Finance Analyst C2C - Collections (GFS Americas)

Role Purpose

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines for some of the world's most serious diseases. But we're more than one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. At AstraZeneca, we're proud to have a unique workplace culture that inspires innovation and collaboration. Here, employees are empowered to express diverse perspectives and are made to feel valued, energized and rewarded for their ideas and creativity.

Global Financial Services (GFS) was formed in Q3 2018 through the merger of Global Finance Operations, Integrated Finance Solutions and Cash Generation.  GFS is at the heart of the Finance function - accountable to the AstraZeneca (AZ) Group for the design and delivery of high quality, simple to operate transactional finance processes that enable our customers to focus on AZ’s strategic priorities.  

The creation of the Global Financial Services (GFS) centers in Warsaw (Poland), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and San José (Costa Rica) will transform the AZ Middle Office and Back Office to a central function, supporting the business regions through simplification, standardization across the globe, and a structure that is scalable to support the bold ambition of becoming a $80bn company by 2030. 

We have exciting opportunities to join our GFS Center in San José, which will establish best practices and be responsible for providing support to embedded finance (CFOs and country business partners and or BPs in Manufacturing).

Role Profile

This position is responsible for supporting the Contract to Cash activities related to Collections within the Global Finance Transactional Services Organization

The role will support the execution of the global process design, the implementation of service delivery model and the process roadmap for the global Order to Cash process.  

This role is accountable for supporting the operation of global Contract to Cash processes and programs across the organization to ensure an effective, efficient, and controlled way of operating within the US and Canada. This individual will partner with broader Finance teams to support the Accounts Receivable operation and ensuring the global goals are achieved.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Execution & Team Support

• Liaison between internal and external customers.
• Review and support refund requests sent by customers.
• Perform daily collections calls/emails, ensuring timely customer contact in line with the collection’s strategy (proactive and reactive collections)
• Document customer interaction in HighRadius and SAP if required and follow up when required to ensure customer payment.
• Maintain the shared mailbox organized and up to date.
• Ensure all incoming payments are allocated and reconciled & perform regular account reconciliation.
• Prepare and issue customer account statements and other required documents to support collections process.
• Research any open invoice disputed by the customer, facilitate the dispute details to the Customer Operations team to support dispute resolution.
• Research any open deduction on the account to secure payments.
• Support requests sent by Market Access if required.
• Maintain accurate customer contact details in SAP and HighRadius
• Assist team members through proper knowledge transfer, sharing of resources, knowledge and experience and best practice.
• Resolve and identify chargebacks disputes submitted by customers.
• Maintain notes to support interaction with customers in SAP and/or HighRadius
• Support the revision and release of blocked orders based on payment behavior from the customers.
• Update reason codes in HighRadius and SAP to classify disputes and deductions.

Analysis & Strategic Insight

• Analyze customer payment behavior and use the information in prioritizing collections activities and escalate when necessary.
• Actively contribute to the achievement of the business KPI’s.
• Perform debt analysis and support the Global Collections Manager with insight.
• Review aging debt, highlight doubtful or bad debt & propose for third party debt recovery or litigation where applicable.
• Revision and approval/dispute of customers discounts per agreement (Prompt Discounts, etc)

Compliance, Governance & Audit

• Documentation of process design, desktop procedures, governance, templates, policies and training materials.
• Perform OTC related reconciliations for regular customers where/when needed and ensure accuracy and completeness.
• Support internal and external audit requests by providing the documentation or data requested to ensure processes are performed correctly.
• Ensure Month End activities are completed within the SLA.
• Support BCP to ensure business continuity. Ad hoc tasks as and when required.

Continuous Improvement Initiatives 

• Work with the Service Delivery teams to understand the root cause of the service issues to resolve process related escalations and identify continuous improvement and transformation opportunities from a delivery / service perspective.  
• Participate in Lean activities to identify possible improvements in the process.   
• Drive continuous improvement within the Global CTC reporting platform including the exploration of systems utilized within GFS and their potential application for use in CTC.   
• Identify process improvement opportunities through elimination of redundant activities and support process automation initiatives.
• Connect with CTC CI Manager to support strategies and provide update on aging.

Stakeholder Management 

• Attend key governance meetings and provide input as required.   
• Be involved in daily / weekly huddles with business/ customer teams to be aware of the day-to-day issues and escalations and to understand major process gaps to drive process changes and improvements. 
• Support the Global Process Owner/Global Process Leader in steering the Order to Cash strategy and delivering targets.   
• Act as a point of contact for escalations.      

Essential Criteria

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in finance or business operations. 
• 1 - 2 years of progressing work experience within finance with experience in Collections (Pharma industry is a plus)   
• Proven expertise and passion for innovation, continuous improvement, and ability to communicate effectively.
• Experience in multinational company  
• Knowledge of HighRadius or any other tool to document customer interactions.
• Strong communication, relationship building, and interpersonal skills required. 
• Strong organizational and stakeholder management skills.  
• Basic Excel and SAP Reporting skills 

Other Role Requirements

• Schedule flexibility to work on holidays when necessary.
• Flexibility and Ability to travel and work in another AZ facilities outside the country when necessary.
• Schedule flexibility to work on the days off given by the wellness Policy when necessary (Política de Bienestar).

Competencies

• Drive for Results  
• Integrity  
• Problem Solving  
• Collaboration  
• Accountability  
• Attention to Detail  
• Customer Focus  
• Self-motivated  
• Ownership  
• Communication  
• Time management  
• Organized 
• Analytical
• Teamwork
• B2B Collections
• Risk awareness

Internal and External Contacts/Customers

• Will interface with other Shared Services functions, Business CFOs/Finance Business Partners and 3rd party service providers.

According to the company policies, the candidate must prove that there are no situations that generate a conflict of interest (COI) for the company. The non-existence of COI is considered as an objective requirement of the position. To know beforehand the weightings of COI contained in the policies of the company, consult the Human Resources Department.

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer. AstraZeneca will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity leave status, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law. AstraZeneca only employs individuals with the right to work in the country/ies where the role is advertised.

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.