How To Become A Collections Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a collections manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Collection managers minimize the financial losses of a company by overseeing the credit and collection activities. They ensure that all debts being owed to the company are paid on time and in the appropriate manner. Collection managers will typically report to general managers and must be able to supervise their team and ensure the accurate and timely invoicing of customers. You will also be required to set payment collection goals and targets for the company, which helps ensure the smooth running of the collection process. You must identify areas of weakness in your collection strategy and implement collection policies and procedures that will aid the company's growth.

A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, or a related field will qualify you for this role. You must also have experience with accounting software such as Quickbooks, General Ledger, and MS Excel. Equally important skills are great verbal and non-verbal communication skills, report writing skills, people management skills, and time management skills. The average annual wage for a collections manager is $70,290.

ScoreCollections ManagerUS Average

Salary

4.7

Avg. Salary $59,529

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.5

Growth Rate 17%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.34%

Asian 7.27%

Black or African American 8.03%

Hispanic or Latino 15.55%

Unknown 4.12%

White 64.69%

Gender

female 49.22%

male 50.78%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress Level

9.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.1

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.9

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a collections manager

Explore collections manager education requirements

Most common collections manager degrees

Bachelor's

50.8 %

Associate

21.8 %

High School Diploma

14.2 %

Start to develop specific collections manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	15.21%
Collection Management	9.15%
Portfolio	7.10%
FDCPA	4.87%
Delinquent Accounts	4.14%

Complete relevant collections manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New collections managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a collections manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real collections manager resumes.

Research collections manager duties and responsibilities

Achieve 182 FTE save, and annual net saving of $2.8MM
Manage Medicaid accounts in effort to receive payment from them.
Manage self pay and Medicaid pending collections throughout the southeast region.
Organize the managed care effort to ensure that patients are not accept from incorrect PPO's and HMO's.

Prepare your collections manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your collections manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a collections manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Collections Manager Resume templates

Build a professional Collections Manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Collections Manager resume.

Apply for collections manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a collections manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do collections managers rate their job?

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Collections Manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2020

Cons

Disciplining my team for mistakes they can prevent, such as attendance.