Head - Accounts Receivable

Description:

Role Purpose

The AR Tower Lead will be responsible for end-to-end Order-to-Cash operations across group multi-plant and multi-region distribution network. The role will focus on driving working capital efficiency, strengthening credit governance, ensuring timely collections, and improving process controls across plants and depots.

Key Responsibilities:

1. End-to-End AR Management

- Lead billing, collections, credit control, cash application, and dispute management processes.

- Ensure accurate and timely invoicing across plants and depots.

- Drive dealer and institutional receivable management.

2. Working Capital Optimization

- Monitor and improve DSO across trade, institutional, and export segments.

- Lead ageing reviews with Sales and Regional Heads.

- Reduce overdue balances and bad debt exposure.

3. Credit Risk & Governance

- Define and monitor dealer credit limits.

- Ensure discipline in credit block overrides.

- Strengthen bad debt provisioning and risk assessment frameworks.

4. Stakeholder Collaboration

- Partner with Sales, Logistics, and Plant Finance teams.

- Drive structured review mechanisms with regional business heads.

- Handle escalations with key dealers/customers.

5. Process Excellence & Controls

- Strengthen internal controls across AR processes.

- Ensure clean audit outcomes.

- Standardize processes across plants and regions.

6. Systems & Automation

- Drive SAP-based AR process efficiency.

- Identify automation opportunities (RPA, dashboards, analytics).

- Improve real-time visibility of receivables and cash flow.

7. Team Leadership

- Lead and develop centralized/plant-based AR teams.

- Build performance-driven culture with clear KPIs.

Key KPIs

- DSO reduction

- Overdue % reduction

- Bad debt %

- Cash flow improvement

- Audit observations (AR-related)

- Process turnaround time

Candidate Profile:

- CA / MBA Finance preferred

- 12 to 18+ years of experience in AR/O2C in manufacturing/distribution-heavy environment

- Strong exposure to SAP

- Proven experience managing large dealer networks

- Strong stakeholder management skills

- Experience in multi-location team management