Clearingworks ebook example

Payment Processing. Delivered.

e B O O K # 1

5 Simple Steps to Streamline
Your Payment Processing
Learn more at www.Clearingworks.com © Copyright 2011, Clearingworks. All Rights Reserved.

Visit Clearingworks at Clearingworks.com

INSIGHT FOR PAYMENT PROCESSING PROFESSIONAL S eBOOK #1

Navigating the rapidly evolving world of payments can
be a costly journey.

Each day brings a proliferation of
Step 1: Convert As Many
new payment channels, clearing Payments as Possible
mechanisms, regulatory mandates, from Paper to
and cost pressures. It’s enough to Electronic
make an accounting operations manager’s head Step 2: Consolidate Payment
spin. What’s worse is that with all the noise in Systems
the market, there’s a good chance that you’re Step 3: Aggregate Deposit
paying too much to process your payments. Channels

Step 4: ake the Middle Man
T
Out of Card Payments
With 10 years of experience in block a few times. To help you out,
the payment processing industry we’ve combined our knowledge to Step 5: Implement Analytics
and 8 million payments processed provide five steps to streamline your and Reporting to Make
each day for multiple customers, payment processing, which will help
Better Decisions
including American Express and the you become more efficient and save
US Treasury, we’ve been around the you money.

Learn more at www.Clearingworks.com © Copyright 2011, Clearingworks. All Rights Reserved. 2



1 Convert As Many Payments as Possible from Paper to Electronic

Processing paper checks is expensive; it We suggest you consider the following: Use Automated Clearing House
requires expensive machines or people to (ACH) Payments Wherever You
open the envelopes, endorse the check, Take Advantage of Check 21 Can – Work with your partners and even
courier the check to the bank and fix all Standards – Checks can be your key customers to establish a process
the problems inherent with such converted to images at a centralized mail- for paying by ACH. By standardizing the
a process. receiving location or any remote location. remittance information, both you and your
Banks are required to take image deposits customer will save time and money.
Electronic payments are far better than as long as they conform to the
checks; they’re faster, cheaper and more published standards. Involve Your Whole Company –
accurate. This reduces costs, errors and You want as many customers as
processing time. Unfortunately, while Take Advantage of Check possible to use electronic payments, so
electronic payments now account for Conversion to ACH – Convert get the right people involved to make
almost 70 percent of all consumer bill your checks to ACH payments under the that happen. Marketing is not limited
payments, research1 shows an eye- guidelines of the National Automated to a single department; keep all of
popping 91 percent of business-to- Clearing House Association (NACHA); your customer service, tellers and field
business invoice dollars are still paid with nothing is faster or more efficient. NACHA representatives involved in each new
old fashioned paper checks. is even dropping the requirements to electronic payment program or incentive.
offer opt-outs to customers. This means
To put it simply: You’re going to continue starting in September 2011, conversion to
to be paid by check and you need to know ACH will be even easier.
how to deal with the situation as efficiently
The Bottom Line
as possible.
With customers continuing to pay
by paper check, you must take
advantage of today’s technology to
streamline your payment processing!

1
IAPP Annual AP Automation Study, 2009




Payment Systems
2 Consolidate Payment Systems
Consolidation in Action

Have you ever counted the number of Here’s how to consolidate: Consider the case of a major credit
systems, processes, people, vendors and card issuer that implemented an
departments required to support your Involve all the stakeholders from enterprise payments hub three
current payment processing? If not, take a your various payment systems. By years ago. Today, the enterprise
minute and count; you might be surprised. involving them early, your consolidation payments hub receives all of the
process can avoid pitfalls that can occur issuer’s arranged payments, web
Traditionally, most organizations have without their “front line” point of view. payments, mobile payments, wires
separate systems and departments for and even lockbox and over-the-
credit card processing, check processing, Look for a solution based on open counter payments. This approach
walk-in payments, web payments as well standards. Your system needs to has helped the company maintain
as lockbox, Internet and mobile payments. fulfill your requirements today and be its brand image by providing a
Businesses usually have a different flexible enough to adapt for tomorrow. consistent customer experience,
payment application and vendor for each regardless of payment channel. Audit
payment type, with a separate contract Look for a solution that requirements were greatly reduced by
and fee structure. It can be complicated addresses privacy, security and using a single point of management
and crazy. fraud detection. The best payment for all payments, including protection
system in the world is no good if it of private information and fraud
Modern technology can simplify this. can’t protect sensitive information or detection. Plus, the company’s
It allows you to reduce the number of identify potentially fraudulent behavior. treasury and accounting teams now
vendors, contracts, departments and fees Security should be strong, yet simple to have a single flow of receivables data
between your customers and your understand and manage. across all payment channels.
bank account.
Moving to a consolidated payment
The Bottom Line environment enabled the issuer
This isn’t basic cable! Pay only for to eliminate 22 separate payment
the channels you want, from as few systems, resulting in a $145 million
vendors as possible. savings over the first three-years.




