Ar Assistant Ii-2

Columbia Sportswear; Karnataka; On-site; INR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Columbia Sportswear seeks an Accounts Receivable Specialist to manage AR processes across ERP systems, balance cash, reconcile entities, and support month-end closing. The role demands meticulous attention to detail and strong communication with internal teams and customers.

Experience with cash application, dunning, and credit research is required. Proficiency in MS Office and SAP/ESKer, with a proactive approach to problem-solving and collaboration across departments.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3–5 years of accounts receivable experience with increasing responsibility.
• Preference for credit experience serving retailers in footwear, apparel, or outdoor industries.
• Able to balance high-volume workloads with accuracy.
• Strong written and verbal communication across organizational levels.
• Detail-oriented with solid analytical and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Contact customers on past due items and document all communications.
• Research and validate deductions, credits, and short pays.
• Generate and apply cash receipts; reconcile aging reports.
• Assist in gathering billing data and route to owners.
• Coordinate with Customer Service, IT, and sales to resolve AR issues.
• Ensure month-end closing activities for AR are completed.

Skills

Communication skills

Persuasive writing

Cross-functional collaboration

Shipping & Receiving

Credit & Collections

Cash Applications

Claims Investigation

Promotions & Compliance

Integrity & dependability

Organization

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business or related field

Tools

MS Office

Windows

Acrobat

Snagit

WinZip

SAP

ESKer

Job description

General Position Summary

This position of Accounts Receivable Specialist will include functional system support related to accounts receivable processes within multiple ERP systems, balancing all cash entries, reconciling all companies, running appropriate reports, and distributing to management. The position also includes customer setups in multiple ERP systems and assisting divisions on customer accounts/problems. This includes maintaining all A/R files including invoices, credit memos, cash receipts, reports, and bank statements. This includes daily collection efforts, to include calls/emails to customers and internal employees. Generate and distribute the A/R problem collection notice. Monitor accounts throughout the month and Month-end Closing. The role requires high attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple portfolios.

Essential Functions/Major Responsibilities

Responsible for all accounts receivable duties that pertain to the collection, cash applications, and research into customer claims.

• Contact customers on all past due items such as invoices, claims, billings, etc. Document all correspondence with customers, whether by phone, e-mail, video, related to payment for open items.
• Identifies, researches, and validates all customer deductions, i.e., claims or short pays, taken on payments.
• Assist in gathering documents related to billing data (PODs, POs, Invoice copies, etc.) and route to proper owners of the information when unavailable.
• Claims commonly researched are for shortages, pricing discrepancies, promotional allowances, return of resalable merchandise, return of defective merchandise, and various violations.
• Generates cash batches in the system to facilitate the application of incoming cash receipts.
• Utilize tools such as Dunning process, SAP, ESKER to collect receivables.
• Verifies the accuracy of the payments that have been keyed by the lockbox for all payments.
• Retrieves any payment remittance information not forwarded by the lock boxes.
• Researches the individual payments and deductions on each remittance for appropriate coding, value, and accuracy.
• Processes customer payments received via credit card by submitting confidential information for payment through the banking system.
• Matches customer debit memos with the incoming claims and then appropriately codes based on the description noted on the claim.
• Ensures accurate follow-up with the Customer Service Department, IT Department, Distribution Centers, Sales Field Personnel, Sales Representatives, Freight Carriers, and customers.
• Processes valid claims for crediting and pursues invalid deductions for repayment.
• Provides the customer with documentation to help them verify and validate their open balances with prAna or SAP, in addition to electronic statements that are sent monthly.
• Provides information such as open aging reports, invoice copies, Bills of Ladings, proofs of delivery, and credit memos.
• Reconciles accounts by reviewing aging reports for matching invoices, credit memos, payments, debit memos, etc.
• Works in conjunction with the Customer Service or Sales Departments for the creation of outstanding account receivable items, billings/credit memos to accurate the account receivable for any errors in those departments, or in the field.

Skills needed to be successful in this role

• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Able to articulate and understand persuasive writing to perform the minimum standards of their duties.
• Confirmed understanding of shipping, receiving, order production, credit, collections, cash receipts and applications, claims investigation, promotions, and compliance issues.
• Able to work in a high volume and results oriented environment.
• Able to meet multiple deadlines while ensuring minimal errors.
• Requires communication with all levels of personnel at the corporate level, the customer base level, and with Sales Representatives.
• High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation
• Organizational Skills: Filing, Faxing, Copying, Data Entry, Document Control
• Software: MS Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint), Windows, Acrobat, Snag It, WinZip
• Accounts Receivable: Invoicing, Collections, Trial Balance

Supervisory Responsibility

None

Interpersonal Contacts

Incumbents have regular contact with others, both inside and outside the organization. Position interacts with all levels in the organization including interaction with key executives throughout the business in the US and Canada.

Specific Job Skills

• Possess strong negotiation, influencing, and business partnering skills.
• Possess an understanding of financial statement analysis in addition to accounting practices, including accrual accounting methods
• Ability to analyze accounting and/or credit documents for accuracy & challenge questionable data.
• Possess an advanced level of computer skills including MS Office
• Possess excellent written and verbal communications skills.
• Ability to manage, lead and motivate direct reports.
• Ability to collaborate remotely with the manager and work remotely from other key inter-company business contacts.
• Must have excellent organizational skills, the ability to prioritize projects, and attention to detail.
• Extremely well-developed ability to read, write, and speak English.

Education and/or Experience

Bachelor's Degree in Business or relevant educational background

Minimum of 3-5 years' experience in an accounts receivable environment with increasingly higher levels of responsibility including management level experience. Preference for credit experience selling to retailers in the footwear, apparel, or outdoor industry.

Job Conditions

Job requires flexibility with work hours often exceeding a typical workday/week

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