Interim Manager Receivables Management — Analysis and Cleanup of Clearing Accounts

Project overview

Client: German company (AG) of a listed European technology group

Responsibilities

Must-haves

Nice-to-have: Basic understanding of Python, SQL, Alteryx, or Power BI

Personal Attributes: structured and meticulously documenting, working independently remotely, hands-on, reporting deviations early, persistent with old issues.

• Error Type Analysis (Week 1): Classification and clustering by type, year, and amount, initial reconciliation of CRM against DATEV. Deliverable: Error types with volume, effort, and duration estimates, action plan.
• Solution Approach: Recommendation between targeted clearing/rebooking per error type, rebuilding the receivables balance from scratch (re-simulation of all invoices, credit notes, and incoming payments), or a combination.
• Target vs. Actual Reconciliation: CRM, OPOS, clearing accounts, and general ledger against each other, analysis and explanation of all differences.
• Booking Preparation: Booking logic per error type, creation of booking files together with the Finance team using D&A tools. The Finance team will handle the actual booking. Clarification with Sales, customers, and banks, proposals for uncleared items.
• Documentation for the auditor.
• Demonstrable reconstruction or rebuilding of a multi-year receivables balance from invoices and bank statements
• Projects for cleaning up clearing, interim, or suspense accounts with high item counts
• Experience with satellite system vs. general ledger constellations (invoicing/CRM parallel to accounting)
• Very good DATEV knowledge: Accounting, OPOS, account reconciliation, data exports
• SEPA direct and bulk debits, allocation to individual and bulk debtors
• Several years of accounts receivable accounting/receivables management, ideally certified accountant (IHK)
• Mass data in Excel: Power Query, VLOOKUP, Pivot

Project details

immediately, at the latest 01.11. · Duration: 2 months + extension

remote after onboarding, no travel required · Reporting line: directly to the CFO

Initial Situation

The receivables from deliveries and services amount to a low double-digit million euro range, with a mid-single-digit million euro amount attributed to clearing accounts. These have been used for approximately five years for various purposes: incoming payments that were never cleared in OPOS, bookings for differences between bank accounts and bank statements, and other cases not yet classified. The OPOS comprises around 50,000 lines, and the clearing accounts several thousand.

System-wise, DATEV and a proprietary CRM run in parallel. Contracts and invoices are generated in the CRM, and revenue and receivables are booked in DATEV. A systematic reconciliation has never taken place. The transition to SAP S/4HANA is scheduled for 01.01.2027. All data is available to the Finance team as an ASCII export in a data model.

Goal

Clearing accounts fully analyzed, reconciled, and audit-proof documented. Receivables balances cleanly prepared for SAP data migration.

• Start: ab sofort
• Duration: 2 Monate
• Remote: hybrid
• Location: Düsseldorf, Deutschland, DE
• Languages: German