Stellenbosch: Debtors Clerk / Accounts receivable Clerk / Credit controller – Fruit Export Industry -Stellenbosch posted by Sagen Advisory

Position title: Debtors Clerk

Location: Stellenbosch

Reports to: Senior Accountant

Employment type: Permanent (full-time)

Salary range: +-R25kpm CTC, includes death and disability benefits

Benefits: 20 annual leave days per year

Role purpose (short)

Manage the accounts receivable cycle for export customers in the fresh fruit sector, ensuring accurate, timely invoicing and effective collections while building and maintaining strong relationships with buyers, agents, freight forwarders, and internal teams to protect cash flow and reduce dispute volumes.

Key responsibilities

• Generate and distribute credit notes and pro forma invoices accurately and on time.
• Monitor accounts receivable (AR) ledger daily; post cash receipts and allocate payments correctly.
• Proactively manage collections: follow up on overdue accounts by email, phone, and virtual meetings; work with the commercial team, and escalate unresolved matters to the Finance Manager.
• Prepare and send debtor statements and ageing reports; reconcile unapplied receipts, short payments, and bank charges.
• Investigate and resolve billing disputes quickly, liaising with sales, operations, commercial agents, and freight forwarders to gather supporting documentation (POD, B/L, phytosanitary certificates, packing lists).
• Coordinate with banks and treasury on foreign currency collections, letters of credit, guarantees, and remittances.
• Maintain and update customer credit files and payment terms; perform periodic credit checks for new or expanding accounts.
• Produce weekly/monthly AR reports (DSO, ageing analysis, collection forecast) and present insights to Finance and Sales.
• Support month-end close tasks related to revenue and receivables (accruals, reconciliations, suspense accounts).
• Continuously improve AR processes to shorten collection cycles and reduce disputes.
• Support internal and external audits related to debtors.
• Assist with supplier recons when required.

Qualifications and experience

• Matric plus a relevant tertiary qualification or diploma in Accounting/Finance/Bookkeeping (or equivalent experience).
• 24+ years experience in accounts receivable or credit control experience in fruit export, perishables, or logistics is highly desirable.
• Understanding of foreign-currency receipts, bank processes, and export documentation.

Competencies & behaviours

• Able to work independently and as part of a small, cross-functional team.

• Professional, proactive, and customer-focused approach.
• Exceptional relationship management builds trust, responds promptly, follows through, ability to deal professionally with international buyers, agents, and internal teams
• Commercial awareness: understands cashflow impact and customer cycles in export markets.
• Problem-solving investigates disputes, finds pragmatic solutions, and documents resolutions.
• Integrity & confidentiality: handles invoicing and banking information securely.
• Accuracy and timeliness: low error rate, meets cut-offs for invoicing and bank allocations.
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) and negotiation skills; confident on the phone and in virtual meetings.
• High attention to detail and strong organisational skills; able to prioritise under deadlines.

Technical skills

• ERP / accounting system (experience with any industry-standard AR module).
• MS Excel intermediate (basic formulas, pivot tables, filters, vlookup).
• Familiarity with export process terms (B/L, POD, Incoterms, letters of credit) is a plus.
• Comfortable using email, MS Teams/Zoom for international communication.