Who hires accounts receivable specialists?

The AR Manager or Credit and Collections Manager at companies with a dedicated team; the Accounting Manager where AR sits inside accounting; the Controller or owner at small companies.

What is the best time to contact an accounts receivable specialist hiring manager?

Mid-month, mid-week, mid-morning. Avoid the last two business days and first few days of the month, when AR managers are chasing month-end cash and closing the books.

Is a collections specialist hiring manager different from an AR manager?

At larger companies, collections may sit under a Credit and Collections Manager separate from billing or cash application. At smaller ones, one AR or accounting manager owns all of it. The ad's duties tell you which.

Roles we cover › Accounts Receivable Specialist

The Accounts Receivable Manager Behind Every AR Ad, for Recruiters

Ad Call reads the live accounts receivable specialist ads in your market and hands back, for each company, the AR, credit and collections, or accounting manager most likely to own the req: name, title, email and office line, graded by confidence, with how long the ad has been open. What you say next should be about cash, because that is what the manager is measured on.

Every AR ad is a note from someone whose aging report may look worse than it did last quarter.

Find the accounts receivable specialist hiring managers in my market — free

Who owns an accounts receivable req

The manager who answers for collections owns the hire. At a company with a dedicated team that is the Accounts Receivable Manager or a Credit and Collections Manager. Where AR is one desk inside accounting, the Accounting Manager owns it. At a small company, the Controller, or the owner with an outside bookkeeper, is the hiring seat, and that is who you call. The CFO sees the cash number but rarely interviews for this level.

AR Lead / Senior CollectorTrains new specialists and knows which accounts are slipping. Influences, doesn't sign.
Accounts Receivable Manager (Manager, Accounts Receivable)usually owns the reqOwns the req wherever AR is its own team. Measured on past-due balances and DSO.
Credit and Collections ManagerOwns it when credit decisions and collections sit together, common in distribution and manufacturing.
Accounting Manager / ControllerOwns AR hiring at smaller companies where one leader runs the whole accounting desk.
Senior Manager, Accounts Receivable / Senior Manager, AccountingOversees several AR teams or shared services. Worth a call when a company posts several AR roles at once.

An accounts receivable card

For AR ads Ad Call names the manager who answers for collections and puts the accounting leader beside them. Signals show whether this is a single backfill or a cash problem: days open, reposts, and ads that mention cleanup, backlog or aging in the description.

jobadcall.com — Accounts Receivable Specialist, Collections and Cash Application · Indianapolis, IN

Ad CallDeskFollow-upsCompaniesGuide

Pinecrest Industrial Supply

Accounts Receivable Specialist, Collections and Cash Application · Indianapolis, IN

37 days open

live 37 daysad mentions "reducing past-due balances"blends collections with cash application and customer deductions

Likely managers

Sandra Ochoa Credit and Collections Manager

high

sochoa@pinecrestsupply.com✓ verified✉ draft email

Brian Nakamura Controller

medium

bnakamura@pinecrestsupply.comunconfirmed✉ draft email

Office line

(317) 555-0156 from the company's own site

Why call today

Five weeks open while the ad talks about past-due balances: the aging is getting older every week this desk sits empty.
Collections plus cash application plus deductions is a distributor's AR job; industry experience shortens ramp time.
A Controller in the results means a mid-size company where a strong candidate can reach the decision in one or two calls.

Illustrative sample — the layout and labels are the real console's; the company and people are fictional.

Speak the manager's metric: past-due aging and DSO

An AR manager lives inside two reports. The aging report sorts open invoices by how late they are: current, 1-30 days past due, 31-60, 61-90, over 90. The older the buckets grow, the harder the money is to collect. Days sales outstanding rolls that into one number; the Association for Financial Professionals defines DSO as "the time between when a credit sale is made and the cash is collected from that sale," calculated as average receivables divided by net revenue, times 365.

When an AR specialist leaves, invoices stop getting chased and the old buckets grow. The manager feels it in the next month-end review. So pitch in their units:

"Worked a portfolio of about 400 accounts and cut her over-90 balance by a third in a year."
"Owned collections for the company's twenty largest customers and kept them current through a system conversion."
"Cleared an unapplied-cash backlog in her first quarter."

Get the candidate's real numbers before you call. "Great with customers" does not move a credit manager. A shrinking over-90 bucket does.

Ads that blend AR with billing and cash application

Many AR ads bundle several jobs under one title. The bundle tells you what the manager is short of, and which candidates to send.

