6 free templates for the clerk tier: standard, entry-level, collections focus, construction, senior, and part-time or remote. With the cash controls, overtime classification, and collection rules generic templates leave out. Download as DOCX.
The accounts receivable job at a small company almost never starts as a job. It starts as something the owner does on a Sunday, then something the office manager squeezes in, and it becomes a real hire only once the invoicing is visibly late and a customer mentions they never got the bill.
By that point the posting gets written in ten minutes. It says accounts receivable clerk, lists five generic duties copied from somewhere, and skips the three things that actually decide whether this hire works: the volume you are handing over, the approval limits the person will hold, and whether they are allowed to call a customer about money.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for employers who have no HR department to hand this to. The six below cover the clerk tier specifically, from a first trainee hire through a senior clerk who closes the receivable at month-end. Every one includes the controls language and the classification note that generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
An accounts receivable clerk invoices customers, posts payments, reconciles the ledger, and chases overdue accounts. The role is non-exempt and hourly. BLS OEWS (May 2025) puts the median for the occupation that covers it at $50,670 a year, or $24.36 an hour. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What an Accounts Receivable Clerk Actually Owns
An accounts receivable clerk owns four connected things: billing, cash application, reconciliation, and follow-up. At a company large enough to have an accounting department those are four different desks. At a small business they are one person, and that combination is the single most important fact about the role.
The reason is that the four duties check each other. Whoever sends the invoice, receives the payment, records it, and decides what to write off has no natural counterweight. That is a staffing reality rather than a character judgment, and the fix belongs in the job description rather than in a policy nobody reads.
Billing
Getting the invoice out correctly
Preparing and sending invoices and statements on the billing cycle, with the right amounts, terms, purchase order numbers, and tax treatment. Most late payments start as a billing error, not a customer problem.
Cash application
Matching money to invoices
Posting cash, check, ACH, and card payments against the right open invoices, then chasing down short pays, overpayments, and unapplied cash. This is where accuracy compounds or unravels.
Reconciliation
Proving the ledger is right
Keeping the AR subledger tied to the general ledger, maintaining the aging report, and clearing the items that do not agree. At month-end this is the work that makes the close possible.
Follow-up
Collecting without losing the customer
Contacting past due accounts on a set cadence, documenting every conversation, and resolving the real reason for non-payment. Often a dispute or a bad address rather than an unwilling customer.
Settle the Tier Before You Write a Word
Clerk, senior clerk, and specialist are genuinely different hires at genuinely different pay bands, and the fastest way to stall a search is to describe clerk duties while asking for specialist independence. A clerk follows an established procedure and escalates what does not reconcile. A senior clerk adds month-end reconciliation and reviews junior work. A specialist owns the cycle and works an account to conclusion without checking in. Decide which one your volume actually requires, then price the posting to that tier.
If you are still deciding between hiring for receivables alone or for the whole finance function, the broader accounts receivable job description templates cover the ladder from clerk through coordinator, and the bookkeeper templates cover the generalist alternative.
6 Accounts Receivable Clerk Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a controls or compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you change.
Download All 6 Accounts Receivable Clerk Job Description Templates
Standard, entry-level, collections focus, construction, senior, and part-time or remote. All in one download.
Standard AR Clerk
The core posting
The full billing, cash application, reconciliation, and follow-up role, with the controls note and the approval limit written into the document.
Entry-Level AR Clerk
No experience required
For a first accounting hire you intend to train, with a stated training plan and approval authority deliberately kept with the supervisor.
Collections Focus
Working the aging
For a clerk whose main job is recovering past due balances, with authority limits, contact hours, and the collections compliance note filled in.
Construction and Trades
Progress billing and retainage
For contractors: pay applications, retainage tracking, lien waiver exchange, and a deadline calendar where a missed date costs real money.
Senior AR Clerk
Top of the clerk track
For the person who closes the receivable at month-end and reviews junior work, with a blunt note on why seniority alone does not create an exemption.
Part-Time / Remote
Set hours, tracked
For the stage between the owner doing the invoicing and a full-time hire, with the schedule, the equipment, and the timekeeping rule spelled out.
