Georgia Higgins

Wheeling, IL

847-***-****

ad2oed@r.postjobfree.com

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE FINANCE LEADER

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP • CREDIT MANAGEMENT • TRAINING COLLECTIONS • BILLING • CASH APPLICATIONS

F500 • HEALTHCARE • GOVERNMENT AGENCIES • ORACLE & HIGH RADIUS SUPER USER Accounts Receivable Manager with extensive broad, hands-on experience managing growth, transforming processes, and resolving complex issues. Demonstrated success in innovative business development, team building, and an aptitude to accomplish objectives with integrity and speed reporting directly to Senior Leadership. Operations Strategic Planning Accounting

Client Engagement Financial Reporting Resource Management Team Development Staff Leadership Negotiations

Attention to Detail Time Management Fast Paced Environments Customer Satisfaction

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MEDLINE INDUSTRIES, LP, Northfield, IL

Healthcare distributor and manufacturer. Leading healthcare provider with offices and distribution centers around the world.

MANAGER AR, FINANCE (2018 – 2023)

Regional AR role responsible for $330M in Prime Vendor Deals and largest territory in the department. Partner to Sales Management, Pricing Team, Customer Service and Account Leadership. Prepared monthly reporting to corporate management. Led staff of six in collections, bad debt, credit reduction, reconciliations, credit risk mitigation, payment plans, customer engagement and KPI’s. Business-critical finance responsibilities include proactive analysis of aging, forecasting, proactive analysis of variances and influence go forward decisions, reporting key performance indicators. Oversee employee tracking and reporting including percentage over 31+ and 61+ past dues, credits over 120 days old and KPI’s directly related to SAP and Hgh Radius notations, coding and customer follow up. Provided Financial Account Overviews. Analyzed client terms, compliance to contracts, DSO and overall adherence to signed agreement. Accountability, discipline, and processes initiatives and results include:

● Partnered with Account and Sales to drive reduction in past dues, review and refine processes, profitability, utilization of customer program offerings, resource allocation, and customer satisfaction.

● Collaborate with Account Leadership on reviews to identify efficient solutions for areas needing improvement, implement payment plans and negotiate service charge settlements.

● Developed SAP Reason Code initiative which provided a pivot code analysis of past due by issue. Sorted by dollars highest to lowest provided real time drivers to the customer for prioritization and resolution.

● Handled customer escalations and built strong relationships with the client and led to a decrease in their past due balances.

● Attended 2022 Sales Meeting and chosen as a guest speaker to provide insight on best practices and promote better engagement between AR, Sales and Customers.

● Met quarterly metrics and bonus goals consistently never missing a quarter even during times of being short staffed.

● Volunteered on the High Radius Testing Team for six months of daily sessions to try and break the system prior to implementation resulting in a smooth go live.

● Chosen to lead on the company Paperless Initiative and reduced paper invoices and statements by over 50%.

● Partner with SVP, ensuring resource allocation to drive efficiencies resulting in improvement of past dues. AR PROCESS MANAGER, FINANCE (2017 – 2018)

Shadowed team members in both Accounts Receivable and other departments to gather an understanding of workflow as to which areas improvements were needed and implement best practices. Recent rapid growth by the company resulted in the need for process reviews and recommendations with an emphasis on instituting efficiencies and automation.

Process initiatives and results include:

● Gathering information, documenting/recording and making recommendations to management for procedural changes.

● Thinking creatively, communicating and building relationships on multiple teams.

● Instituted an overhaul of onboarding new accounts complete with checklists and notes that were shared with the customer as a convenient and useful reference. New process mitigated new implementation errors resulting in better cash flow and an improved customer experience.

● Distribution of new accounts to the teams in a fair and equitable process attributing to a more balanced workload.

● Streamlined SAP reason codes for consistent utilization to optimize reporting internally and externally. OWENS & MINOR, Carol Stream, IL

Healthcare distributor and Fortune 500 global medical/surgical provider distributing hundreds of brands to health systems, surgery centers, physician offices, nursing homes and more. REGIONAL CREDIT MANAGER (1991 – 2017)

Managed Credit & Collection operations for half of the country for Sales over $3B. Led a team of 3 Area Credit Managers including their direct reports. Facilitate and led high profile customer meetings at the executive levels within hospitals and healthcare networks to accomplish company goals. Supervised the work of the credit collection team in the territory to ensure adherence to standards, deadlines and proper procedures. Provided financial leadership for new account implementations ensuring long-term financial success. Responsible for the territory’s customer master data ensuring its accuracy. Guided, directed and motivated subordinates. Recruited, interviewed and selected employees for hire. Research, compile and distribute reports. Business-critical initiatives and results included:

● Member, NACM.

● Selected as chief service charge negotiator across the country as a result of being a top settlement leader and successfully driving revenue.

● Tasked with being a change agent during company reorganization.

● Initiated process for invoice/credit output customizing it for customer preference ensuring timely payment.

● Improved and maintained a consistent DSO month over month.

● Bridged gap between A/R, Credit and the implementation of newly created Shared Services Team.

● Increased client profitability by partnering with Account Leadership to analyze and resolve areas of concern.

● Led the Billing and Cash Applications Teams prior to acquisition from The Burrows Company to Owens & Minor.

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

MS Office, Oracle, SAP, High Radius CLS & EIPP, K2, Kronos, Sharepoint, Insight, Web Focus, and Zendesk EDUCATION

Accounting 101, 102, 201, & 202, Harper College - Palatine, IL Lean Six Sigma, University of Wisconsin hosted by Owens & Minor Project Management I, College of Lake County, IL hosted by Medline

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