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Job description: Sales Ledger Clerk
You'll often hear the term 'turnover' in conversations about a company's performance. This is what the sales ledger team is in charge of - it refers to the total amount of sales invoiced by a company.
If you work as part of the sales ledger team as a clerk, manager or supervisor, it's your job to issue invoices for all sales made. It doesn't matter how big the deal is, every penny has to be accounted for and properly billed.
The general tasks you'll be responsible for include: setting up new clients, producing invoices, banking and reconciliation, running off turnover statements to help business planning, chasing up outstanding debts, sorting out any rebates and filing.
There is a legal requirement to keep copies of invoices for six years, so an important part of your job will be setting up and maintaining an easy reference system so that transactions can be easily checked back against if needed.
You'll also need to be a VAT expert. It's really important to include VAT as appropriate on all invoices otherwise you could lose your company a sizeable amount each year. Your creditors will also need you to provide them with VAT receipts for their own records.
Hours and environment
The hours are good and most of the time you'll work a 35 to 40 hour week. You may need to put in some overtime at busy times, for example at year end when the accounts have to be filed.
Most of your time will be spent at your desk raising invoices and dealing with clients.
There are opportunities for part-time and job sharing and temporary work is often available.
Skills and interests
Any experience you have in bookkeeping or credit control will stand you in good stead. Other skills that will help you in your chosen career include:
- Experience in financial accounting software, such as Sage
- Good communications skills (written and verbal)
- Good numeracy skills
- Well organised and efficient
- Be able to work to monthly deadlines
- A good team player
- An analytical mind
- A good eye for detail
Entry
There are no set minimum entry requirements to get started in a junior position, but employers will look to see that you are organised, confident and have at least GCSE level maths. Some may prefer you have some IT skills too.
If you have bookkeeping experience or are already qualified with the AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) then you should be able to secure a position as a supervisor or manager.
Training
Most employers will encourage you to take your AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) exams and will provide IT software training, in packages including: Sage, Great Plains, Microsoft Dynamics and Excel, to help you keep up to date with the latest tools to do your job.
Opportunities
If you are starting out as a junior sales ledger clerk you can look forward to being promoted to supervisor or even manager as you build up your experience over the course of five years or so.
Prospects for sales ledger managers include promotion to credit controller and later financial controller.
If you fancy a completely new challenge, you'll have built up a good bank of transferrable skills thanks to your IT training and AAT qualifications that lend themselves well to a move into the IT industry.
Annual income
If you're starting out as a sales ledger clerk you should expect to be on around £12,000 to £24,000.
As a manager you should be earning £30,000 or more - possibly up to £45,000 if you work for one of the London based firms.
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