[ACCOUNTING & FINANCE] Senior Channel Finance Analyst (On-site, Irvine, CA) at TCL North America in Irvine, CA, USA

Job description

• TCL North America is seeking a Senior Channel Finance Analyst to support the financial management and performance of assigned customer accounts. This role sits at the intersection of Finance, Sales, Logistics, Operations, and customer organizations, providing end-to-end oversight across accounts receivable, collections, cash application, customer deductions, trade spend, and credit management.
• The ideal candidate brings strong analytical capabilities, hands-on experience managing customer accounts and the Order-to-Cash (OTC) cycle, and the ability to translate financial data into actionable insights. This individual will play a key role in optimizing cash flow, protecting company margins, reducing financial leakage, and ensuring strong operational and financial discipline across assigned accounts.

Responsibilities

• Accounts Receivable & Customer Account Management
• Customer Portal & Account Management: Serve as a primary finance contact for assigned customer accounts and actively manage customer vendor portals to support invoicing, remittance, deductions, dispute resolution, and ongoing account alignment.
• Invoicing & Cash Application: Ensure timely and accurate transmission of invoices through email, EDI, and customer-specific platforms. Review customer payments and remittance details and ensure accurate and timely cash application and subledger-to-GL posting.
• Collections & Account Reconciliation: Monitor customer aging, proactively manage past-due balances, conduct structured collection activities, and prepare and distribute Statements of Account (SOA) to maintain accurate account reconciliation.
• Customer Account Maintenance: Maintain accurate customer records, collection documentation, account activity, and supporting financial information within ERP and related systems.
• Credit Management: Support customer credit reviews, credit risk monitoring, order holds/releases, and other credit-related activities to help minimize exposure and protect company assets.
• Financial Close & Audit Support: Support month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close activities, audits, reporting requirements, and other accounting and finance projects as needed.
• Customer Deductions & Channel Spend Management
• Contract & Deduction Review: Review and interpret customer contracts, agreements, and commercial terms to appropriately classify, validate, and analyze deductions, short payments, and chargebacks.
• Trade Spend & Promotional Settlement: Review and process routine promotional and contractual customer expenses, including MDF, STC, rebates, volume discounts, and other channel investments. Ensure expenses are properly matched against accruals and supported by appropriate documentation.
• Deduction & Chargeback Resolution: Investigate abnormal, unauthorized, or disputed deductions, including non-compliance charges, quantity shortages, unauthorized returns, and other customer chargebacks.
• Cross-Functional Recovery: Partner with Sales, Logistics, Warehousing, Operations, and customers to gather supporting documentation, submit disputes through customer portals, and drive timely resolution and recovery of funds.
• Spend Governance: Help ensure customer investments and deductions are aligned with contractual terms, commercial objectives, and company financial policies.
• Financial Analysis & Reporting
• Aging & Delinquency Analysis: Analyze customer aging schedules, past-due trends, collection performance, and account exposure to identify risks and recommend actionable mitigation plans.
• Trade Spend & Profitability Analysis: Analyze trade spend and promotional investments by customer account to evaluate effectiveness, profitability, and return on investment and support commercial decision-making.
• Deduction & Root-Cause Analysis: Identify recurring deduction and chargeback trends, map root causes, and provide management with insights and recommendations to reduce financial leakage and improve operational performance.
• Account Performance Reporting: Monitor key financial and account-level metrics and provide timely reporting and insights to Finance and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Forecasting & Ad Hoc Analysis: Support financial reporting, forecasting, audits, and ad hoc financial analysis to provide accurate and timely information for management decision-making.
• Process Improvement & Cross-Functional Support
• Identify opportunities to improve accounts receivable, collections, cash application, deduction management, and customer account processes.
• Participate in cross-functional initiatives focused on improving operational efficiency, reducing recurring customer issues, and strengthening financial controls.
• Support system enhancements, process automation, and finance digitalization initiatives as assigned.
• Partner with Finance, Sales, Logistics, Operations, and other stakeholders to resolve complex account issues and improve the overall customer-to-cash experience.
• Support other finance initiatives and special projects as assigned.

Requirements

• Required/Must Haves
• Associate's degree required; Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, or a related field preferred.
• Experience
• 3+ years of experience in Channel Finance, Commercial Finance, Accounts Receivable, Order-to-Cash (O2C), collections, chargebacks, credit management, or B2B customer account management.
• Experience within Consumer Electronics, CPG, Retail, or Distribution environments preferred.
• Proven experience managing major retail customer/vendor portals for invoicing, remittance retrieval, deduction research, collections, and dispute resolution.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles, accounts receivable, credit risk, collections, customer deductions, dispute management, and account reconciliation.
• Experience with trade spend, promotional programs, rebates, MDF, STC, or other customer/channel investments preferred.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including Pivot Tables, XLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH, SUMIFS, data reconciliation, and financial reporting.
• Experience with ERP systems such as SAP, NetSuite, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, or similar platforms.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify root causes, evaluate financial trends, and develop practical solutions.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to effectively partner across Finance, Sales, Logistics, Operations, and customer organizations.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with strong ownership and accountability and the ability to manage multiple priorities and critical deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated ability to identify process improvement opportunities and drive issues through to resolution.
• Nice to Haves
• Experience supporting large national retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, or similar high-volume retail customers.
• Experience with EDI transactions and retailer-specific invoicing and deduction workflows.
• Experience managing high-volume customer deductions and complex dispute resolution processes.
• Experience with credit risk assessment, customer credit limits, and order hold/release processes.
• Advanced financial analysis and modeling capabilities.
• Experience with finance automation, digitalization, or ERP/system implementation projects.
• Experience working in a global or cross-border organization, particularly supporting HQ teams based in Asia.
• Mandarin Chinese language proficiency.

Skills

Required

• Highly organized and detail-oriented

Preferred

• Mandarin Chinese language proficiency

Benefits

• Vacation: Starting at 5 days per year
• Health & Wellness Days: 10 days per year (prorated based on start date)
• Paid Holidays: 12 days per year
• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• 401(k) & Retirement Plan
• Compensation: Salary ranges from $27 - $32 hourly