Accounts Receivable Credit and Collection Analyst

First Brands Group, LLC is the parent company of many of the automotive industry's most recognizable OEM and Aftermarket brands. First Brands Group is a privately held organization and leader in automotive repair and maintenance products. Headquartered in Ohio, Cleveland with operations found around the globe, we are a team of professionals dedicated to building profitable, enduring growth among all our customers with an unrelenting drive to exceed customer's expectations.

Position Summary

We are looking for a detail-oriented account receivable specialist who will maintain the smooth functioning of credit portfolio, supervision over credit policies, collections, deduction management and increasing accounts receivable turnover.

Contribute to the achieving of the company's cash flow and Past Due targets by the timely, efficient, and appropriate collection of trading debts, owed across an assigned portfolio of customers of First Brands Group.

Comply with First Brands Group policies, procedures and applicable regulatory requirements.

Support activities associated with internal reports as well support project implementation.

To be successful in this role, you will need to be an analytical thinker and problem solver with excellent communication skills, self-starter, proactive and best practices sharing approach, with a can do attitude.

Primary Responsibilities :

Undertake all required day to day activities of an assigned portfolio of customer accounts to ensure collection targets are reliably and consistently met. Day to day activities include responding to customer queries; inbound/outbound calls; problem resolution on behalf of customers; customer account reconciliation, deductions analysis; order block/release as of credit hold; review aging report (portfolio) and follow plan of action.

• Process customer accounts in compliance with policies and procedures

• Take appropriate actions to recover overdue debts and advise on collection of overdue

• Prepare financial or collection reports, reviews of assigned portfolio of customers, support in collection and provide collection input to the internal departments, evaluate process and forecast all weekly and monthly collection

• Perform day to day financial transactions, including verifying, classifying, computing, posting, and recording accounts receivables' data

• Verify accuracy and completeness of all required information including current pricing, extensions, discounts applied, deductions, shipping and handling charges

• Verify discrepancies by and resolve system and billing issues by contacting the relevant departments

• Reconcile the customer accounts, ensuring payments align with invoices and deductions

• Review and analyse customer deductions, chargebacks and short payments, monitoring and tracking outstanding deductions

• Identify trends and root causes of deductions and recommend corrective actions, maintain reports on deduction performance and resolution metrics, to prevent financial loss

• Working with customers portals to provide accurate and complete information to cash application team, related to remittances and updating account status from our organizational resources

• Generate financial statements and reports detailing accounts receivable status

• Submit, verify, and maintain accounts receivable invoice records, open and aging reports

• Partner with all stakeholders (internal and external) in reconciliation and documentation of agreements, audit all receipts on a determined schedule to ensure accuracy in accounting

• Builds and maintains long-term relationships with customers and key stakeholders

• Management of credit hold: block/release orders, reporting and communication towards business and customers alike

• Responsible of decision-making capacity to place customers on, or remove them from credit hold. According to level of authority, justification for decision must be complete, appropriate and documented within procedures. Where not delegated, any escalations should be complete, appropriate and contain a justified recommendation

• Actively participating in internal handover activities and the takeover of activities from newly acquired businesses, by applying the strategy accordingly in order to be able to perform the processes as usual.

• Create/review processes (procedures), identify and support process improvements to become more efficient and simplify the complexity of processing and responsible for updating them according to the agreed calendar or as needed

• Participates and contributes with expertise into relevant projects in credit and collection process improvement initiatives, representing department's requirements

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Economics or equivalent required

• at least 5 years experience as Accounts Receivable, Credit and Collection Analyst, Deduction Management or related financial analysis, in business to business environment

• Shown ability to calculate, post and handle accounting figures for customer account reconciliation and financial records

• Accurate numeracy skills, understanding of basic accounting principles, deduction management and credit and collection management process

• Proficiency in ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, or similar) and Excel

• High degree of accuracy and attention to detail

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Excellent communication skills and negotiation skills

• Very Good English command, both written and spoken

• Ability to work cross-functionally and manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment