Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Timeline
Generic

Ernest Watson

Mableton,GA

Summary

Versatile financial operations leader with 27 years of dedicated experience in franchise and customer engagement, including 15 focused years in accounts receivable management and 4 years of specialized financial compliance auditing. History of steady internal promotions earned by leading high-yield compliance reviews, building reliable data tracking tools, and training teams to protect corporate revenue from leakage. Skilled at keeping day-to-day audit operations stable, establishing clear lines of communication, and working across corporate divisions to enforce reporting protocols.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience
1
1
year of post-secondary education

Work History

Audit Supervisor

ServiceMaster
Atlanta, GA
08.2022 - Current
  • Consistent Cash Recoveries (2026): Directly manage the day-to-day audit function that has successfully identified and recovered over $134k+ in misreported fee sales adjustments year-to-date in 2026.
  • Resource Management & High-Yield Recovery (2025): Coordinated a small, dedicated project team—consisting of myself, one full-time auditor, and a part-time contractor—to efficiently execute a specialized recovery plan that captured $400k in underreported revenue in a 3-month window from October to December of 2025.
  • Real-Time Revenue Investigations (August 2024 – Present): Direct the investigation of real-time sales and adjustment monthly fee reports across 500+ franchisees across the Restore network to identify anomalies and secure corporate reimbursements.
  • Network Compliance Project (2024 – Present): Led a targeted initiative since Q3 2024 to fix widespread reporting gaps, successfully raising franchise P&L document compliance from 40% to 75% across the network to unlock comprehensive revenue testing.
  • Strategic Transition Leadership (2024): Trained the incoming Director on the sunset audit model to restructure and establish a brand-new operational process for the current auditing team during a major departmental transition.
  • Million-Dollar Capital Recovery (2023): Hand-selected, onboarded, and trained a high-performing corporate auditing team of 7 to execute a strict compliance program, completing 184 total audits in 2023 across 3 primary ServiceMaster brands to successfully identify and recover $1.5 Million in unpaid royalties and national ad fees.
  • Strategic Resource Allocation (2023): Maximized audit efficiency and output by deploying 4 auditors to the Restore brand network, 1 auditor to the Clean brand network, and 1 auditor to the Merry Maids brand network.
  • Strategic Franchise Engagement (2023): Facilitated complex franchise engagement pipelines, directing initial discovery interviews, standard follow-up sequences, and final audit closing meetings with owners while collaborating directly with field operations to guide executive leadership decision-making.
  • Executive Leadership & Forecasting (Q3 2023): Stepped forward as the Acting Director to lead the department through an executive transition, directly delivering high-priority revenue trend analyses and financial forecasting reports to the former CFO.
  • Cross-Functional Legal Clearance (2023 – Present): Partner directly with the franchise development team to conduct deep-dive financial audits and provide compliance updates for the legal department prior to any franchise transfer or license sale.
  • Targeted Selection Strategy (2023 – Present): Built an analytical review process to prioritize franchisees for follow-up reviews based on past audit variances and a 3-to-5-year lag cycle, while verifying current entity eligibility regarding license transfers, corporate sales, and gross sales.
  • Pipeline & Software Oversight (2023 – Present): Oversee the distribution of formal audit notices and assignments via FranConnect following final Executive Leadership Team (ELT) approvals, tracking all franchisee interaction workflows through Zendesk.
  • Daily Support & Training (2023 – Present): Retain operational responsibility for mentoring audit staff, maintaining data-driven timeline logs, rolling out real-time fee report models, and leading internal quality assurance reviews.

Collections Supervisor

ServiceMaster
Atlanta, GA
04.2022 - 08.2022
  • AR Sector Operations Management (2022 – 2023): Held direct corporate accountability up to the end of 2023 for managing and processing all functional operations within the specialized Accounts Receivable (AR) sector for payment operations.
  • Payment Processing Optimization (2022 – 2023): Supervised high-volume daily payment processing tasks, managing the structured scheduling, processing, and tracking of brand-wide corporate franchise remittances securely through the PayOnline and Stripe payment vessel systems.
  • Targeted Delinquency Project (2022): Recruited and led a temporary 3-person project team for a 90-day sprint focused on resolving critical overdue franchise accounts, securing over $50k in past-due invoice recoveries.
  • Structured Onboarding & Mentorship (2022 – 2023): Developed and executed a rigorous two-week, one-on-one training framework for new hires; dedicated week one to direct job-shadowing of operational duties and week two to structured, hands-on application.
  • System Upskilling (2022 – 2023): Successfully trained incoming project staff on primary corporate platforms, including Workday, Pay Online, and Zendesk, to ensure data management and tool adoption.
  • Performance-Based Advancement (2022): Promoted directly to Supervisor by the Director of Operations after achieving the #1 revenue collection metrics across the entire department in Q1 2022.
  • Strategic Knowledge Transfer (2022 – 2023): Directed the end-to-end operational transfer of the department’s proprietary Accounts Receivable model to internal stakeholders at sister brand Two Men & A Truck, successfully standardizing cross-brand B2B workflows.

