Supervisor – Credit & Collection

UniFirst•Earth City, MO

About The Position

The Supervisor, Credit & Collections – First-Aid leads Analysts and Senior Analysts managing National, Retail, and Wholesale customer portfolios. The position sets collection strategies, portfolio priorities, service standards, and escalation paths to improve cash flow, reduce aged receivables, resolve disputes, and protect customer relationships. It provides daily operational leadership across account reviews, customer outreach, credit risk monitoring, dispute management, payment commitments, unapplied cash, deductions, and complex account reconciliation. The Supervisor ensures complete account documentation, timely follow-up, and consistent collection practices informed by customer segment, contractual terms, risk, and aging. The role partners with Sales, Customer Service, Billing, Cash Application, Finance, Operations, Treasury, and IT to address causes of nonpayment, including pricing, tax, proof-of-delivery, EDI, consolidated billing, portal, remittance, and master-data issues. The position also supports month-end close, reconciliations, internal controls, management reporting, audit readiness, and continuous improvement while developing team capability and accountability. Work hours may need to be adjusted during month-end, peak collection periods, system events, or critical customer escalations. Occasional travel may be required for customer, field, or team support. The role handles customer financial information and payment data in accordance with company policy, applicable controls, and confidentiality requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
Five or more years of progressive Credit, Collections, or Accounts Receivable experience, including complex business-to-business portfolios.
Knowledge of aging management, collection strategy, credit risk, dispute resolution, account reconciliation, cash application, deductions, and month-end controls.
Ability to interpret contractual terms, invoices, statements, remittance detail, customer correspondence, and accounts receivable reporting to determine root cause and action.
Strong coaching, delegation, change leadership, conflict resolution, and performance-management skills.
Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence customers, cross-functional partners, and leaders.
Strong analytical and organizational skills, sound judgment, and ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
Commitment to accurate documentation, confidentiality, internal controls, policy adherence, and measurable results.
Ability to handle customer financial information and payment data in accordance with company policy, applicable controls, and confidentiality requirements.

Nice To Haves

Prior people-leadership or supervisory experience.
Experience supporting large or complex National, Retail, Wholesale, multi-location, consolidated, EDI, or customer-portal accounts.
Experience with ERP, collection workflow, reporting, EDI, and customer portal systems.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop Credit & Collections Analysts and Senior Analysts supporting National, Retail, and Wholesale accounts.
Translate business goals into portfolio objectives, daily priorities, measurable expectations, and development plans.
Review workload, quality, productivity, aging movement, customer commitments, and escalations; provide feedback and remove barriers.
Develop team capability through training, cross-training, documented procedures, and consistent use of collection tools and systems.
Direct segmented collection strategies based on account complexity, risk, aging, contractual terms, payment behavior, and customer requirements.
Ensure timely account reviews, customer contact, promise-to-pay follow-up, dispute ownership, action documentation, and escalation of high-risk or high-value balances.
Monitor past-due balances, over-90-day receivables, disputed invoices, deductions, unapplied cash, credit exposure, broken commitments, and lost-account risk.
Guide resolution of complex reconciliations, consolidated accounts, portal billing, EDI transactions, short payments, chargebacks, and customer-specific billing requirements.
Approve or recommend escalations, payment arrangements, credit holds, service restrictions, write-offs, and external collection activity within delegated authority and policy.
Serve as the primary escalation point for customers and internal partners on complex collection, billing, credit, and account-resolution matters.
Partner with Sales, Customer Service, Operations, Billing, Cash Application, Finance, Treasury, and IT to resolve causes of delayed payment.
Establish owners, due dates, and follow-up routines for disputes involving pricing, tax, proof of delivery, contracts, credits, portal submissions, remittance, or master data.
Lead professional customer conversations that reinforce payment obligations while supporting long-term relationships and retention.
Analyze weekly and monthly portfolio results and communicate trends, risks, recovery plans, and decisions needed to management.
Improve past-due dollars, over-90-day aging, DSO, dispute cycle time, promise-to-pay performance, unapplied cash, and collection productivity.
Support month-end close, account reconciliations, reserve and bad-debt analysis, control compliance, audit requests, and retention of supporting evidence.
Standardize workflows, dashboards, portfolio segmentation, escalation routines, and procedures; identify automation and system opportunities.
Maintain controls over customer data, payment information, credit decisions, adjustments, and segregation of duties.
Adjust work hours during month-end, peak collection periods, system events, or critical customer escalations as business needs require.
Travel occasionally for customer, field, or team support as required.