The Accounts Receivable Specialist
a.k.a. AR Coordinator · Collections Specialist · Billing Specialist
Owns getting invoices paid and keeping AR current.
The tools we built for them
Products for the Accounts Receivable Specialist.
Each one saves the accounts receivable specialist a few hours a week and a lot of friction.
Who they are
Where the accounts receivable specialist runs the day from the desk.
Owns getting invoices paid and keeping AR current.
Software relationship: daily
Goals · what “good” looks like
- ▸DSO improving quarter over quarter
- ▸Less than 10% of AR over 60 days
- ▸Fewer billing disputes
Who shows up · how they think
Demographics & mindset.
Demographics
Typical MBTI types
the temperaments we keep meeting in this seat
A day with the accounts receivable specialist
Wake to bed.
11 waypoints. 2 peak-stress hours.
Aging report
Coffee, headset, AR aging report on the second monitor. Forty-seven invoices over thirty days, eleven over sixty, two over ninety she has been trying to land for a month. Highlights the six she will work today before she opens email.
Invoices out
Pulls yesterday's completed jobs from the field and sends invoices on each — same-day billing, the rule the Controller wrote on the whiteboard her first week. Twelve residential, two light-commercial; each goes out with the tech's notes and photos attached.
Collection calls, friendly first
Starts the cadence calls coming straight out of the eight o'clock stand-up — thirty-day bucket, the still-friendly conversations. Customer history pulled up on screen for each: open invoices, payment patterns, last conversation note. Three pay over the phone with a card; one promises Friday and she logs the promise verbatim.
Dispute, AC install
Customer calls in hot about a $9,400 install invoice — claims a thermostat upgrade wasn't included in the quoted price. Pulls the signed estimate and the change order, walks the customer through it line by line. Voice stays even; the line-item history makes the case without her having to.
Payment posting
Lockbox file from the bank lands. Posts twenty-three payments against open invoices, two come in short and need a customer call, one is from a customer she didn't expect — applies it and emails a paid-in-full receipt with a thank-you.
Lunch in the breakroom
Heats the soup her husband made, eats with the Bookkeeper. Five minutes about the Bookkeeper's daughter's piano recital, five minutes about the supply-house bill that got flagged this morning, then back to the headset.
Sixty-day calls
Harder cadence now. Less friendly, still not adversarial — the Controller's framing she keeps in her head. Two customers agree to payment plans she has authority to approve, one she has to escalate to the Service Manager before more work is booked.
Dispute resolution
Closes the loop on the morning install dispute. Customer agrees to the original total minus a $200 goodwill credit she walked through the Service Manager. Documents the conversation, the credit memo, and the new payment date in the customer record.
Ninety-plus review
Two accounts over ninety days. One is a builder she has worked with for years — calls the owner, not the AP clerk, and gets a wire commitment for tomorrow. The other goes to the Controller with a recommendation to send to outside collections.
DSO check
Pulls the running DSO number. Down a day from last week, three days from quarter-open. Screenshots it for the Controller's Friday packet so the trend is on the record.
Day close
Logs every collection conversation from the day in the customer notes — paraphrase plus the promise date. Sets tomorrow's call list, leaves the sixty-day bucket on top.
What they own · where they slip
The job, frankly.
Core duties
what’s on their plate every week
Where they trip
watch for these, they’re common
What makes them a champion
Customer's complete billing history, open invoices, and payment patterns in one view during calls.
Career map · the ladder in and out
Where they came from, where they’re headed.
Keep exploring
