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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Order Management Associate

💰 $ - $

OperationsSupply ChainCustomer Service

🎯 Role Definition

An Order Management Associate is responsible for managing the end-to-end order-to-cash lifecycle, ensuring timely order entry, accurate fulfillment, billing, and exceptional customer communication. This role acts as the operational backbone between sales, inventory, logistics, finance, and customer service teams to maximize on-time delivery, reduce order errors, and support revenue recognition. Core responsibilities include order processing, exception handling, shipment coordination, claims and returns processing, EDI/ERP maintenance, and continuous process improvement to meet SLA and KPI targets.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Customer Service Representative
  • Warehouse / Logistics Coordinator
  • Sales Support / Inside Sales Associate

Advancement To:

  • Senior Order Management Specialist
  • Order Management Team Lead / Supervisor
  • Order-to-Cash / Billing Analyst
  • Operations or Supply Chain Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Logistics Coordinator
  • Billing & Collections Specialist
  • Customer Success Manager
  • Inventory Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Accurately process and enter customer purchase orders into the ERP system (e.g., SAP, NetSuite, Oracle) while validating pricing, terms, product codes, lead times and customer-specific instructions to ensure error-free order creation.
  • Manage the full order-to-cash lifecycle by coordinating order confirmation, pick/pack/ship instructions, invoicing, and payment follow-up to maintain timely revenue recognition and cash flow.
  • Act as the primary point of contact for internal stakeholders (sales, warehouse, finance, procurement) and external customers to resolve order discrepancies, product availability issues, shipping exceptions, and invoice disputes.
  • Monitor order status and proactively provide customers and sales teams with timely updates on shipments, backorders, allocations, expected delivery dates, and partial shipments to minimize customer-impacting surprises.
  • Validate credit approvals and coordinate with credit/finance teams to place orders on hold or release orders in accordance with company credit policies and risk thresholds.
  • Execute order modifications, cancellations, and returns in the system and coordinate logistics for reverse logistics, RMA issuance, and disposition following company returns policies.
  • Manage EDI transactions, cXML feeds, and third-party integrations by troubleshooting transmission failures, mapping issues, and partner connectivity to ensure continuous order flow.
  • Perform daily reconciliation between order management, warehouse shipping records, and billing to identify and correct discrepancies between shipped quantities, invoiced amounts, and customer purchase orders.
  • Coordinate with inventory planning and purchasing teams to escalate and resolve stockouts, allocate limited quantities, and update safety stock levels to reduce backorders and expedite critical customer orders.
  • Generate and analyze order management KPIs and operational reports (on-time delivery, fill rate, order cycle time, order accuracy) to identify trends and implement corrective actions.
  • Prepare and process special pricing, contract pricing, promotions, and one-off discounts, ensuring approvals are documented and pricing is applied accurately on orders and invoices.
  • Ensure compliance with export/import documentation and regulatory requirements by coordinating with trade compliance and freight forwarders for international orders and customs clearance.
  • Work with carriers and freight partners to book shipments, optimize freight costs, track in-transit exceptions, and manage freight claims and recoveries.
  • Handle escalations related to delays, damages, shortages, and service level breaches by coordinating root cause analysis and communicating remediation plans to customers and stakeholders.
  • Maintain master data accuracy for customers, ship-to/ship-from addresses, product SKUs, pricing, and billing terms within the ERP and CRM systems to prevent downstream order errors.
  • Participate in month-end and quarter-end order cutoffs and reconciliation activities to ensure accurate financial close and revenue reporting.
  • Support audit readiness and internal controls by maintaining detailed order records, change logs, approval documentation, and SOP adherence for all order transactions.
  • Drive process improvement initiatives by documenting current state workflows, recommending automation opportunities (workflows, macros, RPA), and piloting solutions to reduce manual effort and cycle time.
  • Train new hires and cross-train teammates on order entry procedures, exception handling, ERP best practices and company policies to build a resilient and scalable team.
  • Execute outbound communications such as order confirmations, shipment notifications, and billing notifications using CRM/email templates while maintaining a high level of professionalism and responsiveness.
  • Work cross-functionally with Sales Operations to onboard new customers, establish billing and shipping requirements, and configure customer-specific order rules, payment terms, and EDI profiles.
