AR & Deductions Manager

Company & Culture:  At GT’s Living Foods, we’re more than just a company – we’re a community passionate about creating a healthier, happier world. Over the last 30 years we’ve built a culture of inclusivity and authenticity, where our shared values create an environment that inspires you to do your best while achieving meaningful results. Our mission to transform health and happiness through potent, living foods has established us as the #1 Kombucha brand and a leader in the Health & Wellness space. Requirements:   5–7+ years of AR, collections, and deductions experience in CPG food or beverage, including hands-on deduction work with UNFI and KeHE.  Direct experience resolving deductions with major retailers such as Walmart, Kroger, Costco, and Target, with a track record of successful disputes and measurable recoveries.  3+ years of people management experience leading AR, collections, or deductions staff, including setting KPIs, prioritizing workload, and conducting performance reviews.  Demonstrated ownership of credit and collections, including credit limits, high-risk account management, and a measurable DSO improvement.  Strong understanding of trade promotion mechanics, distributor chargebacks, and how deductions tie to trade accruals.  Working knowledge of GAAP for AR, revenue recognition, trade accruals, and allowance for doubtful accounts.  Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, data modeling).  Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with the ability to hold firm with customers and influence Sales and other internal partners.  Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.  Preferred:   Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365.  Experience with Confido, HighRadius, or a similar deduction management platform, ideally including an implementation.  Experience in CPG, ideally Food and Beverage, where spoils and unsaleables are material.  Experience with large distributors (UNFI, KEHE)  Experience with Power BI or Tableau.  Job Responsibilities: GT's Living Foods is seeking a hands-on AR & Deductions Manager to lead our Accounts Receivable team and own the full back end of order-to-cash: deductions, credit, collections, and cash application. Reporting to the Controller, this role leads a team of AR Coordinators, sets the team's priorities and standards, and is accountable for results: deductions recovered, DSO, deduction aging, and a controlled, audit-ready process. This is a working manager role. The ideal candidate leads and develops the team day to day while personally handling the most complex and highest-value disputes, customer escalations, and credit decisions. They bring deep CPG experience with natural and specialty distributors (UNFI, KeHE) and major retailers (Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Target), and will serve as the business lead for our deduction management platform implementation (Confido or similar) on Microsoft Dynamics 365. Essential Duties:  Team Leadership & Development: Lead, coach, and develop a team of AR Coordinators. Set clear roles, individual goals, and KPIs, and hold the team accountable for quality, timeliness, and results. Assign and prioritize the team's work across cash application, collections, and deductions by customer, dollar value, and dispute window, so effort goes where recovery potential is greatest. Review the team's work regularly, including deduction coding, dispute packages, and write-off requests, and approve within delegated authority. Run a weekly team operating rhythm covering open deductions, collections status, aging, escalations, and KPI performance. Build team capability through training, documented procedures, and cross-training so that no process depends on a single person. Conduct performance reviews, give regular feedback, address performance issues, and recommend staffing, hiring, and team structure as the business grows. Deductions Management & Recovery: Own the deduction lifecycle end to end (identification, coding, validation, dispute, recovery, and write-off) and the team's performance at each step. Oversee validation of trade deductions (EDLP, off-invoice, billbacks, MCBs, scan and promo, slotting and new item fees, free fill, fair share) and non-trade deductions (shortages, spoils and unsaleables, damages, mis-ships, freight, pricing discrepancies, compliance fines) against customer agreements, approved promotions, and the promo calendar. Personally lead complex, high-value, and aged disputes with UNFI, KeHE, and major retailers, including compliance fines and third-party post-audit claims. Set the standard for dispute documentation (proof of delivery, pricing, contracts) that wins claims. Ensure dispute windows are tracked by customer so no valid claim goes unrecovered because a deadline was missed. Review all open deductions weekly and deliver a summary to the Controller with aging, recoveries, actions taken, and escalations. Analyze deduction trends by customer, type, and root cause, and drive prevention upstream with Sales, Customer Service, Supply Chain, and Logistics. Maintain a tracker for aged disputes and executive-level customer inquiries, and ensure timely response and resolution. Credit, Collections & DSO Optimization: Own collections performance across all customers, and direct the team's collections cadence and prioritization. Own DSO: set targets, report performance monthly, and deliver a measurable reduction through faster cash application, earlier deduction resolution, cleaner invoicing, and proactive past-due follow-up. Break DSO into its components (true past-dues, open deductions, unapplied cash, billing errors) so the right lever is applied to each. Maintain and enforce the credit policy, including new customer credit reviews, credit limits, periodic reassessment, and credit holds with clear escalation paths. Monitor high-risk and deteriorating accoun