Disadvantages of cheques
Many organizations would be surprised—possibly even shocked—to know just how much time its employees spend each month writing, processing, sending and verifying cheques. Time is spent loading the printer with cheque stock, printing the cheques, placing them in appropriately addressed envelopes, passing them through the stamp machine and then putting them in the mail. That’s a lot of steps and they all add up. On top of this are the hard costs of purchasing the stock, envelopes and postage.
Let’s fall a little deeper down this rabbit hole. Most companies find that 20% of their cheques require follow-up of some kind, either due to delays in mail delivery, incorrect addresses on the envelopes, or even worse, their disappearance, which we’ll talk more about below. When you factor in the time spent issuing cheques and putting them in the mail, you’d have to conclude that using cheques for accounts payables is expensive, slow, and time consuming. And when you add to this the environmental footprint of producing paper and ink, and the energy consumed in printing invoices and delivering them via the postal system, you’re adding another dimension to the overall clunkiness of handling accounts payables with cheques. Yes, cheques are archaic and will soon become obsolete, but despite this, over 400 million commercial cheques are still issued in Canada each year. What a waste of time and money…
What to use instead of cheques
Fear not. There’s an alternative to cheques—the SparcPay app. SparcPay accounts payable software takes a company completely digital from day one. Over 90% of payments made via SparcPay are by electronic funds transfer (EFT), or direct deposit, the digital movement of money from one account to another. EFTs eliminate the need for paper accounts payable documents. And in rare cases where an exception cheque is required, SparcPay takes care of that too! The result is that SparcPay clients see an immediate cost savings and a significant reduction in payment processing effort. What business doesn’t want that?
Another advantage of SparcPay-generated digital payments is that they are much more secure. SparcPay offers enhanced payment visibility as well. No more wondering whether a cheque was actually mailed, got lost, was stolen or was simply a victim of snail mail. The moment a digital transfer is made it’s a done deal. Payment is received immediately and there’s an audit trail that clearly shows who approved what and when—for transparency and security. In the B2B world, these attributes inspire confidence in your company and improve business relationships. It eliminates calls from impatient suppliers wondering about payment for their products or services—making your company more attractive to do business with. While handling your accounts payables, SparcPay also contributes on the PR front.
Contact
SparcPay is at the forefront of the digitization/modernization of accounts payables in Canada. Please click here to contact us and we’d be happy to explain our revolutionary alternative to paper cheques that will enhance efficiencies and improve the bottom line at your company.