THE KEY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ROLE ARE:
Debt Management
- Collect outstanding debtor balances promptly and professionally.
- Conduct comprehensive debtor account reconciliations and resolve discrepancies (e.g., credit claims, pricing issues) in a timely manner to maintain data integrity
Payment Processing
- Accurately allocate customer payments to accounts within agreed timeframes ensuring compliance with internal controls.
Credit Control
- Review and release credit-blocked orders in accordance with company policy and risk guidelines.
- Establish and maintain new customer credit accounts, assessing creditworthiness for new and existing customers.
Customer & Stakeholder Engagement
- Respond to and resolve inquiries from customers, management, and internal teams (Sales, Credit Admin, Dispatch).
- Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure smooth resolution of queries.
Reporting & Analysis
- Prepare and deliver monthly credit management reports accurately.
- Conduct ad hoc reporting and analysis to support decision making and continuous improvement, as required.
Process Improvement
- Safe People, Safe Places and Safe Systems are the foundation of a continuous improvement approach to health and safety to achieve Zero Harm at James Hardie
- Continuously review and improve Accounts Receivable processes to implement improvements to enhance efficiency and accuracy.
Other Duties
- Contribute in special projects and cross functional initiatives, as assigned.
- Escalate critical business or operational issues to the Credit Manager, ANZ.
THE IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE THESE:
1. SKILLS
- Collections & Negotiation: Confident outbound collections, payment arrangements, and aged debt reduction.
- Cash Application: Accurate allocation of payments (including remittances without clear references), handling short pays, write-offs, refunds, and unapplied cash.
- Reconciliation: End-to-end account reconciliations (customers, intercompany, and clearing accounts); resolve discrepancies (pricing, credits, duplicate billing).
- Dispute Management: Triage and resolve credit claims, POD issues, price/quantity variances and deductions with root-cause follow-up.
- Credit Control Operations: Release/review credit-blocked orders against policy and risk exposure; manage credit limits and terms.
- Stakeholder Communication: Professional written and verbal communication with customers, Sales, Customer Service/Dispatch, Finance, and Management.
- Time Management & Prioritization: Manage high-volume queues, SLAs, and month-end deadlines with minimal supervision.
- Data Accuracy & Compliance: High attention to detail; adherence to internal controls, audit requirements, and privacy obligations.
- Problem-Solving: Identify recurring issues (e.g., pricing logic, master data gaps) and escalate/resolve efficiently.
- Excel Proficiency: Comfortable with sorting/filtering, lookups (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP), pivot tables, basic formulas for ageing and variance analysis.
- Able to work independently while also thriving in collaborative team environments
2. KNOWLEDGE
- Bachelor degree with a major in Finance/Accounting preferred.
- Must have SAP system experience.
- Advanced Excel skills, including management and presentation of data, filtering and use of pivot tables.
- Strong business acumen, developed in a manufacturing environment preferred.
- Safe People, Safe Places and Safe Systems are the foundation of a continuous improvement approach to health and safety to achieve Zero Harm at James Hardie
3. EXPERIENCE
- Minimum 23 years in Accounts Receivable or Credit Control in a high-volume environment.
- Collections & Cash Allocation: Demonstrated success reducing aged debt and allocating complex remittances.
- Dispute Resolution: Experience closing disputes/claims with cross-functional liaison (Sales, Pricing, Customer Service).
- Month-End Activities: AR sub-ledger close, reconciliations, reporting, and audit support.
- Accuracy in transaction processing with a focus on validating appropriateness and compliance.