Template 1: Standard Accounts Receivable Clerk
The core posting, covering the full billing, cash application, reconciliation, and follow-up cycle, with the internal controls note and a dollar approval limit written into the document itself.
[Company Name] is a [industry] business in [City, State] with [number] employees
and roughly [number] active customer accounts. We invoice about [number] times a
month on [net 30 / net 15 / milestone] terms. This role owns the money coming in.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Accounts Receivable Clerk prepares and sends customer invoices, posts
incoming payments, reconciles the accounts receivable ledger, researches
discrepancies, and follows up on past due balances so cash arrives on schedule.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Prepare and send customer invoices and monthly statements on our billing cycle
•Post cash, check, ACH, and card payments to the correct customer accounts
•Apply payments against open invoices and research short pays and overpayments
•Prepare bank deposits and reconcile the AR subledger to the general ledger
•Maintain the AR aging report and flag accounts past [30 / 60 / 90] days
•Contact customers about overdue balances by phone and email, on our schedule
•Research and resolve billing disputes with [sales / operations / the customer]
•Prepare credit memos and write-off requests for approval by [name or title]
•Support month-end close with reconciliations and requested reports
•Maintain customer billing records, tax exemption certificates, and W-9s
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•High school diploma or equivalent; [associate degree in accounting preferred]
•[Number] years in accounts receivable, billing, or general accounting support
•Comfort with accounting software and spreadsheets, including lookups and pivots
•Accuracy with numbers and a habit of checking work before it goes out
•Professional phone manner for collection calls with customers you want to keep
•Must clear a background check appropriate to a role with financial access
INTERNAL CONTROLS NOTE (read before posting)
Accounts receivable is a cash-handling role, so decide the control structure
before you hire. Wherever headcount allows, the person who receives payments
should not also post them to the ledger and should not approve credit memos or
write-offs. Where one person must do all three, use compensating controls: the
owner or an outside bookkeeper reviews the deposit detail against the posting
log, approves every credit memo and write-off above $_, and reviews the
AR aging monthly. State the approval limit in this job description so the
boundary is documented from day one.
FLSA CLASSIFICATION NOTE
This role is non-exempt: hourly, with overtime for hours worked past 40 in a
workweek. The duties are routine recording, posting, and verifying rather than
work directly related to management or general business operations exercising
discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, so the
administrative exemption does not apply. A job title alone never establishes
exempt status. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [schedule]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 2: Entry-Level Accounts Receivable Clerk
For a first accounting hire you intend to train. It states the training plan explicitly and keeps approval authority with the supervisor, which is the right structure when the person is new to the function.
For a clerk whose main job is recovering past due balances, with authority limits, contact hours, and a compliance note covering the rules that apply when you collect your own accounts.
Compensation: $_ per hour [plus collection incentive, if offered]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] carries roughly $_ in open receivables with [number]
accounts past [30 / 60 / 90] days. We are hiring an AR Clerk whose main focus is
recovering that balance while keeping customers we want to keep. Our customers
are [businesses / consumers / both], which determines the rules below.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Accounts Receivable Clerk works the aging report, contacts customers about
past due balances on a defined cadence, documents every contact, negotiates
payment arrangements within set limits, and escalates accounts that meet our
referral criteria.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Work the AR aging daily and prioritize by balance, age, and account risk
•Contact past due customers by phone, email, and letter on our contact schedule
•Log every contact attempt, conversation, and promise to pay in [system]
•Negotiate payment plans within the limits set below, and document them
•Resolve the underlying reason for non-payment: dispute, short pay, or bad data
•Recommend accounts for [credit hold / outside referral / write-off]
•Prepare the weekly collections report: promises, recoveries, and aging movement
•Post payments received and apply them to the correct invoices
•Keep customer contact records and payment arrangement documents current
AUTHORITY LIMITS (fill these in before posting)
•May offer a payment plan up to $________ over ________ months without approval
•May waive late fees up to $________ per account without approval
•May not place a credit hold without approval from [name or title]
•May not refer an account outside or write it off without approval
•Contact hours: no earlier than ________ and no later than ________, local time
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•High school diploma or equivalent; [associate degree preferred]
•[Number] years in collections, accounts receivable, or customer billing
•Comfort holding a direct conversation about money without escalating it
•Accurate record-keeping: every call documented the same day
•Must clear a background check appropriate to a role with financial access
COLLECTIONS COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
Confirm which rules apply to you before this person makes a single call. The
federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act generally reaches those whose
principal purpose is collecting debts and those who regularly collect debts owed
to another party, so a business collecting its own accounts in its own name is
usually outside it. Two things can change that. First, the statute reaches a
creditor who uses a name other than its own suggesting a third party is
collecting, so never let staff invent an agency name or letterhead. Second, the
federal act covers consumer debt, meaning obligations from transactions
primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, so purely business to
business receivables sit outside it. State debt collection laws are often
broader and some reach first-party creditors, so check your state before you
set the call script, the contact hours, and the letter wording. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [incentive structure], [benefits summary]
Note: any collection incentive must be included in the regular rate when
calculating overtime for a non-exempt employee.
