Leverage faster funding. 2 business days for payment processing as opposed to 5-10 days. Overcome the sporadic receipts of payments if multiple payments are made by a member in a single day. This is a bookkeeping nightmare.
When our CEO came to me, and mentioned that we were moving in a direction to help solve one of the great bookkeeping nightmares of the world, I was secretly jumping for joy. Having spent the early part of my career auditing at a big four CPA firm, and then later moving into a Controller role, I saw first hand, both from an outsider’s point of view, and from the shoes of someone performing the job, what the actual pain entailed.
What is this pain?
It is the pain of payments.
As a customer/member in my 40’s, it seems only natural that I have a quick and easy way (from my mobile device) to take care of my bills and/or charges I incur, and more importantly, to do so, on a schedule I define, with an ability to set it and forget it (for all of time, or until I decide to stop it). Incurring late fees is not something I do, because my payments are all auto-scheduled, and my task on my calendar says review charges to date, rather than pay my bill. In addition to my credit card company and my bank doing a great job alerting me to unexpected charges, I love knowing my precious time is not spent writing checks, and/or receiving/shredding paper statements any more. To say it differently, I expect to be able to be able to pay for anything I buy with a credit card (or at a minimum, electronically), and I count on the rewards I earn to fund a great portion of the vacations my family takes.
I will say that my parents, now in their mid-70’s, still do make trips across town to various locations to physically deposit checks and pay bills. My older brother and I share a laugh, and say, get with the program Mom and Dad! Electronic payments are the way to go! Ever since they were in Florida, however, and were the victim of credit card fraud even though they have NEVER made a payment online (purchasing a $25k camper unbeknownst to them), they continue fearing online activity and fail to acknowledge the inevitable; physical payments and actual cash are becoming extinct.
On the other side of the fence, however, the side of receiving/reconciling these illusive online payments carries with it more pain, sometimes even sweat and tears. At month end, I remember sitting for hours staring at bank statements alongside my Excel spreadsheets full of detailed data I had exported from our Accounting software, trying to make sense of the madness, piecing together possible combinations across multiple days of payment activity, only to end up with questions still in my mind about what payments had actually settled, and what payments were still in transit. I start sweating even thinking about that distant memory. Until, I remember, that maybe, just maybe, this nightmare is truly over. And not only for the former me, but for others who value an automated way to make sense of the madness. Something automated, something tied in to my accounting system, and something that with one click of a button will show me the details of what’s still in transit and the settlements that actually hit my bank. And, to top all of that, faster funding? Yes, please. Tell me more, I said to our CEO.