Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Billing Assistant

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking a detail-oriented Billing Assistant to support accurate invoice generation, timely accounts receivable processing, payment posting, customer billing inquiries, and month-end billing reconciliations. The Billing Assistant plays a critical role in optimizing cash flow, minimizing billing errors, ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations, and serving as a primary point of contact between finance, operations, and customers. This position requires strong technical proficiency with billing and ERP systems, excellent communication, and a continuous-improvement mindset.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Customer Service Representative with billing exposure
Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable Clerk
Administrative Assistant with bookkeeping experience

Advancement To:

Billing Specialist / Senior Billing Analyst
Accounts Receivable Supervisor or Team Lead
Revenue Analyst or Financial Analyst
Billing Manager or Accounting Manager

Lateral Moves:

Credit & Collections Specialist
Payroll Specialist
Contract & Pricing Administrator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Prepare, generate and distribute accurate customer invoices (electronic and paper) on recurring schedules and ad-hoc requests, ensuring correct billing rates, discounts, taxes, and contract terms are applied for each invoice cycle.
Verify and validate billing data from multiple sources (sales orders, time sheets, service tickets, subscription platforms, shipping records), detect discrepancies, and correct or escalate them prior to invoice issuance.
Post daily cash receipts and electronic payments to customer accounts in the billing/ERP system, reconcile payment batches, and ensure proper allocation to invoices to maintain up-to-date accounts receivable records.
Monitor and maintain the accounts receivable aging schedule; prepare, review and distribute aging reports to management and support targeted collection efforts for past-due balances.
Respond promptly and professionally to inbound billing and payment inquiries via phone, email and ticketing systems; investigate disputes, research account activity, and resolve discrepancies to improve customer satisfaction.
Process credits, adjustments, refunds, and debit memos in accordance with company policy; document approvals, reasons, and accounting entries to maintain audit trails and accurate revenue recognition.
Conduct month‑end billing close activities: reconcile billed revenue to sub-ledgers, prepare supporting schedules, and provide documentation for the general ledger close and management reporting.
Reconcile billing sub-ledgers to the general ledger (AR control accounts), identify variances, prepare journal entries or work with accounting to correct posting differences and ensure accurate financial statements.
Manage new customer billing set-up and account maintenance: validate billing addresses, tax IDs, payment terms, billing contacts, and system pricing profiles for accurate invoice generation.
Execute subscription and recurring billing tasks: configure recurring invoice templates, adjust subscription proration, process renewals, cancellations, and ensure recurring revenue records are maintained.
Support collections activities by preparing collection letters, aging call lists, and follow-up schedules; document communications and escalate delinquent accounts to Credit or Legal teams when necessary.
Maintain and update price lists, rate cards, tax rules, and billing templates in the billing system; apply contractually agreed changes and ensure consistent application across invoices.
Perform regular account reconciliations for high-volume or high-value customers and third-party vendors; research unapplied cash, unapplied credits and identify root causes to reduce outstanding items.
Prepare detailed billing reports and KPIs for finance leadership — including Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), aging distribution, billing accuracy rate, and monthly billing volumes — and propose action plans to improve collections and cash flow.
Support internal and external audits by compiling billing schedules, providing documentation of invoice approvals, credit memos, and historic billing changes, and answering auditor inquiries promptly.
Implement and maintain billing controls and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to reduce errors, prevent revenue leakage and ensure compliance with GAAP and company policies.
Coordinate with Sales, Customer Success, Operations and Legal to validate contract terms, billing milestones, and change orders; translate contract language into billing instructions and system configurations.
Process and transmit electronic claim submissions or EDI transactions where applicable; validate acceptance reports and correct rejected transmissions to ensure timely reimbursement.
Assist with tax calculations and remittances related to invoicing (sales tax, VAT/GST), support tax reporting requirements, and escalate complex tax questions to tax or external advisors.
Facilitate system upgrades, billing automation initiatives and migration projects by testing billing scenarios, validating data conversions, documenting defects, and training end-users on updated processes or tools.