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 4: Accounts Receivable Clerk, Construction and Trades
For contractors, where billing is progress based rather than transactional: pay applications, retainage tracking, lien waiver exchange, and a deadline calendar where a missed date has real financial consequences.
Accounts Receivable Clerk, Construction and Trades Job Description
[Company Name] is a [general contractor / specialty trade / subcontractor] in
[City, State] running [number] active jobs. Our billing is progress based, not
transactional, which makes this AR role different from a standard office job:
the paperwork controls whether we get paid at all.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Accounts Receivable Clerk prepares progress billings and pay applications,
tracks retainage, manages lien waiver exchange, posts payments by job, and keeps
the job-level receivable accurate for the owner and the project managers.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Prepare monthly progress billings and pay applications per contract format
•Assemble required backup: schedules of values, change orders, certified
payroll, and any owner-required documentation
•Track retainage by job: amount held, release conditions, and release timing
•Prepare, request, and track conditional and unconditional lien waivers from
[our company / our subcontractors and suppliers]
•Maintain the lien deadline calendar and escalate approaching dates
•Post payments by job and reconcile the job-level receivable
•Track change order billing status and unbilled work in progress
•Produce the job-level AR aging for the owner and project managers
•Follow up on past due pay applications with [general contractor / owner]
•Maintain certificates of insurance, W-9s, and compliance documents
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•High school diploma or equivalent; construction accounting coursework a plus
•[Number] years in construction billing, AR, or project administration
•Working knowledge of progress billing, retainage, and lien waiver exchange
•Comfort with construction accounting software and spreadsheets
•Ability to hold a deadline calendar where a missed date has real consequences
•Must clear a background check appropriate to a role with financial access
COMPLIANCE AND CONTROLS NOTE
Mechanics lien and prompt payment rules are set by state and the deadlines are
strict, so confirm your state requirements and build the deadline calendar
before this person starts rather than after the first missed date. Keep waiver
signing authority with an owner or officer, not the clerk. This role is
non-exempt: hourly with overtime past 40 hours in a workweek, which matters here
because progress billing clusters at month-end and hours spike. Budget for that
overtime instead of pretending the peak does not exist. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [overtime expectation]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 5: Senior Accounts Receivable Clerk
For the top of the clerk track: full cycle ownership, month-end reconciliation, and review of junior work. The classification note explains directly why seniority alone does not create an overtime exemption.
