Accounts Manager - AR & AP in Harlow - Operations Resources

Looking for an experience Accounts Manager to lead a team of 5, 2 Purchase Ledger, 2 in Credit Control and 1 Sales Invoicing for a £100M+ T/O business in Harlow.

This role will be office based (can offer 1 day hybrid flexibility).

Job Spec:

Group Accounts Receivable & Payable Manager

£50,000 Basic Salary

Role Overview

We are seeking a motivated and detail-oriented Head of Accounts Receivable & Payable, responsible for leading the Group’s end-to-end transactional finance operations, ensuring efficient management of sales ledger, credit control, purchase ledger, supplier payments, and cash flow optimisation. The role is accountable for maintaining robust financial controls, improving working capital performance and driving process efficiencies.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, develop, and manage the Billing, Credit Control, and Accounts Payable teams.
• Set clear objectives, performance metrics, and development plans for team members.
• Build a high-performing transactional finance function focused on service, accuracy, and efficiency.

Accounts Receivable / Sales Ledger

• Oversee accurate and timely invoicing, billing, cash allocation, and reconciliation processes.
• Ensure debtor balances are actively managed and aged debt is minimised.
• Monitor AR KPIs including DSO, overdue debt, collections performance, dispute resolution, and cash forecasting.
• Drive process improvements to accelerate invoice-to-cash cycles.

Credit Control & Collections

• Own credit control strategy, customer credit risk assessment, and collections policies.
• Establish and enforce credit limits, payment terms, escalation procedures, and bad debt controls.
• Manage aged debt recovery and support legal escalation where required.
• Monitor provisioning and bad debt exposure.

Accounts Payable / Purchase Ledger

• Lead supplier invoice processing, approval workflows, reconciliations, and payment execution.
• Ensure supplier payments are accurate, timely, and aligned with agreed terms.
• Optimise payment cycles to support working capital objectives while maintaining supplier relationships.

Cash Flow & Working Capital

• Support cash flow forecasting through effective management of receivables and payables.
• Drive working capital improvement initiatives.

Other

• Maintain strong internal controls across transactional finance activities.
• Support internal and external audits.
• Drive automation, standardisation, and continuous improvement across AR/AP processes.
• Provide regular reporting and insight to senior finance leadership.
• Improve reporting, workflow efficiency, and data quality.

Key Skills & Experience

• Team management and leadership experience in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Credit Control, or Transactional Finance.
• Strong understanding of sales ledger, purchase ledger, credit risk, collections, and cash management.
• Proven track record of improving processes, controls, and working capital performance.
• Excellent analytical, leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong understanding of internal controls and audit requirements.
• Proving experience in aged debt reduction.
• Team engagement and productivity.