Who hires office managers at a small business?

The owner, personally. There is rarely an HR department to screen first, so the owner reads resumes and interviews. Call the owner directly and pitch breadth and trustworthiness rather than a list of software skills.

When is the best time to call an owner about an office manager candidate?

Early morning before the business day starts, or late afternoon when the office has quieted. Skip payroll day if the ad mentions payroll, because the owner may be covering it. Ads that have been live for a month or more usually mean the owner has interviewed and is still looking, which makes them more receptive.

Is an office manager the same as an administrative services manager?

Often, at a small organization. BLS notes that administrative services managers in small organizations may be called business office managers. At large companies the office manager role is usually narrower, focused on facilities and office services while HR and finance sit elsewhere.

Roles we cover › Office Manager

Who Does an Office Manager Report To? The Person Handing Over the Keys

At most small and mid-size firms, an office manager reports straight to the owner, managing partner or COO, and that person makes the hire personally. Ad Call reads the live office manager ads in your market and hands back, for each company, the name, title, email and office line of the executive most likely behind the req, graded by confidence.

An office manager's real title is "the person the owner trusts with the keys."

Find the office manager hiring managers in my market — free

Who an office manager reports to, by company size

This is one of the few staff roles where the decision sits at the top of the company. Under roughly fifty people there is rarely an HR department to route through: the owner or president writes the ad, reads the resumes at night and interviews in their own office. At a professional-services firm the managing partner plays the same part, sometimes with a partner who "handles admin." In the mid-size range the seat moves to the COO or Director of Operations. Only at larger, multi-site employers does the req live under a Director of Administration or facilities leader, and there the job is narrower. Whoever it is, you are pitching the person who will hand over the alarm code, the bank login and the vendor contracts.

Owner / President (under about 50 employees)usually owns the reqOwns the req outright and usually screens every resume personally. The call to make at a small firm; there is no one above them to escalate to.
Managing Partner (law, accounting, medical and design firms)usually owns the reqOwns it at partnership firms. May delegate first interviews to an administrative partner, but signs off on the finalist.
COO / Director of Operations (roughly 50 to 250 employees)usually owns the reqOwns it once the company has an operations leader. Expects the office manager to take facilities, vendors and onboarding off their plate.
Director of Administration / Head of Administrationusually owns the reqOwns office manager reqs at larger or multi-office employers, where each site has its own office manager.
Director of FacilitiesRelevant when the ad is facilities-heavy (leases, build-outs, moves). Influences, rarely owns a general office manager hire.
Head of Office (startups and satellite offices)At venture-backed companies, often the title the new office manager will grow into; the req itself usually belongs to operations or the founder.

What Ad Call gives you for an office manager ad

For office manager ads Ad Call leads with the top executive at the company when it is small, and with the operations or administration leader when it is not. The signals help you judge scope before you dial: how long the ad has run, whether it lists bookkeeping or payroll duties, and whether other admin roles are open at the same company.

jobadcall.com — Office Manager (bookkeeping, HR and scheduling) · Louisville, KY

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Brightwater Mechanical Services

Office Manager (bookkeeping, HR and scheduling) · Louisville, KY

33 days open

live 33 daysreposted once with a higher pay rangead lists payroll, accounts payable, benefits enrollment and dispatch

Likely managers

Dale Kirschner Owner and President

high

dale@brightwatermech.com✓ verified✉ draft email

Tanya Obi Operations Manager

medium

tobi@brightwatermech.comunconfirmed✉ draft email

Office line

(502) 555-0137 from the company's own site

Why call today

A month open and a raised pay range: the owner has interviewed and not found someone they trust with the books.
Payroll, payables and benefits in one ad means the person who left was running the business side, and the owner is covering it at night.
A trades company this size has no HR department; the owner answers the main line more often than you would think.

Illustrative sample — the layout and labels are the real console's; the company and people are fictional.

Read the ad for the reporting line before you pick up the phone

The duties list tells you who owns the req. A line like "reports directly to the owner" or "right hand to our president" is common in small-company ads and settles it. When the ad doesn't say, the scope does:

Bookkeeping, payroll and bank deposits in the duties: small firm, owner-owned. Nobody else is senior enough to hand that over.
"Support our attorneys / physicians / partners": partnership. Ask for the managing partner or the partner who oversees administration.
Vendors, facilities, onboarding and a mention of "our leadership team": mid-size, likely the COO or Director of Operations.
One of several locations, with a regional or corporate reference: the req sits with an administration or facilities leader, and HR is involved.

The title itself is slippery. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook notes that in small organizations an administrative services manager may be called the business office manager, and its description of the job (coordinating the activities that keep an organization running, supervising staff, keeping facilities safe and maintained) is a fair summary of what a small-company office manager actually does. BLS projects that occupation to grow 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than average. The takeaway for your pitch: at a small firm you are placing a junior executive, not a receptionist with a better title.

Small business office manager vs. corporate office manager

Same title, different jobs, different buyers. Decide which one the ad is before you choose a candidate.

	Small firm (owner-run)	Corporate or multi-site
Reports to	Owner, president or managing partner	Director of Administration, facilities leader or site leader
Typical scope	HR paperwork, payroll inputs, bookkeeping, vendors, IT tickets, facilities, the front desk when it's short	Facilities, office services, supplies, events, visitor management; HR and finance belong to other departments
What the buyer fears	Handing money and personnel files to someone who turns out to be careless or dishonest	A site that runs badly and generates complaints to corporate
What wins the interview	Proof of breadth and proof of trust: bank reconciliations, payroll, confidential files	Process and scale: vendor contracts managed, headcount supported, moves or build-outs run
Process	One or two conversations, often fast once the owner likes someone	HR screen, structured interviews, a vendor agreement before any submission
Your first call	The owner, directly	The administration leader, with HR looped in

The owner who couldn't say "trust" out loud

A recruiter calls the owner of a 30-person HVAC contractor whose office manager ad has been up for five weeks. The owner is polite and tired. He has interviewed four people. "They all look fine on paper," he says. "I just didn't get a good feeling."

