Senior Accounts Receivable Specialist

Senior Accounts Receivable Specialist

Location: Forest Park, IL (Hybrid)

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Reporting to: Plant Controller

Summary

The Senior AR Specialist is committed to delivering excellent customer service and ensuring outstanding customer satisfaction. The individual will support the collection efforts and delinquency controls of the company, ensuring money owed is billed and received correctly and promptly.

Responsibilities

• Identifies and tracks large accounts that have been deemed delinquent.

• Contacts large clients to obtain payments; when necessary, negotiates new payment terms or settlements.

• Refers large accounts to outside collection agency for further collection efforts as needed; assists with collections and legal actions pertaining to those accounts.

• Generates reports as requested from management.

• Researches, develops, and facilitates collection procedures according to company polices.

• Ensures proper preparation and delivery of letters, notices, and other communications regarding delinquent accounts.

• Conducts, or assists third parties in conducting, skip-tracing according to established practices.

• Negotiates with customers to amend repayment terms, as appropriate.

• Recommends legal action for specific accounts and follows through as necessary.

• Communicates the status of delinquent accounts to the Plant Controller.

• Initiates repossession steps when authorized; maintains thorough records of actions taken in repossession and selling.

• Contacts creditors and consults attorneys as needed for settlements on bankrupt accounts.

• Reviews accounts and recommends for charge-off as appropriate; supervises approved accounts charge-off procedure and reports it to credit reporting agencies.

• As necessary, reports claims to appropriate government agencies to ensure collection on insured loans.

• Ensures the security and privacy of customer information and files.

• Review credit applications, credit reports, bank references, trade references, financial statements, and other information to approve credit and set customer credit limits within company guidelines.

• Balance both proactive reviews of customer credit limits as well as reviews of customer open orders with credit limit capacity issues.

• Develop tools and metrics to pro-actively assess customer risk.

• Work with customers and sales to find solutions that will work for all involved parties to onboard customers quickly while balancing risk concerns.

• Enter new customers and maintain all customer information in ERP system.

• Review customer AR aging to identify past due accounts to manage timely collection of receivables.

• Work closely with team on customer deductions, invoicing discrepancies and other issues preventing timely payment of invoices.

• Review and approve invoice adjustments and identify amounts for write-off.

• Prepare monthly AR analysis, quarterly credit report, and provide cash flow projections as requested.

• Respond to customer inquiries, customer audit requests, credit reference requests, and provide monthly AR data to credit bureaus.

• Maintain the sales tax database and sales tax exemption certificates to ensure validity of customer taxable status.

• Produce invoicing for a customer through a commercial portal.

• Apply cash to customer accounts for a sister company.

• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications: Required Skills, Education, and Experience

• High school diploma or equivalent

• At least two years of prior collections experience required.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Understanding of state and federal collection laws including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

• Excellent time management, organizational skills, and attention to detail.

• Ability to keep information confidential.

• Ability to exercise integrity and discretion.

• Ability to remain professional in confrontational conversations.

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite or related software program

• Must have the ability to multi-task and work in a fast-paced environment, re-prioritize based on business demands coupled with a strong sense of urgency.

• Ability to work with a team and independently.

• Basic understanding of statistics and data analysis.

The job description is not an exhaustive listing of all responsibilities and may be revised at any time.