Senior Accounts Receivable Clerk Job Description
SENIOR ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE CLERK JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Controller / Accounting Manager / Owner]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt unless the duties genuinely change (see note)
Compensation: $_ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is hiring a Senior Accounts Receivable Clerk to own the full AR
cycle end to end, close the receivable at month-end, and act as the first
reviewer for [number] junior clerk(s). This is the top of the clerk track, not a
management role.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Senior Accounts Receivable Clerk runs the complete billing and collection
cycle, performs the AR reconciliations that support month-end close, reviews
junior work, and maintains the process documentation the function depends on.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the full AR cycle: invoicing, cash application, aging, and follow-up
•Reconcile the AR subledger to the general ledger and clear reconciling items
•Prepare month-end AR schedules, accruals, and the allowance analysis
•Review junior clerk postings and reminder correspondence before release
•Investigate and resolve aged, disputed, and unapplied items
•Maintain the AR process documentation and the desk procedures
•Prepare AR reporting for [owner / controller / lender]: DSO, aging, write-offs
•Support the annual review or audit with requested schedules and support
•Recommend process and system improvements to shorten collection time
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Associate degree in accounting preferred; equivalent experience considered]
•[Number] years in accounts receivable, including reconciliation work
•Demonstrated ability to reconcile a subledger and explain the differences
•Strong spreadsheet skill and comfort with our accounting system
•Judgment about when to escalate rather than resolve alone
•Must clear a background check appropriate to a role with financial access
FLSA CLASSIFICATION NOTE (read carefully)
Seniority in a title does not create an exemption. A senior clerk who performs
more complex versions of the same recording, posting, verifying, and reconciling
work remains non-exempt: hourly, with overtime past 40 hours in a workweek.
Paying a salary above the weekly threshold does not change that by itself,
because the duties test still has to be met independently. If the role genuinely
shifts to supervising staff as a primary duty, or to setting credit policy and
exercising discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance,
re-examine the classification then and document the analysis. Classify on the
actual work, not the title on the offer letter. This is general information, not
legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [review cycle]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: Part-Time or Remote Accounts Receivable Clerk
For the stage between the owner doing the invoicing and a full-time hire, with the schedule, the equipment, and the timekeeping rule spelled out. If billing is the whole job, compare it against the billing clerk templates.
[Company Name] does not yet need a full-time accounts receivable person, but the
invoicing has outgrown the owner. We are hiring a part-time AR Clerk for
[number] hours a week on a set schedule, working [remotely / from our office],
to keep billing on time and cash arriving predictably.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Accounts Receivable Clerk runs our invoicing and payment posting on a fixed
part-time schedule, keeps the aging current, follows up on past due accounts,
and gives the owner a short weekly picture of what is owed and what is late.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Send invoices on our billing cycle: [weekly / semi-monthly / on completion]
•Post payments and apply them to the correct open invoices
•Run and send the AR aging to the owner every [day of week]
•Send reminder emails at [15 / 30 / 45] days past due from approved wording
•Call accounts past [60] days and log the outcome
•Flag anything unusual: unapplied cash, disputes, or a customer going quiet
•Keep customer billing records, W-9s, and exemption certificates current
SCHEDULE AND WORK ARRANGEMENT
•Set schedule: ________ hours per week on [days], between ________ and ________
•Location: [fully remote / hybrid, ______ days onsite / onsite]
•Equipment: [we provide / you provide], with access to [system] via [method]
•Response expectation during scheduled hours: within ________
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•High school diploma or equivalent
•[Number] years in AR, billing, bookkeeping, or general accounting support
•Comfort working independently with limited daily supervision
•Reliable internet and a private workspace if the role is remote
•Must clear a background check appropriate to a role with financial access
CLASSIFICATION AND TIMEKEEPING NOTE
Part-time does not mean exempt, and remote does not mean untracked. This is a
non-exempt hourly role, so record all hours actually worked, including short
tasks outside the scheduled block, and pay overtime if the week passes 40 hours.
Off-the-clock work by a remote employee is one of the most common wage and hour
exposures for a small business, so give this person a real timekeeping method
and a clear instruction to record every worked minute. If you are engaging a
bookkeeping firm instead of an employee, that is a different arrangement with
different rules: do not blur the two. Also confirm your state rules on expense
reimbursement for remote employees. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [paid time off if offered], [schedule]
To apply, email __ with your resume and availability.
Cash Receipts Controls Belong in the Job Description
Separate three duties wherever headcount allows: receiving payments, posting them to the customer ledger, and approving credit memos or write-offs. Accounts receivable is the classic setting for lapping, where a payment from one customer quietly covers a balance taken from another.
The scheme survives because one person both records the receipt and reconciles the account, so the record and the check on the record come from the same hand. Splitting those duties is the textbook answer, and most small employers genuinely cannot do it with the headcount they have.