A weaker pitch answers that with more resumes. This recruiter asks one question: "What did your last office manager have access to?" The answer comes out in a rush: payroll, the operating account, the company card, the dispatch software, every employee's file. The previous office manager had been there eleven years. The owner has never hired for this seat before.

So the recruiter changes the pitch. Instead of skills, she describes a candidate by the trust she has already been given: sole bookkeeper for a family-owned distributor, reconciled two bank accounts monthly, ran payroll for 40 people, left on good terms when the business was sold, and has a former owner willing to take a call. She adds that the candidate expects a background check and will sign the authorization. The owner asks to meet her that week.

That is the whole craft of this role in one call. The owner rarely says "I'm afraid of being robbed." He says he didn't get a good feeling. Your job is to hear the first sentence inside the second.

Vetting the do-everything scope, and answering "we need someone we can trust"

The fear is grounded. The ACFE's Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations found that organizations with fewer than 100 employees are much less likely than larger ones to have anti-fraud controls in place, and it explains why: a smaller staff means fewer checks and balances and less segregation of duties. At a small firm the office manager is often that missing segregation. An owner who has been burned, or knows someone who has, will care about this more than any software skill.

Treat trust as something you can document, not a personality trait. Before you present an office manager to an owner:

Map the access. Ask the candidate exactly what they controlled: which accounts, whether they signed checks or only prepared them, whether they ran payroll end to end, who reviewed their work.
Get a reference who held the keys too. A former owner or partner is worth three coworkers. Line them up before you submit.
Offer the background check first. Say the candidate is comfortable with one. If the employer runs a consumer report, the FTC's guidance for employers requires a stand-alone written notice and the applicant's written permission, so an owner without HR will appreciate a candidate who already knows the drill.
Test the breadth, gently. Ask for a typical Monday: if the answer covers a payroll cutoff, a broken copier, a benefits question and a vendor invoice, you have the right profile. If it's all calendars and supplies, you have a corporate office coordinator.

Remember, too, that many of these businesses are families. The SBA Office of Advocacy reports that about one in four employer firms (26.1 percent) were family-owned in 2022. In a family business the office manager sits beside the family, not above it, and discretion counts for as much as competence.

How to pitch an office manager candidate to the hiring manager

Write to the owner or managing partner as a peer who understands what they are handing over. Lead with trust and breadth, keep it short, and give them one reason to reply today.

SubjectOffice manager who has run payroll and the books solo

Hi Dale,

I saw Brightwater is looking for an office manager who can take payroll, payables and benefits off your plate.

I'm working with someone who did exactly that for nine years at a 35-person family distributor: sole bookkeeper, reconciled the operating and payroll accounts monthly, ran biweekly payroll, handled benefits enrollment and was the owner's point person with the CPA. She left when the business was sold, on good terms, and the former owner will take your call.

She's comfortable with a background check, and she knows field-service scheduling.

Worth 15 minutes this week? I can send a one-page summary first if you'd rather read before talking.

Sam Whitaker
Larkspur Search Partners

Notice what's missing: no resume attached, no list of adjectives, no mention of "strong communication skills." The owner reads this and pictures handing over the bank login. That picture is the sale. Ad Call puts the owner's name and email in the results, so the note reaches the person who will read it at 10 p.m., not a general inbox.

Office manager recruiter tips: timing and the calls that work

Owners of small firms are easiest to reach early, before the crew goes out and the phones start, or at the end of the day when the office is quiet. Avoid payroll day if the ad mentions payroll: with the office manager's seat empty, the owner may be the one running it. Partners at professional firms are better reached mid-morning, after their first client obligations.

Ask for the owner by name on the main line and say plainly why: "I'm calling about your office manager opening and have a candidate who has run payroll and the books for a firm your size." At a small company, whoever answers the phone is often covering the empty seat and knows how much it hurts. They will usually put you through. At a larger employer, name the administration leader and offer to go through HR's process; the end run rarely pays off there.

The best signal is duration. An office manager ad that has run for a month at a small firm usually means the owner has met candidates and not trusted any of them. That's a buyer who needs a better candidate, not more candidates. Run your market free to see which office manager ads in your city have been open longest and who owns each one.

Questions recruiters ask about office manager reqs

Who does an office manager report to?: At small businesses, usually the owner or president. At partnership firms such as law or accounting practices, the managing partner. At mid-size companies, the COO or Director of Operations. At large or multi-site employers, a Director of Administration or facilities leader. The smaller the company, the more likely the person the office manager reports to is also the only person who can hire them.
Who hires office managers at a small business?: The owner, personally. There is rarely an HR department to screen first, so the owner reads resumes and interviews. Call the owner directly and pitch breadth and trustworthiness rather than a list of software skills.
When is the best time to call an owner about an office manager candidate?: Early morning before the business day starts, or late afternoon when the office has quieted. Skip payroll day if the ad mentions payroll, because the owner may be covering it. Ads that have been live for a month or more usually mean the owner has interviewed and is still looking, which makes them more receptive.
Is an office manager the same as an administrative services manager?: Often, at a small organization. BLS notes that administrative services managers in small organizations may be called business office managers. At large companies the office manager role is usually narrower, focused on facilities and office services while HR and finance sit elsewhere.

Sources