Collection Specialist II

ServiceMaster
Atlanta, GA
11.2021 - 03.2022
  • AR Sector Transaction Processing (2021 – 2022): Shared operational ownership for processing, verifying, and optimizing daily transactions within the Accounts Receivable sector for payment operations to prevent corporate aging backlogs.
  • Gateway Payment Processing (2021 – 2022): Maintained absolute oversight of transactional pipelines by scheduling and conducting end-to-end payment processing for incoming B2B franchise remittances using PayOnline and Stripe architectures.
  • Delinquency Resolution (2021 – 2022): Managed aging franchise portfolios to resolve 30-to-120 days past-due balances, analyzing and communicating complex open accounts receivable (AR) statements to franchise owners to secure payments.
  • Invoice Ledger Clean-Up (2021 – 2022): Successfully processed and recovered over $75k in delinquent franchise invoices during a targeted 6-month operational window.
  • Cross-Functional Training (2021 – 2022): Received specialized training in Accounts Payable (AP) workflows, accurately applying unapplied cash balances and open credits to clear past-due corporate invoices.
  • Performance Metrics Tracking (2021 – 2022): Engineered an individual performance-tracking ledger to measure week-over-week collection metrics and outline data-backed action plans.
  • Operational Alignment (2021 – 2022): Partnered in weekly department meetings to systematically dissect operational roadblocks, coordinate cross-team strategies, and establish forward-looking recovery plans.

Collections Account Manager II

First Investors Financial Services Inc.
Atlanta, GA
08.2018 - 11.2021
  • Portfolio Recognition (2019): Achieved exceptional administrative accuracy and asset tracking metrics, earning the company-wide recognition of "Top Repossession Admin" in 2019.
  • Account Resolutions (2017 – 2021): Communicated directly with over 100 individuals every week to establish fair, clear payment structures that helped resolve overdue accounts and reduce delinquency rates.
  • Department Collaboration (2017 – 2021): Worked closely with a department of 20+ coworkers to coordinate account updates and quickly resolve outstanding retail financial issues.
  • Compliance & Consistency (2017 – 2021): Followed company protocols and strict scripts carefully to keep account documentation accurate and transparent, earning regular recognition from supervisors.
  • New Hire Mentorship (2017 – 2021): Personally welcomed, coached, and trained 12 new employees by sharing practical tips, feedback, and daily support to help them get up to speed.

Debt Collection Specialist

Financial Assets Management Systems
Woodstock, GA
05.2016 - 08.2018
  • Award-Winning Production (2017): Executed 400+ weekly client negotiations and compliance audits, securing top-tier monthly repayment metrics and earning the prestigious Navient "Top Performer of the Year" distinction in 2017.
  • High-Yield Asset Recovery (2017): Successfully processed and recovered $250k in severely delinquent private credit student loans that had been uncollected for 5+ years in debt, securing top national production tiers.
  • De-Escalation & Resolution (2016 – 2018): Exercised advanced conflict resolution to mitigate risk, de-escalate high-priority client disputes, and secure equitable financial settlements.
  • Asset Tracking (2016 – 2018): Orchestrated meticulous documentation pipelines to verify proper payment rendering, track missing assets, and maintain 100% adherence to regulatory policies.

Maternity and Disease Management Enrollment Specia

Alere/Optim Health
Atlanta, GA
07.2008 - 10.2015
  • Completed day-to-day duties accurately and efficiently.
  • Contributed innovative ideas and solutions to enhance team performance and outcomes.
  • Worked successfully with diverse group of coworkers to accomplish goals and address issues related to our products and services.
  • Managed daily pipelines of 75+ inbound/outbound compliance and enrollment records, optimizing account documentation under strict operational timelines.

Education

Mastering Management

ServiceMaster
02.2025 - 06.2026

Leadership Essentials Certification Program

FIFS-University
Atlanta GA
09-2019

Skills

  • Payment Processing & Remittances: Automated Gateway Configurations, Transaction Management, Batch Processing, Stripe Implementations, PayOnline Architecture
  • Accounts Receivable Management: AR Sector Oversight, Payment Operations Management, Aging Ledger Control, Gateway Reconciliations, Corporate Cash Flows
  • Franchise Engagement & Relations: Initial Discovery Interviews, Compliance Handoffs, Final Closing Meetings, Dispute Resolution, B2B Standardizations
  • Financial Compliance & Auditing: Real-Time Sales Investigations, Multi-Brand Corporate Audits, National Ad Fee Audits, Royalty Fee Recovery
  • Personnel Leadership: Structured Employee Onboarding, Job-Shadowing Mentorship, Temporary Team Scaling, Workplace Upskilling
  • Systems, Gateways & Software: Workday Enterprise, Pay Online, Stripe Payment Vessel, FranConnect CRM, Zendesk, Microsoft Office

Accomplishments

  • Company Core Value Recognition – "Bring Out the Best in Others": ServiceMaster (Q1 2026)
  • Company Core Value Recognition – "Doing What's Right": ServiceMaster (Q4 2025)
  • Top Repossession Admin: First Investors Financial Services (2019)
  • Top Performer of the Year: Navient (2017)

Timeline

Mastering Management

ServiceMaster
02.2025 - 06.2026

Audit Supervisor

ServiceMaster
08.2022 - Current

Collections Supervisor

ServiceMaster
04.2022 - 08.2022

Collection Specialist II

ServiceMaster
11.2021 - 03.2022

Collections Account Manager II

First Investors Financial Services Inc.
08.2018 - 11.2021

Debt Collection Specialist

Financial Assets Management Systems
05.2016 - 08.2018

Maternity and Disease Management Enrollment Specia

Alere/Optim Health
07.2008 - 10.2015

Leadership Essentials Certification Program

FIFS-University
Ernest Watson