Split these three duties if you can
Receiving payments and opening the mail
Posting payments to the customer ledger
Approving credit memos and write-offs
Reconciling the bank account
Compensating controls when one person does it all
Owner compares deposit detail to the posting log
Owner approves every write-off above a set dollar limit
Owner reviews the AR aging monthly, not annually
Bank statements go to the owner unopened first
Write these into the job description
The approval limit in actual dollars
Who approves credit memos and write-offs by title
Which reports go to whom, and how often
That the role is subject to a background check
Signals worth watching in the aging
Customer balances that never quite clear
Rising unapplied cash with no explanation
Write-offs clustered near the approval limit
A clerk who never takes consecutive time off
The realistic answer for a small business is compensating controls rather than more people. The owner receives bank statements unopened first, compares deposit detail against the posting log, approves every write-off above a stated dollar limit, and reviews the aging monthly. Four habits, none of which require a new hire.
Put the Approval Limit in the Job Description, in Dollars
The most common gap is not a missing control, it is an unwritten one. Everybody assumes the owner approves the big write-offs, nobody has said what big means, and the limit gets discovered during a disagreement rather than agreed in advance. Write the actual number into the job description, name the approver by title, and have the person sign the document at hire. It takes one line, it costs nothing, and it converts a vague expectation into a documented boundary that a new clerk inherits on day one.
When the Clerk Chases Overdue Accounts
An in-house accounts receivable clerk collecting your own accounts is generally outside the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which targets those whose principal purpose is collecting debts and those who regularly collect debts owed to another party. That is the starting point, not the whole answer.
Two carve-outs pull real employers back in, and state law frequently reaches further than the federal statute does. Because the same clerk who sends invoices usually makes the calls, the compliance question arrives with the hire rather than later.
Collecting your own debt is usually outside the federal act
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is aimed at people whose principal purpose is collecting debts and at those who regularly collect debts owed to another party. A business collecting its own accounts, in its own name, with its own employees, generally falls outside that definition. That is why an in-house AR clerk is not automatically bound by the federal rules that govern an outside agency. Treat this as the starting point of the analysis and not the end of it, because two separate carve-outs pull real employers back in, and because the federal act is only one of the laws in play. Confirm your position before you write the call script. This is general information, not legal advice.
Using a false agency name pulls you straight back in
The statute expressly reaches a creditor who collects its own debts using any name other than its own that would indicate a third person is doing the collecting. This is not a technicality, it is a trap small businesses walk into deliberately, usually because someone believes a letter from an official-sounding recovery bureau will land harder than a letter from the company. If your AR clerk signs correspondence with an invented agency name, or the letterhead implies an outside collector, you can convert an exempt in-house activity into regulated conduct. Collect under your own company name, with a real employee name, every time. This is general information, not legal advice.
Business to business receivables are a different category
The federal act is built around consumer debt, meaning an obligation arising out of a transaction entered into primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. Receivables owed by other businesses for commercial goods and services generally sit outside that scope entirely. For most companies hiring an AR clerk this is the single most useful distinction to settle first, because it determines whether the consumer protection framework is relevant to your collection process at all. If you bill both consumers and businesses, do not assume one script covers both. Segment the aging and write the consumer-facing procedure to the stricter standard. This is general information, not legal advice.
State law is often broader than the federal act
Several states regulate debt collection more aggressively than the federal statute does, and some of those laws reach first-party creditors collecting their own accounts, which is exactly the gap the federal exclusion leaves open. State rules can govern contact hours, contact frequency, required disclosures, recording of calls, and licensing. Because the requirements differ by state and can turn on where the customer sits rather than where you sit, check your own state agency and the states you bill into before setting the process. Then put the contact hours and the approved wording in writing so a new clerk inherits a compliant script instead of improvising one. This is general information, not legal advice.
The statutory definitions sit in 15 U.S.C. 1692a, which is worth reading before you write a call script, particularly the language covering a creditor who collects using a name other than its own. Whichever rules apply, give the clerk approved wording, fixed contact hours, and a documented escalation path rather than letting each person improvise.
