Finance role
Credit and Collections Manager Recruiters
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
Financial Headhunters: How to reduce your DSO by managing customer disputes and clearing unapplied payments from your accounts receivable ledger.
This is what we do all day: recruit accounting, finance, banking and insurance professionals.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
- Controller
- CFO
- VP Finance
- FP&A Director
- Accounting Manager
- Director of Accounting
- Assistant Controller
- Tax Director
- Treasury Manager
- Internal Audit Director
- Senior Accountant
- Financial Analyst
- Head of Financial Reporting
- Commercial Lender
- Chief Credit Officer
- Business Systems Finance Lead
- No upfront fee
- Pay only if you hire
- Accounting, finance, banking and insurance
- We reach people who aren’t on job boards
- Replacement terms on standard searches
01
What does this hire really come down to?
You need someone who treats your AR as a liquid asset and your credit policy as a guardrail rather than a suggestion. How do you manage risk on the front end while aggressively pursuing cash on the back end? We look for someone who understands that a sale is not complete until the cash hits your bank account.
They spend their time setting credit limits, managing aging reports, and fixing broken billing cycles. We ask them to explain exactly how they handle a customer who disputes an invoice to avoid payment. We need to hear their specific method for escalating past due accounts without killing the customer relationship.
You should expect them to own the DSO metric and explain its movement week over week. If they cannot quantify their impact on cash flow, they are not the right fit. How do you audit the ledger for unapplied payments and resolve conflicts between sales and collections?
Define the credit limit override authority before we begin. Ask candidates to describe a time a sales director fought a credit hold on a high-value account. Watch if they blindly follow policy or bypass it. A strong analyst explains how they documented the risk and what payment security they required to release the hold. Verify their technical comfort with specific ERP dunning automation. Ask them to map custom collection workflows to customer payment behavior. If they cannot explain how they pull raw aging data for custom CFO reports, they likely delegate this. Ask their approach to auditing unapplied credits and the steps taken to clear disputes. Determine if they use NACM standards for risk assessments. Confirm if they have deployed a new credit scoring model in an ERP and validated it against actual payment performance.
02
What do we check before you see anyone?
We verify these six items to save your time during the interview process.
We start every search with a scope conversation to determine whether your primary challenge is clearing a high volume of aged disputes or building a structural risk model from scratch. During our vetting, we ask candidates to produce a sample write-up justifying a temporary credit extension for a customer with a history of late payments. We look for those who balance the tension between maximizing current revenue and protecting against potential write-offs. A major tradeoff occurs when choosing between a candidate who prioritizes strict process adherence to keep the ledger clean versus one who treats each delinquent account as a unique case requiring custom negotiation tactics. We force them to weigh the cost of legal fees or third-party collection agencies against the possibility of internal resolution. If they cannot explain why they choose to hold an order versus accepting partial payment, we remove them from the pool.
- 01Hands-on experience with B2B credit risk scoring and formal UCC filing processes.
- 02Direct ownership of cash application systems and reconciling complex billing variances.
- 03History of managing active credit limits for high-volume customer portfolios.
- 04Prior use of major ERP systems for automated collections and dunning workflows.
- 05Understanding of NACM standards for credit assessment and risk management.
- 06Ability to produce aged trial balances and explain specific delinquent account resolution.
03
Where do we find them?
We source candidates from mid-market industrial firms, logistics companies, and wholesale distribution sectors where high-volume credit decisions are daily routine. We look for individuals currently operating in shared service centers or decentralized credit departments who want a role with more decision authority. People move because their current firm lacks a formal risk framework or they have hit a ceiling on their ability to implement automated billing improvements. We also see interest from professionals who have outgrown their current company’s credit limits and want to manage higher-risk, higher-complexity portfolios.
04
Which hiring mistakes should you watch for?
- 01Hiring someone who hides behind administrative reporting rather than engaging with customers directly to secure payment.
- 02Overlooking the need for technical credit experience by hiring a general accountant who treats collections as an afterthought.
- 03Failing to define the decision rights between the sales team and the credit department regarding account holds.
05
The search in three steps
- 01Define the credit policy thresholds and the specific escalation process for your firm.
- 02We conduct technical screening to confirm software proficiency and risk management experience.
- 03We present qualified candidates for your review; we charge a fee only if you hire one of our introduced candidates.
How your Credit and Collections Manager search runs
How does The Six-Step Search work?
One sequence, from a well-defined seat to a shortlist you can judge.
Search Calibration
We start with a call about the seat, the books, the owners and the people the hire will work with. We learn what the role must fix in the first year and what would make a candidate wrong even if the resume looks right.
You get: A written search brief: scope, must-haves, deal-breakers and the pay range, agreed with you.
Market Mapping
We map the companies and institutions where the right people already work: similar size, similar ownership, similar complexity, in your market and in others.
You get: The target list of companies and institutions we will search, reviewed with you before outreach.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We find direct ways to reach the people on the map. Most are employed and not reading job boards, so reaching them takes real research.
You get: Direct routes to people who are not on job boards, researched for your search.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We call and write to people individually and follow up. Interest varies, so we discuss the actual opportunity rather than promising a particular response.
You get: One-to-one conversations about your actual role, followed up, never a mass email blast.
Live Candidate Qualification
We speak with every candidate before you do. We check scope, systems, reporting lines, compensation expectations, location and why they would move.
You get: Only candidates we have spoken with, checked on scope, systems, pay, location and motive.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You receive a short written brief on each finalist covering what they have done, where they are thin and what they want. Then we help with interviews, references and the offer.
You get: A short written brief on each finalist, plus help with interviews, references, counteroffer risk and the offer.
Questions people ask
When is a fee due for finding a manager who pursues cash and handles AR?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
What is the primary decision authority for this role?
This manager holds the final authority to set individual customer credit limits and freeze accounts. They report to the CFO or Controller to align cash flow needs with business risk appetite.
How do you verify their technical skill?
We require candidates to walk us through their past use of ERP systems for dunning and reconciliation. We also ask them to describe their process for handling specific credit limit adjustments.
When must I pay for finding someone who treats my credit policy as a guardrail?
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Is this position location-flexible?
Yes, provided the ERP system allows for remote access and the candidate has a strong track record of managing distributed accounts. We qualify for remote work by checking their previous experience in paperless, virtual credit environments.
How soon will I see a Credit and Collections Manager shortlist?
It depends on the seat, the location and the pay. We give you an honest read after the calibration call and we do not promise dates we cannot control.
What about counteroffers on a Credit and Collections Manager hire?
We ask every Credit and Collections Manager candidate early why they would move and what their employer might do to keep them. Counteroffer risk goes in the written brief before you make an offer.
What is your guarantee?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What don't you do?
We do not post your Credit and Collections Manager job and forward whoever applies. We do not send stacks of unscreened resumes, and we do not recruit outside accounting, finance, banking and insurance.
Start a search
Tell us about the seat.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
Not ready to start a search?
Get a practical read on the talent market or the job description. No fee or obligation.
What does the published pay data show?
$166,570 national annual median. SOC 11-3031: Financial Managers.
BLS reports Credit and Collections Manager within a broader occupation. It does not publish separate wages for this exact title, credentials, seniority or industry. Compare the listed SOC duties with your actual role before using this range.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Released 2026-05-15. This is not a separately measured salary for this exact title.
Read the full salary guide