Finance & Legal - Finance & Accounting
Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collections Manager
Manager
Independently auditedKeeps the numbers correct, the controls intact, and the plan honest. Owns a team, its output, its hiring, and its development.
Audited package
Built, independently audited role package. Everything on this page is written for this seat.
Your Stack (Swappable)
This role works against whatever tools you already run. We list the tool categories the role operates in, never a named vendor, so you are never asked to replace a system that works.
- Accounting / ERP
- Collections and credit platform
- Analytics & BI
- CRM
- Workflow and people management
Deliverables
- Close schedules and reconciliations
- Reporting packs
- Forecast and budget models
- Variance analysis
Responsibilities
- Own credit policy and decisioning: inspect customer financials, payment history, bureau or reference data, concentration, contract terms, exposure, security, geography, strategic value, and approval authority; set limits and terms, approve or escalate exceptions, record rationale, and schedule review; prevent or surface credit is extended from sales urgency without evidence, owner, expiry, or loss limit.
- Own collections segmentation and strategy: inspect aging, balance, risk, dispute status, promise history, customer tier, leverage, legal constraints, and collector capacity; segment the book, set cadence and channel, assign portfolios, and calibrate escalation; prevent or surface collectors chase low-value accounts while material exposures age without action.
- Own DSO and aging governance: inspect billing completeness, due dates, unapplied cash, deductions, disputes, promises, overdue days, concentration, and forecast; run a weekly aging review, separate operational defects from true collection risk, and assign actions; prevent or surface aging looks improved because balances were miscoded, parked in dispute, or left unapplied.
- Own allowance and bad-debt reserve: inspect historical loss, aging, customer-specific risk, macro conditions, disputes, write-offs, recoveries, policy, and reporting basis; prepare and approve the reserve recommendation within authority, document overlays, and reconcile to the ledger; prevent or surface the reserve is formulaic and ignores known customer deterioration or concentration.
- Own disputes, deductions, and credit holds: inspect invoice, contract, delivery evidence, pricing, tax, short pay, root cause, owner, commercial consequence, and collection status; route the dispute, preserve collection leverage, decide or escalate holds, and prevent recurring billing defects; prevent or surface a valid dispute remains in collections, damaging the relationship, while the underlying process defect repeats.
- Own write-off, agency, legal recovery, and team management: inspect recovery probability, balance, age, documentation, cost, customer status, compliance, agency performance, legal recommendation, and people evidence; approve or recommend escalation, govern external recovery, and coach collectors using quality and cash outcomes; prevent or surface aggressive recovery creates legal or reputational risk, or bad accounts remain open because nobody owns the decision.
- Produce and maintain Credit Policy and Decision Matrix, AR Aging, DSO, and Cash Recovery Operating Review, Allowance for Doubtful Accounts Model and Memo, Dispute, Deduction, Hold, and Write-Off Register, and Collections Segmentation and Team Capacity Plan as reviewable working artifacts.
- Manage the Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collections Manager delegation edges to Accounts Receivable Specialist, Senior Collection Specialist and collectors, and Credit analysts or coordinators when present, including staffing, workload, review, coaching, growth, performance evidence, succession, and escalation needed to deliver the company converts billed receivables into cash without taking unmanaged credit risk, the aging reflects economic reality, reserves are supportable, disputes have owners, and collection pressure protects both cash and valuable customer relationships
The essence of this seat
The Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collections Manager is the manager who owns credit policy and customer credit decisions, accounts-receivable risk, collections strategy and team, DSO and aging, disputed and deducted balances, credit holds and write-offs, and the allowance for doubtful accounts across the order-to-cash back end.
Signature move
Start from the authoritative records for credit policy and decisioning and name the accountable owner, decision deadline, evidence, and exception before accepting a status or conclusion
What good looks like
the candidate separates a true delinquency from unapplied cash before touching the hold, decides within an explicit limit-authority ceiling, and does not let a shipment deadline substitute for credit evidence
Decision rights
- - credit policy and decisioning, collections segmentation and strategy, DSO and aging governance, allowance and bad-debt reserve, disputes, deductions, and credit holds, and write-off, agency, legal recovery, and team management
- - team priorities, workload, role clarity, review standards, coaching, growth, performance evidence, and the operating cadence needed to produce the result
Working vocabulary
What this role does
The Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collections Manager is the manager who owns credit policy and customer credit decisions, accounts-receivable risk, collections strategy and team, DSO and aging, disputed and deducted balances, credit holds and write-offs, and the allowance for doubtful accounts across the order-to-cash back end. This role is accountable for the company converts billed receivables into cash without taking unmanaged credit risk, the aging reflects economic reality, reserves are supportable, disputes have owners, and collection pressure protects both cash and valuable customer relationships. Its operating remit spans credit policy and decisioning, collections segmentation and strategy, DSO and aging governance, allowance and bad-debt reserve, disputes, deductions, and credit holds, and write-off, agency, legal recovery, and team management. At Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collections Manager altitude, it leads through Accounts Receivable Specialist, Senior Collection Specialist and collectors, and Credit analysts or coordinators when present and remains accountable for staffing, clarity, performance, review quality, controls, and the aggregate result across credit policy and decisioning and collections segmentation and strategy rather than performing every task personally. The role's exact boundary is load-bearing:
- Versus Accounts Receivable Specialist: This seat owns credit policy, DSO, reserves, collections strategy, team, and exceptions; the AR Specialist owns invoicing, cash application, aging hygiene, and operational receivables work.
- Versus Senior Collection Specialist: This seat owns the program, credit decisions, segmentation, reserves, and team; the Senior Collection Specialist owns an overdue portfolio and collection execution.
Best-fit customer
finance teams that need close, reporting, and planning work to be consistent and auditable
Need more than one role?
Buying the whole team or the complete department lowers your effective cost per role at every tier of the ladder.