Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Billing Clerk

🎯 Role Definition

We are hiring a Billing Clerk to manage day-to-day billing operations, ensure accurate and timely invoicing, post and reconcile payments, and resolve customer billing inquiries. The Billing Clerk supports accounts receivable workflows, aging and collections activities, and cross-functional teams such as sales and customer service. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, comfortable with accounting systems and spreadsheets, and driven to maintain clean billing data and optimize revenue collection processes.

Primary SEO keywords: Billing Clerk, invoicing, accounts receivable, payment posting, billing reconciliation, collections, aging reports, customer billing support.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Accounts Receivable Clerk / Accounts Payable Clerk
Customer Service Representative with billing exposure
Data Entry Specialist or Administrative Assistant with finance duties

Advancement To:

Senior Billing Clerk / Billing Specialist
Accounts Receivable Supervisor / Team Lead
Revenue Analyst or Billing Coordinator
Billing Manager or Finance Manager

Lateral Moves:

Payroll Specialist
Finance Operations Analyst
Customer Billing Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Prepare, generate and distribute accurate customer invoices and credit memos on a recurring and ad-hoc basis, ensuring invoice format and terms comply with contracts, purchase orders, and company policies.
Post daily cash receipts, electronic payments, lockbox deposits, and remittances to customer accounts in the general ledger and accounts receivable subledger with proper coding and documentation.
Reconcile daily payment batches and merchant services deposits against bank statements and internal cash reports to identify discrepancies and ensure accurate cash application.
Monitor accounts receivable aging reports weekly, identify past-due accounts, and coordinate collections activities including sending past-due notices, statements, and follow-up calls or emails.
Investigate and research disputed invoices and billing discrepancies by collaborating with sales, operations, and customer service to obtain supporting documentation and process timely adjustments or credits.
Maintain customer billing data within ERP/finance systems (e.g., QuickBooks, SAP, Oracle NetSuite) including contract terms, billing cycles, tax IDs, and billing addresses, ensuring data integrity and change management controls.
Process and post credit card payments, ACH transfers, wire payments, and check deposits while ensuring PCI and company payment security standards are met.
Prepare month-end billing close support including cut-off of invoices, reconciling deferred revenue and unbilled receivables, and producing required schedules for the month-end close.
Generate and distribute standard and ad hoc billing reports (aging, unapplied cash, credits, write-offs) to finance leadership and business partners to support cash forecasting and revenue reporting.
Execute write-offs, bad debt workflows, and account adjustments in accordance with company policy and with appropriate approvals, maintaining audit trails and documentation.
Support contract billing and complex invoicing such as milestone billing, usage-based billing, proration, and retention holdbacks by interpreting contract terms and configuring billing parameters.
Create and maintain dispute logs and resolution trackers, ensuring timely escalation of unresolved billing issues to management and recording root causes for process improvement.
Coordinate with collections agencies and external partners for assigned delinquent accounts, providing account history, supporting documentation, and negotiating payment plans as needed.
Conduct routine account reconciliations between AR subledger, general ledger, and third-party systems, documenting variances and driving timely resolution with accounting stakeholders.
Ensure sales tax, VAT, and other billing-related taxes are applied correctly, calculate tax liabilities for invoices, and work with tax specialists to resolve tax-related billing issues.
Maintain and file archived invoice documentation, remittance advice, and correspondence per document retention policies and audit requirements.
Implement billing process improvements and automation opportunities by evaluating recurring manual tasks and collaborating with finance systems analysts to increase efficiency and reduce errors.
Train and mentor junior billing staff or cross-functional colleagues on billing procedures, invoicing software, and collections best practices to ensure consistent service delivery.
Respond to internal and external audit requests related to billing transactions, providing clear reconciliations, supporting documentation, and explanations of processes.
Support customer onboarding for billing setup including account creation, contract ingestion, billing cycles, deposit requirements, and initial invoices to accelerate time-to-billing.
Track and report billing KPIs such as DSO (Days Sales Outstanding), percent past due, unapplied cash, and dispute aging to leadership, recommending action plans to improve collections performance.
Verify and process refunds, overpayments, and unapplied credits, coordinating with treasury and customer service to issue timely refunds or apply credits to open invoices.
Assist in pricing and invoicing reviews when notified of rate changes or promotions, ensuring invoicing reflects approved pricing and communicating changes to stakeholders.
Maintain strong communication with customers to explain invoices, payment terms, and account status while protecting company revenue and customer relationships.

Secondary Functions

Provide cross-functional support for billing-related process mapping, testing of system updates, and user acceptance testing for billing system enhancements.
Assist in compiling billing documentation and narratives for contract audits and compliance reviews.
Support ad-hoc financial reporting requests, providing detailed transaction analysis and historical billing trends.
Participate in continuous improvement initiatives such as workflow standardization, error reduction programs, and billing automation pilots.
Serve as a backup for related finance tasks including purchase order verification, vendor invoice intake, and simple accounts payable activities when required.
Contribute to knowledge base articles, billing FAQs, and internal helpdesk resources to reduce recurring inquiries and improve speed to resolution.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Accounts receivable and billing systems proficiency (examples: QuickBooks, Oracle NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics).
Strong Excel skills: VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and basic macros for reconciliations and reporting.
Payment processing knowledge: ACH, wire transfers, lockbox, credit card processing, and cash application workflows.
Invoice generation and electronic invoicing experience (EDI or supplier portals) including XML/CSV file handling.
Billing reconciliation and month-end close expertise, including reconciliations to GL and deferred revenue accounting.
Basic understanding of revenue recognition principles and impact on billing (ASC 606 awareness preferred).
Familiarity with collections processes, dispute management, and third-party collection agency coordination.
Sales tax/VAT application on invoices and basic tax reporting awareness.
Experience with CRM and billing integration (Salesforce-to-billing flows, subscription billing platforms like Chargify or Zuora is a plus).
Strong documentation, audit traceability, and record-keeping skills for regulatory and audit readiness.
Experience using ticketing/helpdesk systems or CRM platforms for managing customer billing inquiries.
Ability to configure billing templates, credit memo workflows, and invoice layouts in billing software.

Soft Skills

Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy in financial data entry and reconciliation.
Strong written and verbal communication for explaining billing issues to customers and internal stakeholders.
Customer-focused mindset with diplomacy for collections and dispute resolution.
Analytical problem solver able to research, identify root causes, and implement corrective actions.
Time management and prioritization skills to handle high-volume billing cycles and competing deadlines.
Team collaboration skills for cross-functional coordination with sales, operations, and finance.
Integrity and confidentiality handling sensitive financial and customer information.
Adaptability to evolving systems and process changes in dynamic finance environments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent required.

Preferred Education:

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

Relevant Fields of Study:

Accounting
Finance
Business Administration
Economics
Information Systems (with finance focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1–5 years of billing, accounts receivable, or cash application experience depending on role level.

Preferred:

2+ years in a corporate billing or accounts receivable role, ideally within the industry (healthcare, SaaS, utilities, manufacturing, or professional services) with hands-on ERP or billing platform experience.
Prior exposure to month-end close, revenue recognition impacts on billing, and collections processes is highly desirable.

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