Accounts Payable Coordinator Job Description

Salary Range

$43,520 - $61,470

Experience

Early career, some AP experience

Work Environment

Finance or shared-services office

What Does an Accounts Payable Coordinator Do?

Suppliers want to be paid on the promised date, and budget holders want nothing paid without their sign-off. Accounts payable coordinators keep both sides happy in the finance offices of large companies, government agencies and universities, matching invoices to purchase orders, chasing missing approvals and scheduling the weekly payment runs.

Also known as: Accounts Payable Operations Coordinator

Other Job Titles for This Work

Workers in this occupation report titles such as Account Clerk, Accounting Assistant, Accounting Associate, Accounting Clerk, Accounting Specialist, Accounting Technician, Accounts Payable Clerk, Accounts Payable Specialist.

Accounts Payable Coordinator Duties and Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of an accounts payable coordinator include:

• Match invoices to purchase orders and receiving records before releasing them for payment.
• Schedule weekly check, ACH and wire payment runs and confirm each batch with the bank.
• Set up and update vendor records after verifying W-9 forms and bank details by phone.
• Route invoices that lack approval to the right budget holder and chase a reply.
• Resolve vendor questions about late, short or duplicate payments within an agreed turnaround.
• Run duplicate-payment and aged-invoice reports and clear the exceptions they turn up.
• Prepare year-end 1099 forms and check vendor tax details for gaps.
• Monitor the shared AP inbox and invoice-scanning queue so nothing sits unprocessed.
• Reconcile vendor statements to the payables ledger and request credits for overpayments.
• Train department staff on invoice submission, approval steps and payment cutoff dates.

Required Skills and Qualifications

To succeed as an accounts payable coordinator, you will need the following skills and qualifications:

• Three-way matching of purchase orders, receipts and invoices
• AP modules in SAP, Oracle, NetSuite or QuickBooks
• Excel for aging reports and vendor reconciliations
• 1099 and W-9 reporting rules
• An eye for fraud, such as fake bank-change requests
• Prioritizing when payment runs and month-end collide
• Firm, courteous manner with suppliers on the phone
• Accuracy across large volumes of invoices

Education and Training

To land a coordinator job, you should have hands-on payables experience with a high invoice volume and a flair for spotting duplicates. Many come from AP clerk or accounting assistant jobs. BLS lists some college but no degree as the usual starting point for the wider clerk group, with several months of training on the job. The next step up is usually AP supervisor or payables manager.

Salary and Job Outlook

BLS projects employment of bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, the group that includes payables staff, to decline about 6 percent from 2025 to 2035. Keying invoices is often less of the job than sorting out the ones that fail to match, because scanning software now handles the clean ones. Openings should still run at roughly 144,100 a year, BLS estimates.

Outlook source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2025 to 2035, Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks.

Accounts Payable Coordinator Pay Range

Highest-Paying States for Accounts Payable Coordinators

The states with the highest median pay for this occupation are District of Columbia ($65,180), Connecticut ($59,970), Massachusetts ($59,830), California ($59,230), Washington ($58,620). Pay is lowest in West Virginia ($42,890), Mississippi ($42,840), Arkansas ($42,840).

What the Work Is Like

O*NET surveys people who work as bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks about their daily conditions. Of those surveyed:

• 95% work indoors in a climate-controlled space every day
• 94% use email every day
• 91% spend more than half the workday sitting
• 91% say being exact and accurate is very or extremely important
• 86% are on the phone every day
• 69% say teamwork is very or extremely important in their job
• 54% use their hands on tools, objects or controls for more than half the day

Education Workers Say the Job Needs

Tools and Software Accounts Payable Coordinators Use

Tools and equipment

• 10-key calculators
• Desktop computers
• Financial calculators
• Image scanners
• Ledger sheets
• Notebook computers
• Receipt books

Software

• Intuit QuickBooks
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft Word
• SAP software
• Adobe Acrobat
• Epic Systems
• Google Docs
• MEDITECH software
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft PowerPoint

Is This Job a Good Fit for You?

People who do well in this job tend to enjoy organized work with data, records and clear procedures as well as leading, persuading and making business decisions.

Skills O*NET rates most important: Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Writing, Speaking.

Knowledge areas used most: Customer and Personal Service, Administrative, Mathematics, English Language, Economics and Accounting.

Preparation: O*NET places this occupation in Job Zone 3 of 5, which means medium preparation.

Related Careers

These jobs use similar skills, according to O*NET's related-occupation data:

• Accountant Associate job description
• Budget Assistant job description
• Accounting Assistant job description
• Accounting Specialist job description
• Payroll Assistant job description
• Office Specialist job description
• Teller job description
• Accountant job description

Applying for an Accounts Payable Coordinator Job

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