WHAT DOES A CREDIT COLLECTIONS SPECIALIST DO?
Updated: Jan 15, 2025 - The Credit Collections Specialist manages customer accounts and data, evaluates financial risks for credit extensions and prepares recommendations based on customer financial statements and credit data. Responsibilities include reconciling accounts, resolving billing discrepancies, and interacting with departments like Legal, Risk, and Customer Care. The role involves conducting weekly analyses of "Aged Accounts Receivable" reports, documenting collection activities, assisting with audits, and ensuring adherence to accounting principles and internal controls.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Credit Collections Specialist
1. Credit Collections Specialist Duties
- Collections Management: Own the collection pieces within Southeast Asia, including Singapore and India.
- Regional Revenue Support: Provide regional support to revenue and billing functions.
- Process Transformation: Participate in regional or functional process transformation for credit and collections.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Change Initiatives: Design and execute strategies for ongoing process and technology changes.
- AR Reporting Enhancement: Enhance accounts receivable reporting packages.
- Performance Metrics: Measure and report key performance metrics and develop action plans.
- Risk Management: Monitor transactions to ensure accounts receivable risk management.
- International Collaboration: Work with internal teams in London and California as part of the international finance team.
- Account Processing: Ensure timely and accurate processing of new accounts and credit memos.
2. Credit Collections Specialist Details
- Customer Contact: Daily contact with customers and vendors to confirm payment of outstanding accounts.
- Credit Analysis: Analyzes and reviews the creditworthiness of prospective and current customers.
- Debt Recommendations: Makes recommendations regarding bad debt or write-offs.
- Issue Resolution: Provide resolution to collection issues, customer discrepancies, and short payments.
- Credit Evaluations: Organize credit evaluations and perform initial credit reviews for customer approval.
- Customer Service Excellence: Provide excellent service to internal and external customers.
- Debt Collection: Collect on all aged outstanding accounts via telephone and written correspondence.
- Balance Monitoring: Monitor the collection status of larger balances and provide weekly updates to the manager.
- Account Reporting: Maintain an updated status report for all overdue accounts and communicate effectively with each divisional member.
- Management Collaboration: Enlist the efforts of sales and senior management to accelerate the collection process.
- Process Backup: Act as backup for the cash receipts process.
- Dispute Reconciliation: Reconcile customer disputes as they pertain to payment of outstanding balances due.
3. Credit Collections Specialist Responsibilities
- Account Management: Establish and maintain customer accounts, master files, and data management.
- Credit Risk Assessment: Prepare recommendations regarding the degree of risk in extending a credit line to a customer.
- Financial Evaluation: Evaluate customer’s financial statements and credit data to determine the risk involved in extending credit.
- Interdepartmental Communication: Interact, report, and communicate with administrative and operational groups such as Legal, Risk, Customer Care, Credit, etc.
- Audit Support: Assist with audits, reporting, statistics, and graphs.
- Account Reconciliation: Manage day-to-day account reconciliation and adjustments.
- Aged AR Analysis: Complete weekly analysis of “Aged Accounts Receivable” reports to identify overdue/delinquent accounts and contact customers regarding overdue accounts.
- Collection Documentation: Document weekly collection activities and research account disputes and payment discrepancies with the customer and Customer Service Representatives.
- Invoice Adjustment Processing: Process adjustments to existing invoices and resolve billing and shipping issues by identifying the problem, working with warehouse personnel, and processing required adjustments in internal systems.
- Complaint Resolution: Resolve customer complaints by performing research and escalating to a supervisor or manager as necessary.
- Accounting Compliance: Work in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles while ensuring proper internal control procedures and corporate policies are followed.
4. Credit Collections Specialist Job Summary
- Complex Reconciliations: Ability to perform complex reconciliations.
- Internal Discussions: Discuss account resolution with internal parties.
- Financial Accuracy: Maintain the accuracy of financial data.
- Account Analysis: Analyze and address current and delinquent accounts.
- AR Reconciliations: Reconcile detailed accounts receivable accounts.
- AR Reporting and Collections: Report and analyze accounts receivable accounts with significant outstanding balances and initiate collections.
- AR and Revenue Reporting: Review, update, and distribute the accounts receivable aging report and revenue recognition report to internal management teams.
- Billing Coordination: Coordinate with the Billing, Budget, and Cash Receipts team on any billing corrections or adjustments.
- Budget Reconciliation: Calculate, reconcile, and update budget changes in the financial system and CTMS for accounts.
- AR Data Maintenance: Maintain the accuracy of account receivable account information in the financial system.
5. Credit Collections Specialist Accountabilities
- Dispute Research: Research account disputes and billing discrepancies, providing timely follow-up on payment arrangements.
- Payment Reconciliation: Perform account/payment reconciliations.
- Credit Inquiry Response: Respond to credit inquiries from external and internal clients.
- Delinquency Identification: Identify delinquent accounts requiring internal collection efforts.
- Bad Debt Recognition: Recognize bad debt or financial exposure and discuss issues attributing to account delinquency with management.
- A/R Aging Monitoring: Monitor A/R Aging detail for past invoices and trends.
- High-Touch Communication: Provide high-touch communication with customers and internal teams with timely escalation.
- Customer Account Strategy: Collaborate with the Customer Success Managers to devise a plan on how to handle outstanding customer accounts.
- Credit Line Monitoring: Monitor credit line usage across credit line accounts.
- Order Decision Assistance: Assist with Past Due / Flexing / Holding order decisions.
- Financial Navigation: Conduct Dun & Bradstreet portal navigation for financial information on credit line customers.
- Funds Application: Work closely with the A/R & Funding teams to ensure accurate application of funds on past invoices, plans for short/overpayments, and reconciliations.
- Invoice Reason Coding: Perform reason Coding on invoices to determine the cause of aging/status of past-due customer invoicing scheduling and adjustment in software, case management, Enterprise Portal management, and maintenance.