A billing manager plays a critical role in the financial operations of a company. They are responsible for overseeing the entire billing and collections process to ensure timely and accurate payment for goods and services. This involves managing staff, monitoring procedures, and implementing strategies to optimize cash flow. An effective billing manager enables a business to get paid efficiently for what they are owed.
What are the main duties of a billing manager?
The core responsibilities of a billing manager include:
- Overseeing billing operations and staff
- Ensuring timely and accurate invoicing
- Monitoring accounts receivable
- Managing collections and payment processing
- Analyzing revenue data
- Identifying process improvements
- Setting billing policies and procedures
- Resolving billing disputes
- Minimizing bad debt
- Coordinating with sales and accounting departments
Overseeing billing operations and staff
Billing managers lead a team of billing clerks, collectors, and other staff involved in invoicing and collections. They oversee day-to-day operations, assign tasks, set performance goals, and provide training. The billing manager implements standards, workflows, and tools to ensure work is completed accurately and efficiently.
Ensuring timely and accurate invoicing
A core function of billing managers is to ensure clients or customers are invoiced properly and on schedule. This involves verifying that invoices contain accurate information, reflect correct pricing and payment terms, and are sent out promptly per company policy. The billing manager may need to coordinate with sales, operations, and accounting to obtain needed billing details.
Monitoring accounts receivable
Accounts receivable (A/R) is money owed to a company by clients or customers for goods or services provided. The billing manager closely monitors accounts receivable balances and aged accounts. This helps identify potential collection issues and evaluate how efficiently invoices are being paid. The billing manager utilizes reports to analyze trends and determine where improvements may be needed.
Managing collections and payment processing
When invoices are not paid on time, the billing manager is responsible for collections. This involves contacting clients to resolve delays and secure payment. The billing manager must ensure payments received are applied correctly to outstanding invoices. They oversee the entire payment processing system to optimize speed and accuracy while minimizing clerical errors.
Analyzing revenue data
Billing managers use data analytics to gain insights into their invoicing and collections processes. By reviewing reports on metrics like days sales outstanding, past due percentages, payment error rates, and bad debt, they can identify issues impacting cash flow and revenue. The billing manager recommends and implements solutions to improve performance based on data analysis.
Identifying process improvements
An important part of the billing manager role involves continually evaluating procedures to identify opportunities for improvement. They may assess issues causing late payments, bottlenecks in workflow, or unnecessary manual tasks. The billing manager then develops solutions to streamline processes, speed up invoicing and collections, enhance reporting, and reduce costs.
Setting billing policies and procedures
Billing managers establish standardized policies, procedures, and documentation that billing staff must follow. This includes protocols for invoicing, collections, payment application, data entry, quality control, and more. Well-defined policies and procedures minimize errors while creating consistency across the billing department.
Resolving billing disputes
When clients or customers dispute bills and refuse payment, the billing manager steps in to resolve the issues. This requires investigating the discrepancies, validating invoices and charges with operations/sales staff, negotiating solutions with the client, and potentially issuing credits. Keeping disputes to a minimum is key to smooth billing operations.
Minimizing bad debt
Bad debt represents invoices that are never paid by clients or customers. The billing manager seeks to minimize bad debt through payment agreements, collections efforts, and strategies to improve accounts receivable aging. This helps protect company revenue and profitability. The billing manager must coordinate write-offs of uncollectible accounts with the accounting department.
Coordinating with sales and accounting departments
Billing managers regularly collaborate with both the sales and accounting teams. Sales partnerships ensure billing has the needed client and pricing data to generate accurate invoices. Accounting coordination validates financial information, helps align procedures, and provides insight into cash flow. This cross-departmental alignment is vital for end-to-end efficiency.
What are important billing manager skills?
To succeed in the role, billing managers need strengths in both soft skills and technical abilities:
Leadership skills
- People management
- Communication abilities
- Problem-solving
- Organization
- Multi-tasking
- Attention to detail
Technical skills
- Billing/accounting software
- Spreadsheets
- Database management
- Financial analysis
- Reporting and metrics
- Process improvement
- Data analytics
What are typical billing manager job duties?
