What's involved with this role: Temporary Credit Control Officer Reference no: Portsmouth 5246688 Pay rate: £13.55 per hour PAYE Hours per week: 37 Monday to Friday, 08:30 – 17:00 This opening assignment is for 3 months City: PORTSMOUTH, Hampshire Office based for training, after which hybrid working 3 days in the office per week A Credit Control Officer is required to ensure that income billed to customers through the sundry debtor ledger is collected on a timely basis and that queries are pursued and monitored to ensure prompt resolution. To be part of a team of 8 working on the collection of income billed through the sundry debtors ledger, which could be invoices raised for a wide range of different council services, such as Licensing fees, Commercial rents, hire of school facilities, professional fees or a variety of different service charges. Key responsibilities: Ensure that outstanding monies owed to PCC from external customers are paid on time and to agreed payment terms. Pursue and monitor customer queries to make certain they are resolved as promptly as possible. This may involve liaising with other Council teams as well as external customers. Have own area of accounts to manage and this will involve monitoring aged debt reports and telephoning and corresponding with customers to maximise the collection of payment for current and overdue bills. At times, negotiate and make recommendations on how best to recover or manage outstanding debts. Accurately record the customer billing information onto the computerised recording system. Taking payment over the telephone. Producing monthly reports. NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via jobstclrec.com by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity. Please quote the Job Title & Vacancy Reference No. in your application, or we will be unable to match your CV to the role being applied for. Other “Essential Requirements” – Please check to ensure that your CV addresses the following items: Experience: A proven track record in credit control and collections work. Basic accounting skills and the ability to reconcile customer accounts. Experience with accounts receivable packages; knowledge of Oracle accounts receivable would be an advantage. Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role or context and ideally within a public sector organisation. Knowledge: Up to date working knowledge of credit control and collections is essential. An understanding of financial billing and invoicing procedures essential. A sound understanding of how the requirement for Data Protection applies to Credit Control. Skills & Abilities: Confident with IT, including Microsoft Office and Accounts Receivable packages, and be keen to use the latest technology. Excellent interpersonal skills, tactfully able to communicate effectively with a wide range of internal and external customers. A confident and assertive telephone manner with a professional approach is essential at all times. Able to communicate effectively with a range of different types of customers, including individuals and organisations. Excellent written skills to enable you to write letters and e-mails on a daily basis. Strong negotiation skills and the ability to resolve challenging or difficult cases is essential to ensure the best possible outcome for the council and the customer. Willing to work in the best interest of the team and develop your role within the team. Able to prioritise own workload and respond to changing priorities. Strong IT skills including Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite). Qualification details and any other experience/skills relevant to the job role to help support your application (and help us to help you) – please give full details within your CV document. SC Please note that clients invariably ask us to strip out contact details from CVs before we submit them for consideration. This is always quicker and easier to do if you send your CV to us in Word format, rather than as a PDF please