Collections Manager at South Point Management Services

 South Point Management’s mission is to be a leading provider of clean, convenient, safe and affordable student accommodation nationally. We provide a springboard for students to realise their potential and aspirations by offering an inspiring space to learn, grow and make connections. In summary, an uncompromised environment and student life experience. You will be at the heart of our property acquisitions and development function and empowered to deliver on our mission to provide a leading student product and experience. You will ensure that debtors Financials and Accounting, risk assessments of the organisation are collected timeously managed and controlled whilst compliance with legislation and company policies.

Responsibilities

Debtor Management and Administration

• Lease Administration, Billing and Receipts
• Leases administration is done correctly – Billing, Leases, signed, filed & supporting documentation obtained (including FICA coordination where required).
• Investigate all un-allocated receipts and clear against tenant’s account in order to clear TAA (Tenant’s age analysis).
• Process corrections of misallocations & unidentified receipts on a daily basis.
• Administration of billing of non-rental matters such as lost keys, sleep over damages and payment thereof.
• Statements are issued timeously & rental accrual and receipts is accurate at all times.
• Ensure that pre-billing reports are print, checked for accuracy & approved before the next Rent Roll
• Review of rent rolls to ensure accuracy of billings
• Report and manage all exceptional reports & ensure that Billing & tenancy codes are correct
• Credit vetting of prospective tenants where required
• Ad-hoc invoicing against security deposits
• Collections of rentals from NSFAS and Private tenants
• Reconciling of accounts where required
• Collection of 95% of monthly rental due in both NSFAS and Private students.
• Following-up daily, weekly, monthly to ensure that debtors/students adhere to terms of payment.
• Ensure that queries on any outstanding balances and/or short payments are done by team by contacting NSFAS and Private students directly and to follow up on balance of payment if required.
• Diarize payment arrangements for all outstanding balances and follow up telephonically on agreed date.
• Ensure that bad debts do not exceed 1% of annual revenue
• Refunds
• Manage Processing of refunds as and when required.
• Team Management
• Ensuring that staff comply to debtors’ collection procedures relating to lock outs and de-activations
• Ensuring that debtors collection procedures are followed i.e. Biometrics deactivation and lockout as per lockout procedure document.
• Ensuring adequate staff training takes place
• Manage inter-departmental relations
• Training of staff within the Private Accounts & Customer Service team
• Approval of leave requests of team
• General office management.
• Reporting
• Report to the Head of Department on debtors status and meetings held with NSFAS
• Ad hoc reporting as required
• General
• Attend to all audit queries & make sure that they are resolved timeously.
• All ad hoc tasks as assigned to by management.
• Attending & representing the company in matters handed over to Housing Tribunal Courts by tenants
• Maximization of recoveries from residential tenants
• Attend to property inspections of residential tenants
• Management of vacate process for NSFAS and Private students and residential tenants and charging against any damages prior to processing of refunds as and when required

Client liaison and management

• Proactively engage with tenants and or student sponsors to create professional relationships, creating and maintaining through constant follow-ups and meetings
• Handling of Student/Tenants queries & ensure that Customer services is adhered to all the time.
• Ensure that courtesy calls are made to the NSFAS to confirm that client has no queries and requested reconciliation of their accounts.
• Manage all client queries and e-mails & ensure that they are responded to on the day of receipt.
• Ensure that Response to queries is within 24 hours of receipt and resolve within 5 working days
• Liaise with and manage relationships with clients to ensure accounts are paid on time
• Client retention (customer care) through ongoing phone calls, emails and meetings
• Constant engagement with internal stakeholders (Marketing, Facilities, Finance) to ensure client satisfaction and retention.

Cost Leadership:-

• Departmental costs below budget
• Introduction of an order system to track and control all costs on a real time basis
• Ensure management and tracking of overtime

IT and Oracle:-

• Ensure successful implementation of online vacate and intake system and come up with recommendations
• Certify the implementation of student database as currently defined in SOBS (ass Annexure)
• Ensure 95% completeness and accuracy of SOBS data inputs (Completion by 1 April)

Employee Development

• Ensure implementation of quarterly training and development plans as approved (31 January, 30 April, 31 July, 30 October)
• Conduct monthly staff meetings
• Develop performance management system for each staff aligned to Operational Excellence (above) and job descriptions to determine qualification for salary increase (i.e. KPI’s need to cascade all the way down) to be reviewed quarterly.

Risk Management

• Ensure that the Company complies with all legal regulatory requirements in your area of responsibility
• Ensure your department is in material aspects compliant with the CPA (compliant leases and indemnities etc.)
• Any insurance claims to be reported to the CFO within 48 hours of occurrence

Capital Expenditure

• Ensure capital expenditure is well motivated including quotations and payback periods and submitted at least 2 weeks ahead of board meetings
• Ensure that all capital expenditure is within approved/budgeted levels

Operational Excellence (Student, bursars, Residential, Commercial)

• Student debtors less than 5 days at month end (to be refined based on student categories once budget completed)
• Review unidentified receipts less than 5% monthly of student turnover at any given month end
• Complete monthly reconciliation of revenue (billing) to actual building occupancy/ Biometrics
• Ensure that bad debts do not to exceed 0.5% of annual student revenue
• Complete monthly variance reporting of actual vs. budgeted income and expenses for Student Affairs Department
• Submit accurate and timeous submissions of weekly and monthly cash flow forecasts (revenue and expenses).
• Ensure timeous submission of Management Reports
• Manage the distribution of all invoices/statements by 5th of each month
• Ensure that monthly reconciliations to include monthly rooms check alongside occupancy and Biometrics (Summarised as “ Accuracy of Tenants Schedule) by 20th of each month
• Facilitate the reconciliation of bursar validation file and oracle
• Finalisation of all leases within 7 days of lease finalisation
• Complete refund processes (net of damages, keys, sleep overs) by 15th December of each year
• Complete pre-bookings, processing and room reservations by 31st December of each year
• Develop vacate plan for administration and alignment with Marketing, Facilities and Finance Departments
• Ensure maintenance of appropriate Customer Service Levels
• Complete Timeous submission of monthly departmental report (to include student movements, debtors, bad debts, room check and general department updates)
• Quarterly visits to Regional Offices

Skills and Qualifications

• Matric
• 3 year qualification in Financial Accounting/Related
• Honours an added advantage
• At leasr 5 years debt collection experience
• Customer Care experience
• Experience to be related to Finance or Accounting as the role requires an Financial/Accounting acumen
• Experience in managing a team
• Computer Skills (MS , Excel (Intermediate to advanced) & Powerpoint)
• ERP Knowledge (oracle an added advantage)
• Stress-management, time-management, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to travel and work an unpredictable schedule