Electronic Payments News

A Letter From Our Chairman: Paying Electronic Bills

Electronic billing confers advantages not only on the organization issuing the bill but on the customer paying it, as well.

Electronic-billing discussions usually focus on what the billers can do and the benefits to the billers (see “E-advantages”, Canadian Treasurer, February/March 2004). There is another side of the coin – the customers. Their acceptance of the process is essential. While it may seem natural that the customer would want electronic billing, in fact there are issues that need to be dealt with to gain that acceptance.

One particular payment site illustrates this lack of consideration. Its instructions to customers include a suggestion that they make a copy of the bill as a physical record. This, of course, defeats the arguments in favour of electronic billing as far as bill payers are concerned. Why would you use your paper and ink when the biller is already providing a paper bill? While presentment service providers will retain a history for you, what happens if you decide to change or discontinue the service? With businesses, the problem is even more critical. Permanent records are essential for tax and audit purposes. Furthermore, the bill must often be seen by a number of people before it can be paid...

Paying Electronic Bills (Full Article)

A Letter From Our Chairman: Electronic BIlling and Invoicing

(Originally published in Canadian Treasury Magazine - February/March 2004)

Electronic Bill Payment is now an 18-year-old industry in Canada and has become a widely adopted method of paying most regular monthly bills. Electronic Bill Presentment is much newer and, so far, not widely adopted by billers or accepted by customers.

Economics dictate that both electronic bill payment and electronic bill presentment will be the way of the future. The savings in postage, paper and bank charges alone justify the cost of participation by both the biller and the payer. In fact, the Gartner Group suggests in a recent study that it can cost more than US$1.10 to produce and deliver a paper bill, but only US$0.44 or less for an equivalent electronic bill. Organizations that have pioneered the electronic bill presentment world have focused on one of two Web-based methodologies. In my view, a third, more efficient methodology based on e-mail makes sense. Payment of an e-mail bill can be effected with only minor changes to existing bill payment systems, is easily available to large and small businesses and provides for a reasonably secure method of direct communication between the biller and the bill payer, helping to maintain business relationships.

Such a method also results in a reduction in the ongoing overhead costs associated with Web-based systems, and so can significantly reduce the $0.44 cost per bill to but a fraction of that amount.

A comparison of these approaches is the subject of this paper.

Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) describe the process of delivering bills to customers and having them paid electronically. Generally speaking, the bills are presented as images on a website. They are accessible by the customer using a personal access code. Electronic bill presenters may be the billing company itself. Alternatively, the billing company may send its bills to an electronic bill presentment service, sometimes called a consolidator. Recipients of electronic bills also expect to be able to pay the bills electronically. That function is carried out by a bill payment service. A link from the presentment site to the payment service’s site may be provided by the presenter.

 Problems that are occurring with implementation of bill presentment revolve around efforts by third parties to control both the presentment and the payment process. This causes concerns ranging from initial and ongoing cost to security for both biller and bill payer, not to mention a huge degree of complexity in linking together many disparate, different systems.

 An alternative methodology involves e-mail presentment by the biller directly to an e-mail address specified by the bill payer. This method is relatively simple to implement and involves virtually no ongoing costs on the biller’s part.

All the biller has to do is obtain the e-mail address from the bill payer and incorporate it into its bill printing process. Software that will distribute forms by e-mail is available off the shelf. There are no serious security concerns, password access systems or history maintenance requirements.

Instinctively we know that electronic presentation of bills and invoices should be far less expensive then sending paper documents by mail. If payment can also be made electronically, the ultimate in efficiency and convenience can be achieved.

 Problems have arisen with adoption of the concept – by biller and customers – because of the complexity and costs of various offerings. The basic problem has been the attempt to tie too tightly the presentment and the payment processes into one system. This introduces complexity into the solution and requires a third party processor, along with all the inherent costs, security issues and system complexity that this entails.

Accounting systems used by many small companies permit them to e-mail their bills. There is no third party involved. Security issues diminish. The biller does not need to maintain the outstanding file, history file or access controls. That is all managed from the customer’s own e-mail system. For customers who prefer a fax to e-mail, that option is offered too.

 Recognizing this, TelPay is adapting its e-payment software and systems for businesses and individuals to provide similar efficiencies. Here are the options billers and customers have for participating in the emerging EBPP world. Our choice is the third one, but we need to understand the alternatives as well.

 ...to read the rest of the article, please go to:

http://www.telpay.ca/common/pdf/Cdn_Treasurer_Feb2004.pdf

Bill Loewen FCA, CM is the founder of Comcheq and a pioneer in the field of Electronic Payments. He is currently Chairman of TelPay Inc. in Winnipeg 

(Originally published in Canadian Treasury Magazine - February/March 2004)

How does Electronic Payment Processing Work?

 

Electronic payments in Canada began in March of 1985 with TelPay’s first electronic payment transmission. Since that time electronic bill payments have grown in volume, and are slowly becoming as common as direct deposit payroll. However, that still does not answer the question of how electronic payments work?

First, we should examine the fundamental aspects of electronic payments. These would be debits and credits. In the world of electronic banking, a debit is used to indicate a deposit, or a “money in” transaction. A credit indicates an expense, or a “money out” transaction. This is how banks and other financial service organizations manage millions of transactions every day. A debit cannot be made without a corresponding credit and vice versa.

Electronic payments and the complex series of debits and credits which are “transmitted” between TelPay and its customers result in: bills being paid, direct deposit being made, and even transfers between bank accounts. When you use the TelPay system to send a payment to someone, the system marks that as a debit against your account, and as a credit towards the account you are sending a payment to. Likewise, when a supplier or business sends a payment to you, the TelPay system creates a debit against their account, and a credit towards your account.

