Billing Team Lead

Role & responsibilities

• Review and provide input on billing team activities
• Ensure accurate, timely and consistent billing on an ongoing basis
• Provide input and guidance for exception-based billing
• Provide input for revenue adjustments
• Provide approvals where required for billing activities e.g., for free text invoice 
• Receive and manage escalations or issues in relation to billing
• Manage region-specific reporting or other ad hoc requests
• Supervise billing functional team across multiple levels
• Establish strong working relationships with direct reports to ensure satisfaction and talent retention
• Mentor and guide direct reports, sharing expertise and knowledge to support growth and development
• Conduct and prepare performance reviews of direct reports in a timely manner and identify areas of development
• Ensure billing team are meeting performance targets and investigate when not achieved
• Ensure direct reports maintain Key Performance Indicator (KPI) results within management expectations where necessary
• Foster adoption of the company culture and values and mindset shift to one Shared Service Centre (SSC) team
• Monitor billing teams required training to ensure adherence to company compliance policies & procedures
• Direct billing period close and consolidation  
• Ensure billing activities for period end close are completed in a timely and accurate manner in line with the agreed period end timeline
• Review and provide additional guidance on billing issues and reconciliation to GL
• Resolve period close issues or queries that requires judgement and expertise
• Review financial and regulatory reporting and audit materials related to billing activities and transactions
• Support continuous improvement of the O2C processes in the SSC
• Work with the Global O2C Delivery Lead to action and execute O2C process strategy
• Raise feedback for potential opportunities to optimise and standardise methods and processes
• Ensure in-scope billing processes are documented and stored on the assigned shared location
• Monitor and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring performance of billing processes against agreed SLAs
• Ensure billing team compliance
• Ensure policies and procedures are followed by billing team performing tasks during and outside period end close
• Ensure all O2C controls are adhered to and documented appropriately
• Support implementation of risk management process and associated controls in line with company policies
• Respond to requests from regulatory authorities and auditors
• Collaborate with customers, third parties and other teams
• Liaise with stakeholders across the business to ensure requirements are met, for example, to oversee that requests from Business Partners are actioned by the billing team in a timely and accurate manner
• Act as first point of contact/escalation level for customer requests, issues, or incidents and ensure billings, negotiations, and investigations are handled appropriately
• Collaborate with Master Data team for required data points, best practices and standards and data issues
• Collaborate with other SSC process delivery teams to exchange information, as required, and support process improvement where dependencies may exist

Preferred candidate profile

• 8+ years management service delivery experience in O2C billing SSC operations, with a track record of managing team
• 5+ years of people management experience with the ability to effectively direct and prioritise work of others
• Strong English language skills
• Advanced MS Excel skills with a proven aptitude to interpret customer and financial data
• Working knowledge of core finance and specifically billing systems, ERP and related specialty functional systems, frameworks, and functionality
• Deep understanding and enforcement of finance business processes, billing policies, and statutory accounting principles to ensure compliant SSC operations
• Applied experience in O2C billing and invoice processing
• Experience performing and/or leading teams performing billing tasks/procedures at a moderately difficult to considerably difficult level
• Examines issues and makes informed recommendations related to closing cycles
• Demonstrate logical thought process to simplify complex issues and technical concepts, and to facilitate issue resolution
• Ability to interact with company stakeholders to ensure a high quality of service, while balancing expectations and realisations
• Ability to work in a fast-moving environment with a proactive approach, accustomed to working towards tight deadlines whilst maintaining quality of work
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills with a strong ability to interact with customers and resolve issues