Manager - Billing and Collections.Finance

Mission/ Core purpose of the Job: 

The Billing and Collections Manager holds a pivotal leadership role, responsible for the overall strategic and operational management of both the company's billing and collections functions. This position is critical to minimizing bad debt, maximizing cash flow, and ensuring the accurate and timely delivery of bills to the customer base across all product sets.

The incumbent will provide comprehensive leadership to the Billing Operations team, ensuring the implementation of strategies that align with overall business priorities and imperatives. Key responsibilities include managing a dedicated team, developing and executing robust collection strategies, ensuring strict compliance with all relevant regulations, and leveraging data analysis to identify trends and recommend continuous improvements across both billing and collections processes.

Task Complexity: Essential KPA's Specific to the Position

Billing Management

• End-to-End Billing Oversight: Directly oversee the complete billing process, ensuring timely, accurate, and compliant invoice generation in line with contractual agreements and regulatory standards.
• Process Optimization & Innovation: Design, implement, and continuously refine billing processes using a process-driven approach to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and accelerate revenue realization.
• Discrepancy Resolution: Monitor and troubleshoot billing discrepancies, coordinating with IT and customer service teams for swift and effective resolution.
• Quality & Integrity Assurance: Ensure the quality and integrity of client billing, identifying and implementing best practices aligned with Finance department objectives.
• Escalated Issue Management: Coordinate responses to escalated billing inquiries, collaborating with teams to achieve timely and accurate first-call resolutions.
• Root Cause Analysis & Prevention: Daily review of billing for accuracy, identifying root causes of errors and implementing solutions to prevent future billing queries.
• Revenue & Cost Leakage Reduction: Work closely with Revenue Assurance to identify and reduce revenue and cost leakage related to billing.
• System Workflow Enhancement: Collaborate with Finance Systems to improve billing system workflows and drive technical enhancements.
• Policy & Procedure Development: Develop and implement comprehensive billing policies, procedures, and best practices to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Internal Controls & Auditing: Audit billing processes to identify gaps and maintain appropriate internal controls, ensuring accuracy and completeness of all billing and collection-related documents.
• Performance Analysis & Recommendations: Analyze billing data to identify trends, evaluate performance, and make recommendations for continuous improvement.
• Staff Billing Management: Manage and control the end-to-end billing process for internal staff.
• Retail Billing System Ownership: Retain functional ownership of retail billing systems, including functional enhancements, data and system integrity, user assistance, and support.
• Credit Note Management: Manage the credit note process, conducting deep-dive analysis on root causes to ensure consistent billing accuracy.

Collections Strategy & Management

• Strategic Development & Implementation: Develop and implement effective collection strategies aimed at reducing outstanding accounts receivable and improving overall cash flow.
• Day-to-Day Collections Oversight: Manage daily collection activities, including dispute resolution and negotiation of payment arrangements.
• Overdue Account Management: Oversee the timely collection of overdue accounts while actively maintaining positive customer relationships.
• Reporting & Updates: Prepare and distribute aging reports and provide regular updates on key delinquent accounts.
• Debit Order Optimization: Manage the debit order process to ensure maximum collection rates.
• Unallocated Receipts Resolution: Reduce customer account queries by effectively managing and allocating receipts.
• Service Suspension Management: Ensure timely suspension of services for non-paying customers according to policy.
• External Agency Coordination: Coordinate monthly with external collection agencies regarding delinquent accounts.
• Strategy Evolution: Evolve the collections strategy with the latest trends, focusing on cost-effectiveness.
• Refund Process Management: Manage the refund process within agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Financial & Credit Analysis: Perform financial and credit analysis for new customer applications, past due accounts, high-risk customers, and other financially impactful areas.
• Default Account Management: Manage default accounts promptly by securing acceptable repayment arrangements or handing over portfolios to Legal collections.
• Audit Compliance: Ensure a clean audit in the area of responsibility by enforcing strict adherence to policies, processes, procedures, and industry regulations.

