Manager Payables & Receivables

Be part of a growing, successful company in an exciting and challenging field. Border States is 100% employee-owned, which means you’re empowered to make decisions, find solutions and receive rewards for your hard work.

This position will be located in: Fargo, ND

Application Deadline: Posted Until Filled.

Please note that the position may be filled before or after the listed application deadline. Applications will only be accepted while the posting remains active.

Job Summary

The Manager of Payables and Receivables provides enterprise-wide leadership and process ownership across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, employee expense management, corporate card and fleet administration, vendor disbursements, customer billing, cash application, and related transactional accounting activities. The role is accountable for scalable, accurate, timely, efficient, and compliant operations through consistent processes, systems, policies, controls, service expectations, performance measures, and continuous improvement. The Manager leads a broad, multi-functional organization, including subordinate supervisors, and directs workforce planning, resource allocation, performance management, recruiting, onboarding, training, and employee development. The role also leads daily operations and month-end activities; supports audits, M&A integrations, system enhancements, automation, and other enterprise initiatives; and partners with stakeholders to resolve issues, strengthen cross-functional handoffs, and meet the organization’s evolving needs.

Responsibilities

Essential functions

• Owns end-to-end processes across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, employee expense management, corporate card administration, fleet administration, vendor disbursements, cash application, and related transactional accounting activities.
• Establishes and maintains consistent operating processes, workflows, controls, service expectations, policies, procedures, and performance standards across assigned functions.
• Maintains ownership of departmental policies and standard operating procedures and ensures processes are consistently executed by assigned teams.
• Maintains accountability for the effectiveness of assigned processes from transaction initiation through completion, including upstream and downstream handoffs with other departments.
• Manages and supports the effective use of Concur, Motus, corporate card programs, expense reimbursement processes, and related integrations to ensure proper approval routing, policy compliance, accounting accuracy, and reimbursement.
• Leads a multi-functional organization encompassing Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Expense Management, and related transaction-processing responsibilities through both direct leadership and oversight of teams led by supervisors.
• Provides leadership, direction, coaching, and accountability to direct reports, ensuring effective leadership and consistent performance across their respective teams.
• Establishes team priorities and directs the allocation of people and resources across functions based on transaction volumes, service requirements, deadlines, organizational priorities, and changing business needs.
• Establishes and monitors departmental goals, KPIs, transaction quality measures, service levels, productivity indicators, workload measures, and other operational performance expectations.
• Leads capacity and workforce planning across assigned functions and adjusts staffing, priorities, and allocation of work to respond to transaction volumes and organizational requirements.
• Uses operational performance information to identify process breakdowns, resource constraints, training needs, workflow bottlenecks, and opportunities to improve team effectiveness.
• Holds team Supervisors accountable for team performance, operational results, completion of required work, employee development, and adherence to established processes and controls.

Non-essential functions

• Leads recruiting, onboarding, performance management, succession planning, role clarity, training, and employee-owner development activities across assigned functions. 
• Develops supervisors and team leaders to strengthen leadership capability, accountability, and operational effectiveness. 
• Leads system, workflow, integration, and automation initiatives to improve efficiency, scalability, controls, and service delivery. 
• Leads business requirements, testing, implementation, training, and adoption activities associated with process and technology changes. 
• Supports merger and acquisition activities through the assessment, integration, standardization, and transition of acquired transactional accounting processes. 
• Performs other duties as assigned by supervisor or designate. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related business administrative field required.
• 8 years of progressive experience in finance and accounting preferred. 
• Professional business, finance, or accounting licensure preferred.
• Prior people management and team leadership experience required.
• Experience with workforce planning, performance management, employee development, recruiting, onboarding, and development of subordinate leaders preferred.
• Prior project management experience required.
• Experience leading significant process improvement, automation, system implementation, workflow, or organizational change initiatives preferred.
• Experience supporting integration or standardization of acquired businesses, decentralized operations, or multiple operating locations preferred.
• Intermediate Excel knowledge required.
• Proficient knowledge of Microsoft Office (SharePoint, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) required.
• Prior experience in SAP or similar accounting systems required.
• Prior experience with expense management, workflow automation, or transaction processing platforms such as Concur, Motus, banking portals, customer billing systems, or similar tools preferred.

Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to lead a broad, multi-functional organization through direct reports, supervisors, and their respective teams.
• Strong people leadership skills with the ability to establish accountability, develop team members, manage performance, allocate resources, and maintain effective operations across multiple functions.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership presence, leveraging emotional intelligence to build influence, foster collaboration, and align diverse teams around accounting and reporting matters.
• Demonstrated ability to own and continuously improve end-to-end business processes involving multiple teams, systems, controls, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong operational judgment and decision-making skills with the ability to prioritize competing requirements, allocate team capacity, resolve escalated issues, and maintain service and processing expectations across high-volume transactional functions.
• Strong process-management capabilities with demonstrated ability to establish consistent procedures, controls, service expectations, performance measures, and accountability across multiple teams.
• Demonstrated ability to lead organizational and process change, including system implementations, workflow changes, automation, process standardization, and integration of acquired operations.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to evaluate transaction trends, identify root causes, assess process and control gaps, and recommend practical improvements.