Why the Word Clerk Does Not Settle the Overtime Question
An accounts receivable clerk is non-exempt in nearly every case: hourly, with overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. The duties are routine recording, posting, verifying, and reconciling, which is production-side clerical work rather than the kind of judgment the administrative exemption requires.
That exemption applies a two-part duties test set out in the Department of Labor guidance on the administrative employee exemption: the primary duty must be work directly related to management or general business operations, and it must include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. Standard AR work does not clear that bar.
What employers assume
What actually decides it
A salary makes the role exempt
The federal threshold is $684 a week, or $35,568 a year, and clearing it is necessary but never sufficient on its own
A senior or lead title makes the role exempt
Federal regulation states a job title alone is insufficient to establish exempt status
Handling money is management work
Recording and posting transactions is production-side clerical work, not general business operations
Approving small write-offs is discretion
Discretion must concern matters of significance, and a capped approval limit is the opposite of that
Part-time or remote status changes it
Neither affects classification; both make accurate timekeeping harder and more important
Paying a flat weekly amount avoids overtime
Overtime is owed on hours past 40 regardless of how the base pay is expressed
The regulation on this point is unusually blunt: 29 CFR 541.2 states that a job title alone is insufficient to establish exempt status, and that status must be determined on whether salary and duties meet the requirements. For the underlying tests, our guide to exempt versus non-exempt classification works through each one.
Two practical consequences follow. Month-end billing peaks produce real overtime, so budget for it rather than pretending the peak does not exist. And any collection incentive you offer has to be folded into the regular rate when you calculate overtime pay, which employers offering a recovery bonus routinely miss.
What to Pay an Accounts Receivable Clerk
There is no federal occupation titled accounts receivable clerk. The title is classified under bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, SOC 43-3031, where it appears among the reported job titles for the occupation, so that is the correct benchmark for a national figure.
Median $50,670 a Year, or $24.36 an Hour
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (SOC 43-3031) had a national median wage of $50,670 a year, or $24.36 an hour. The lowest 10 percent earned under $36,000 and the highest 10 percent over $74,550, with the 25th percentile at $43,520 and the 75th at $61,470 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS).
Benchmark
National figure (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How to use it
SOC 43-3031, 10th percentile
$36,000 per year / $17.31 per hour
Floor for an entry-level clerk you expect to train
SOC 43-3031, 25th percentile
$43,520 per year / $20.92 per hour
Realistic band for a first AR hire with some experience
SOC 43-3031, median
$50,670 per year / $24.36 per hour
A standard clerk running the full cycle unsupervised
SOC 43-3031, 75th percentile
$61,470 per year / $29.55 per hour
Senior clerk closing the receivable at month-end
SOC 43-3031, 90th percentile
$74,550 per year / $35.84 per hour
Top of the clerk track, or a high cost-of-living market
Bill and account collectors (43-3011)
$47,030 per year / $22.61 per hour
Closer comparison for a collections-focused posting
Billing and posting clerks (43-3021)
$48,500 per year / $23.32 per hour
Closer comparison when billing is the whole job
Express the range hourly rather than annually, because the role is non-exempt and candidates compare hourly rates. Then publish it: pay transparency rules now require a good-faith range in a growing number of states, and our guide to pay transparency laws covers where posting is mandatory.
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Screen for accuracy with a practical exercise rather than an interview question. Give the candidate a small aging report and a batch of payments to apply, including one short pay and one payment that does not match any open invoice, then watch what they do with the two that do not reconcile.
The answer you want is not a guess. It is a question, a note, and an escalation. A clerk who forces a mismatched payment into the nearest invoice to clear the queue creates a reconciliation problem that surfaces months later, and no reference check reveals that habit the way a fifteen minute exercise does.
Two Sentences Every Finance Posting Should Carry
First, that employment is contingent on a background check appropriate to a role with financial access. Second, that the role carries a stated approval limit and that credit memos and write-offs above it require approval by a named title. The first is a filter that works before you spend interview time. The second sets the expectation that this is a controlled position, which is exactly the signal a careful candidate wants and a careless one does not. Our guide to running a background check covers the process and the notice requirements.
For structured questions to pair with the exercise, the accounting clerk interview questions cover the reconciliation and judgment areas that matter most at this tier.
