AP/ AR Manager

Education/Qualification

• 2002 – 2 A Levels and 10 GCSEs including Maths & English

Systems used

• Excel – advanced user – including Macros / Templates / Data Analysis
• SAP
• Sage
• Oracle
• Unit 4
• Sales Pad
• Word & Outlook

Career Summary

Current Employer – Transactional services

Position – Senior Transactions Officer – Accounts Payable and Receivable

Dates – June 2024 – July 2025 (role is due to end)

Accounts Payable

• Reports to the Finance Manager and is acting as Deputy for AP Team Leader consisting of 4 team members.
• Responsible for day-to-day team management, coaching and supervision as the Team Leader has been on secondment.
• Managing all escalated matters ranging from minor complaints to pre-legal notices. Engaging with vendors, third parties & internal colleagues ensuring resolution on to each concern raised. Reporting of same.
• Ownership of AP month end ledger closures including banking reconciliations.
• Ownership of P2P process, ensuring Purchase Orders and Invoices are transacted correctly and approved in line with company policy.
• Producing multiple weekly payment runs, ensuring accurate preparation on and delivery in line with agreed approval limits and timetables.
• Invoice values are variable and volume per run high – up to circa 800 invoices per week.  Items pertain to multiple sites across the country including rents and service charges.
• Raising bank transfers and seeking approvals in line with company policy & limits. Ad-hoc monitoring controls to ensure accuracy of data input.

Accounts Receivable

• Acting as Deputy for AR Team Leader – seconded to a project within the business.
• Team consists of six members and responsible for supervising the team to ensure that monthly billing is issued accurately, timely and includes any backing documentation where needed.
• Takes ownership of AR month end ledger closures – bank reconciliations – monthly billings can be up to £3m
• Producing month end aged debt report data and distributes to the wider business.
• Supporting with credit control tasks in line with debt management policy, including Macro statement creation.
• Producing performance analysis and reporting on position.
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Previous Employer – Pet supplies Retailer

Dates – September 2015 – March 2024

Position – Accounts Receivable Specialist

Dates – March 2019 – March 2024

• Team Manager of a small team with varying skillsets and experience; responsible for onboarding, training, setting objectives & conducting performance reviews (121s)
• Training Lead for Transactional Finance Assistants of varying experience, skillset, and personality
• Responsible for driving continuous process improvements through Colleague engagement and cross team collaboration
• Overall responsibility for Accounts Receivable function, including Billing, Cash Collection, Sales Ledger, Reporting and Forecasting for Retail Division
• Management of a high volume, high value AR function
• Management of inter-company recharges and collection
• Management and oversight responsibility for all billing systems and processes, Audit, UK SOX Readiness, Risk Analysis, Mitigation and Control
• Debt Provision and AR Lead contact for annual external Audit
• Targeted to deliver consistent year on year improvements to the overall debt position
• Delivery of high-volume monthly billing and reconciliation process
• Ongoing Risk analysis of 100+ supplier contracts, tracking the delivery of the agreements and subsequent collection of unlocked revenue, reporting of progress vs plan
• Provide insight on risk factors and mitigation solutions on cash and other critical areas
• Monthly reporting to the Senior Finance Leadership Team on the overall debt position, including analysis, forecasting and cash optimisation
• Monthly AR reporting including Aged Debt Analysis, Trade Debtors and Unbilled Control Accounts
• Quarterly Cash Forecasting and Optimisation in liaison with Group Treasury function on Annual

Position – Senior Credit Controller

Dates – September 2015 – March 2019

• Ownership of a high-volume monthly invoicing process of £12m+
• Management of a high value, high volume AR function of £150m+
• Management of inter-company recharges & collection of £20m+
• Development and Ownership of a full end to end OTC/AR process
• Handler of all key accounts on an ongoing basis
• Continuously working to minimise aging debt whilst maximising cash collection in line with supplier terms and rebate agreements, business forecasts and board expectations
• Developed and maintained relationships with internal and external colleagues to maximise the evenness of AR processes to ensure invoicing and payment of outstanding debt in line with terms
• An ending monthly meeting with various senior level Accountants to review and reconcile each General Ledger and set appropriate cash expectation

Position – SAP Project Development Administrator

Dates – March 2015 – August 2015

• Closing Old Capital Projects (Store Development)
• Extensive Excel, tables, data manipulation on and analysis
• Generating Project Reports
• Reconciling Invoices against Project Reports
• Contacting Vendors / Resolving Queries / Processing Invoices
• Assisting Project Coordinators on ad-hoc basis

Previous Employer – Photographic and Cinematographic Equipment retailer

Position – Assignment

Dates – February – March 2015

• Materials Administrator (Purchase Ledger) Placing of Purchase Orders up to £15k per order.
• Liaison with stakeholders of a varying level of authority including planners, buyers, accountants, warehouse personnel, department, director level.
• Provided administration support to the Materials Control Department when required and as directed by manager.

Previous Employer – Telecom services

Dates – 2008 – 2014

Position – Legal Assistant and Alternative Dispute Resolution Specialist

Dates – April 2008 – December 2014

• Commencing claims against parties via online court claim system
• Preparing Witness statements
• Conducting Without Prejudice Media on
• Adhering to stringent court processes and deadlines
• An ending Court, presenting matters to Judges and Advocates
• Creating Daily, weekly, and monthly reports and delivering presentations to senior management team on the progress of the Legal ledger, business improvements
• Effective case management of over 30 open Legal matters of varying value
• Customer retention, creation of eve legal documents bringing customers back to the business
• Creation and management of alternative complaints process in line with industry standard codes of practice.
• Creation and management of alternative dispute resolutions processes, liaising with external ADR parties where disputes cannot be resolved internally (CISAS), presenting the companies’ position and upholding company spirit and values
• Supporting complaints team members and acting as mentor in the development of best practices

Position – Escalated Debt Specialist

Dates – March – December 2013

Position – Corporate Credit Controller

Dates – January 2012 – February 2013

• Sole Management of £500,000 ledger of over 1,300 customer accounts

Position – Credit Controller

Dates – April 2008 – December 2012