3 Aggregate Deposit Channels

You need to reduce costs and get
payments into your account as quickly as Seeing Channel
possible. One often-overlooked solution Aggregation in Action
is to optimize payments clearing by
aggregating deposit channels. One government entity consolidated and any payments that are eligible to
all check and electronic check be converted to ACH are converted
The fewer channels you have for getting payments received by all of its under the ARC, BOC or POP rules. By
your money through the process and 5,000+ agencies. Although the using ACH and Check 21 together,
into your bank account, the easier it is payments are received through the entity has eliminated all paper
to negotiate better rates with your bank. multiple channels — mail, websites, deposits and Pass 2 encoding and
When all your deposit channels are walk-in, etc. from all parts of the moved entirely to electronic deposits.
electronic, you are then free to choose United States — they process the This means reduced labor, hardware,
whichever bank gives you the best terms, payments through a single payment supplies and transportation costs,
regardless of their physical location. platform. This platform balances simplified interfaces between its
Of course, converting all deposits to the transactions and prepares the legacy remittance system and its
electronic format is the best way to take payments for deposit and clearing. mail opening device and streamlined
advantage of this. Electronic Check 21 files are prepared administrative returns handling.

Depending on your volume and payment
types, it may make sense to have just
a few, or maybe even a single deposit
from all your payment channels. Just
remember, the fewer, larger channels,
the better. The Bottom Line
Don’t waste time or money getting
You can have the freedom to adjust your
your money into your bank account!
banking relationships as your business
evolves; you just can’t do that in a
fragmented deposit environment.




4 Take the Middle Man Out of Card Payments

Consumers and businesses view card A key part of your payment strategy,
payments as a necessary part of doing especially for utilities, should be to The Bottom Line
business. This will only increase in 2014 eliminate those third party providers and
Offer your customers a truly
when the federal government begins offer your customers true flexibility in
convenient way to pay by card
distributing entitlement benefits with accepting card payments through your
without the convenience fee. But
EBT cards. Considering this increase, it’s website, walk-in locations, and over the
don’t complicate your life or waste
imperative that you offer your customers phone without the extra fees.
money with a third party vendor.
the ability to pay by card.

The good news is that regulators are
warming up to the idea of utilities and
other traditionally paper-based billers
accepting online card payments. Recent
legislation (the Dodd-Frank act and
Durbin amendment) seeks to increase
competition and drive down historically
burdensome interchange fees.

Currently, many utilities rely on third-party
processors to take any card payments
because they are unable to absorb the
cost. This forces consumers to pay an
additional “convenience” fee to use their
card. This is a huge waste of money and
hassle for everyone except the third
party vendor.




5 Implement Analytics and Reporting to Make Better Decisions

There’s no room for guessing; you need Consider how valuable it would be if, at With integrated payment analytics and
real-time, accurate information about your any point during the day, you could tell archiving, you should also be able to
payment processing so you can make your treasurer: tell at a moment’s notice how today’s
the best decisions for your organization. numbers compare to yesterday, the same
Key decisions depend on your ability to The number and value of day last week, last month, last year, or any
accurately monitor, measure, and predict payments received so far other date you wish.
operational needs and payment trends.
Most organizations try to bridge legacy Expected availability from Analyzing payment information also yields
payment silos, only to leave the bank better insight into customer behaviors
themselves wanting. and preferences, which can shape new
Returns that were received marketing campaigns and product
decisions. Viewing long-term trends will
allow you to quickly adapt to market
changes while improving your
forecasting models.

The good news is that recent advances
in technology make all these capabilities
possible today.

The Bottom Line
Come out of the dark! Leverage
clear, easy-to-use and graphically rich
analytics and reporting to manage
all your information long-term and in
real-time.




How Clearingworks® Can Help

We’ve outlined five steps for streamlining processing costs, while simplifying an savings. Or you can always call one of our
your payments processing based on increasingly complex payment payment processing specialists at (888)
lessons learned by years of payment processing landscape. 254-8821 or by e-mail at
processing improvements for some of service@clearingworks.com.
the country’s top businesses, utilities With more than 8 million payments
and government agencies. Plus, we’ve processed each day by many household In future eBooks, we’ll go into more detail
shared tips and key criteria to consider names, Clearingworks brings the power on each of these steps, so stay tuned.
when looking into each of these areas. Of of a proven, enterprise-class payment
course, the best way to streamline your processing service and robust payment
payment processing is to follow each of analytics in one simple solution for
these steps all with a single one simple price. And you’ll be up and
end-to-end solution. running in 30 days or less. Guaranteed!

Clearingworks streamlines all your Next Steps
payment processing into a single, easy-
to-use, integrated platform, improving See how much your organization could
your productivity and your bottom line. save with our complimentary savings
We typically save customers as much as analyzer at www.clearingworks.com. It’s
60 percent off their previous payment a free, no obligation way to quantify your

About Clearingworks
Clearingworks is an on-demand payment processing
service with enterprise-class payment, deposit, and
returns processing and powerful payment analytics
tools. We process more than 2 billion payments
each year for small, medium, and Fortune 50
companies. Clearingworks.com


Clearingworks ebook example

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

Último

Último (20)

Destacado

Destacado (20)

Clearingworks ebook example