Electronic Payments Will Replace Cheques like Email Replaced Letter Writing.

 Is your Business Prepared?

Writing cheques is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and the truth is they are costing your business a lot of time and money. The cost savings of paying your bills electronically using TelPay can amount to an average of $1,450 to $2,900 annually for businesses that writes 50 to 100 cheques per month!

While cheques have traditionally been the leading method for paying business expenditures, today more and more businesses are opting to pay their bills electronically. With TelPay's pay anyone, anywhere capability your payee list is endless.

Each time you pay a bill electronically your business saves money. Take into consideration the cost of banking and credit card merchant fees, plus paper and postage expenses, not to mention your valuable time; paying your bills electronically with TelPay just makes sense.

Why are businesses adopting paperless bill payment systems?

• Businesses can save up to 78% off the cost of manual processing, by paying their bills electronically. It costs the average company $2.57 for every cheque they write (see our savings calculator for a detailed analysis)
• Electronic payments are safe and secure - there is less risk of fraud and TelPay provides you the option of single or dual authorization functionality offering you greater accessibility and management of business expenses.
• Recurring payments can be made, thereby eliminating late fees and penalties
• Paper cheques can get delayed, lost, stolen or damaged in the mail, but with electronic bill payment your payments will be made on time, every time
• Creates a more efficient process for posting and reconciling accounts by maintaining a clear audit trail including account distribution and payment history.
• More control of expenditures as you do not have to wait for the cheque to clear your account

The trend is undeniable: Business owners are streamlining their operations by using easy and cost effective electronic bill payment solutions from TelPay. With over 25 years experience as the leader in electronic payments, TelPay provides your business with advanced payment solutions allowing you to adapt and excel in this rapidly changing business environment.

TelPay Increases its Biller List to 40,000 Plus!

TelPay is releasing the latest version of its business software! We've been listening to our customers, and have introduced several improvements to the way the software works.

Some of the most exciting new features of version 6.6 are:

 

1. Increased biller list. TelPay's biller list has gone from 4000 to nearly 40,000 billers, with new billers being added daily.
a. This means fewer biller import charges due to the larger standard biller list.
b. This will improve the speed and accuracy of bill payments.
2. Improved error-checking on biller account numbers and duplicate invoice checking will help you avoid errors.
3. More flexibility to delete payments in the "View/Transmit Payments" screen means greater accuracy, with less work.
4. Email notifications when paying individuals ensures that your payee knows when a payment has been sent to them.
5. Improved payment history gives greater visibility to past transactions.
6. Payment Method Indicator - Know which of your payments will be made via cheque, and which will be made electronically before the payment is made!
7. Greater control over banking information with QuickBooks and Simply Accounting when importing payments.
8. Expanded printing options, you decide whether or not to print, and where to print to.

We will send you an email to notify you when TelPay 6.6 is ready for download. We sincerely hope that you are as excited about this latest release as we are.

Sincerely,
The TelPay for Business Team

Its Easy to Be Green - TelPay Innovation Saves the Environment

 A blog entry on April 22nd couldn't really be anything other than a post related to how much we save the environment! Being the largest independent payment processing company in Canada, and a "Green" innovator in the world of electronic payments, one could imagine that we have a lot to talk about.

By eliminating paper cheques, TelPay estimates that in 2009, it was able to save:

• 77,500 kilograms of paper (171,000 lbs)
• Over 2000 trees
• 3.8 million pounds of greenhouse gases from being released
• Over six million litres of waste water from being discharged 
• Eight dump trucks worth of waste from paper production
• Nearly 350,000 litres of gasoline from being consumed due to mailing bills, statements, and payments

(source: PayitGreen Business Calculator)

TelPay has been helping Canadian financial institutions such as CIBC, the Credit Unions, and businesses of all sizes to process electronically for the last 25 years. Having been the first Canadian company to do so, TelPay has made it possible for all these companies to process electronically.

The staff is also actively involved in ensuring that as a company we all do our part. Having a dedicated "Green Team" helps us to ensure that we keep moving in the right direction. The company has already implemented a recycling program, e-faxing, duplex printing, and paper/ink saving fonts to help save paper, and reduce TelPay's overall carbon footprint. 

If you have any "green" initiatives that you would like to share with TelPay, we would love to hear from you! You can either comment in the form below, or send a email to us: webmarketing (at) telpay.ca

Lower your Cheque Fraud Risk

The practice of leaving sensitive information on paper cheques is becoming increasingly risky. A technique known as cheque-washing is often used to commit fraud against businesses and individuals.

Cheque-washing is when cheques are "washed" (cleaned of their original information) and then cashed for different amounts than they were originally written for and by different people than the intended payee. In order to have these charges reversed, the victim will have to file a police report, fill out affidavits for the bank, and prove to the person/merchant that is being paid that it was fraud. This can be a very lengthy process which can seriously undermine the trust of your business partners and can damage your sense of security.

You can eliminate your risk of falling victim to cheque fraud. The easiest way is to simply pay electronically, and leave the security to TelPay! Our proven system will ensure the highest level of security and confidentiality with your electronic payments. TelPay has multiple layers of fraud detection built into both the software and our processes, keeping you and your business safe from fraud.

In the event you are still writing paper cheques, here are a few steps that you can take to protect yourself.

1) Use high-quality cheques which employ security features
2) Split responsibilities so that no one person is solely responsible for issuing cheques
3) Keep cheque stock in a secure location and minimize who has access to it
4) Reduce cheque usage as much as possible and use either electronic payments or pre-authorized debits
5)  Use cheque paper which bonds the toner to the paper

These five points will assist the "in house" security of your cheques and cheque processes. While we realize that it may be impossible to completely eliminate cheques, it is possible to reduce your business' reliance on them, and in the process, reduce your fraud risk