Assistant Manager Accounts Receivable & Collections

Role & responsibilities

To ensure timely collection of customer outstanding receivables, maintain healthy ageing and cash flow, and proactively coordinate with customers and internal teams to resolve payment-related issues.

The role will act as the primary finance interface with customers for payment follow-up, while maintaining professional customer relationships and ensuring accuracy in customer accounts.

2. Key Responsibilities

A. Accounts Receivable Management

• Monitor customer outstanding balances on a daily/weekly basis.
• Maintain accurate customer-wise ageing reports with clear remarks and collection commitments.
• Track invoices from billing through payment realization.
• Ensure correct accounting of receipts, adjustments, credit notes, debit notes, TDS deductions and other deductions.
• Perform regular customer ledger reconciliation.
• Identify overdue, disputed and potentially high-risk receivables at an early stage.

B. Customer Interaction & Payment Collection

• Regularly communicate with customer Finance, Accounts Payable, Purchase and Commercial teams regarding outstanding payments.
• Obtain specific payment commitments, including expected payment dates.
• Follow up professionally through telephone, email, customer portals and customer visits wherever required.
• Obtain payment advice and ensure correct allocation against invoices.
• Maintain systematic documentation of customer follow-ups and commitments.
• Build professional relationships with customer representatives while remaining firm on contractual payment terms.

C. Overdue & Ageing Control

• Closely monitor ageing analysis
• Prioritise high-value and long-overdue accounts.
• Escalate chronic delays or broken payment commitments to Finance and business leadership.
• Drive reduction in DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) and overdue receivables.

D. Dispute Resolution

Proactively identify the reasons for non-payment, such as:

• Invoice not booked by customer
• PO/Invoice mismatch
• GST-related issues
• Short supply/rejection
• Quality complaints
• Price differences
• Missing documents
• GRN pending
• Debit notes/deductions
• Commercial disputes

Coordinate with Sales, Customer Service, Dispatch, Quality, Projects, Commercial and Finance to resolve these issues quickly.

Importantly, the incumbent should not merely report that the customer has not paid. The expectation is to identify the root cause, establish responsibility, drive resolution and obtain a realistic payment date.

E. Collection Forecasting & MIS

• Prepare weekly and monthly collection forecasts.
• Provide customer-wise status covering:
• Total outstanding
• Overdue amount
• Ageing
• Disputed amount
• Agreed payment date
• Last customer interaction
• Next action
• Internal owner, where intervention is required
• Highlight potential collection slippages before the due date.
• Support month-end, quarter-end and year-end receivable closure.

3. Key Performance Indicators

I would recommend measuring this role on outcomes rather than number of follow-up calls.

KPI

Suggested measure

• Collection achievement
• Actual collection vs. monthly collection target
• Overdue receivables
• Reduction in overdue value
• DSO
• Improvement against agreed company target
• 90+ day outstanding
• Reduction in aged debt
• Payment commitment adherence
• Collections received against customer-promised dates
• Dispute ageing
• Timely closure of commercial/payment disputes
• Customer reconciliation
• % of major accounts reconciled
• Collection forecast accuracy
• Actual collection vs. forecast
• Unallocated receipts
• Minimum pending/unidentified receipts
• Bad-debt exposure
• Early identification and escalation

4. Candidate Profile

Qualification

• B.Com / M.Com, preferably with specialization in Finance or Accounting.
• MBA Finance can be advantageous for a more senior position.

Experience

• Preferably 8-10 years in Accounts Receivable, Credit Control or Collections.
• Experience in a B2B manufacturing, engineering, automotive, capital-goods, industrial products or project-based organization would be particularly relevant.
• Strong experience interacting directly with corporate customers for collection is essential.

5. Required Skills

The candidate should have:

• Excellent customer communication and negotiation skills
• Strong follow-up and perseverance
• Good understanding of AR ageing and customer ledgers
• Customer reconciliation capability
• Working knowledge of GST, TDS, debit/credit notes and commercial documentation
• Good Excel analytical skills
• ERP experience, preferably SAP / Oracle / Microsoft Dynamics or equivalent
• Ability to deal confidently with customer Accounts Payable and Finance teams
• Strong coordination with Sales and internal stakeholders
• Ability to handle difficult payment discussions without damaging the commercial relationship

6. Critical Behavioral Competencies

Considering your focus on Integrity, Ownership and Growth, I would explicitly build these into the JD:

Integrity

Maintains accurate collection reporting and does not provide unrealistic payment projections simply to meet reporting expectations.

Ownership

Takes responsibility for each overdue account from identification through resolution rather than merely sending reminders.

Growth / Continuous Improvement

Identifies recurring causes of payment delays and recommends improvements to invoicing, documentation, dispatch and commercial processes.