Track and manage billing disputes and short pays: log cases, perform root-cause analysis, negotiate resolutions, and prepare write-off recommendations according to delegations of authority.
Maintain customer confidentiality and data security for payment card data and personally identifiable information (PII), adhering to PCI, GDPR and internal privacy standards.
Assist in ad-hoc financial projects, special reconciliations, or business process improvement efforts that impact billing operations and revenue capture.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc reporting requests and exploratory analysis to help stakeholders understand billing trends and customer payment behavior.
Contribute practical input to the organization's billing strategy, process improvement roadmap and automation priorities based on daily operations and pain points.
Collaborate with technical teams and business units to translate business billing requirements into system configurations, test cases and user stories.
Participate in cross-functional meetings and agile ceremonies for billing system projects; provide subject-matter expertise and validate acceptance criteria.
Train and mentor new billing staff on procedures, systems, and best practices; help maintain process documentation and knowledge base articles.
Assist procurement and accounts payable as needed with vendor invoice questions that intersect with customer billing or chargebacks.
Maintain and curate a repository of frequently asked billing questions and standard responses to improve first-call resolution for customers.
Pilot small automation or macro solutions (Excel, RPA triggers) to reduce manual effort in repetitive billing tasks and prepare impact reports for stakeholders.
Provide backup support for related finance functions (e.g., cash application or receivable reporting) during peak periods or team absences.
Liaise with third-party billing vendors, payment processors, and merchant services to troubleshoot transactional and reconciliation issues.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Accounts Receivable & Invoicing — experience producing, posting and reconciling invoices in high-volume environments.
Billing Systems / ERP — Hands-on experience with common systems such as QuickBooks, NetSuite, Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Zuora, or Salesforce Billing.
Payment Processing & Cash Application — posting electronic payments, ACH, credit card reconciliation, and bank deposit reconciliation.
Advanced Excel — pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, conditional formatting, and basic macro awareness to streamline reconciliations and reports.
Reconciliations & Month‑End Close — sub-ledger to general ledger reconciliations and preparation of month-end billing schedules.
Revenue Recognition & GAAP Awareness — understanding of revenue recognition basics relevant to invoicing and billing adjustments.
Collections & Dispute Resolution — managing aging, follow-ups, short pays, and coordinated escalation procedures.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) & Claims Submission — experience submitting and validating electronic transactions where applicable (useful for healthcare/telecom).
Billing Automation & Reporting Tools — exposure to automation platforms (RPA), reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau) and experience generating KPIs.
Tax & Regulatory Knowledge — familiarity with sales tax, VAT/GST treatment on invoices and basic tax-related billing compliance.
Data Entry & Attention to Accuracy — consistent, error-free data entry and strong numeric literacy.
System Configuration & Customer Account Setup — creating and maintaining billing profiles, price lists and subscription terms in billing systems.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy when handling monetary transactions and invoices.
Strong written and verbal communication skills for interacting with customers, sales teams and finance stakeholders.
Customer service orientation: patient, professional and solution-focused when resolving billing disputes.
Analytical thinking and problem-solving skills to identify root causes and corrective actions for billing exceptions.
Time management and organizational skills to prioritize workloads, meet deadlines and manage recurring cycles.
Team collaboration and ability to work cross-functionally with Sales, Operations and IT.
Integrity and discretion handling sensitive customer and financial data.
Adaptability and willingness to learn new systems, tools and evolving billing processes.
Initiative and continuous-improvement mindset to propose and implement process efficiencies.
Resilience and persistence in collection efforts and follow-up activities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent with demonstrated numerical proficiency.

Preferred Education:

Associate degree or Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Accounting
Finance
Business Administration
Economics
Information Systems (for billing systems/ERP focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1 to 4 years of experience in billing, accounts receivable, or related finance operations.

Preferred:

2+ years of hands-on billing or AR experience in a mid-size or large company, familiarity with an ERP/billing platform, and exposure to month-end close and reconciliations. Experience in the industry of hire (e.g., healthcare, SaaS, telecom, manufacturing) is a strong plus.