Operations Accounting Manager

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global market leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. We are on a mission to redefine how organizations connect with their audiences - and that’s just the beginning!
Organizations, large and small, depend on us to accurately publicize market-moving news and multimedia, and generate social engagements that develop interactions with their target audiences.
About the RoleThe Operations Accounting Manager will be responsible for the management of the company’s back office. The back office includes Billing, Cash Applications, Credit and Collections, Contract Administration, and customer facing administrative responsibilities. The Manager will ensure timely and accurate daily processing of receivables through effective organization, direction, and control of department activities. A strong emphasis will be placed on metric driven management. A strong emphasis will also be placed on customer relationships. The Manager must be able to interface professionally with the Business Wire Sales and Operations teams as well as back office, procurement, and other key customer personnel.  The candidate should show an interest and ability to move into more advanced roles either in transactional accounting, technical accounting, business systems, or FP&A as a rotation would be expected in 2 to 3 years once the new back office order to cash processes are fully operational. What You'll Do 1. Oversee the Cash Applications Team- Ensure that all customer accounts are accurate and up-to-date.- Improve FPY (first pass yield) of cash applications to above 99% daily.- Ensure that unidentified cash and unapplied cash is quickly dispositioned and applied. One-week clearance rates above 75% desired within 2 months.- Timely processing of refunds to customers.- Weekly metric reporting.
2. Oversee the Credit and Collections Team- Timely collection of receivables with a goal of being current on 90% of AR balance.- Maintain DSO with a goal of being under 40 days.- Goal of over 90 days less than 5% of total with no AR over 1 year old.- Key contributor to AR Reserve analysis.
3. Oversee the Billing Team- Ensure 99.8% or better delivery accuracy to customers on a daily basis.- Ensure all undelivered invoices are resolved within 1 week.- Lead person on managing the Esker customer invoice system and customer portal.
4. Oversee the Contracts Administration Team (known as Call Center in Business Wire)- Review all customer contracts to ensure compliance with corporate guidelines.- Ensure all contracts are complied with.- Rebate administration.- Interface with customers on contractual and administrative activities. - Track release usage on customer (bulk) contracts.
5. Oversee Accounts Receivable Accounting activities- Perform AR entries. - Perform AR and credit card reconciliations.- Approve debit memos.              
6. Responsible for being the key Finance interface in the company’s current efforts to modernize its order-to-cash and quote-to-contract processes- Oversee the support of order-to-cash aspects of Business Wire’s systems of record: Salesforce, Oracle, Esker and ClientTrack.- Be a key team member on the company’s order-to-cash and contract-to-quote development team.- Develop and implement improvements including automation, enhanced processes and procedures, and other resources to improve efficiencies and effectiveness.   
7. Ensure that all daily, weekly, and monthly activities and actions are completed on time, properly documented, and retained in the master files
8. Continue to build strong relationships with all stakeholders in the company
9. Continue to build strong relationships with customers
10. Provide daily supervision, guidance, and review of work to ensure proper and consistent compliance with Business Wire’s policies and procedures
11. Select, train, coach, and mentor staff to meet department objectives. Write and conduct annual performance reviews for all direct reports                     

What You'll Need

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting required. CPA, CMA, or master’s degree in accounting a plus.
• 5+ years of management experience in accounting or back office management.
• Experience implementing new business systems and processes with a focus on order-to-cash processes.
• Experience in BPO (Business Process Reengineering) highly preferred.
• Experience with Oracle or a similar Tier 1 or Tier 2 ERP system.
• General Ledger experience and understanding of accounting for AR transactions is preferred.
• Intermediate level of experience with Microsoft Excel including pivot tables, VLOOKUP, etc.
• Working knowledge/demonstrated understanding of the Billing and Credit and Collections functions.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Must be highly organized and possess the ability to prioritize deliv