.

This team serves two primary functions with regard to each engagement. First, they prepare the marketing strategy and materials for the client. Second, once the client goes live on the market, they provide technical expertise to the sales team on matters such as responding to potential acquirers' accounting questions, negotiating working capital thresholds, and defending add backs to EBITDA.

Success will require an eagerness to speak with clients and potential acquirers, to learn how to gain the confidence of business owners, to have occasional difficult conversations in which you must defend your position while remaining professional and positive, and to assist in the team effort to achieve successful transaction closings. As the team's go-to resource for all issues of accounting, you will be touching a number of different client files each day and performing a variety of accounting-related roles from hour to hour.

Our clients' accounting system of choice is, overwhelmingly, QuickBooks. Sage products and industry-specific programs place a distant second and third. Our clients' statements are rarely audited or reviewed. Due to the sensitive nature of selling a business, our clients, who are typically owner-operators, are reluctant to bring their in-house accounting team (which may simply be a bookkeeper) into the process until the final stages. Their outside accountants typically have little or no M&A expertise. Yet our clients have built successful, often nationwide, businesses with revenues of $10 to $100 million. These businesses are attractive to a range of acquirers though primarily to private equity funds and publicly-traded entities. As a result, these acquirers tend to bring Ivy League MBAs, Big 4 accounting firms (or CLA, CBiz, McGladrey, or BDO for smaller transactions), and very sophisticated financial analysis to the table. As a result, Benchmark International's team must bridge a significant gap between what its seller clients can provide and what these buyers and their advisors demand, and our Accounting and Financial Analysis Associates are obviously an important part of making that happen.

Our teams are sector agnostic. Recent closings companies in the healthcare, software, and professional services industries, among others. As a result, this role involves not only a range of activities within and beyond traditional accounting but will also ensure variety by allowing you to deal with a wide range of industries on a regular basis.

Your specific duties as a Transaction Support Analyst will include:

As your team's Transaction Support Analyst, you must be an energetic and passionate individual with a positive and highly motivated can-do attitude. Success will require a strong desire and ambition to succeed in this demanding but rewarding industry. It is also vital that you possess analytical, mathematical, interpersonal, verbal and written communication, and negotiating skills, as well as presentation abilities. Each of our Transaction Support Analysts are in a client-facing role and thus must be able to convey bad news and deal with clients' unique sensitivities while keeping each client moving through the company sales process at a steady pace.

Specific qualifications for this position include:

This position will receive salary plus in the range of $45,000 to $50,000 plus commissions tied to a percentage of revenue obtained from the team’s closing and an additional end-of-year bonus if the team’s target is achieved. On-target earnings is set at $60,000 to $65,000. As a result of this structure, overall compensation can vary from year to year based on team success.

All Benchmark International positions offer paid time off, standard holidays, and community service days. Employees are eligible for highly competitive company-subsidized medical, dental, vision, and AD&D insurance; 401k with company matching; flexible spending accounts; and flexible dependent care assistance accounts. Quarterly team outings and standing desks are employee favorites at present.

Benchmark International is one of the world's leading merger and acquisitions specialists in the sale of mid-market companies. With offices throughout the world, we are in touch with all the major acquirers and consolidators who are constantly seeking both on and off market opportunities across all sectors. The enterprise value of our transactions falls broadly within the $2 million to $300 million range, with most being between $5 million and $20 million. Our unique and dynamic international offering presents our clients with unparalleled global coverage, allowing them access through our exclusive databases and business intelligence facilities to both international markets and local representation.

Our client base consists almost entirely of owners actively involved in businesses they founded decades earlier. In many cases, multiple family members are involved. Our clients seek either an opportunity to exit their business or the means to ensure its continued growth. They look to our company to find both an acquirer with the right fit and a transaction that provides maximum value and the correct structure. As a result of the dynamics of this market, our bespoke process has been developed specifically to handle not only the business aspects of these transactions but also their personal and emotional components.  

Benchmark International began in the United Kingdom over a decade ago. Our Tampa headquarters opened in 2013 and continues to grow as our domestic-client base and international-buyer contacts expand. We ventured into Texas in January 2016. 2017 brought office openings in South Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Our Nashville office opened in January 2018.

We offer our clients a unique business proposition that has resonated well with the US market like it has with markets in other countries. Recognizing that the US M&A markets are the most robust in the world, particularly in this coveted middle-market range, we are planning to expand our US presence in the coming years. Coming onboard now presents you the opportunity to ride this wave of growth. Benchmark International promotes from within, and we look forward to bringing you onboard as the next generation of Benchmark International's leaders.

Unfortunately, Benchmark International is not in a position to sponsor visas for candidates in its US offices at this time.