Data Analytics & Business Analysis

• Process Analysis & Optimization: Analyze and optimize both billing and collection processes by identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and pain points through detailed process mapping and data analysis. Implement streamlined solutions to improve accuracy, timeliness, and effectiveness.
• System Requirements Definition: Collaborate with stakeholders to determine, document, and review requirements for projects impacting billing and collection processes and systems, ensuring alignment with best practices and business objectives.
• Innovative Solution Identification: Research and evaluate new technologies and methodologies to improve billing and collection efficiency and effectiveness, focusing on automation and data-driven insights.
• Customer-Centric Solutions: Analyze customer feedback and billing data to identify areas for improvement, developing strategies to make billing clear, easy to understand, and convenient for customers, fostering positive relationships.
• Data-Driven Strategy Development: Analyze collection data (e.g., aging reports, customer payment history, industry benchmarks) to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement, developing and implementing targeted collection strategies based on these insights.
• Benchmarking: Conduct thorough benchmarking with other companies and organizations, both within and outside the industry, to identify best practices and areas for improvement in collections.

Reporting

• Performance Reporting: Compile and present comprehensive monthly billing reports, tracking and reporting on key metrics such as Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), aging reports, collection effectiveness, and bad debt provision.
• Forecasting & Recommendations: Provide monthly forecasts on expected collections and write-offs, recommending improvements to billing and collection processes.
• Risk Monitoring: Monitor economic trends, industry conditions, and customer behavior to anticipate and mitigate credit risks.
• Target Monitoring: Monitor collections and refund targets, providing appropriate reporting to internal stakeholders.

Projects and System Enhancements

• System & Service Recommendations: Recommend changes to systems and services based on analysis of trends and patterns in real-time operational performance data.
• Departmental Project Management: Initiate and manage departmental projects, ensuring their completion and success.
• System Enhancement Planning: Assist the Project Office and IS in planning enhancements and changes to the retail billing system, including functional enhancements, new functionality, data and system integrity; facilitate communication to the business; attend monthly meetings to provide updates and roll-out plans.
• User Regression Testing Management: Manage all user regression testing for retail billing system build rollouts, ensuring resolution of logged defects, timely and accurate sign-off from all regression users, and providing feedback to the business and stakeholders.
• Post-Implementation Testing: Manage and control all post-implementation testing, ensuring head office support from Billing Operations, IS, and Development during rollout deployment. Provide timely communication and regular updates to all users and management, ensuring accurate testing and timely sign-off from all users (head office & regional offices), and providing feedback to the business and all stakeholders.
• Product & Service Management: Manage the creation process for packages, tariffs, products, and services, including quality assurance related to updates on the production retail billing system. Ensure end-to-end testing of new products and services and their effective migration to the live environment.

Service Enhancement

• Cross-Functional Liaison: Liaise with all relevant business areas to ensure the effective provision of billing and collection services and information.
• Customer Interaction Management: Manage interaction points between customers and both billing and collections, mediating the resolution of escalated queries as appropriate.
• Risk Exposure Management: Manage the company's financial and commercial risk exposure in the area of billing.

Project Management

• Project Execution: Develop and drive the execution of agreed projects within billing and collections.
• Implementation & Compliance: Drive the implementation, tracking, monitoring, and compliance of projects.
• Reporting & Risk Management: Coordinate project reporting and actively manage project risks.

Budget Management

• Budget Optimization: Manage and optimize the departmental budget, ensuring all expenditure aligns with agreed budgets and monitoring vendor costs.
• Cost Reduction & Revenue Generation: Identify areas of financial loss and proactively seek ways to reduce expenditure, as well as identify opportunities to generate additional revenue.

Stakeholder Relationships

• Supplier Relationship Management: Manage relationships with system support suppliers regarding delivery, adherence to contracts, and SLA management, including attending monthly vendor meetings.
• Customer Satisfaction: Ensure customer needs and requirements are satisfied through appropriate systems, processes, and procedures.
• Proactive Problem Prevention: Adopt a proactive approach to prevent future problems from arising.
• Continuous Improvement: Initiate change to continually improve all aspects of service delivery and drive continuous improvement as a core element of service delivery.

• 3-year Degree / Diploma in Commerce (Accounting, Information Systems) or related as a minimum
• Postgraduate qualification advantageous

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in area of specialisation; with experience in supervising/managing others
• Experience working in a medium to large organization
• Telecommunication Experience (ISP/FTTH) would be preferable