Credit Controller

Credit Controller – Finance Development Opportunity

Newcastle-under-Lyme | Full-time | Permanent
Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience

Ready to take your Credit Control career further?

If you’re an experienced Credit Controller who enjoys managing a ledger and building relationships but would like the opportunity to broaden your accounting knowledge, this could be an excellent next step.

We are recruiting on behalf of an established and successful professional services organisation in Newcastle-under-Lyme for a Credit Controller to join its internal Finance Team.

Credit control will remain at the heart of the position, so you’ll be able to use the experience you already have. However, what makes this opportunity different is the chance to gradually expand your responsibilities into wider accounting and finance activities.

You could gain exposure to areas such as month-end, management accounts, reconciliations, financial reporting, cashflow and analysis, giving you an opportunity to develop beyond a traditional Credit Control position.

You don't need to be an Assistant Accountant already. We are particularly interested in speaking to experienced Credit Controllers who have the ability and ambition to develop their broader finance skills.

The Opportunity

Working as part of an established internal Finance Team and reporting to a senior finance professional, you will take ownership of credit control and debtor management.

Your core responsibilities will include:

• Managing and maintaining the debtor ledger.
• Proactively contacting customers regarding outstanding invoices.
• Building positive relationships while confidently managing difficult or sensitive payment conversations.
• Monitoring aged debt, debtor days and collection performance.
• Agreeing and monitoring payment arrangements where appropriate.
• Resolving invoice and account queries with internal teams.
• Escalating higher-risk or significantly overdue balances when required.
• Maintaining accurate records of collection activity and customer communication.
• Producing regular debtor and collection reports.
• Identifying trends, risks and opportunities to improve cash collection.
• Contributing ideas to improve credit control processes and systems.

Develop Your Wider Accounting Experience

This is where the role becomes particularly interesting.

Depending on your existing experience and where you would like your career to develop, you will have the opportunity to become involved in areas such as:

• Monthly management accounts.
• Month-end processes.
• Balance sheet and other financial reconciliations.
• Management information and internal reporting.
• Cashflow reporting and forecasting.
• Budget and forecast analysis.
• Financial performance reporting.
• Finance systems, controls and process improvements.
• Supporting wider projects across the finance function.

The wider accounting responsibilities can develop progressively, so we are not expecting someone to arrive with experience of everything listed above.

For the right person, this could provide a genuine route from a predominantly Credit Control position into a broader accounting and finance career.

What We're Looking For

You will ideally have good experience within Credit Control, Accounts Receivable or a similar transactional finance position, including responsibility for managing a debtor ledger.

You'll be someone who is confident picking up the telephone, comfortable discussing outstanding payments and capable of balancing good customer relationships with the commercial need to collect money.

We'd also like you to have:

• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
• Good organisation and attention to detail.
• Confidence taking ownership of problems through to resolution.
• Good Excel and general systems skills.
• A proactive and commercially aware approach.
• An interest in developing your broader accounting knowledge.

An AAT qualification or current AAT studies would be advantageous but are not essential. We are equally interested in candidates who have developed their skills through practical experience.

Previous exposure to management accounts, reconciliations, month-end or financial reporting would be useful, but importantly it isn't a prerequisite.

Why Consider This Role?

This isn't simply another Credit Control position.

It offers an experienced Credit Controller the opportunity to use the skills they already have while adding new ones.

You'll join a supportive finance environment where there is scope to broaden your responsibilities over time, gain exposure to more of the accounting cycle and build experience that could help you progress towards roles such as Assistant Accountant, Management Accountant or other broader finance positions in the future.

If you enjoy Credit Control but feel ready to add another dimension to your finance career, we'd be very interested in speaking with you.