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Billing Clerks: Job Description, Education, Skills and Duties, Earnings and Outlook

Submitted by: paula

Job Overview Business owners need to be updated with sales and purchases. Even in the old times, people had been documenting transactions. Clay tablets were used by Sumerians in Mesopotamia to record sales and bills in the olden times. Slaves were used by early Babylonia and Egyptian traders to monitor purchases and sales. They marked clay tablets as their records. As business and commerce prospered, billing clerks became an important part of the workforce,  since they are the ones who do the monitoring and managing of the company’s finance.

Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required

Those who want to work as billing clerk are preferred to have a high school diploma. Business class in Bookkeeping and Computer Operations are beneficial. Communications, Business Writing and English courses will be helpful in presenting financial reports for the company. Computer classes will help applicants work with taskes requiring computer skills, typing and spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel. Additional trainings on Business course are available in junior colleges, national schools and community colleges.

Skills and Abilities

Strong mathematical ability is needed for applicants who want to be billing clerks. Organizational skills are needed to make sure that they can easily present to business owners financial records in the past. As billing clerks, they need to know how to follow instructions and can stay focused even when they are working on several tasks at one time. Since they are dealing with confidential financial records, they need to be trustworthy, dependable and honest. It is important that they have a sharp eye when it comes to numerical information.

Duties

The nature of the business determines the duties and responsibilities of a billing clerk.

The main task of billing clerk is to have the financial records up-to-date. Their duty includes sending bills for products or services, updating files to post payments and reviewing invoices to make sure that the customers receive the products. They are responsible in setting up dates when the products will be shipped and received by the customer. Before products are shipped, billing clerks make sure that the order is complete and shipping charges, costs, credits and taxes are included. They monitor billing statements and uses the firm’s account ledger to enter all the information about the transaction. The ledger is a documentation of the transactions like items sold or bought, payment or credit terms and receiving dates. They also use computer databases and spreadsheets.

Earnings and Job Outlook

Geographic location, size of the company, responsibilities given and skills of the employee determines the income of a billing clerk. It has been studied that full-time billing clerk who works for 40 hours a week can earn approximately $27,780. Those who have more management responsibilities and expertise earn higher than this amount. There will be a decrease in the need for billing clerks because of the technological advancements like the automated payment methods, electronic billing and computers which would require fewer workers to be able to operate. 

Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.

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