Physical Requirements

Frequency at which you would carry/lift in a typical day:
Occasionally 0 – 33% Frequently 34 – 66% Continuously: 67 – 100%

• Lift from Waist:
  • < than 10 lbs. - Not at all
  • 10 to 25 lbs. - Not at all
  • 26 to 50 lbs. - Not at all
  • 51 to 75 lbs. - Not at all
  • 75 to 100 lbs. - Not at all
  • 100+ lbs. - Not at all
• Lift from Floor:
  • < than 10 lbs. - Frequently
  • 10 to 25 lbs. - Frequently
  • 26 to 50 lbs. - Occasionally
  • 51 to 75 lbs. - Not at all
  • 75 to 100 lbs. - Not at all
  • 100+ lbs. - Not at all
• Carried for Distance:
  • < than 10 lbs. - Not at all
  • 10 to 25 lbs. - Not at all
  • 26 to 50 lbs. - Not at all
  • 51 to 75 lbs. - Not at all
  • 75 to 100 lbs. - Not at all
  • 100+ lbs. - Not at all

Physical Activity

Frequency at which you would do the following in a typical day:

• Sitting (a continuous period of being seated) - Continuously
• Standing (for sustained periods of time) - Frequently
• Walking (moving about on foot to accomplish tasks) - Frequently
• Bending/stooping (downward and forward) - Occasionally
• Crawling (moving about on hands and knees or hands and feet) - Not at all
• Climbing/Walking Stairs (ascending or descending) - Frequently
• Reaching (extending arms in any direction) - Frequently
• Crouching/squatting (bending the body downward and forward by bending leg and spine) - Occasionally
• Kneeling (bending legs at knee to come to rest on knee(s)) - Occasionally
• Balancing (maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling) - Occasionally
• Repetitive motion (substantial movement (motions) or the wrists, hands, and/or fingers) - Continuously
• Pivoting (movement in any direction with one foot, keeping the other in contact with the floor) - Occasionally
• Pushing/Pulling (using upper extremities to press against or draw or tug) - Occasionally
• Grasping (Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and palm) - Continuously
• Fingering (picking, pinching, typing; working with primarily fingers and not whole hand) - Continuously
• Talking (expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word) - Frequently
• Driving (the control and operation of a motor vehicle) - Occasionally
• Desk work (work usually performed at a desk) - Continuously
• Use of a computer - Continuously
• Use of a telephone - Frequently
• Hearing (Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels) - Continuously
• Exposure (to adverse weather & temperature conditions) - Not at all
• Travel (travel needed to perform job duties) - Occasionally

Additional Information

This job description is a summary of the job duties and responsibilities and is not intended to cover all possible job duties and is subject to change at the employer’s discretion. Employees must be able to perform the essential job duties and satisfy job requirements either with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Our History

Border States is a leader in the electrical supply distribution industry with approximately 130 locations in 31 states. Our employee-owners are second to none in delivering top-notch customer service and in demonstrating extra-ordinary people skills. We are one of the largest independent electrical distributors in the United States providing products and services to the construction, industrial and utility industries. Border States has a competitive benefit package and is a 100 percent employee-owned company. Employee-ownership is a significant part of our culture and our success stems from the dedication of our employee-owners. We practice open-book management and our employee-owners are empowered with clearly defined levels of authority to be innovative and decisive, allowing us to respond quickly to the needs of customers. Employee-owners understand their roles in the success of the company and care about customers’ needs, which drives our focus on adding value to everything we do. We recognize that not all customers are the same and each has specific requirements. Our employee-owners understand these diverse needs and have the commitment, resourcefulness and flexibility to outperform all others.

Values
As a Border States employee-owner, you’re responsible for living our mission, service philosophy and service standards.

Our Purpose
We believe unstoppable businesses shouldn't go it alone. We are owners - of relationships, of outcomes, of every moment these unstoppable businesses need to deliver.

Service Philosophy
We earn customer loyalty and confidence by caring about their needs and adding value to everything we do.

Service Standards
Border States employee-owners are competent, accurate, responsive, and engaged .

Your career
Join an experienced team at one of the largest electrical distributors in the United States. What are you waiting for?

Border States has a competitive benefits package which includes but is not limited to:

Health, Dental and Vision Benefits
Accident, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity
FSA & HSA
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
Disability Benefits
401(k) Retirement Plan
Life Insurance
Employee Assistance Program
Paid Holidays
Paid Volunteer Time
Personal Leave time and more!
Border States provides bonuses to their employee-owners upon the achievement of branch and company goals.

Equal Opportunity For All

It’s not just the law. It’s something we’ve believed in since our founding. We value the diversity of all of our employee-owners and will always be an equal opportunity employer.

Drug Free/Smoke Free workplace

Employment may be contingent on the offered candidate successfully passing one or more of the following pre-employment screenings:

• Criminal background check (required for all positions)
• Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) check (required for positions involving driving)
• Drug testing

The MVR check and drug testing vary by role and will be communicated to the offered candidate during the onboarding process and as applicable.