Associate Manager - Accounts Receivable at SC Johnson

About the Role

• In this role, you will be the vitally important business liaison between the CFS Team at SC Johnson’s Shared Services Centre (SSC) in South Africa, as well as the Sales & Finance teams.
• Having a team of 7 direct reports you will be accountable for the timely resolution of all payment claims brought forward by SCJ’s customers within the cluster by driving coordination, collaboration and business partnership between the SSC, Sales and Finance teams. You will build on your superior analytical skills to bring transparency on the status of payment claims. You will identify actions needed to accelerate the resolution of pending items, while continuously looking for opportunities to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SCJ’s customer claim resolution procedures.
• Ultimately, your contribution in this role will help ensure SC Johnson’s success through improved A/R performance and increased customer satisfaction.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Drive collaboration and business partnership between the SSC, Sales and Finance Teams

• Drive the timely resolution of customer claims between the SSC, Sales and Finance.
• Orchestrate the collaboration between the SSC, Sales and Finance. Ensure a seamless flow of information. Resolve pending issues.
• Drive improvements to open claims reporting via best practice use of SAP BW, SAP and SCJ’s Global credit & deductions database.
• Lead weekly (currently) operational meetings between the SSC, Sales and Finance teams to identify actions needed to resolve any unresolved customer claims. Ensure action plans are developed, documented with a clear owner, and completed on time.
• Ensure invoice price changes are communicated on time from the local team to the SSC.
• Provide support to Sales in ensuring the right claims documentation is available.
• Ensure Service Level Agreements (Sales & SSC) are adhered to. Where SLAs are not met, perform a constructive follow up with the person(s) involved so that immediate corrective action can be taken.
• Train all new starters on SLAs and performance standards.

Ensure the success of SSC CFS service delivery to the local market by driving ongoing process improvement

• Identify opportunities to increase efficiency or effectiveness of SCJ’s customer claims resolution process – drive alignment + collaboration to implement these opportunities.
• Eliminate the root causes of recurring customer claims which arise due to suboptimal process design.
• Collect ongoing feedback from stakeholders about unmet needs / opportunities to further improve service delivery by the SSC CFS Team.
• First point of contact for all questions around services delivered by the SSC CFS Team.

Manage Financial Exposure & Internal Controls

• Facilitate the communication of contractual commitments made with customers. Ensure these commitments are clearly understood.
• Support the Finance Director in managing the financial exposure risk from A/R. Perform risk assessments associated with unresolved payment disputes. Support the preparation of trade spend accrual reconciliations.
• Ensure mutual understanding of the specific issues affecting aged A/R items. Facilitate write-off decisions.
• Drive escalation to the Sales Director, Finance Director or SSC Director if customers’ payment claims reach an impasse or managerial decisions are required.
• Ensure adherence to strict Internal Controls requirements, with a particular focus on compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. Set the right tone at the top – be a champion for Internal Controls.

Experience you’ll bring:

• Fluent in spoken & written English (required).
• Bachelors Degree – with Business Administration or Finance background.
• Significant experience in a finance role, with an in-depth understanding of G/L accounting and accrual management, ideally obtained in a Sales Finance or Accounts Receivable role.
• Strong analytical skills – must feel comfortable to work with large amounts of data to generate insights and determine to root causes of issues.
• Excellent knowledge of MS Excel & Powerpoint.
• Previous project management experience a plus.
• Working knowledge of SAP/SAP BW.
• Knowledge of Lean Methodology for process improvements is a plus.

Behaviors you’ll need:

• Exceptional communication skills with strong experience in business partnering & stakeholder management. Being able to build good relationships across a variety of stakeholders with different interests.
• Tolerance to ambiguity: Ability to operate efficiently under continuous change & challenges.
• Customer service mentality.
• Ability to work independently to deadlines.
• Good attention to detail, yet also able to see the big picture.
• Ability to make things happen with strong sense of ownership.