20 Mar 2023
Etudiants & apprenants
Métiers
The role of the credit manager is to optimise financial management, to guarantee the payment of sales and the good financial health of a company. Credit management is an essential position within any company to secure its sustainability. Missions, training, skills, salary... learn about all the aspects of this challenging and very responsible position with IPAG Business School.
Credit management is a strategic position in the field of finance that aims to maintain a company's level of outstanding debts. Allowing a customer to delay a payment exposes a company to potential cash flow difficulties and risks jeopardising its financial health. This is where credit management intervenes to assess, control and monitor financial risks. Preventing the risk of non-payment, ensuring timely collection, avoiding late payment by customers... credit management includes all of these aspects at once.
Cash management, risk awareness, control of outstanding receivables and receivables management are all challenges for the credit manager. This expert must define clear commitments with the client upstream on payment terms according to the company's cash flow.
Since he manages customer receivables, the credit manager must encourage the development of a healthy relationship with his customers and must ensure that commercial performance is not achieved at the expense of the company's financial health.
By reducing late payments, credit management enables the company to control its working capital requirements and optimise its cash flow, which is essential for financial balance and business development.
The credit manager must also put in place the appropriate means to develop financing capacities through cash flow. The aim is to avoid having to resort to external credit to finance unforeseen payment delays.
In the execution of his role, the credit manager has several tasks, in particular related to the management of the customer account. This professional assesses and identifies the insolvency risks associated with each client. The objective is to guide the sales department towards the best customer credit policies (amount of authorised debt, payment period, reminder policy, etc.) to adopt. Its mission is to prevent risks on acquirers in order to limit payment defaults, to monitor payment incidents and to manage debt recovery.
In the context of commercial transactions, the credit manager establishes payment conditions according to customer profiles, updates the company's General Terms and Conditions of Business to optimise the financial situation and monitors outstanding amounts from invoicing to payment.
The profession of credit manager is a position of responsibility that bridges the gap between customers and management. Indeed, the credit manager wears two hats: he or she must satisfy the customer by granting credit while at the same time securing the company's receivables.
In order to carry out all of his tasks, the credit manager must have technical skills in the fields of finance, law and trade. This expert must be able to master financial and accounting analysis, legal concepts, financial and commercial regulations. On the international job market, mastery of a foreign language is highly valued.
In addition to professional skills, the job of credit manager requires a keen sense of interpersonal skills, diplomacy and rigour. In constant contact with internal and external contacts, the credit manager must be able to communicate well and negotiate with clients and advise sales staff.
After graduating, a credit manager can earn a salary of between €2 900 and €3 700 euros gross per month in a junior position. After a few years of experience, this professional can earn between €4 000 and €5 400 euros gross per month. For a senior profile, the credit manager's salary can reach 6,600 euros gross.
To become a credit manager, you generally need to complete a 5-year degree. The IPAG business school offers a range of courses to acquire all the skills needed to become a credit manager.
The master's degree in corporate finance enables future graduates to learn about financial management, auditing, accounting and financial strategy consulting. By choosing a master's degree in supply chain, students specialise in law and international trade, management control and supply chain management.
IPAG also offers an MBA with a specialisation in finance and investment. This is an 18-month programme that trains future professionals in risk management, project management and management. The graduate also has the possibility to go on to the IPAG Grande Ecole Programme, a complete training with several specialisation options and a rich professional experience allowing a rapid insertion on the job market.
The credit manager can progress to positions of responsibility (risk manager, financial manager) or even within a consultancy firm specialising in client risk. Find out more about the various professions in corporate finance.
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