Executive search firm Monroe Consulting Group Philippines is recruiting on behalf of a tire and wheel trading company with their own brands manufactured overseas. Their office runs the accounting for our US business, and Accounts Payable sits at the center of it - every container that lands, every service vendor we use, and every dollar that goes out the door passes through this team.

You'll manage 4-8 AP analysts and own the day-to-day. This isn't a role where you only review other people's work. You'll be in Odoo, chasing down the invoice that won't match, deciding whether a payment goes out today, and personally handling the exceptions your team can't.

The shift starts at 6:00 AM, which gives you two to three hours of live time with our US colleagues each morning. Everything else runs on your judgment and your writing.

What you'll do

Keep the numbers honest. Match vendor bills to POs and receipts, resolve the variances, and make sure import costs - freight, brokerage, duties, tariffs - land in inventory valuation before the period closes. Get this wrong and gross margin lies to everyone downstream. You'll also own the AP-to-GL reconciliation and the month-end close deliverables.
Handle both sides of the vendor base. Inventory vendors bring containers, customs brokers, and shipping documents that don't always agree with each other. Non-inventory vendors bring contracts, rent, software subscriptions, and professional fees that need real scrutiny before they're accrued. Both need someone paying attention.
Get payments right, and safely. You'll run ACH, wire, and check batches against approved aging and available cash. You'll also be the person who refuses to change a vendor's bank details without a verification call - email confirmation isn't enough, and this is where companies lose the most money fastest.
Lead the team. Balance the workload, coach on why an error happened instead of quietly fixing it, and cross-train enough that nobody is the only person who knows a process. Keep the documentation good enough that a US auditor can follow it.
Make it better. You'll see where the process is slow before anyone else does. Push automation in Odoo, and work with Procurement and Logistics to fix the upstream problems that keep landing on your desk.

What success looks like

Invoices posted within 3 business days; 95%+ of payments made on terms
No unmatched or unposted bills sitting past 30 days at close
AP ties to the GL every month, cleared within 5 days
Landed cost fully allocated before the books close
Every new vendor has a valid W-9 or W-8 before the first payment goes out
Zero duplicate payments and zero vendor bank-change fraud incidents
Your team's error rate goes down each quarter

What you need

Required

Bachelor's degree in Accountancy, Accounting Technology, Finance, or similar
7+ years in Accounts Payable supporting US operations, with 3+ years leading a team of 4 or more
Trading, distribution, import, or wholesale background
Solid grasp of US GAAP for payables, accruals, and inventory costing
Three-way matching experience in a high-volume, PO-driven environment
Strong ERP skills - Odoo, NetSuite, SAP, Oracle, or Dynamics - including multi-currency and multi-entity
Strong Excel: lookups, pivots, reconciling large data sets
Clear written English. Most of your work with the US team happens in writing
Able to work onsite in Alabang starting at 6:00 AM

Nice to have

CPA - not required, genuinely helps
Odoo experience, especially Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, and landed cost
Familiarity with US import documents: commercial invoices, bills of lading, CBP entry summaries, broker billings
Shared services experience, or an ERP migration under your belt

Who does well here

People who trace a variance to its source instead of forcing it to match. Who can decide on their own at 2 PM Manila time and know exactly which one item is worth holding for tomorrow's overlap window. Who write an email that ends the problem rather than starting a thread. And who will say no to a payment that shouldn't go out, even when someone senior is pushing - and escalate the pressure rather than absorb it.

The honest part

Month-end, year-end, audit season, and January 1099 prep mean longer days. The 6:00 AM start is real and it's not negotiable - it's the only window we share with the US team. If those two things work for you, the rest of the role is a strong one: real ownership, a team to build, and a system you'll get to improve rather than just operate.