Hiring an AR Clerk Without an HR Department
Small business AR hiring fails in three predictable places: the role gets posted without defined scope, one person ends up holding every cash duty at once, and the onboarding paperwork for a finance hire arrives all at once with nowhere to live. Each has a fix that costs nothing.
The role gets posted as a favor to the owner, not as a defined job
At most small companies the accounts receivable work starts as something the owner or the office manager does at night, and it only becomes a job once the invoicing is visibly late. By then nobody has written down what the role actually covers, so the posting says accounts receivable clerk and lists five generic duties. Candidates cannot tell whether you need someone to send twelve invoices a month or to run progress billing across forty active jobs, and the two are not the same hire. Before you post, write down the volume: how many invoices, on what cycle, on what terms, with how many past due accounts. Those four numbers do more to attract the right applicant than any adjective, and they let you set an honest pay band for the tier you actually need.
One person ends up handling billing, deposits, posting, and write-offs
Separation of duties sounds like advice written for companies with an accounting department, and small employers usually skip it for the obvious reason that there is only one person available. The risk is not theoretical: accounts receivable is the classic setting for lapping, where a payment from one customer covers a balance quietly taken from another, and it survives precisely because the same person records the receipt and reconciles the account. You do not need more headcount to close the gap. You need the owner to open the bank statement first, to compare deposit detail against the posting log, to approve every write-off above a stated dollar limit, and to look at the aging every month. Write those four controls into the job description so the boundary is documented before anyone is hired into it.
The paperwork for a finance hire arrives all at once and nothing is centralized
An accounts receivable clerk gets financial system access, customer data, and often the bank portal on day one, which means the onboarding paperwork is heavier than for most hourly roles: signed offer, background check clearance, Form I-9 with documents verified, W-4 and state tax forms, state new hire reporting, a confidentiality acknowledgment, a written statement of approval limits, and system access records. FirstHR was built for that burst. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence every time, built-in e-signature handles the offer and the acknowledgments, document management stores the clearance and the signed authority limits against the employee profile, and training modules cover your billing process and your controls before the first invoice goes out. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work becomes a repeatable onboarding checklist: clearance, forms, system access, and a written statement of approval limits before the first invoice goes out. For related finance roles, the hiring templates library covers the rest of the function.
Key Takeaways
An accounts receivable clerk owns four connected duties: billing, cash application, reconciliation, and follow-up, which at a small company all land on one person.
The role is non-exempt and overtime-eligible; a salary above the $684 weekly threshold and a senior title both fail to create an exemption on their own, because the duties test must be met independently.
BLS OEWS (May 2025) puts the median for SOC 43-3031, the occupation that covers this title, at $50,670 a year or $24.36 an hour, ranging from $36,000 at the 10th percentile to $74,550 at the 90th.
Separate receiving payments, posting them, and approving write-offs where headcount allows; where it does not, the owner should review deposits against postings and approve write-offs above a stated dollar limit.
A business collecting its own accounts in its own name is generally outside the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but using an invented agency name or billing consumers changes the analysis, and state law often reaches further.
Write the approval limit in actual dollars into the job description itself, and screen with a practical aging exercise rather than an interview question about attention to detail.
A finance hire gets system access, customer data, and often the bank portal on day one, so the onboarding is heavier than the job title suggests. FirstHR runs the same sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and the confidentiality acknowledgment, document storage for the background check clearance and the signed approval limits, and training modules that cover your billing process before the first invoice goes out. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an accounts receivable clerk do?
An accounts receivable clerk owns the money coming into the business across four areas. First, billing: preparing and sending customer invoices and statements on the billing cycle with correct amounts, terms, and tax treatment. Second, cash application: posting cash, check, ACH, and card payments against the right open invoices and resolving short pays, overpayments, and unapplied cash. Third, reconciliation: keeping the AR subledger tied to the general ledger, maintaining the aging report, and clearing items that do not agree. Fourth, follow-up: contacting past due accounts on a set cadence, documenting every conversation, and resolving the underlying reason for non-payment, which is often a billing dispute or a bad contact record rather than an unwilling customer. At a small company the same person usually does all four, which is exactly why the internal controls question matters.
