Why Cheques are still good for Business?

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Last year 1.1 billion cheques were issued, 620 million were personal cheques and 493 million were made out by businesses.

Back in June I wrote about the cessation of the cheque guarantee scheme and the U-turn the Payments Council had taken in relation to cheques. It was genuinely feared that cheques would be phased out by 2018 and be replaced with??

That was the biggest connundrum with what exactly?

Last week I was delighted to hear and read that the Payments Council is now reviewing the re-introduction of the cheque guarantee scheme this is where cheques to the value of £50.00 and £100.00 were honoured by the Bank.

Although chip and pin is very much part and parcel of our everyday lives we still have the problem of writing personal cheques for things like school trips, book clubs, subscriptions or how we pay the plumber who’s come to change a tap fitting.

Cheques are an integral part of our businesses?

OK, We pay our suppliers via BACs but for a company that specialises in assisting companies and educational institutions by outsourcing cheques and payments; not suprisingly, cheques are still a large factor in their payment stream.

But what if making payments by cheque and electronic means is becoming… well a bit of pain..

Using an electronic & Cheque payment solution/Payments Bureau will save you time and money. A service that prints and personalises cheques including the signatory all in one pass to APACS and C&CCC (Cheque & Credit Clearing Company)

Printing and personalising cheques can be a costly exercise but also a security issue!

Using an end to end service affords flexible credit and cheque outsourcing and fulfilment that satisfies the following:-

  • outsourced cheque printing & mailing
  • outsourced credit printing & mailing
  • no minimum or maximum data quantity
  • no specific file format required
Using a Payment Bureau service gives flexibility to outsource regular and one off payments and can be used for:
  • Bacs
  • Faster Payments
  • Cheques
  • Direct Debit
  • Remittances
The automation of payments and collections can be administered without costly software. A payments bureau is ideal for combining cheque and electronic transactions from one secure payments file and in the event of your system failing ensures that all your important payments and collections are made on time.
So there is still a need for cheques and cheque printing!
For all your cheque and payment processing drop Digital Print Management a request to call and we can discuss the best and most cost effective solution for processing your payment!

 

Filed Under: Cheques and cheque printing, Managing Print Costs, Outsourcing Tagged With: , , , ,

How to streamline your cheques and payments

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This is the second part in a series of articles that covers cheques, cheque printing and payment processing.

Outsourcing your payment processing to a Payments Bureau gives you the flexibility to remove the onerous task of managing a mix of cheque and electronic payments.  By outsourcing, you have the flexibility to do regular and one off payments.

Why Use A Bureau Service?

  • Bacs
  • Faster Payments
  • Cheques
  • Direct Debit
  • Payment Advices/Remittances.

Using a Payments Bureau allows you to automate payments and collections without going to the expense of purchasing or administering software. Outsourcing this process gives you peace of mind that payments are being made at the time of your choosing.

Optimising the facilities of a Bacs approved Bureau powered by Experian Payments UK Gateway is ideal for combining your cheque and electronic payments from a secure payments file. The Bureau will take care of all data files, exceptions and reporting.

Using an integrated payments solution your payments can be issued from a single platform and include Bacs, Direct Debit collections with cheques and remittance advice printing and posting.

With access and expertise to the following services, payment processing couldn’t be simpler:

  • Cheques
  • Cheque Printing Systems for In-House Use
  • Bacs Software
  • CHAPS
  • Pre-paid Cards
  • Credits & Deposit Slips and Books

Find out more about Cheques and Payment Solutions. By clicking here!

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Filed Under: Cheques and cheque printing, Managing Print Costs Tagged With: , , ,

10 Top Tips to Help Outsource Your Cheques & Payments

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Cheque printing and BAC’s payments are being used in vast quantities daily for payments to suppliers and customers alike.

The difficulty with combining both methods can be costly and labour intensive particularly when you are hand matching cheques and separate remittances factor in cheque distribution for various signatories and the task suddenly becomes cumbersome. A customer recently expressed his frustration at what seemed like an endless stream of cheques to sign; in reality that wasn’t the case, it just felt like it to him!

By using an end to end service for cheque printing and sign-writing the process becomes a completely automated, flexible outsourced fulfilment service for cheques and credit printing all prepared to C & CCC standards.

I am going to make the case here for why organisations should seriously consider outsourcing this process.

So here’s a list of tips to consider before outsourcing!

1/ What do you hope to achieve by outsourcing your cheques? Is it cost reduction, time saving, automation of the process or a combination of all three?

2/ How many payments do you make monthly/weekly and is this inconvenient or difficult to manage?

Outsourcing enables a company to combine cheque and electronic payment transactions from one secure payments file, a bureau can take care of data separation and exceptions reporting too.

3/ Are you  wanting to continue with a mix of cheque and BACS payments?

Using a payments bureau gives you the flexibility to outsource regular and one off payments and can be used for BACS, Cheques, DD Payments. You can automate payments without having to purchase or administer software.

4/ Does your system allow you to create cheque remittances? Or is it something you’ve never made the time do? By amalgamating a cheque with a remittance portion simplifies the printing and sending of cheques, no separate cheque and remittance run.

5/ Outsourcing cheques is not like asking your local printer down the road to print your stationery requirements; you need to ensure that the printer has APACS accreditation and C & CCC (Cheque & Credit Clearing Company) along with ISO27001 the information management accreditation which demonstrates a company’s process regarding the handling of your information and data.

