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Accountancy jobs briefing - credit control

As credit controller or credit manager, it is your job to manage the money loaned or owed to your business.

These types of accountancy jobs are normally found within a financial organisation or any business selling goods and services. There are two main branches you can follow: commercial credit, where you'll deal with business customers or consumer credit where you'll be dealing with the public.

Either way you'll be responsible for similar types of work.

Your main duties will include: checking customer's credit ratings with banks, deciding whether or not to offer the credit, setting up the terms and conditions of the loan, dealing with internal queries about payments, ensuring customers pay on time and negotiating re-payment plans.

If any customers stop paying or pay late then it's your responsibility to stop the supply of goods or services, start legal action to collect the money owed (if necessary) and in the case of bankruptcy you'll have to meet other out of pocket parties to make sure you can recover what you can.

In a larger company you'll probably manage a team and will be expected to regularly review the company's debt recovery procedures. In a smaller company, you might be expected to do all of this plus some general accounting and administrative work.

Hours and environment

You should work more or less your scheduled hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, with some overtime at busy times, like year end.

You'll spend most of your time in the office but you'll also attend some meetings with clients or in court if you are taking legal action against someone who has not paid.

Some part time roles are available.

Skills and interests

You'll need to be firm and organised to work in credit control. Other skills that will help you in the job include:

Good team management skills
The ability to work in a team and individually
Sound decision-making
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Confidence
Good attention to detail
The ability to work under pressure and to deadlines
Good business judgement
A good head for numbers
Confidence using a computer

Entry

Although there are no set entry criteria, employers will expect you have a good standard of education and they do prefer candidates with a business background - maybe from a BTEC, an HND in Business and Finance or someone with accountancy and banking experience and qualifications.

It's quite common to get started in sales administration, as a debt collector or as a junior member of the credit control team and work your way up from there.

If you are looking for a credit controller or manager's job then you will be expected to have a couple of years on the job experience.

Training

If you start out as a junior credit controller then you'll learn a lot about credit law and the in-house systems from your more experienced colleagues. You'll probably be sent on courses that will help you get up to speed with litigation and insolvency proceedings.

If you are looking for recognition and promotions then it's a great idea to study for your Institute of Credit Management exams (ICM). You can do this part-time while you are working. If you're not so keen on studying then it's worth knowing that with five years experience in credit management you'll automatically qualify as a member of ICM without having to take the Diploma course.

Ongoing training is as important in this job as it is in any, and you must keep up to date with any changes to the law throughout your career. Again ICM is the best source of information to help you do this as they run lots of short courses for people in the industry.

Opportunities

Especially within larger businesses there is a clear promotion route up from junior roles to credit manager and then onto more general management roles.

For a new challenge, you could switch companies or even move into a credit control role in an entirely different sector.

If the traditional path is not for you then you could consider using your skills and experience to focus on insolvency work with a firm of accountants or to become a self-employed consultant.

Annual income

If you start out as a trainee then you'll probably be on around £14,000 to £16,000.

As a credit controller/manager you're likely to earn between £20,000 and £25,000 per year but this can rise to £60,000 depending on the size of the company your work for and your level of responsibility.