Love to play with numbers? Skillful at making quick calculations? Then working as a billing expert would be the right career path for you. If you are wondering what is the work profile of a billing expert, his responsibilities, the job outlook and career scope, then here is some assistance for you. Refer to the billing work related information and evaluate if it suits your requirements.
Work Profile
Billing professionals are responsible to draft bills. They keep track of the products sold or the services provided by the organization and compute the total value of the sales made. They may use computers or calculators to compute the total sales value. Otherwise in certain small units, the billing clerk has to perform calculation manually. While billing they must consider discounts or taxes that need to be calculated with the billing amount. They must ensure customers are not kept waiting for the billing process and are forwarded the details of the charges levied quickly. Thus, a billing professional is an expert who possesses the skills to calculate and draft bills quickly and accurately.
Qualifications and Skills
One can take up the job of a billing expert after completing High School Diploma. Often they receive on-the-job training and thus certifications are not mandatory for this post. The requisite skills are aptitude for numeric calculations, ability to make quick calculations, accuracy in work and patience.
Work Scope
A billing clerk may work for any industry dealing in sale of products or is a provider of services. The most common profiles are as below:
Medical Billing Clerk
The most popular of all profiles is a Medical Billing Expert. He keeps track of the medical services provided to each patient, jots down the expenses borne by the medical center and drafts a bill levying charges on the patient.
Retail Billing Clerk
The second well known profile is that of a retail billing clerk. He works in shops and malls selling daily utility articles, such as groceries, clothes, stationary or electronics. They read the batch code using an electronic instrument and compute the bill.
Billing Accountants
Billing accountant work for establishments such as business organizations, education institutes, government firms, etc. They maintain accounts of the goods sold, resources supplied or expenses borne and draft bills.
Work Environment
The work environment depends upon the profile and place of work of the candidate. A Medical Billing Expert works in hospital healthcare centers. His job is stressful as he has to track the medical case of each patient and updates database with the medical services provided to them. He may be required to act quickly during emergencies. Although, a retail billing expert does not face emergency situations, handling the rush of customers may contribute to stress. Stress may cause numerical mistakes. A billing accountant is under no stress to compute bills. However, he deals with large amount and that may become worrisome for the billing clerk. All billing clerks work indoor and enjoy typical working hours. No major safety or health hazards are known to be associated with this profession.
Growth Potential
A billing professional starts his career by drafting bills. This is one of the basic accounting functions, thus leaving scope for growth in accounts and finance domain. A typical billing clerk computes values and drafts the bills. With experience he may be given the opportunity to train juniors on billing functions or the task to verify the bills drafted by juniors. He may perform accounting functions of posting entries, drafting journals and ledgers accounts and drafting financial reports. Thus, a billing clerk can very well make a career in accounts field with due knowledge and experience.
Job Outlook
The job outlook and prospects appear slightly disappointing, unless they are ready to take up additional responsibilities. With advanced technology, automated billing counters are replacing the manual task of drafting bills. Additionally accounting clerks perform billing functions eliminating the need of dedicated billing clerks. However, the demand for medical billing clerks is expected to grow due to the complex nature of medical billing.
Read the billing work profile presented here. We hope this information helps you reach out to your dream job.