Maria D'Cruz

• Managing a significant collections portfolio valued over 50M for Australia’s largest healthcare consumable provider and wholesaler.
• Reducing aged balances and bad debt by coordinating collection efforts with customer service, sales and other internal departments.
• Running monthly Excel reconciliation reports for some of the larger accounts including the business’s 4PL partners.
• Attending to a very high volume of incoming accounts receivable queries via the AR phone queue and email. Reconciling accounts where required and referring customer service queries to the appropriate internal teams.
• Reporting monthly to management on overdue balances.
• Working alongside credit team to manage and settle account disputes.
• Managing account holds and credit limit reviews on a daily basis, and escalating to the credit manager where required.

• Ensured timely vendor payments by managing invoice processing and expense tracking systems.
• Developed strong relationships with external partners such as banks and vendors to facilitate smooth transaction processing on behalf of the company.
• Enhanced financial reporting efficiency with thorough account reconciliations and analysis.
• Reviewed and approved staff expense claims via Concur Expense Software, as per the organisation's policies.
• Raised monthly rental invoices for subleased office spaces. Supported management by processing other invoices and documents when required with consistent on-time delivery.
• Supported month-end closing process by preparing comprehensive journal entries and adjusting balances as necessary.
• Maintained and updated of the company Asset register.
• Collaborated with the credit team on daily payment allocation and preparing the daily cashflow report for management.
• Recorded deposits, reconciled monthly bank accounts and tracked expenses.

• Responsible for collections for a significantly sized ledger across Victoria and Queensland, which included the Commercial, Family Law, Property and Private Clients and Litigation practice group ledgers.
• Negotiated and scheduled payment arrangements with clients where required.

• Responded to disputes calmly and applied logical, knowledgeable approaches to device solutions.

• Meticulously maintained collections comments and notes in the collections system.

• Took all incoming debtor queries via email and phone.

• Reduced overdue balances and bad debt by coordinating collection efforts with the lawyers and principals on a monthly basis to discuss their clients with overdue balances

• Allocated and receipted daily payments from the Bank Statement and credit card payments.

• Development of process manuals, as well as documenting of policies and procedures for the firm, with the aim of improving work productivity

• Quarterly WIP certification, as part of the firm's audit process, to ensure lawyers are adhering to the working capital policy of the organisation and billing their WIP on time.

• Prepared and issued of letters of demand where necessary, and liaised with the legal team on any accounts recommended for legal action.

• Looked after the Major Accounts for the organisation which included Coles, Coles Express, K Mart, Target, Bunnings and Caltex stores.
• Complex account reconciliations and raising of consolidating invoices using Excel.
• In addition to Major Accounts, also managed a ledger of 2000 news agents.
• Handled debtor queries and resolved billing disputes daily
• Worked through payment plans with customers as required.
• High volume of outgoing collection calls in addition to incoming calls- upto 60 per day.
• Sent out email reminders for overdue accounts.
• Managed the on and off holds list for accounts going on hold each month.
• Provided trade references where requested.
• Processed documentation for customer refund requests to be actioned by the accounts payable team.
• Liaised with management regarding delinquent accounts to be forwarded for legal action.

• Handled collections for one of the largest volume ledgers for the business which included Schools across Australia.
• Reduced past due balances and bad debt by coordinating collection efforts with customer service, sales and billing departments.
• Deal with debtor queried and account reconciliations on a regular basis.
• Reviewed account credit limits were required, and referred to management.
• Reported to the Credit Manager on accounts 60 days and over on a monthly basis.
• Prepared demand letters where required.
• Processed the paperwork to be forwarded to Accounts Payable for all customer refund requests.

• Entered customer orders and raised all invoices/credits for the business.
• Responded to vendor and creditor queries via phone and email.
• Debtor follow-ups via phone and email.
• Handled billing dispute queries and referred to management where needed.
• Customer Masterfile maintenance.
• Creation of purchase orders for raw materials, as well as the matching of purchase orders to delivery dockets and invoices, and maintaining the raw material purchases spreadsheet.
• Responding to vendor and creditor queries via phone and email.
• Ensured all vendor invoices were up to date on the system and reconciling to vendor statements every month.
• Daily bank reconciliation.
• Ran monthly accounting reports for management as required.
• Processed creditor payments daily.
• Performed general administration tasks such as filing, answering the phone, faxes, emails, photocopying and scanning for management, reception cover, as well as letter editing using MS Word.
• Reception cover where required.