Is an accounts receivable clerk exempt or non-exempt?
Non-exempt in nearly every case, meaning hourly and entitled to overtime past 40 hours in a workweek. The work is routine recording, posting, verifying, and reconciling, which is production-side clerical work rather than work directly related to management or general business operations performed with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance. That two-part duties test is what the administrative exemption requires, and standard AR work does not meet it. Two points employers get wrong. Paying a salary above the federal threshold of $684 a week, or $35,568 a year, does not by itself create an exemption, because the duties test must be satisfied independently. And a senior or lead title does not change the analysis either: federal regulation states plainly that a job title alone is insufficient to establish exempt status. Classify on the actual duties and document the reasoning. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does an accounts receivable clerk make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation titled accounts receivable clerk. The title is classified under bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, SOC 43-3031, where it appears among the reported job titles for the occupation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), that occupation had a national median wage of $50,670 a year, or $24.36 an hour, with the lowest 10 percent under $36,000 and the highest 10 percent over $74,550. The 25th percentile sits at $43,520 and the 75th at $61,470. Two adjacent classifications are useful for benchmarking a narrower role: bill and account collectors reported a median of $47,030 a year, and billing and posting clerks $48,500. Entry-level clerk postings tend to sit between the 10th and 25th percentiles, while a senior clerk who closes the receivable at month-end belongs nearer the 75th.
What is the difference between an accounts receivable clerk and a specialist?
The difference is scope and independence rather than the tasks themselves. A clerk follows an established procedure: send the invoices, post the payments, run the aging, send the reminders, and escalate anything that does not reconcile. A specialist owns the cycle, resolves disputes without escalating each one, handles the harder cash application problems, and is trusted to work an account to conclusion. A senior clerk sits between them and typically adds month-end reconciliation and review of junior work. None of these tiers is exempt from overtime by default, because the underlying work stays clerical at every level. The practical reason to settle the tier before posting is pay: the bands genuinely differ, and a posting that describes clerk duties while asking for specialist independence attracts the wrong applicants and stalls.
Does the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act apply to my in-house AR clerk?
Usually not, but the answer has real exceptions worth checking. The federal act targets people whose principal purpose is collecting debts and those who regularly collect debts owed to another party, so a business collecting its own accounts in its own name with its own employees generally falls outside it. Three things change the picture. The statute expressly reaches a creditor who collects using any name other than its own that would suggest a third party is collecting, so never let a clerk sign correspondence with an invented agency name. The federal act covers consumer debt, meaning obligations from transactions primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, so purely business to business receivables sit outside it. And several state debt collection laws are broader than the federal statute, with some reaching first-party creditors and regulating contact hours, frequency, and disclosures. Check your state before writing the call script. This is general information, not legal advice.
What internal controls should an accounts receivable role have?
Separate three duties wherever headcount allows: receiving payments, posting them to the customer ledger, and approving credit memos or write-offs. Accounts receivable is the classic setting for lapping, where a payment from one customer quietly covers a balance taken from another, and the scheme survives precisely because one person both records the receipt and reconciles the account. Small employers often cannot split the work, and that is fine as long as compensating controls exist. The owner should receive bank statements unopened first, compare deposit detail against the posting log, approve every write-off above a stated dollar limit, and review the AR aging monthly rather than annually. Put the approval limit in actual dollars into the job description itself, along with who approves what by title, so the boundary is documented before anyone is hired into the role.
How do I hire an accounts receivable clerk for a small business?
Start by writing down four numbers: how many invoices you send, on what cycle, on what payment terms, and how many accounts are currently past due. Those numbers determine which tier you need and what to pay, and they attract better applicants than any adjective. Pick the template variant that matches your situation, fill in the approval limits before posting rather than after, and state the hourly range because the role is non-exempt and candidates expect it. Screen for accuracy over speed with a short practical exercise: give a candidate a small aging report and a batch of payments to apply, including one short pay. Run a background check appropriate to financial access, then onboard properly, because this hire gets system access and customer data immediately. FirstHR handles that onboarding sequence with e-signature, document management, and training modules. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
