Accounts Receivable Duties

Accounts-receivable personnel ensure that a company's customer data are accurate, with respect to materials shipments, check receipts and discounts. These professionals usually work under the tutelage of an accounting supervisor or senior financial manager. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that most customer-receivables clerks hold, at a minimum, a high school diploma or GED certificate.

Bookkeeping

Accounts-receivable employees play a central role in a firm's cash inflow processes because they ensure accurate recording and reporting of customer checks. In the corporate setting, recoding accounts receivable works like this: Customers receive goods from suppliers and acknowledge materials receipts. They authorize payments and send checks to vendors. Accounts-receivable clerks receive vendor checks and make journal entries. Supervisors review these entries to ensure accuracy and compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. Accounting clerks debit the customer-receivables account to increase its amount and credit it to reduce the account's balance. To record customer payments, clerks credit the customer-receivables account (to bring it back to zero) and debit the cash account. In accounting terminology, debiting cash, an asset account, means increasing corporate funds. This is different from the banking concept.

Auditing Support

Accounts-receivable clerks provide limited, basic support to internal and external auditors, especially when it comes to verifying the accuracy of customer-related transactions. Auditors reach out to accounts-receivable personnel for information about customer-deal policies, making sure that segment chiefs are serious about tackling risks of fraud and theft that may exist in accounting mechanisms. Specifically, auditors request that customer-receivables assistants provide documentation about payment controls. A control is a group of directives that an accounting department head puts into place to prevent losses resulting from theft, error and technological breakdowns in accounts-receivable processes.

Reporting

Customer-receivables employees help financial managers report corporate performance data at the end of each quarter and fiscal year. Customer-related data affect two financial statements: balance sheets and income statements. The customer-receivables account is a balance sheet item. Sales revenues are income statement components. Transactions related to customer payments and other cash receipts are key to a company's long-term profitability. A firm that shows big profits in its books but is unable to collect funds from customers may experience liquidity problems in the future. This, in turn, may be detrimental to the company's reputation in financial markets, as investors may express dismay at top management's inability to monitor cash levels and customer payments.

Regulatory Compliance

By conforming to financial reporting norms, accounts-receivable personnel help a company abide by regulatory guidelines and industry practices. When reporting their performance data, U.S.-based publicly listed companies must adhere with Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines.

References

• Government of the Northwest Territories: Job Description --: Accounts Receivable Clerk
• Maine's Public Universities: Accounts Receivable Technician
• Greatsampleresume.com: Accounts Receivable Clerk Responsibilities and Duties
• Best-Job-Interview.com: Accounts Receivable Job Description
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing Clerks