Specialist, Credit and Collections

JOB TITLE:

Specialist, Credit and Collections

Location:

North Fort Myers, FL

Work Hours:

M-F 8-5:30pm with varying shifts

• Company-wide annual incentive plan
• Medical, vision and dental insurance
• 401(k) plan with a generous 6% company match
• Company funded Pension Plan
• On-site wellness/medical facility
• Company paid Short & Long-Term Disability insurance
• Health Savings Account with an employer contribution
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• Wellness program with financial rewards
• Tuition reimbursement
• Group life insurance
• Critical Illness and Accident Insurance

LCEC provides reliable, cost-competitive electricity to more than 250,000 members throughout a five-county service territory located in Southwest Florida. We employ approximately 470 skilled employees and are one of more than 900 electric distribution cooperatives located throughout the United States. LCEC has been recognized locally and statewide as an industry leader and continually receives acknowledgment for the work that our employees do in the community along with other civic, environmental and professional honors.

The Credit & Collections Specialist serves as the focal point for all aspects of credit and collection activities. This position is responsible for monitoring and analyzing aging accounts receivable and for the oversight of accounts from delinquency to disconnect for non-payment and bad debt write-off, as well as researching and processing bankruptcies, deposits, medical necessity and life support, and collection referrals.

This position will contribute to the organization's financial strength by reducing accounts receivable delinquency, combatting electricity theft and meter tampering, and improving post-disconnect collections recovery.

• Monitor collection processes to ensure expected results on qualifying accounts. Track counts of records processed, analyze data, and notify Supervisor of trends and anomalies.
• Research accounts eligible for disconnect for non-payment. Initiate field and remote disconnect service orders; investigate remote disconnect and reconnect failures, field access issues, and safety issues. Ensure service orders are completed within an acceptable timeframe to prevent rollovers.
• Initiate a courtesy contact prior to disconnect for non-payment for qualified accounts, including but not limited to, accounts with medical necessity or life support alerts and Key Accounts.
• Respond timely to inquiries from field personnel and other departments regarding collection activities. Report physical threats made to field personnel immediately using established guidelines to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
• Monitor accounts disconnected for non-payment and update agreement statuses and alerts for final billing. Initiate field investigations for usage on meters disconnected for non-payment.
• Monitor and track accounts with aging accounts receivable balances. Research accounts with 60-day and 90-day arrears; update account as needed to expedite collection processes.
• Manage accounts with medical necessity and life support conditions. Includes processing new applications and renewals and updating account records and outage priority alerts.
• Plan and coordinate changes to collection activities, including system configuration changes, during storm restoration and other emergency response situations. Collaborate with other departments to test and validate changes and inform impacted departments.
• Serve as subject matter expert on credit and collection related projects and initiatives, including system upgrades and new feature releases. Participate in meetings, testing, and implementation activities; deliver training to others in the department; develop or update departmental procedures.
• Evaluate accounts for new and additional deposits, including non-cash deposits, using established guidelines. Add deposits to qualifying accounts, send notice to customers, and make adjustments as needed or requested. Monitor deposit reports to ensure quality data entry and manage errors and exceptions.
• Initiate bad debt write-off process, review output, and investigate held accounts and other exceptions. Notify appropriate departments of monthly write-off amounts. Ensure outstanding bad debt is collected prior to reconnection of service.
• Initiate collection referrals to third-party agency within established timeline. Process files from collection agency and update accounts records accordingly upon payment and adjustments to accounts receivable balances. Act as liaison between LCEC and collection agency.
• Coordinate post-disconnect collection activities, including but not limited to, in-house phone calls and emails. Perform phone number and address research utilizing skip-tracing and credit data tools.
• Monitor past due miscellaneous receivable invoices. Follow-up with other departments or customers to ensure timely payment or cancellation of invoices.
• Identify active accounts with an unpaid uncollectible or…