The ad mentions	What the job really is	Send someone who has
Collections calls, past-due follow-up, payment plans	A collector	Phone-heavy collections on a named portfolio, with results
Invoicing, billing, credit memos	Billing with some follow-up	Clean, fast invoicing in a comparable system and volume
Cash application, lockbox, remittances, unapplied cash	Cash application	Matching payments to invoices at volume, and backlog cleanup
Deductions, disputes, chargebacks	Deductions specialist (common with retail and distribution customers)	Researching and resolving customer deductions with sales and shipping
Credit applications, credit limits, holds	Credit analyst work	Credit reviews and a relationship with sales on order holds
All of the above	The only AR person at a small or mid-size company	Breadth, independence, and a Controller-level reference

AR managers actually answer the phone: use a collector's brevity

People who run collections spend their day on the phone and respect a caller who gets to the point. Match their style: name, reason, number, ask.

AR ManagerCredit department, Sandra speaking.

YouSandra, it's Kevin Moss with Harborline Finance Staffing. Your AR specialist ad, thirty seconds?

AR ManagerGo.

YouI have a collector from an electrical distributor. She worked 350 contractor accounts, got her over-90 balance down from about twelve percent of the portfolio to five in a year, and handled deductions from two big-box customers. She's available in two weeks.

AR ManagerWhat system?

YouThe same ERP your ad lists, three years. I can send her resume and one sentence on how she ran her aging meetings.

AR ManagerSend it. If she's real, I'll talk to her Thursday.

Ninety seconds, one candidate, one number that matters to a credit manager. Don't warm up, don't pitch your firm, and don't call on the last two business days of the month, when AR managers are chasing month-end cash.

Myths about AR hiring, including "we just need someone to clean up the aging"

The objections sound final. Most of them are invitations.

Myth"We just need someone to clean up the aging" means a temp will do.

RealitySometimes it does, and a temp or contract collector is a fair offer. But ask what happens after cleanup. If the aging went bad because the desk was understaffed, it will go bad again, and the manager knows it.

MythAR is entry-level, so any accounting grad fits.

RealityCollections is a skill: persistence, negotiation and dispute resolution with customers who do not want to pay. The BLS notes these clerks typically learn on the job, often alongside an experienced clerk, so a candidate who has already worked a portfolio skips that step.

MythCertifications don't exist for AR.

RealityThey do. NACM offers credit designations such as the Credit Business Associate, and IOFM runs an Accounts Receivable Specialist certification. Neither is usually required, but a candidate who holds one is signaling career intent.

MythIndustry doesn't matter in AR.

RealityIt matters a lot. Health care billing, construction progress billing, and retail deductions are different worlds. Match the candidate's customer type to the ad's.

MythGo to HR first; finance managers don't take recruiter calls.

RealityMany AR and credit managers are on the phone all day and will take a short, specific call. Offer to submit through HR in the same breath if the company requires it.

When the Controller is the hiring seat

At a company with one accounting team, AR is often a single desk and the Controller or Accounting Manager hires it personally. Treat that leader as the hiring manager, not a step above one. Their view is wider than a credit manager's: they care about collections, but also about a clean month-end close, accurate cash posting and an auditor who does not find unapplied cash sitting in suspense. Pitch accordingly:

Close support. Can the candidate reconcile AR to the general ledger and have it done on day three of the close?
Independence. A one-person AR desk has nobody to ask. Lead with times the candidate ran the function alone.
Coverage. Ask who covers AR when the specialist is out. At small companies the answer is often the Controller, which is exactly why they want this hire to stick.

Questions recruiters ask about accounts receivable specialist reqs

Who hires accounts receivable specialists?: The AR Manager or Credit and Collections Manager at companies with a dedicated team; the Accounting Manager where AR sits inside accounting; the Controller or owner at small companies.
What is the best time to contact an accounts receivable specialist hiring manager?: Mid-month, mid-week, mid-morning. Avoid the last two business days and first few days of the month, when AR managers are chasing month-end cash and closing the books.
How do I find the accounts receivable specialist hiring manager's email?: Ad Call reads the live AR ads in your market and returns the likely AR, credit or accounting manager for each company with name, title, email and office line, graded by confidence.
Is a collections specialist hiring manager different from an AR manager?: At larger companies, collections may sit under a Credit and Collections Manager separate from billing or cash application. At smaller ones, one AR or accounting manager owns all of it. The ad's duties tell you which.

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