Job Description

General Information

Job title:

Debtors Controller

Purpose:

Responsible for the management of the Corporate Brands -Debtors book, reconciliations and queries in line with the departments’ policies, processes & controls in an efficient manner that manages the inherent debtors risk.

Primary duties and responsibilities (KRAs)

Customer Debt Management
• Ensure that invoices, statements and any other supporting documentation as required by the customer are sent to customer based on the agreed customer terms;
• Where required match & batch invoices to statements and send it to the customers based on the agreed customer terms;
•Compile EDI files and balance it to the monthly and weekly customer statement;
•Where required, compile EDI files and balance it to the customers’ credit card statements;
•Ensure that all credit card customers are swiped on a Daily basis;
• Responsible for processing client refunds in line with the departments policies and procedures;
• Processing payments received in compliance with financial policies and procedures ensuring that allocations are done according to the customers remittance advice and are done timeously (within 24 hours or sooner if it’s month end);
• Proactively and regularly (at least 1x per month) report on the Open Order status and advise customers to accrue for unbilled invoices;
 • System expert on all systems the accounting operations team work on, specifically understanding in detail the accounts payable processes to identify customer impacts and solutions for improvements;
•Knowledge of the debt collection process and legal process;
 

Invoicing and Open order management
•Fully responsible for boarding customers suppliers (even if they are suppliers we currently use) to use Papertrail and monitor and ensure that all supplier invoices are received into Papertrail in the required format;
•Invoicing is a mandatory requirement for this role, invoicing is done via Papertrail and via open order management as a control check;
 •Actively contact your customers suppliers by various means including but not limited to telephonic means and email to acquire supporting documentation for open orders not yet processed;
•Manage open orders by actively addressing aged open orders taking specific actions to close them either by confirming with the supplier that they are cancelled and then physically cancelling the voucher in Protas or cancelling a duplicate order or by obtaining the supporting documents and invoicing the customer (open orders older than 1 month are outside of expectations);

Financial Control
• Weekly review of credit limits for all clients and active management of ensuring payments are received in order to maintain customer accounts within approved limits;
•Ensuring that all credit limits in the system are in line with signed off credit applications and that those credit applications are filed in Papertrail and or according to the departments policies and procedures;
•Weekly calculation of bad debt and COC;
•Proactively and regularly (at least 1x per week) run an ageing for all entities and ensure that credible comments are saved in the agreed folder;
 •Actively follow up on aged accounts and ensure all relevant stakeholders are informed of progress;
•Ensure bank open items are reconciled within 24 hours with no entries unresolved at the time of transfer;
•Managing queries timeously (within 2 days) to reduce the write off risk to the Company and ensure customer satisfaction;
•Ensure at all times that the company is not at risk for finance charges;
•Proactively communicate any risks identified on your accounts;

 
Stakeholder relationships/Business Partnering
 
•Effective communication with internal and external clients, maintain good relationships;
 
•Attend client meetings and be part of the implementation of new clients
 
•Provide feedback on meetings to Accounts Receivable manager within 24 hours;
 
•Ad Hoc Reporting where required
 

 
Team Responsibilities
 
• Ad-hoc duties to support the Finance Team as and when required
 
• Provide quality service to our internal clients and act as a point of reference for support team and supplier queries;

Hierarchy:

Reports to the Account Receivable Manager. – Accounting Operations

Key communication and relationships:

Internal: Accounts Receivable Manager, Accounting operations Financial controller,  General managers of the various corporate brands, Operations Team leaders, Travel Managers, Area Leaders, Consultants, internal auditors, Accounts Payable team, banking, CFO, , Data and reporting team, Mid-office team, Legal Manager;
External: Customers, Suppliers, external auditors.
 
 

Job Requirements

Education and qualification:

Minimum requirements

Added advantage

Matric

Accounting qualification or certifications
Industry certifications

Experience:

 
• Proven minimum 5 years working experience as a Debtors controller where qualifications are not present; – preference will be given to candidates with recent corporate customer experience;
• Solid and proven understanding of bookkeeping, accounting and accounts receivable principles- preference will be given to candidates with accounting certifications or similar qualifications;
•An understanding around the accounts payable function and how transactions interlink with each other; i.e. asking to credit note an invoice for a client has an impact on the supplier side/cash side it’s vital that in this role the full picture is understood;
• Intermediate level of Excel- higher levels of excel expertise will be given preference in this role;
•System understanding and ability to use Microsoft office for presentations and reports;
•Legal experience or sound knowledge of the legal framework governing out of term accounts is advantageous;
•Excellent communication skills with English as the primary language this extends to all forms of communication (written/telephonic/emails and verbal interactions);
•Customer service orientation with strong interpersonal skills and negotiation skills;
•Proven track record of being accurate, deadline driven and detail oriented;
• Strong time management – flexible and able to balance multiple priorities;
•Able to accurately reconcile and actively resolve complex statements;
•Systems experience-Protas knowledge advantageous;

Other:

Location:

Main Head Office – Johannesburg

Travelling:

Local travel may be required

Office hours:

08:00am to 17:00pm Monday to Friday

Additional:

Attendance of company functions is required
May be required to work late and occasionally over weekends during month end depending on work load.