Description:
Job Title: Accounts Receivable Specialist
Department: Finance/Accounting
Reports to: Corporate Accounting Manager
FLSA Status: Exempt
Travel: Occasional travel may be required for project-related meetings or customer visits.

JOB SUMMARY

The Accounts Receivable Specialist is a key contributor within the Finance and Accounting organization, responsible for driving accuracy in revenue recognition, minimizing financial exposure from customer deductions (highly retail customers), and identifying root causes to prevent recurring issues. This role not only manages the deduction resolution process but also leads and supports continuous improvement initiatives and cost reduction efforts across their area. The ideal candidate will bring a strong analytical background, a proactive mindset, and experience managing cross-functional projects aimed at improving efficiency and driving sustainable cost savings.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Investigate, validate, and resolve retail customer deductions through comprehensive analysis of supporting documents, including invoices, POs, remittances, and shipment records.
• Investigate, validate and resolve deductions related to promotional allowance programs to ensure charge falls within plan.
• Document and maintain clear, audit-ready records of all deduction activity in the Deduction Management System.
• Proactively identify recurring issues or trends in deductions; collaborate with Sales, Customer Service, Operations, and IT teams to recommend and implement corrective actions.
• Manage accrual process for promotional allowances program and outstanding deductions.
• Lead or contribute to continuous improvement projects focused on streamlining the deduction management process and enhancing overall Accounts Receivable performance.
• Prepare detailed documentation for invalid deductions and communicate directly with customers to facilitate resolution and reimbursement.
• Drive resolution of open items within target timelines, ensuring alignment with key performance indicators and business unit financial goals.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to understand customer compliance guidelines and minimize preventable deductions.
• Conduct root cause analysis on deduction activity to uncover process gaps, inefficiencies, or revenue leakage.
• Support and/or lead cost reduction initiatives by identifying opportunities to improve cash flow and reduce write-offs.
• Manage or assist in cross-functional projects that impact deduction resolution, or customer claims processing.
• Perform reconciliations and validate deduction data against system reports to ensure financial accuracy.
• Maintain accurate records and adhere to company policies for retention and compliance.

Requirements:

QUALIFICATIONS

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field is a plus.
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in Accounts Receivable, Deduction Management, or related financial operations. Experience with retail customers is a plus.
• Demonstrated success in leading or supporting process improvement or cost savings initiatives.
• Proven ability to manage and execute projects that deliver measurable financial or operational outcomes.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles and ERP systems (NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, etc.).
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel; experience with data analysis tools (Power BI, Tableau) is a plus.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to influence across departments and external partners.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills; capable of managing multiple deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Self-starter with a continuous improvement mindset and the ability to challenge the status quo constructively.

Competencies To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Integrity: Behaves in an honest, fair, and ethical manner. Speaks openly and truthfully with team members and accepts responsibility for actions. Understands the importance of maintaining confidentiality. Promotes transparent and accountable actions and acts decisively against dishonest conduct. Considerate of others’ points of view and treats others with courtesy and professionalism.
• Teamwork: Capable of being approached and easy to work with. Contributes to the success of the team, communicates clearly individually and in group settings while treating others with respect. Listens to others and works well within diverse groups. Consistently places team needs over individual needs and seeks input from people with different experiences and perspectives and recognizes the differences of opportunities to learn and gain by working together.
• Accountability: Takes personal responsibility for the quality and timeliness of work and achieves results with little to minimal supervision. Consistently meets all deadlines and follows through on completing tasks while holding self and other accountable for actions and/or appointed responsibilities and manages one’s own performance to proactively ensure team accountability.
• Problem Resolution: Demonstrates the ability to effectively problem solve and set priorities while delivering results in a timely manner and effectively obtains results through planning and delegation. Analyzes problems skillfully and uses data to reach solutions while demonstrating the ability to appropriately take calculated risks or escalates decisions to consult with others when appropriate.
• Communication: Creates an environment of open communication amongst team members while providing regular, consistent, and meaningful information. Actively listens carefully to others and ensures messages are understood. Demonstrates the ability to communicate information clearly, concisely, and thoroughly in a timely manner. Has the ability to tailor communication styles to the subject matter and to the needs of the recipient.
• Job Knowledge: Demonstrates relevant job knowledge and essential skills, such as work practices, policies, procedures, quality assurance, and technical abilities
• Continuous Improvement: Consistently finds ways to improve methods, processes and/or procedures to improve quality of work and to maximize efficiency. Willing supports new ideas while energizing others within the workforce to embrace changes that enhance efficiency. Understands and applies formal methods to analyze and eliminate non-value-added work and support process environments. Willingly seeks opportunities and shares different approaches to address problems while generating practical ideas and workable solutions to solve problems or address issues. Identifies and accepts failures as learning opportunities.
• Initiative: Ability to assess and initiate things independently with limited supervision required. Has the ability to manage resources to achieve results, while possessing the ability to manage multiple activities to accomplish goals. Actively seeks and does more than required or requested in the job and plans for upcoming problems or opportunities and takes appropriate action when required.
• Planning & Organizing: Manages resources to ensure work is completed timely and accurately. Proactively anticipates potential problems and develops contingency plans to overcome obstacles. Anticipates deviations and plan and actively reorganizes work as necessary. Demonstrates the ability to manage time expertly to complete work ahead of schedule while utilizing available resources to complete work efficiently.

• Investigate, validate, and resolve retail customer deductions through comprehensive analysis of supporting documents, including invoices, POs, remittances, and shipment records.
• Investigate, validate and resolve deductions related to promotional allowance programs to ensure charge falls within plan.
• Document and maintain clear, audit-ready records of all deduction activity in the Deduction Management System.
• Proactively identify recurring issues or trends in deductions; collaborate with Sales, Customer Service, Operations, and IT teams to recommend and implement corrective actions.
• Manage accrual process for promotional allowances program and outstanding deductions.
• Lead or contribute to continuous improvement projects focused on streamlining the deduction management process and enhancing overall Accounts Receivable performance.
• Prepare detailed documentation for invalid deductions and communicate directly with customers to facilitate resolution and reimbursement.
• Drive resolution of open items within target timelines, ensuring alignment with key performance indicators and business unit financial goals.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to understand customer compliance guidelines and minimize preventable deductions.
• Conduct root cause analysis on deduction activity to uncover process gaps, inefficiencies, or revenue leakage.
• Support and/or lead cost reduction initiatives by identifying opportunities to improve cash flow and reduce write-offs.
• Manage or assist in cross-functional projects that impact deduction resolution, or customer claims processing.
• Perform reconciliations and validate deduction data against system reports to ensure financial accuracy.
• Maintain accurate records and adhere to company policies for retention and compliance