Credit Controller — Key Responsibilities and Required Skills

🎯 Role Definition

The Credit Controller is responsible for managing the full accounts receivable lifecycle to optimise working capital, reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), and protect company cash flow. This role combines credit risk assessment, proactive collections, dispute resolution, accurate cash application, and cross-functional stakeholder management. The ideal candidate uses accounting best practices and ERP tools to enforce payment terms, negotiate payment plans, and escalate high-risk accounts while delivering positive customer service and minimizing bad debt.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Accounts Receivable Clerk / AR Specialist
Collections Representative / Collections Agent
Credit Analyst or Billing Coordinator

Advancement To:

Credit Manager / Head of Credit Control
Accounts Receivable Manager / Finance Manager
Treasury Manager or Commercial Finance Business Partner

Lateral Moves:

Treasury Analyst (cash forecasting & payments)
Customer Success or Account Management (payment negotiations)
Billing & Invoicing Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Manage a high-volume portfolio of accounts receivable, conducting regular aging analysis and prioritising collection activity to reduce DSO and minimize overdue balances while meeting monthly collection targets.
Perform credit risk assessments and establish appropriate credit limits and payment terms for new and existing customers using credit reference checks, financial statement analysis and internal risk matrices.
Proactively contact customers via telephone, email and CRM notes to collect overdue accounts, negotiate payment plans, and convert disputed balances into paid invoices while maintaining strong customer relationships.
Investigate and resolve invoice disputes and short payments by liaising with sales, customer service and operations to obtain supporting documentation, correct billing errors, and ensure prompt resolution.
Apply customer payments accurately and timely in the ERP system (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite or other), ensuring proper allocation to invoices, credit memos and unapplied cash to maintain clean AR ledgers.
Prepare and execute escalation plans for long-overdue or high-risk accounts, including formal demand letters, payment arrangements, and referral to external collections or legal teams when necessary.
Reconcile AR sub-ledgers and customer accounts monthly, identifying reconciling items, writing off irrecoverable balances with appropriate approvals, and preparing journal entries for the general ledger.
Run and analyse accounts receivable aging reports, provide root-cause analysis for trends (e.g., concentration of late payers, disputed invoicing), and recommend process improvements to reduce recurring issues.
Draft and maintain standard dunning processes and communications, ensuring consistent, compliant and automated follow-up sequences across customer segments.
Monitor compliance with contractual payment terms, early payment discounts and credit insurance policies, and coordinate with procurement or sales to update contract terms where required.
Maintain and update customer credit files and documentation, including credit applications, financial statements, trade references, KYC/AML screening and approved credit limits.
Collaborate with Sales and Customer Success to perform customer onboarding checks, set realistic payment expectations, and support negotiations on credit terms for strategic accounts.
Support month-end and quarter-end close activities related to AR: provide aged balances, prepare bad debt provisions, and support auditors with requested schedules and reconciliations.
Use ERP and BI tools to produce regular dashboards and KPI reports (DSO, aged debt >90 days, cash collected, dispute ageing) and present insights to finance leadership to drive credit policy decisions.
Implement and maintain automated payment solutions and electronic invoicing (e-invoicing, Direct Debit, credit card payments) to accelerate cash collection and improve customer payment experience.
Lead or contribute to process improvement projects (e.g., streamlining remittance processing, automating dunning, enhancing cash application) to increase efficiency and reduce manual work.
Train and mentor junior credit/control staff, sharing best practices for effective collections, dispute handling and AR reconciliations to build team capability and consistency.
Liaise with external agencies (credit reference agencies, collection agencies, legal counsel) to obtain credit information, escalate problematic accounts and recover outstanding debt when necessary.
Ensure adherence to accounting standards (GAAP/IFRS) and internal control policies for revenue recognition, write-offs and provisioning, and maintain compliance with local collections law and data protection (e.g., GDPR).
Manage cash forecasting inputs related to receivables, providing accurate short-term cash inflow projections to Treasury and Finance to support working capital planning.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc reporting requests for commercial and finance stakeholders, supplying tailored aged reports, reconciliation support, and historical payment behaviour analysis.
Conduct periodic customer credit reviews and portfolio segmentation to identify exposure concentration and opportunities for securing deposits or credit insurance.
Assist in the implementation and testing of ERP or billing system upgrades and integrations that impact AR processes, ensuring data integrity and continuity of collections workflows.
Collaborate with legal and compliance teams on contract terms, collection notices and regulatory requirements for international receivables and cross-border collections.
Participate in cross-functional projects to align invoicing, shipping, and order-to-cash processes, ensuring invoice accuracy and reducing root causes of disputes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven expertise in accounts receivable and credit control processes, including aging analysis, dunning, collections and arrears management.
Strong working knowledge of ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics or similar) and AR modules.
Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, data cleansing and basic macros) for analysis and reconciliation.
Experience with cash application tools and bank reconciliation processes, including automated lockbox or electronic remittance handling.
Familiarity with credit checking tools and agencies (Experian, Dun & Bradstreet) and ability to interpret financial statements for credit risk assessment.
Understanding of revenue recognition rules, bad debt provisioning and accounting controls under GAAP or IFRS.
Competence in using CRM/collections platforms and electronic invoicing/payment gateways (e.g., SEPA Direct Debit, SWIFT, ACH, card processors).
Ability to prepare and present AR KPIs and management reports using BI tools (Power BI, Tableau) or ERP reporting modules.
Experience managing dispute resolution workflows and coordinating cross-functional input to support timely settlement.
Knowledge of local collections legislation, data protection (GDPR) and ethical debt recovery practices.

Soft Skills

Strong negotiation and persuasion skills with the ability to close overdue accounts while maintaining long-term client relationships.
Excellent verbal and written communication; clear and professional telephone collections and email correspondence.
Analytical mindset with problem-solving ability to identify root causes of unpaid invoices and implement corrective actions.
High attention to detail and accuracy in reconciliations, cash application and financial reporting tasks.
Resilience and persistence under pressure, able to handle challenging conversations and meet tight collection deadlines.
Time management and prioritisation skills to balance a large portfolio and competing collection priorities.
Stakeholder management and collaboration — works effectively with Sales, Operations, Legal and Finance teams.
Customer service orientation with the ability to de-escalate disputes and find mutually acceptable payment solutions.
Initiative and process improvement mindset; comfortable driving change and documenting standard operating procedures.
Confidentiality and integrity when handling sensitive financial and customer information.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Economics, or equivalent work experience in accounts receivable/credit control.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance with professional accounting qualification (ACCA, CIMA, CIPD/ICAEW modules or similar).
Additional certifications in credit management (e.g., Credit Management Certificate, NACM) or collections best practices.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Accounting
Finance
Business Administration
Economics
Banking & Financial Services

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years in credit control, accounts receivable, or collections roles within B2B or B2C environments.

Preferred:

3–5+ years managing AR portfolios, proven track record reducing DSO and bad debt, experience with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite), and exposure to international receivables, dispute resolution and credit risk assessment.