Accounts Payable Lead

Job Summary

Job Description

Job Summary:

The Accounts Payable Lead will oversee a team of AP professionals providing mentorship, support and guidance on transactional activities to drive excellence while providing feedback to the Supervisor on employee development. The Lead will handle and oversee execution of complex accounts payable tasks for performed by staff, support the department in improving processes and contribute to achieving department goals. The Lead will function as a key resource within the team, utilizing their expertise to ensure accuracy and efficiency in all accounts payable processes.

The Lead is instrumental in driving process improvements and ensuring seamless accounts payable functions within a growing and challenging environment. This includes daily oversight of a team responsible for providing customer service to our internal/external stakeholders as it pertains to pricing/goods receipt discrepancies, shortages, etc. and serving as a subject matter expert and liaison between the vendor and Medline’s business units/operations. The Lead’s oversight of the team will require a focus on ensuring staff is capable of executing required activities, properly supported in resolving disputes and achievement of customer service key performance indicators.

Major Responsibilities:

• Serve as a transactional and business process subject matter expert supporting their respective team to execute and resolve vendor escalations in accordance with the departments’ service level agreements.  Demonstrates this same acumen to all stakeholders and serves as an escalation resource for our lines of business, operations and vendors.

• Ensure team members apply their training and provide continuous guidance in existing procedures while also supporting change management efforts let by AP Leadership for changes in technology stack, internal controls, and/or business process changes.

• Reconcile and effectively manage aged open payables and discrepancy resolutions within the teams’ portfolio.  This includes resolution of aged unpaid balances, pricing/goods receipt discrepancies, vendors in credit balance, etc. to mitigate financial exposure for the organization. Facilitate and support team members reconciliations for assigned vendors and mentor them in presenting the health of their portfolio to management.

• Monitor and interpret customer service activity reports and resource allocation to periodically provide recommendations to the Supervisor for the most optimal structure.

• Partner with lines of business, operations, and external vendors to resolve discrepancies and maintain strong vendor relationships. This will include, but is not limited to, supporting team members on vendor calls in addition to effective management of escalations.

• Perform month end responsibilities as assigned to include review and resolution of process exceptions, portfolio’s aged open payables, match exception workflow aging, and more.

• Collaborate with internal/external stakeholders in the adoption of process changes to ensure compliance and avoid disruptions or non-payment.

• Utilize analytics, in collaboration with supervisor, to monitor vendor inquiry response/resolution determining current performance and suggest improvements.

• Partners with Supervisor and other members of AP Leadership to identify needed areas of change and offers recommendations to improve operations.

• Support and maintain internal controls while also identifying potential gaps, escalating to the Supervisor and AP Leadership to plan, develop and implement mitigating procedures. 

• Utilize analytics and vendor customer service data to identify trends, at risk vendors and partner with team to mitigate and minimize credit holds.   

Minimum Job Requirements:

Education & Work Experience

Associates degree or 5 - 7 years equivalent work experience in high volume environment and large scale ERP.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

• Experience in full invoice life cycle heavily focused on three-way match and exception resolution for goods receipt and pricing discrepancies.

• Excellent organizational skills and ability to prioritize and coordinate workload with high degree of proficiency and accuracy.  Ability to multitask and prioritize a high volume of requests.

• Ability to lead, mentor and support a team of AP staff members  including providing feedback to the Supervisor

• Plans and completes work effectively and efficiently, meets assigned deadlines, and makes sound decisions; identify areas of potential problems.

• Ability to provide prompt, courteous and accurate assistance and clear and concise communication to inte