Accounts Receivable Specialist

ECHO Incorporated is an industry leader in developing and manufacturing high-performance, professional-grade, handheld outdoor power equipment. With distributors and thousands of dealers across North and South America, ECHO is constantly anticipating the future of the outdoor power equipment industry and the need for environmental sustainability. Working for ECHO means joining a team of people who are committed to collaboration, innovation, creativity, and high-quality products that make us a globally competitive brand.

ECHO is adding to our Accounts Receivable team! The Accounts Receivable Specialist is the dedicated point of contact for our largest customer, owning the full receivables cycle for the account from cash application through deduction resolution. To ensure accurate, timely cash application, and reduce outstanding receivables by expertly managing complex remittance and deduction workflows.

The salary range for this position is $26-$28/hour based on experience and qualifications.

This is a hybrid position that will offer the flexibility of working from home and on-site at our Lake Zurich facility. ECHO’s benefits include:

• 11 paid holidays
• Extremely affordable medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off
• Yearly bonus potential
• 5% 401K match
• Tuition reimbursement

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Retrieve, review, and apply daily customer payments and remittance detail from the customer’s portal, EDI, and lockbox sources.
• Research customer deductions, (including short-pays, chargebacks, pricing, and promotional deductions), and coordinate resolution efforts with sales and operations.
• Submit disputes through customer portals within the customer’s required dispute windows; monitor outcomes and escalate issues when appropriate.
• Identify recurring issues within customer workflows and recommend process improvements to reduce deductions and errors including root-cause analysis of deduction trends shared with internal stakeholders.
• Accurately apply A/R payments, adjustments, and journal entries within our ERP system.
• Prepare non-inventory invoices/credit memos, send them to the appropriate customer, and properly store them on our network server.
• Monitor the A/R shared e-mail box and respond to all customer and internal inquiries within 24 hours of receipt.
• Assist in the reconciliation of unapplied cash and maintain the open deductions log for the account.
• Prepare monthly aging, deduction, and dispute status reports for management.
• Build and maintain working relationships with the customer’s accounts payable and deductions teams.
• Maintain accurate documentation, adhere to internal controls, and support internal/external audit requirements.
• Reconcile and correct cash application discrepancies as they occur, maintaining an error rate below the 1% threshold.
• Perform additional duties and assignments as needed to support departmental operations.

Job Experience/Skills:

• 3-5 years of prior experience in accounts receivable with direct exposure to large retail customers required.
• Solid understanding of basic accounting principles and practices.
• Prior exposure to Microsoft Business Central preferred.
• Competent with formulas, data manipulation, and spreadsheet. organization using Microsoft Excel.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to manage high-volume transactions efficiently.
• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to track multiple open disputes and deadlines at once.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and clear communication abilities, including professional written communication with customer contacts.
• Familiarity with processing EDI invoices and resolving chargebacks.
• Experience navigating customer vendor portals to retrieve remittances and submit disputes.
• Knowledge of various payment processes (ACH, wire, check, lockbox) and deduction management.
• Comfortable working with sales and operations teams to gather documentation and resolve issues.

Education: High School Diploma required. Associate's degree preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employment: We are an equal opportunity employer. We welcome all applicants.

E-Verification: In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.