Receivables Accounting and Collections for Credit Control Managers Training Course

Course overview

Credit control managers are expected to protect cash flow without damaging commercially important customer relationships. That requires more than issuing reminders: they must maintain accurate receivables ledgers, identify disputes and unapplied cash early, set collection priorities from ageing and risk data, and escalate consistently. Weak control of credit notes, payment terms, customer master data, and doubtful-debt provisions can distort reported receivables, increase days sales outstanding (DSO), and leave the business exposed to avoidable write-offs.

This five-day course develops the accounting and collections discipline needed to manage the full order-to-cash receivables cycle. Participants learn to reconcile subledger and general ledger balances; analyse ageing, DSO, collection effectiveness index, and overdue exposure; apply cash allocation and unapplied-cash controls; manage deductions and disputes; design collection workflows; and determine appropriate escalation, payment-plan, and legal-recovery actions. The programme also addresses IFRS 9 expected credit loss concepts, bad-debt provisioning, write-off governance, credit-note controls, and management reporting.

Instruction combines worked accounting examples, collections-call planning, spreadsheet analysis, system-based scenarios, and group review of customer accounts. Participants build a receivables control pack containing an ageing analysis, collection priority matrix, dispute log, cash-application exception report, escalation framework, and monthly KPI dashboard. This practical deliverable can be adapted for immediate use in a credit control team, shared-services operation, or finance department.

The course is designed for experienced credit control and accounts receivable professionals moving into broader responsibility for ledger integrity, cash collection performance, risk escalation, and reporting to finance leadership.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Reconcile accounts receivable subledger balances to the general ledger and investigate reconciling items
• Analyse ageing reports using DSO, collection effectiveness index, overdue concentration, and promise-to-pay measures
• Build a risk-based collection priority matrix using invoice value, delinquency stage, dispute status, and customer exposure
• Apply structured cash-allocation procedures for remittances, short payments, unapplied cash, and on-account balances
• Maintain a dispute and deductions log with ownership, root-cause coding, resolution deadlines, and accounting treatment
• Calculate and document doubtful-debt provisions using IFRS 9 expected credit loss principles and ageing evidence
• Design escalation workflows for reminders, collections calls, payment plans, credit holds, and legal referral
• Produce a monthly receivables control pack with KPI dashboard, exception reports, action owners, and management commentary

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Credit Control Managers — who lead collection teams and need reliable controls over receivables, disputes, and escalations
• Accounts Receivable Managers — who own ledger accuracy, cash application, ageing performance, and close procedures
• Senior Credit Controllers — who manage complex delinquent accounts and are preparing for supervisory responsibility
• Collections Team Leaders — who need consistent call strategies, work queues, performance measures, and recovery governance
• Finance Managers — who oversee working capital, bad-debt exposure, and receivables reporting across business units
• Order-to-Cash Process Managers — who improve handoffs between billing, cash application, dispute resolution, and collections

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in accounts receivable, credit control, billing, collections, or finance operations, including familiarity with invoices, credit notes, payment terms, customer statements, ageing reports, and basic double-entry concepts. They should be comfortable working with spreadsheets, filtering data, and interpreting ledger balances. Experience using an ERP receivables module such as SAP or Oracle is helpful but not essential. No legal qualification, advanced financial-modelling capability, prior IFRS 9 calculation experience, or specialist collections-system expertise is required; these areas are introduced through applied examples.

Training methodology

The programme uses instructor-led explanation followed by applied work on realistic receivables data. Participants reconcile sample ledgers, build ageing and KPI calculations in Microsoft Excel, allocate cash against remittance information, and decide collection actions for disputed and delinquent accounts. Case studies examine credit holds, broken payment promises, deductions, insolvency indicators, and provision decisions. Small-group reviews simulate collection-team huddles and finance leadership reporting. On the final day, each participant assembles an action plan and receivables control pack for transfer to their own operation.

Course outline

Day 1: Receivables Accounting Foundations and Ledger Control

• Order-to-cash process map and control points from invoicing to cash receipt
• Accounts receivable subledger structure, customer accounts, and transaction types
• Double-entry treatment for invoices, cash receipts, credit notes, write-offs, and recoveries
• Subledger-to-general-ledger reconciliation process and reconciling-item investigation
• Customer master-data controls for terms, credit limits, collection groups, and contact records
• Month-end receivables close checklist and balance-sheet substantiation evidence
• Segregation of duties and audit trails for billing adjustments and account maintenance

Workshop: Participants reconcile a sample accounts receivable subledger to the general ledger and prepare a reconciling-items action log.

Day 2: Ageing, Cash Application, and Receivables Analytics

• Ageing bucket design by due date, invoice date, currency, customer segment, and collector
• Days sales outstanding calculation and limitations of average-balance measures
• Collection effectiveness index and overdue exposure analysis
• Promise-to-pay tracking, kept-promise rates, and collector work-queue measures
• Cash application workflow for remittance advice, partial payments, and consolidated payments
• Controls for unapplied cash, on-account balances, and unidentified receipts
• Microsoft Excel pivots, filters, conditional formatting, and exception reports for receivables analysis

Workshop: Participants convert a raw receivables extract into an ageing dashboard, cash-application exception report, and prioritised collector work queue.

Day 3: Collections Strategy, Communication, and Escalation

• Risk-based segmentation using balance size, delinquency stage, payment behaviour, and strategic importance
• Collection contact cadence across pre-due reminders, overdue notices, calls, and executive escalation
• Structured collections-call preparation, questioning, objection handling, and commitment capture
• Payment-plan assessment, affordability evidence, approval limits, and monitoring controls
• Credit-hold decisions and collaboration with sales, customer service, and credit-risk teams
• Escalation triggers for broken promises, repeated disputes, insolvency signals, and legal referral
• Collection-note standards and evidence requirements for internal review and recovery action

Workshop: Participants run a collections case conference and produce call plans, escalation decisions, and documented next actions for a high-risk customer portfolio.

Day 4: Disputes, Deductions, Provisions, and Write-Off Governance

• Dispute classification for pricing, quantity, quality, proof-of-delivery, tax, and contractual deductions
• Dispute log design with ownership, ageing, root-cause codes, financial exposure, and service-level dates
• Short-payment investigation and accounting treatment for valid and invalid deductions
• Credit-note approval controls and prevention of unauthorised revenue or receivables adjustments
• IFRS 9 expected credit loss concepts for trade receivables and simplified approach considerations
• Doubtful-debt provision evidence using ageing, historical loss rates, and forward-looking factors
• Write-off approval, debt-sale, recovery, and post-write-off accounting controls

Workshop: Participants assess disputed and delinquent balances, create a deductions log, and recommend provision, credit-note, collection, or write-off treatment.

Day 5: Receivables Governance, Reporting, and Operational Improvement

• Receivables KPI framework for DSO, CEI, overdue debt, dispute ageing, unapplied cash, and write-offs
• Monthly receivables control pack structure for finance leaders and operational managers
• Management commentary that distinguishes operational causes, accounting issues, and customer-risk exposure
• SAP S/4HANA and Oracle Fusion Receivables reporting considerations for customer balances and exceptions
• Power BI dashboard requirements, data definitions, refresh controls, and drill-down views
• Root-cause analysis of recurring late payment, billing error, deductions, and cash-application failures
• Ninety-day improvement planning with owners, milestones, controls, and measurable target outcomes

Workshop: Participants present a completed receivables control pack and a 90-day action plan for improving cash collection, ledger integrity, and risk escalation.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion Cloud Receivables, Microsoft Power BI

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions