Torchora
Back to Home

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Billing Accountant Associate

💰 $ - $

AccountingFinanceBillingAccounts Receivable

🎯 Role Definition

The Billing Accountant Associate is an operational accounting professional responsible for accurate and timely invoice generation, accounts receivable management, billing reconciliations, and cross-functional billing support. This role requires strong Excel and ERP skills, attention to detail, and the ability to analyze discrepancies and drive resolution with internal stakeholders and customers. The ideal candidate supports month-end close tasks, maintains billing controls, and contributes to process improvement efforts that reduce aging and improve cash collection.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Billing Clerk / Billing Specialist
  • Accounts Receivable Clerk
  • Junior Staff Accountant

Advancement To:

  • Billing Accountant / Senior Billing Accountant
  • Accounts Receivable Supervisor / Team Lead
  • Staff Accountant or General Ledger Accountant

Lateral Moves:

  • Revenue Analyst
  • Credit and Collections Analyst
  • Financial Operations Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Prepare, review and generate accurate customer invoices on a daily and monthly cadence using ERP systems (NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, or similar), ensuring billing aligns with contracts, purchase orders and approved rate files.
  • Reconcile billing ledgers and accounts receivable sub-ledgers to the general ledger each period, investigating and documenting discrepancies to support month-end close.
  • Research and resolve billing disputes and customer inquiries by collaborating with sales, operations, and customer service teams; document root causes and corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
  • Manage end-to-end collections activities for assigned accounts, including aging review, customer outreach, payment posting, and escalation for past-due receivables while adhering to company credit policies.
  • Perform detailed invoice audits and validation checks prior to release — validating pricing, quantity, tax, discounts and contract terms — to minimize re-bills and customer dissatisfaction.
  • Support monthly and quarterly close processes including preparing reconciliations, journal entries, account analysis, and variance explanations related to revenue, deferred revenue, and billing adjustments.
  • Analyze customer contracts and master service agreements to determine billing frequency, revenue recognition timing (ASC 606 considerations), and appropriate invoicing treatment.
  • Process cash receipts and apply payments to customer accounts in the AR ledger, perform unapplied cash research and generate workpapers for accounting review.
  • Create and maintain billing schedules, recurring invoice templates and billing calendars to ensure consistent delivery and completeness of invoicing cycles.
  • Implement and maintain internal controls for billing and AR processes, participate in SOX control testing (if applicable) and document process flows and control matrices.
  • Prepare periodic reports for Business Finance and Sales leadership including aging analysis, days sales outstanding (DSO), invoice exception trends, and dispute inventory.
  • Execute billing adjustments, credit memos, debit memos and write-offs in accordance with authorization thresholds and policies, ensuring appropriate approval documentation and audit trail.
  • Coordinate with IT and ERP support teams to troubleshoot billing system issues, participate in testing of billing patches or process changes, and validate data integrity after system updates.
  • Support pricing changes, contract amendments and rate card updates in billing systems; validate downstream invoice impacts and report exceptions.
  • Maintain strong cross-functional relationships with Sales Operations, Contract Management, Procurement and Legal to ensure billing aligns with negotiated terms and service delivery.
  • Prepare and present reconciliations and billing summaries for internal and external audits; respond to auditor inquiries with organized supporting documentation.
  • Lead ad-hoc billing projects such as implementing new billing modules, migrating customers to new invoicing formats, and improving automation for recurring invoice processing.
  • Review and process tax-related billing requirements including sales tax/VAT calculations and collaborate with Tax/Compliance teams to ensure accurate tax treatment on invoices.
  • Train and mentor junior billing staff on invoice generation best practices, dispute resolution workflows and system navigation to build team capability and consistency.
  • Monitor and document billing-related KPIs and SLA adherence, and proactively propose process improvements to reduce cycle time and increase first-pass invoice accuracy.
  • Coordinate end-to-end onboarding activities for new customers that affect billing, such as master data setup, bill-to/ship-to validation and chart of accounts mapping.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc financial reporting requests and provide billing-related datasets for FP&A, sales forecasting and revenue analysis.
  • Participate in cross-functional process improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma or Kaizen approaches to streamline billing and AR workflows.
  • Assist with the design and roll-out of billing system user guides, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and knowledge base materials for internal stakeholders.
  • Collaborate with collections and credit teams on customer risk assessments and recommend credit holds or payment plans where appropriate.
  • Provide subject matter expertise on billing impacts during pricing promotions, pilot programs and contract pilots.
  • Serve as liaison to external service providers (third-party billing vendors, lockbox processors) and verify vendor deliverables and reconciliations.
  • Support the transition of billing processes during mergers, acquisitions or system consolidations by preparing data extracts, cutover checklists and validation plans.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Accounts Receivable and Billing Management: end-to-end invoicing, payment application, credit memos and collections.
  • ERP Systems Experience: NetSuite, Oracle Financials, SAP FI/SD, Microsoft Dynamics or similar billing platforms.
  • Revenue Recognition Knowledge: practical understanding of ASC 606/IFRS 15 principles as they relate to invoicing and deferred revenue.
  • Advanced Excel: pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, nested formulas, data validation and experience with large datasets.
  • Billing & Invoicing Automation: experience with electronic invoicing formats (EDI), recurring invoice templates, and billing schedulers.
  • Reconciliations & Journal Entries: AR subledger reconciliations, month-end journal entry preparation and supporting workpaper documentation.
  • Payment Processing & Lockbox: applying remittances, bank file reconciliation and experience with payment gateways.
  • Tax & Compliance Awareness: sales tax/VAT invoicing rules, tax codes on invoices and support for tax audit requests.
  • Billing System Troubleshooting: ability to triage data issues, run error reports and coordinate fixes with IT/technical teams.
  • Billing Analytics & Reporting: building aging reports, DSO calculation, invoice exception dashboards and KPI tracking.
  • Basic SQL or Data Querying (preferred): ability to run queries to extract billing data or support ad-hoc analysis.
  • Documented SOP and SOX Control Maintenance: creating/maintaining standard operating procedures and supporting control testing.

Soft Skills

  • Strong attention to detail and accuracy in numeric work and documentation.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills for liaising with customers, sales and cross-functional teams.
  • Problem solving and investigative mindset to dig into discrepancies and provide root-cause analysis.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to handle multiple billing cycles and month-end deadlines.
  • Customer service orientation with the ability to manage difficult conversations and maintain professional relationships.
  • Collaboration and stakeholder management — able to build rapport with Sales, Operations, IT and Finance leaders.
  • Adaptability and continuous improvement mindset to embrace system changes and process automation.
  • Confidentiality and integrity when handling sensitive financial and customer data.
  • Analytical thinking and the ability to translate data into actionable insights for business partners.
  • Project coordination skills for billing rollouts, system upgrades and cross-functional initiatives.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Associate degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration or equivalent work experience in billing/accounts receivable.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Accounting
  • Finance
  • Business Administration
  • Economics
  • Information Systems (with accounting focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–4 years of progressive experience in billing, accounts receivable, or general accounting roles.

Preferred:

  • 2–5 years of experience in a billing or AR role within a corporate finance, SaaS/Subscription, healthcare, utilities, or professional services environment; hands-on ERP experience (NetSuite, Oracle, SAP) and exposure to revenue recognition policies.
Explore More Careers