Category: Software

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Bacs software is safe, fast and simple

Nowadays all most all companies use bacs payments to send sums of money from one bank account to another – whether it’s for their suppliers, clients or other parties. Bacs software can be integrated with your accounting software, meaning that accounting data doesn’t have to be entered several times. This cuts down on lost time and resources, thereby saving you money. Bacs itself is still in use but, in practice, almost all so-called ‘bacs’ payments today are actually FPS, or the ‘faster payments system’. Whereas bacs usually takes three working days, FPS is practically instant. The money usually appears in the receiver’s account within minutes, if that.

There are numerous benefits to using bacs instead of the older alternatives. Although some transactions inevitably have to be completed in cash (although there are technological advances that are making a cashless system a closer reality) you will usually want to cut down on the amount of cash you have on the premises. This presents a risk and has an additional cost in terms of your insurance policy. Cheques are still in use, but these are slow to process – both for you in writing them and in the bank in clearing them. Additionally, you have no idea when they will be cashed. Sometimes people will leave cheques for weeks or more before they can get to a bank. This means that money leaves your account at unexpected times, which is not good for your cash flow.

Larger firms use bacs software routinely because it is so convenient, speedy and safe – there are numerous levels of security built in, and losing money through fraud is almost unheard of. (In the event that something does go awry, you will almost always be refunded.) It’s the smaller companies that resist making bacs payments for longest. Partly this is because there is a small cost of moving across your systems. However, it’s more likely a less measurable cause: ‘We’ve always done things this way.’ As more and more companies use bacs, though, the ones that remain with the less effective and secure systems will be left behind. It is now an inconvenience to be paid by cash or cheque in many cases. A business that is slow to update will be at a disadvantage, since the competition could well be making electronic payments – saving time and money in the process.

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Duplicate payments are as expensive as they are unnecessary

It’s a sad rule of business that accounts take special attention. After all, even if everything else looks to be going well, chaos in the accounts department can bring a business to its knees. It’s also an unfortunate fact that wilful exploitation is a danger as much as mismanagement. Even with the most experienced accounts personnel, fraud is still a real threat. Mistakes aside, there will always be people – customers or suppliers – who are willing to make a few extra pounds (or thousands of pounds) at your expense. That’s where an accounts payable audit comes in. Such an audit carries out an automated check of your accounts, finding duplicate payments and a range of other overpayments and errors. Recovery audit software enables you to start reclaiming those overpayments, collecting back the money you have unnecessarily shelled out – whether due to mistake or mismanagement, or something more sinister.

The difference that this can make to you business accounts is significant. Obviously, the bigger your business, the more opportunity there is for mistakes. One percent is a not unusual discrepancy to find in your accounts with the right software. For a company with a turnover of £1 million a year, that could total £10,000 – more, in some cases. In such a tough economic climate, that could mean the difference between sinking and swimming. Even if you’ve got the extra cash, it could be far better spent on something more productive. It’s also fair to say that if an unscrupulous client finds that they can take you for a ride without detection, then they’re going to continue to do so. That means your costs can snowball over time.

Recovery audit software virtually eliminates these kinds of problems by identifying where the duplicate payments and other discrepancies have arisen – allowing you to take the necessary action. For this reason, an accounts payable audit will very often pay for itself the first time it is carried out. The software is a smart investment to make, because it future-proofs you against allowing the same mistakes to crop up over and over, and enables you to put mechanisms in place to prevent further mishap. In the current economic climate, no one wants to throw money away, and so the modest investment can be worth a small fortune over time. In practice, making sure your accounts are watertight has no downside.

Please visit http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/ for further information about this topic.

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Using bacs payments to optimise cost effectiveness and control in financial transactions

It is a classic issue in most modern companies, however large and successful they are – keeping control over financial transactions can present real issues. In order to pass audits and ensure cost effectiveness, it is crucial that businesses can make payments securely and track the payments they collect.  It is often the case that bacs software is the best way to do this.  Processing payments electronically with bacs, or bankers’ automated clearing services, can optimise the security and efficiency of your transactions and save you valuable time and money. Taking a few working days to clear, bacs payments are a particularly effective way of keeping on top of your firm’s finances.

Bacs software solutions can be adapted to the needs of individual businesses, so they can improve the security and efficiency of each firm in the most effective way.  The systems cater for multiple divisions and operating procedures, which has the added bonus of giving finance officers the broad perspective that is particularly useful in assessing the company’s financial position and making strategic decisions.

The need to move data or information between applications has often proved a challenge for businesses, necessitating technical integration and highly skilled staff.  It should be a relief to the business world that this often difficult process is no longer necessary.  Essentially, bacs empowers organisations globally to transfer data between banks and customers.  Originated  in 1968 as the Inter-Bank Computer Bureau, the system has gained many adherents as it has developed.  Nowadays, the need for paper documents as part of the money transfer process seems rather outdated.  The benefits of this system go further than cost and time efficiency: phasing out  paper documents frees up space in the work place , allowing for more staff or useful technology such as computers where filing cabinets would previously have been. With companies increasingly looking to improve their environmental credentials, limiting paper wastage is a great added bonus of digitising payment processes.

Clearly, bacs software exists to make our lives easier, and it just does not make sense not to take advantage of it. The savings in terms of time, money and space that can be made by introducing bacs to your business are so significant that it is surely worth the time that it takes retraining your staff to adapt to the change. Compared with regular  payments, bacs payments are quicker, smoother and more hassle free than anything that has been used in the past.

Please visit http://www.bottomline.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.bottomline.co.uk/

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