Job Description

Roles & Responsibilities

The Senior Associate Accounts Payable is responsible for executing and supporting accounts payable activities for assigned clients, entities, or regions within a finance delivery / shared-services environment. The role focuses on accurate invoice processing, vendor account maintenance, payment preparation, issue resolution, reconciliations, compliance with approvals, and support for month-end close and audit requirements. This position requires strong AP process knowledge, attention to detail, control awareness, and the ability to coordinate with procurement, business requestors, vendors, treasury, tax, and client finance teams. The Senior Associate helps ensure that supplier obligations are processed in a timely, compliant, and well-documented manner.

Key Responsibilities

• Process and review vendor invoices, credit notes, debit notes, employee reimbursement support, and other AP transactions in line with client policies and agreed service levels.
• Validate invoice data, purchase order references, goods receipt or service receipt status, tax treatment, payment terms, supplier details, approvals, and supporting documentation before posting or routing for resolution.
• Perform two-way or three-way matching activities and investigate mismatches related to price, quantity, tax, receipt status, supplier master data, or purchase order conditions.
• Prepare and post AP entries, including invoice postings, adjustments, reclassifications, accrual support, prepayment schedules, and clearing items where applicable.
• Support payment runs by preparing payment proposals, validating due items, checking holds or blocked invoices, coordinating approvals, and resolving rejected or returned payments.
• Monitor AP aging, blocked invoice reports, GR/IR open items, debit balances, duplicate invoice risks, and vendor statement reconciliation items.
• Follow up with vendors, procurement teams, business requestors, and client finance stakeholders to resolve invoice exceptions, missing receipts, disputed charges, and payment queries.
• Maintain accurate AP trackers, query logs, approval evidence, supplier communications, payment status updates, and exception notes to support transparency and audit readiness.
• Assist with month-end close by preparing AP accrual inputs, reviewing unpaid invoice listings, reconciling AP subledger to general ledger, and explaining significant movements or aged items.
• Support tax and compliance requirements relevant to AP, including VAT treatment, withholding tax support, local statutory documentation, and client-specific approval rules.
• Prepare documentation for internal, external, tax, and statutory audits, including invoice samples, approval trails, payment evidence, vendor reconciliations, and control-performance evidence.
• Apply segregation of duties, delegation of authority, vendor master controls, duplicate-payment checks, and invoice approval requirements to reduce operational and compliance risk.
• Participate in transition, stabilization, and process-improvement activities for AP scope, including SOP updates, knowledge transfer, root-cause analysis, and automation opportunities.
• Support KPI and service-level reporting for AP, including invoice cycle time, backlog, blocked invoices, first-time-right processing, aging performance, and query resolution status.
• Collaborate with GL, procurement, treasury, tax, IT, and client business teams to resolve end-to-end procure-to-pay dependencies.

Desired Candidate Profile

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field; professional certification or in-progress qualification is an advantage.
• 3 6 years of accounts payable or procure-to-pay experience, preferably in shared services, BPO, professional services, or multinational environments.
• Strong understanding of AP processes, invoice validation, PO and non-PO invoice handling, payment support, vendor queries, reconciliations, and month-end AP close activities.
• Working knowledge of accounting concepts related to AP, accruals, prepayments, GR/IR, vendor balances, tax codes, and subledger-to-GL reconciliations.
• Hands-on experience with ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics/AX, or similar platforms; SAP AP/MM exposure is highly desirable.
• Good Excel skills, including reconciliations, pivot tables, lookups, aging analysis, and operational trackers.
• Exposure to audit support, professional services, or a structured control-focused finance environment is considered a plus.
• Awareness of internal controls, delegation of authority, segregation of duties, audit evidence, and duplicate-payment prevention controls.
• Strong follow-up, communication, and issue-resolution skills with the ability to coordinate across vendors, procurement, business users, and finance teams.
• German language proficiency is a plus.

Key Competencies

• Accounts payable process expertise
• Accuracy and control discipline
• Vendor and stakeholder follow-up
• Issue resolution
• Payment and aging management
• ERP and data-handling ability
• Compliance awareness
• Documentation quality
• Service-level ownership
• Continuous improvement mindset