This is critical in any outsourcing process but even more so for cheques and payments. A due diligence visit to the security printer is a must to authenticate process and procedures are in place for the handling of cheque data.

6/ Professional – Do your cheques currently convey your brand or they are simply bank standard issue?

By outsourcing your company cheques they can be personalised with your company image and design.

7/ Administration – How much time is it really taking to print and process cheques in-house?

Outsourcing cheques and payments will be done quickly, accurately and can be tailored to be processed daily, weekly or monthly.

8/ Security – what happens when cheques are distributed around the business for signing they can easily be mislaid or misappropriated and non infilled cheques pose a security risk.

Outsourcing gives you secure cheque design with additional security features UV, aqua-fugitive and holograms plus an audit trail for all cheques printed and not where’s that cheque I sent up to the 4th floor for signing gone?

9/ Do you have multiple sites?

If your organisation needs to manage stocks across a branch network or across many sites using a customer automated stocking or replenishment system will automatically manage and replenish stocks at each branch.

10/ And finally, do you need cheques for overseas banking?

Cheques can be printed in any format in any denomination – sterling £; euro € , dollars $ or even multi-currency options as A4 cut sheets, cheque books, continuous binder cheques or pressure seal mailers personalised using MICR printers, sign, fold, insert and post out.

Digital Print Management can offer independent expert advice on what kind of printed cheque a company should use and can advise you on the latest cheque formats and security cheque printing solutions.

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Filed Under: Cheques and cheque printing, Managing Print Costs, Print Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Cheques Matter to British Industry!

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The Payments Council on the 12 July announced that cheques will continue for as long as the british customer need them and until such times a viable and a more effective alternative is found.

During their research, the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company found that over half of consumers with bank accounts were using cheques as a method of payment; although 60% of the consumers asked said they were writing fewer cheques compared to three years ago. The main reason for the consumer to write a cheque was to pay a bill by post this represented 36%; while paying tradesman in the home 24%; paying clubs/societies 14%; donations to charity 14%; as a gift 38% and finally as a refund 25%

The C & CCC reported that in business over 80% of companies at some point over the last year wrote and received a cheque.

32% of UK businesses sited that the reason cheques were written was to enable them to better manage their cash flow; compliance with the payee’s request to be paid by cheque represented some 25%; and finally, the ability to control which employees are allowed to make payments on behalf of the company was 23%.

But despite the good news for the continuance of the cheque scheme, figures show that there is a steady decline in cheque usage 11% for the 2010 compared to 13% in 2009. This has largely been attributed to retailers and petrol chains stopping the acceptance of cheques and moving to chip and pin from 2005 – 08.

If you compare the rise and fall of cheques; a total of 1.1 billion cheque payments were made in 2010 of which 620 million were written by consumers and 493 million by businesses. Cheque volumes were down by 72% from the peak of 4 billion transactions in 1990!

Although the general trend is downward for cheques it is still good news for the accredited cheque print suppliers in the UK and also for british industry and consumers generally.

Digital Print Management can provide cheques in any format – books, A4, cheque remittances. Our service also extends to providing a full outsource cheque printing and mailing solution and a fully automated payments bureau for regular payments.

Call us or drop us and email if you need guidance on getting your company cheques printed!

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Filed Under: Cheques and cheque printing, Finance Printing, Print Management Tagged With: , , , , ,

6 Ways To Reduce Your Invoicing Costs

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bundle of money

Apart from the physical printing of the invoices; there are other ancillary costs that are associated with the billing process which tend to be invisible such as the toner consumables, paper, time taken by staff and postage.

So here is a quick digest of where you can save money.

1. Batch invoices for one company into a single envelope

It’s surprising the number of organisations that send out single invoices for each transaction rather than consolidating customers invoices into one envelope. This in itself, can give you greater reductions in postage costs.

2. Change the size of the envelope you use for posting out your documents

This seems an almost flippant suggestion but by changing from a standard DL size envelope to a C5 will enable you to insert at least 15 A4 sheets comfortably. The importance here is making sure that you match the right documents for the same customer into the envelope.

3. Postage discounts are available from the Royal Mail and via DSA (downstream access)

If you can pre-sort your mail internally and according to the mail providers criteria postage discounts could be anything from between 10% – 40% per envelope which represents a big saving on the bottom line.

4. Invalid or incorrect addresses

A sure fire way to end up having a steady flow of undeliverable invoices is having incomplete or incorrect address details. An accounts system that is regularly maintained and administered will reduce the number of returned or undelivered envelopes. Additionally an incomplete address will not qualify for pre-sortation discounts.

5. Encourage the uptake of an electronic bill instead of a paper version

More and more companies are making it easier for their customers to sign up for e-billing. It is one of the single most effective ways of reducing costs and administration associated with print and mailing of invoices and statements!

6.White Space Management

In simplistic terms this means that if you are sending out paper base bills then use the white space that is invariably left at the bottom third of the invoice to target a specific message; it could be that your company are offering discounts for the month of August on a particular product range or you might want to target a specific audience with a personalised message. You’ve already paid for the paper, envelope and postage why not use the invoice and personalise it with targeted marketing messages.

Of course all of the above takes time, costs money and is fairly labour intensive.

If you want to discuss some or any of the above please call us and we will advise you where the best savings can be achieved for you and your business!

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Filed Under: Finance Printing, Invoice Processing, Managing Print Costs Tagged With: , ,