Accounts Payable Manager

Minnesota Cannabis Services supports cannabis clients across multiple states and entities with a high volume of vendor invoices across many companies. This is a hands-on management role: you will run accounts payable, build, train and support a team of specialists beneath you, own all vendor records with complete accuracy, and put in place the controls that keep the function working properly. 

If you're the kind of person who takes separation of duties personally, who notices when an invoice number is one digit off, and who gets satisfaction from a payment run that goes out right the first time, this role was built for you.

You're organized to the point where other people find it slightly intimidating. You're comfortable telling a department head their bill is stuck until they approve it, and telling a vendor you need a bank letter before anything moves. You're not looking to inherit a finished process and maintain it. You want to build the function: hire, coach and manage a team of AP Specialists, write the procedures, and define what done looks like, then let the systems carry it.

You own invoice intake, coding, approval routing, and payment preparation across a large entity portfolio. You make sure every bill has an approval attached before it is paid, every payment matches what was approved, and nothing is paid twice. You prepare and review payment runs and ensure that payments get released on time.

You own all records of all vendors, and verify before anything gets paid. You own vendor on-boarding and verification, bank detail changes, W-9 collection, and year-end 1099 reporting. 

You hire, train, and manage a team of 2-3 Accounts Payable Specialists. You assign their work, review their output, give feedback on accuracy and timeliness, and hold them accountable for deadlines. 

You own the controls that prevent fraud and the procedures that document them: separation of duties, first-payment flags on new or changed vendors, positive pay, and monthly reconciliations of what was paid to what was approved. You identify recurring errors and process gaps, and you fix them rather than flag them.

• 5+ years of accounts payable experience, including 2+ years supervising AP staff
• Experience running high-volume AP in a multi-entity or multi-location environment
• Hands-on experience with vendor setup and verification, payment runs by ACH and check, positive pay, and bank portals
• Working knowledge of three-way matching and approval workflows
• Proficiency with QuickBooks Online or comparable platforms (Intacct, NetSuite, Xero) and advanced Excel
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related field, or equivalent experience

• Experience in a regulated or cash-intensive industry: cannabis, hospitality, distribution, grocery, or restaurant groups
• Construction & Real Estate AP experience: pay applications, lien waivers, retainage
• Experience implementing or specifying AP automation, especially using AI like Claude or ChatGPT