Here is an overview of typical daily and monthly duties performed by billing managers:
Daily responsibilities
- Answer staff questions and assist with resolving issues
- Review reports on outstanding invoices and collections activity
- Address billing errors and corrections that require immediate attention
- Contact clients for past due accounts and payment commitments
- Process payments received
- Investigate disputed charges and recommend solutions
- Provide updates and direction to staff on priorities and projects
Weekly duties
- Hold status meetings with billing team leads
- Review weekly/monthly reports on invoicing, payments, collections, and aging
- Identify trends, issues, and process improvements based on data analysis
- Communicate with sales and accounting about problem accounts and coordination needs
- Plan and assign workflow based on volumes and staffing
Monthly responsibilities
- Generate executive reports on billing department performance metrics
- Attend department head meetings to review billing operations
- Complete account reconciliations and coordinate with accounting on discrepancies
- Analyze profitability by client accounts and segments
- Assess resource needs and staffing levels
- Identify and implement solutions for systemic billing issues
- Revise policies and procedures as needed
What are the education requirements to be a billing manager?
Here are typical education and experience prerequisites for billing manager positions:
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business management, or related major
- 2+ years experience in a billing coordination or accounts receivable role
- Supervisory experience managing billing staff
- Expert knowledge of billing best practices and financial management
- Hands-on experience with billing software and MS Office
- Analytical skills and data reporting abilities
Some employers may accept an associate’s degree and extensive experience in billing and collections. Ongoing professional development is important as regulations and technology impacting the field evolve over time.
What is the career path for a billing manager?
Here are typical steps a billing manager takes in their career progression:
- Billing clerk – Process invoices, enter/verify customer and payment data, handle inquiries
- Billing specialist – Take on more complex billing tasks, coordinate with sales/accounting, provide staff oversight
- Billing supervisor – Manage billing team daily operations, ensure productivity and quality standards
- Billing manager – Lead all billing processes and staff, implement improvements and efficiencies
- Finance manager – Oversee broader financial operations including billing, collections, AR, AP, and treasury
- Controller – Manage all accounting functions and financial reporting for an organization
The long-term career path can lead to executive roles like Chief Financial Officer or Vice President of Finance for large companies. Ongoing education in accounting, business, and leadership is important for advancement.
What is the average salary for a billing manager?
According to PayScale data, billing managers in the United States earn:
Percentile | Average Base Salary |
---|---|
25th Percentile | $48,000 |
50th Percentile | $64,000 |
75th Percentile | $80,000 |
Salaries can vary significantly based on location, industry, company size, and years of experience. Billing manager salaries range from approximately $45,000 for entry level roles up to over $100,000 for experienced managers at large corporations. Bonuses, profit sharing, and equity compensation may increase total compensation as well.
What industries hire billing managers?
Here are some major industries that employ billing managers along with typical job environments:
- Healthcare – Hospitals, clinics, medical groups, insurance companies
- Financial services – Banks, credit unions, lending institutions
- Technology – Hardware/software firms, IT services, SaaS companies
- Consulting – Accounting, business, IT consulting firms
- Energy – Oil/gas companies, utilities providers
- Legal – Law firms, legal services providers
- Retail/eCommerce – Brick and mortar retailers, online sellers
- Manufacturing – Industrial manufacturers, consumer products companies
Businesses across many sectors seek experienced billing professionals to maximize incoming payments, improve cash flow, and contribute to profitable growth.
What are the working hours for billing managers?
Most billing manager positions are full-time roles with typical weekday, daytime hours. For example, 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Some key points about work schedules:
- Overtime may be required periodically to meet month, quarter or year-end deadlines
- Larger teams allow managers to work more regular hours with fewer evenings/weekends
- Smaller companies may expect managers to be more flexible to support operations
- Higher level managers tend to work more regular schedules than individual contributors
- 100% remote billing jobs allow for flexible hours outside a normal office setting
In addition to their regular schedules, billing managers must be available to handle time-sensitive issues that may arise outside of normal business hours depending on company needs.
What are the pros and cons of being a billing manager?
Major advantages of the billing manager role include:
- Career advancement – Can progress to higher finance positions up to CFO/VP level
- Leadership opportunity – Oversee large teams and operations
- Strategic impact – Directly influence company revenue and cash flow
- Problem-solving – Troubleshoot complex issues to help the business
- Technical skills – Utilize and develop software, analytics, and reporting abilities
Potential downsides to the role include:
- Stress – Pressures of achieving revenue and cash flow targets
- Hours – Month-end reporting and issues can extend work hours
- Monotony – Repetitive daily oversight of billing processes
- Details – Meticulous attention required to ensure accuracy
- On call – Expected to be available outside office hours for business needs
Conclusion
A billing manager holds an important role that allows companies to effectively track, collect, and manage accounts receivable. They oversee a range of critical processes that optimize inbound cash flow. The role requires financial skills, leadership abilities, analytics capabilities, and attention to detail. While demanding, it provides growth opportunities throughout a business career path. A competent billing manager helps drive the revenue performance that allows an organization to thrive.