Torchora
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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cash Poster

💰 $35,000 - $55,000

FinanceAccounts ReceivableOperations

🎯 Role Definition

We are seeking a detail-oriented Cash Poster (Cash Application Specialist) responsible for accurate and timely posting of customer payments to accounts receivable. The ideal candidate ensures cash is applied to customer accounts, reconciles discrepancies, researches unapplied or misapplied payments, and partners with collections, billing and customer service to maintain clean AR balances. This position requires strong transactional discipline, ERP experience (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite), advanced Excel skills, and excellent communication with internal teams and external customers.

Primary keywords: cash poster, cash application, payment posting, remittance, lockbox processing, EFT, ACH, unapplied cash, accounts receivable, bank reconciliation.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Accounts Receivable Clerk / AR Assistant
  • Billing Specialist / Billing Clerk
  • Bank Teller or Cash Processing Associate

Advancement To:

  • Senior Cash Application Specialist
  • Accounts Receivable Supervisor / Team Lead
  • Revenue Cycle Analyst
  • AR Manager or Financial Operations Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Credit & Collections Analyst
  • Billing & Invoicing Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Receive, validate and accurately post daily cash receipts from multiple sources (lockbox, electronic remittance, ACH, wire transfers, credit card, EDI) into the ERP system, ensuring payments are applied to the correct invoices and customer accounts.
  • Process and reconcile remittance advice and supporting documentation (electronic and paper) to match payments with invoices and reduce unapplied cash.
  • Perform daily bank deposit reconciliations and verify that the processed deposits in the general ledger match bank statements, escalating discrepancies to accounting leadership.
  • Research and resolve unapplied, short-paid and overpaid cash items by contacting customers, internal billing teams, and banks; investigate return items and payment reversals.
  • Identify and post adjustments and write-offs as authorized, documenting reasons and maintaining audit trails consistent with company policy and SOX/financial controls.
  • Maintain and update remittance routing tables, customer payment terms, and application rules within the ERP/lockbox vendor portal to improve automated matching rates.
  • Execute lockbox and remote deposit capture workflows, validating incoming data files, mapping payor identifiers, and troubleshooting file transmission issues with vendors.
  • Apply electronic payment files (EFT/ACH/GL import) and reconcile batch totals to ensure system totals match banking confirmations and remittance detail.
  • Monitor AR aging and proactively apply cash to reduce past-due balances; collaborate with collections to prioritize high-risk accounts with unapplied payments.
  • Create and maintain daily/weekly/monthly cash application reports and dashboards (e.g., unapplied cash aging, posting accuracy, exceptions) for Finance leadership.
  • Maintain strict adherence to internal controls around cash handling, segregation of duties, and payment approval protocols to minimize fraud and misapplication risk.
  • Execute month-end closing activities related to cash posting, including cut-off procedures, posting late payments, and preparing documentation for auditors and SOX testing.
  • Support implementation and optimization of automation tools (machine learning remittance matching, straight-through processing, robotic process automation) to increase first-pass match rates.
  • Reconcile suspense accounts and clearing accounts related to cash application; research and clear aged suspense items in coordination with AR and GL owners.
  • Process unapplied cash journals and manual cash postings, ensuring entries are supported by documentation and approvals.
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of payment formats and banking standards (ISO 20022, NACHA) and collaborate with Treasury on changes to payment channels.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Customer Service, Billing, Collections, IT, Treasury) to resolve root causes of recurring payment exceptions and implement corrective actions.
  • Respond promptly and professionally to customer inquiries related to payment posting, remittance allocations, and account balances; provide clear documentation for escalations.
  • Audit and verify third-party lockbox vendor activity and remittance files; coordinate monthly or quarterly reconciliations and address gaps with vendor support.
  • Train and mentor junior cash application staff, share best practices for exception handling, and help build standardized procedures and knowledge base articles.
  • Review and maintain customer master data related to payment terms, remittance addresses, and invoice routing to reduce misapplied payments due to stale or incorrect information.
  • Participate in continuous improvement initiatives—documenting processes, proposing efficiency gains, and supporting testing of system or process changes that impact cash posting.
  • Maintain comprehensive documentation of policies, daily procedures, and exception-handling protocols to ensure operational continuity and audit readiness.
  • Assist with ad-hoc finance projects such as audits, process mapping, ERP implementations or upgrades, and special reconciliations that touch the cash application process.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Provide backup support for customer billing and AR inquiries during peak periods or staff absences.
  • Help evaluate new lockbox/third-party remittance vendors and participate in vendor onboarding/testing activities.
  • Assist Treasury with daily cash forecasting inputs based on applied and unapplied cash trends.
  • Support internal and external audit requests with clear documentation and reconciliations of cash posting activity.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Cash application / cash posting expertise (lockbox, EFT, ACH, wire, credit card, EDI remittance).
  • Strong ERP experience: SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics or comparable AR modules.
  • Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, PivotTables, conditional formatting, macros basic familiarity).
  • Bank reconciliation and general ledger posting knowledge.
  • Experience with remittance file formats and lockbox vendor portals (e.g., Fiserv, BofA Lockbox).
  • Familiarity with AR aging analysis and collections workflows.
  • Practical understanding of accounting principles and internal controls (SOX compliance preferred).
  • Experience with automation tools for cash application (RPA, remittance OCR, STP solutions).
  • Strong data lookup and transaction research skills; ability to reconcile large transaction volumes.
  • Proficiency in creating and maintaining AR and cash application reports and dashboards.
  • Knowledge of payment standards (NACHA, ISO 20022) and electronic payment processing.
  • Experience using ticketing systems or CRM for customer payment inquiries.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail with a disciplined, accuracy-first mindset.
  • Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving for researching unapplied payments.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication; comfortable interacting with internal teams and external clients.
  • Time management and organizational skills to meet daily posting deadlines and month-end cutoffs.
  • Customer service orientation with a helpful, professional approach when reconciling disputes.
  • Ability to work independently, prioritize tasks and escalate when appropriate.
  • Adaptability to changing systems, processes, and payment technologies.
  • Collaborative team player who can train and mentor junior colleagues.
  • Ethical judgment and integrity in handling financial data and confidential customer information.
  • Continuous improvement mindset—proactively suggests process improvements and automation opportunities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High school diploma or equivalent required.

Preferred Education:

  • Associate’s 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 accounting emphasis)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–4 years of hands-on cash application, accounts receivable, or bank reconciliation experience.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years in cash application or AR roles within medium-to-large corporations or shared services/finance outsourcing environments.
  • Experience with ERP systems (SAP/Oracle/NetSuite) and lockbox processing vendors.
  • Prior exposure to SOX controls, month-end close procedures and process automation projects is strongly preferred.
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