Manager- Receivables

Role Overview

The Accounts Receivable Manager is responsible for managing the end-to-end receivables function, including customer billing, collections, cash application, account reconciliations, credit control, and receivables reporting. The role focuses on improving cash conversion and working capital, reducing overdue balances and bad-debt exposure, maintaining accurate financial records, and ensuring effective process controls and compliance with company policies

Key Responsibilities

A. Accounts Receivable Operations

• Oversee customer invoicing, billing adjustments, credit notes, debit notes, receipt accounting, and customer account maintenance.
• Ensure invoices are accurate, appropriately supported, and issued within agreed timelines and contractual terms.
• Monitor unbilled revenue, billing backlogs, billing exceptions, and pending customer confirmations; coordinate timely resolution.
• Ensure customer receipts are recorded and allocated accurately and promptly.
• Maintain accurate customer ledgers and ensure AR sub-ledger balances reconcile with the general ledger.
• Coordinate with other stakeholders to resolve billing and account issues.

B. Collections and Working Capital

• Develop and execute collection plans to achieve agreed monthly and quarterly targets.
• Monitor DSO, collection efficiency, ageing buckets, overdue balances, and bad-debt exposure.
• Establish structured follow-up and escalation for high-value, overdue, and long-outstanding receivables.
• Analyse reasons for delayed collections, including billing errors, contractual disputes, service issues, and customer financial stress.
• Prepare collection forecasts and highlight risks to expected cash inflows.
• Recommend recovery actions, provisioning, and write-offs in accordance with company policy and applicable accounting standards.

C. Credit Risk and Customer Management

• Manage credit limits, payment terms, and credit approval workflows within delegated authority.
• Partner with business and finance teams on customer credit assessments.
• Watch for limit breaches, overdue customers, and transactions outside approved terms.
• Recommend credit holds, revised terms, or other safeguards for high-risk accounts.
• Ensure credit notes, write-offs, payment extensions, and other exceptions are properly approved and documented.

D. Reconciliations and Financial Reporting

• Ensure regular customer reconciliations and balance confirmations, and resolve differences promptly.
• Investigate unapplied cash, unidentified receipts, advances, short payments, and unexplained ledger balances.
• Produce AR ageing, collection dashboards, DSO analysis, bad-debt reviews, and management reports.
• Support month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close, including reconciliations and provisioning.
• Explain major variances against collection targets and cash-flow forecasts.
• Ensure receivables and related balances are correctly classified and reported under applicable accounting policies.

E. Internal Controls, Compliance and Risk Management

• Maintain strong controls over customer master changes, billing, credit approvals, receipt allocation, credit notes, and write-offs.
• Enforce segregation of duties across master data, billing, collections, cash application, and approvals.
• Review unusual manual entries, duplicate invoices, unauthorised credit notes, aged balances, and write-off trends.
• Keep proper documentation and audit trails for material transactions and exceptions.
• Coordinate internal and statutory audits and close audit observations on time.
• Ensure compliance with GST and tax documentation requirements, accounting policies, and internal procedures.
• Spot process gaps, control weaknesses, and revenue leakage, and strengthen governance.

F. Systems and Process Improvement

• Drive automation of billing, collection follow-ups, cash application, reconciliations, and AR reporting.
• Improve the use of ERP systems, customer portals, and analytics dashboards.
• Maintain standard operating procedures, process documentation, and service-level agreements.
• Analyse recurring disputes and collection bottlenecks and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Improve process accuracy, turnaround time, productivity, and cost efficiency.

G. Team and Stakeholder Management

• Lead, coach, and develop the AR team, with clear ownership of collections, reconciliations, and reporting.
• Set team KPIs, review performance, and ensure timely completion of operational deliverables.
• Work closely with Sales, Business Finance, Legal, Tax, Treasury, Customer Support, and Operations.
• Escalate material collection risks, customer disputes, and potential bad debts to senior management.
• Present periodic AR performance reviews, recovery plans, key risks, and improvement initiatives to leadership.

3. Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong knowledge of accounts receivable, order-to-cash processes, collections, credit management, and working capital.
• Analytical capability in ageing analysis, root-cause analysis, cash-flow forecasting, and variance analysis.
• Knowledge of accounting principles, applicable GST requirements, financial reporting, and receivables provisioning.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and ERP systems such as SAP or Oracle; experience with reporting tools is an advantage.
• Experience managing customer portfolios, escalations, and complex collection issues.
• Strong negotiation, communication, stakeholder-management, and team-leadership skills.
• Ability to identify financial risks, process inefficiencies, and internal control weaknesses.
• Results-oriented approach with a focus on cash flow, accuracy, accountability, and continuous improvement.

4. Experience and Qualifications

• Typically 5–10 years of relevant finance experience, including demonstrated responsibility for AR operations and collections.
• Prior experience leading a team and managing receivables in a medium-to-large organisation.
• Experience with ERP systems, process automation, internal controls, and audit coordination is preferred.
• CA, CMA, MBA Finance, B.Com, or an equivalent accounting/finance qualification; professional qualifications are desirable.

5. Expected Outcomes

Build a efficient, well-controlled, data-driven receivables function that accelerates cash conversion, lowers overdue balances and bad-debt risk, supports accurate financial reporting, and gives management timely visibility into customer credit and collection risks.