Credit Control Clerk

Salary: £23,700 with progression to £25,138 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 21 May 2024

The role 

Newcastle University Finance Hub is a large team of skilled and experienced colleagues who manage the financial business activities of the University. We provide a professional and proactive service to our students, colleagues, and stakeholders. We are committed to supporting the personal and professional development of our team. 
   
We are looking to appoint a Credit Control Clerk to join our talented and supportive team.  

We would love to hear from you if you are an excellent communicator who builds positive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, while presenting high levels of customer service. You will be working within the guidelines of the University Credit Policy to pursue debt from General Commercial Customers. You should have demonstrable experience of managing your own workload and be able to prioritise work independently.  

This role is full time open ended, we are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended/hybrid working. 

Please reach out to Scott Thomson to discuss this opportunity Scott.Thomson@newcastle.ac.uk   

To apply please provide evidence of how you meet the essential criteria required for the role outlined in ‘The Person Specification’ by uploading a letter of application along with your application. 

Interviews to take place on Thursday 6th June

Key Accountabilities 

•  Prepare reports from SAP financial Management system, including the Aged Debt report, for Credit Control purposes and for the resolution of queries to assist in the prompt recovery of income 

• Provide a quality customer service through dealing with general debtor queries and providing detailed information regarding account transactions 

• Post/distribute regular reminder notices, make phone calls and send e-mails for collection of overdue general income as per the Credit Policy

• Liaise with units regarding action where payment has not been forthcoming, under guidance of Credit Control Supervisor or Senior Credit Control Clerk

• Create and maintain customer master data on the SAP financial management system using data input by users onto the Sales Master Records data base. This also involves verifying VAT numbers and sending warning emails of poor credit scores to those requesting customers. Credit checks may also be carried out as required

• Contribute to resolving invoice queries in a timely manner by communicating with originating source (Unit or Central Services) and customer, and to maintain, update, and monitor a debt query list

• Monitor and review general accounts to ensure that credit notes are appropriately raised, and journals input in order that payments are correctly allocated and that bank charges and exchange rate differences are posted correctly

• Identify refunds due to customers and produce necessary documentation in accordance with the Income Section refund procedure to pass to the relevant person/s for authorisation

• Monitor un-invoiced income on customer accounts, liaising with customers to identify what it is in relation to, and to request from the relevant unit that invoices are raised or refunds issued where necessary

• Use online payment portals for relevant customers to monitor invoice statuses, and to enter invoice details as required to assist with prompt payment by customer

• Review incoming Purchase Orders and investigate to whom they belong, and then allocate to correct Unit and update master record detail

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience  

• Good interpersonal skills in order to communicate in a clear and concise manner with internal and external customers by e-mail, telephone and face to face 

• Good IT literacy particularly in Microsoft Office (Excel, Word and Outlook) and ability to design and compile report specifications using this 

• Good level of literacy and numeracy in order to interpret and communicate financial data effectively 

• The ability to work quickly and accurately to time is essential to meet Finance Office deadlines 

• The ability to organise workload and use initiative to prioritise tasks. 

• Recent experience working with a finance team of a large organisation 

• Some recent experience in a debt recovery/Credit Control environment 
   

Attributes and Behaviour 

• Uses face to face communication regularly 

• Clear and concise; gets the message across to others 

• Sees other departments and colleagues as customers and follows through on their enquiries and requests 

• Demonstrates self-assured manner 

• Remains calm when responding to challenging situations 
   

Qualifications 

• Be educated to a minimum of 5 GCSE grade 9-4 (A-C) or equivalent, including Mathematics and English or equivalent standard by experience  

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 27030