  • Ensure SLA adherence for order acknowledgment, order processing, and customer response times; escalate SLA breaches to management and support corrective action plans.
  • Administer promotional and seasonal order surges by coordinating temporary capacity plans with warehouse and logistics partners to preserve service levels during peak demand periods.
  • Maintain knowledge of product lifecycle events (EOL, new launches, allocation changes) and communicate impacts to customers and internal stakeholders to prevent order fulfillment errors.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc reporting requests and produce custom order history, order aging, and returns analysis for sales and finance stakeholders.
  • Assist in cross-functional projects to implement or upgrade ERP/OMS modules, EDI translations, or CRM integrations by providing business requirements and validating test cases.
  • Participate in continuous improvement initiatives such as Lean, Six Sigma, or Kaizen events to streamline order workflows and reduce waste.
  • Collaborate with IT and automation teams to document use cases for order automation, RPA, and system validations to accelerate digital transformation.
  • Contribute to knowledge base and SOP updates, enabling faster onboarding and consistent execution across the order management team.
  • Provide backup support to billing, collections, and customer service teams during peak periods or staff absences.
  • Coordinate with quality assurance and returns teams to analyze root causes of product returns and recommend corrective actions with suppliers and operations.
  • Support sales enablement by generating periodic metrics on order lead times, fulfillment performance, and customer service trends to inform commercial decision-making.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proficient in ERP/order management systems (examples: SAP S/4HANA, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor) with demonstrated order entry and fulfillment experience.
  • Strong Excel skills including VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables, data validation, and basic macros to manipulate and reconcile order datasets.
  • Experience with EDI (850/810/856/997) and order integration technologies, including troubleshooting EDI maps and partner connectivity.
  • Familiarity with CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot) for customer communication, opportunity/order linkage, and order history retrieval.
  • Basic SQL skills or experience with reporting tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) to extract order trends, KPIs, and ad-hoc analyses.
  • Knowledge of order-to-cash processes, billing, invoicing cycles, credit holds, and collections interactions.
  • Understanding of warehouse operations, shipping documentation (BOL, packing lists, freight invoices), and carrier tracking platforms.
  • Experience handling international shipping and export/import documentation, Incoterms, customs processes and trade compliance basics.
  • Strong data entry accuracy with attention to pricing rules, discounts, tax calculations, and contract terms.
  • Familiarity with automation tools (RPA, macros, workflow engines) and an ability to document requirements for technical teams.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills for clear customer-facing correspondence and internal stakeholder collaboration.
  • Strong problem-solving and analytical mindset with the ability to prioritize issues and drive root cause resolution.
  • High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy in data entry, reconciliations and documentation.
  • Customer-centric attitude with professional escalation management and negotiation capabilities.
  • Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, time-sensitive environment and manage multiple competing priorities.
  • Strong collaboration and interpersonal skills to partner with sales, operations, finance and logistics teams.
  • Proactive ownership mentality and continuous improvement orientation.
  • Resilience and adaptability during peak seasons, process changes, and system upgrades.
  • Ethical judgment and compliance focus when managing customer contracts, pricing exceptions and credit decisions.
  • Effective training and coaching skills to onboard new team members and share best practices.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or equivalent; strong candidates will demonstrate relevant on-the-job experience and system proficiency.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Finance, or a related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Supply Chain Management
  • Business Administration
  • Logistics and Transportation
  • Finance / Accounting
  • Information Systems

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–5 years in order management, customer service operations, logistics coordination, or related roles.

Preferred:

  • 2–4+ years of direct order-to-cash, order management, or ERP order entry experience, ideally within manufacturing, distribution, retail, or B2B environments.
  • Experience with SAP, NetSuite, Oracle or equivalent ERP and familiarity with EDI and order integration is highly desirable.
  • Proven track record of meeting SLA/KPI targets (order accuracy, on-time shipping, order cycle time) and participating in process improvement initiatives.
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