WHAT DOES AN AR MANAGER DO?
The Accounts Receivable Manager plays a crucial role in optimizing receivable processes for accurate month-end financial closures. In this capacity, the AR Manager fosters teamwork to manage complex transactions and ensures diligent oversight of ledger reconciliations, contributing significantly to financial precision. Through strategic staff management and policy enforcement, this role upholds SOX compliance and drives operational efficiency.
Tips for AR Manager Skills and Responsibilities on a Resume
1. AR Manager Duties
- Payment Management: Oversees customer invoicing and processing of all incoming payments, researches, and solves payment discrepancies.
- Invoice Processing: Ensures the processing of all invoices, credits, and payments is done accurately and timely.
- Invoice Review: Reviews invoices and credit memos for approval and appropriate coding (Site, Departments, GL codes, and dimensions).
- Monthly Close Management: Manages monthly close functions, including reconciling accounts, calculating and booking accruals, and monthly analysis of accounts payable and receivable.
- Reporting Support: Supports management by providing timely and accurate payment and account standing information.
- AR Supervision: Supervises AR staff and provides training on best practices.
- Process Optimization: Process improvement and changing current procedures.
- Dispute Resolution: Dealing with disputes and litigation, raising manual invoices and credit notes.
- Cash Flow Support: Liaising with treasury to support cash flow process, working with FC and heads of departments.
2. Accounts Receivable Manager Details
- Workload Management: Organizes, distributes, and delegates daily workload for all AR Associates, including temporary help.
- Collections Management: Supports department collection efforts and performs collections on delinquent/problem customer accounts.
- Payment Monitoring: Monitors active accounts for timely payments and changes in payment trends.
- Sales Collaboration: Partners with the sales team to determine courses of action on customer accounts based on payment history trends and credit history, including changes to credit limits, payment terms, etc.
- Collections Strategy: Establishes plans to improve collections and updates leadership on changes.
- Legal Compliance: Stays up to date on credit laws, both domestically and internationally.
- Credit Evaluation: Evaluates credit applications and customer information to determine creditworthiness and assigns credit limits when appropriate.
- Agency Coordination: Assigns problem accounts to an outside collection agency and ensures that those agencies produce desired results and charge competitive fees.
- Payment Oversight: Oversees customer payment application and approves account adjustments to ensure customer balances are properly stated on both the customer aging and general ledger.
- Procedure Development: Creates, coordinates, and/or maintains procedures for the Accounts Receivable department, ensuring continuous improvement.
3. Accounts Receivable Manager Responsibilities
- Communication Skills: Establishes and maintains effective, open communication (both oral and written) with customers (both internal and external).
- Customer Service: Responds timely to customer calls, monthly account statements.
- Credit Management: Notifies of changes to a customer’s credit standing, collection letters, and general correspondence necessary to maintain accounts.
- Revenue Reporting: Contributes to period-end revenue reporting, including leading monthly sales-related accrual meetings.
- Financial Accounting: Prepares journal entries and account reconciliations for the AR area.
- Risk Management: Establishes sufficient reserves for delinquent accounts.
- Credit Monitoring: Monitors the daily credit hold report and notifies appropriate internal contacts and the customer so that they are aware of delays due to credit issues.
- Process Improvement: Drives the resolution of system issues and implements process improvements to facilitate accurate and timely collection and customer funds application.
- Leadership: Manages and leads direct reports, including hiring, coaching, mentoring, performance management, and development.
- Culture Development: Drives the Vitamix CORE and culture to foster employee engagement and continually develop talent for the future.
4. AR Manager Job Summary
- AR Processing Support: Assists in Accounts Receivables processing and month-end responsibilities.
- Team Collaboration: Collaborates with other team members on complex accounting transactions.
- GL & Reconciliation: Responsible for various general ledger accounts and account reconciliations for month-end close processes.
- Audit Support: Assists management with year-end audit and quarterly review.
- Staff Management: Hiring, training, motivating, and evaluating AR staff members.
- Operational Oversight: Overseeing routine department activities, such as credit collections and customer payment application, to ensure that they are completed accurately and on time.
- Record Keeping: Maintaining accurate and complete financial, employee, and client records.
- Financial Analysis: Compiling, analyzing, and reporting financial information to management.
- Credit Risk Assessment: Assists in customer credit and bad debt assessment.
- Policy & Control Improvement: Developing, implementing, improving, and enforcing budgets, policies, and department controls to increase accuracy and efficiency.
- Compliance Assurance: Ensuring compliance with SOX 404 requirements over responsible areas.
5. AR Manager Accountabilities
- AR Management: Ensuring that related business entities' accounts receivable requests are recorded in an accurate and timely manner.
- Aging Report Review: Review all accounts receivable aging reports on a monthly basis in cooperation with facility accountants.
- Data Integrity & Reporting: Ensure that receivable integrity reports are accurate and reviewed in a timely manner, analyze data, and prepare reports.
- Closing Procedures: Ensure that closing procedures are run in a timely manner and period is closed on a monthly basis.
- Collections Oversight: Ensure collections procedures are properly executed and monitored.
- KPI Development: Create and maintain KPIs around the AR service ticket system.
- SOX Audit Assistance: Assist with periodic SOX audits in collaboration with Accounting and VP Controller.
- Policy Support: Providing support for leases and adjustments and answering questions regarding standard policies and procedures.
- Budget Compliance: Assist VP Controller with adherence to annual departmental budget making appropriate staffing recommendations.
- Interdepartmental Liaison: Serve as a point of contact between other Support Center departments to address issues or answer questions.
- Staff Development: Ensure that Accounts Receivable staff members are adequately trained and developed.
- Supervisory Duties: Perform all necessary supervisory tasks including hiring, terminating, and conducting performance evaluations.
- System Management: Escalate and track system issues, and test new lease and billing programs.
- Process Improvement: Constantly look for ways to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the accounts receivable system.