Category: Software

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BACS Payments: 46 years of change at the cutting edge of financial transactions

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” – So says Leo Colston, the subject of L.P. Hartley’s famous novel The Go Between. Most of all, this is true of the worlds of business and computing when we look back to 1968 from the vantage point of the present day. Despite the inroads into the popular imagination made by shows like Mad Men, the overwhelming impression one has of business life in the 1960s is of a rather more innocent, simpler time: the image of men in tailored suits conducting business deals in a formalistic and gentlemanly manner, their days punctuated by long and boozy lunches. This world, in which old boys’ networks rather than social networking sites were the order of the day; when computers were frequently bigger than the plant machinery they counted or controlled; when ‘bugs’ in computers more often than not were literal bugs nestling in the works – seems to be separated from the ruthless, iconoclastic, fast-paced and carnivorous world of post-1980s economic life by a whole lot more than 46 years.Â

But one thing has remained constant in those 46 years: BACS payments. Invented in 1968 by Dennis Gladwell of the Joint Stock Banks Clearing Committee, BACS began life as the Inter-Bank Computer Bureau, it cut out the time-consuming and irrational process of paper-based transfers between banks. Today, thanks to constantly-improving BACS software, BACS is continuing to cut down on paper usage, and make payments more reliable and rapid, for thousands of businesses around the world. Since 2005 the service has been moved from a telephone-based system to BACSTEL-IP servers, and BACS has really come into its own as an online service, making for even faster transfers.Â

Even though some other services are challenging for its crown as the world’s biggest payment transfer service, over 5 billion BACS payments are made every year, and while some services may claim to have faster systems than the BACS software, the majority of all the wage-earners in the UK still receive their wages via BACS.

The continued dominance of this banking behemoth means that the BACS-accredited training schemes offered by Bottomline’s dedicated educators, who know the BACS system inside and out, are of irreplaceable value for businesses – and the same goes for the BACS and Faster Payments software which Bottomline services have developed. When it comes to the leading worldwide payments system, Bottomline Technologies lead the way in BACS software.

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

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

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Recovery audit software will pay for itself the first time you use it

An accounts payable audit is a way of examining your accounts records and finding out where the errors have occurred in the past – and, as a result, where they are likely to crop up in the future. Needless to say, errors of any type in your accounts are a mistake you can’t afford to make – especially at the moment, in times of financial uncertainty. One of the most noticeable problems is duplicate payments – paying the same individual or company twice for one invoice. This could be down to human error, but it can also happen more purposefully. This is another point of recovery audit software: to prevent fraud and collect money you have lost unnecessarily, whether through genuine mistake or through dishonest exploitation of the weaknesses in your system.

Estimates vary for the sums of money wasted by the average business on unnecessary payments, but it often comes out between 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent – that is, between one and 5 invoices per thousand. Needless to say, this can be a significant proportion of turnover. An examination of three years’ worth of accounts for many companies can reveal discrepancies that run into three figures. The problem is that the average invoice has so many data fields that it is quite easy to enter data inaccurately. In fact, auditors have found that errors of this type happen in the accounts for every single business whose accounts they have examined.

Depending on the size of your business, accounts discrepancies could be costing you hundreds or thousands of pounds every month, if not more. That means that recovery audit software could net you tens of thousands of pounds returned in bad payments. Even if the figure is not as much, it is likely to pay for itself the first time you ever use it, and continue to earn its keep in the months and years to come.

Such recovery audit software therefore offers a high return on investment and gives some peace of mind from the problems that human error generally brings. Although it is probably impossible to eradicate duplicate payments altogether, an accounts payable audit will go a long way towards this ends. In an economic downturn or period of stagnant growth, every method of saving money should be investigated. If checking your accounts can find the money you would have saved by making redundancies, then this has got to be a better option.

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

http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/

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Bacs software prioritises security

It doesn’t matter what sort or what size of business you are in, it is quite certain that it has in common with all businesses the need to make and receive payments. Indeed, the very meaning of the word business connotes the activity of obtaining or vending goods or services. The most commercially successful businesses tend to be those that make the greatest number of exchanges; for those with their eye set on topping the market, buying and selling the right items at the right price becomes an art to be repeated as frequently as possible. With an increased number of exchanges comes an increased level of responsibility, however, clients will expect to pay for and receive their goods quickly and without encountering errors or delays. bacs software can help meet these clients’ demands by minimizing errors and time lapses because, quite simply, BACS payments are both efficient and almost infallible. There was once a time when BACS were synonymous with slowness – sometimes taking over three days to clear. Now it is a different story; these automated payments represent one of the fastest and safest methods of exchanging money.

The bettered service supplied by BACS means that growing numbers of businesses are using this payment method to manage the transactions they are involved in. The fact that one improvement has been in security has been an important factor in this increase: excellent levels of security really are paramount in business because not only do they keep businesses’ private information confidential and their revenue protected against fraud, they also safeguard the banking and personal details of clients.

Customers who feel valued by the businesses they deal with are much more likely to use a company’s services or invest in their goods in future. Indeed, in the reverse situation clients who feel disrespected are likely to complain and adversely affect the reputation of a business. Altogether, businesses and their clients are advised to use bacs software to make and receive their BACS payments. Anything other than BACS has simply not stood the test of time and proved itself to be efficient.

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

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Is your organisation wasting money through duplicate payments?

More than ever in these times of financial cuts and common belt-tightening, all businesses need to be considering ways in which they could save money – and, indeed ways in which they could be wasting their budgets.  Using accounts payable audit software can be a very useful way of reducing spending by detecting errors through duplicate payments, fraud, or other common mistakes.  Further, the use of recovery audit software can be a cost saving choice that also minimises the potential for errors.

Accounts payable audit software can be used by in-house teams to increase control, improve processes, and prevent errors.  The technology uses search algorithms and sophisticated pattern matching techniques to generate a precise report of potential duplicate payments and errors.  This brings many benefits, the most notable being prevention and protection.  With this software, users can pre-process upcoming payments, so that duplicating invoices will become a thing of the past.  It also helps to develop processes, as the errors report reveals any underlying weaknesses in the system.  Reduced external consultant fees are another bonus, as you no longer need to pay commissions to external recovery auditors for recovering payments that you can do yourself. The ease of use of the technology means that all staff in the Accounts Payable team will be able to use it, with no re-training costs incurred.

One company which specialises in this kind of product is Fiscal Technologies.  Founded in 2002, the company provides software to corporations and governments around the world.  It aims to give companies the tools to deal with accounts payable auditing independently, helping them build ‘best in-class Accounts Payable teams’.  With a large percentage of staff members from auditing backgrounds, the organisation has a very good knowledge base when it comes to duplicate payments.  If you are interested in using the services of such a company, they are likely to offer you a free audit of your technology, so that they can demonstrate to you how they identify duplicates and the extent of savings you may be able to make.

If your accounts payable audit could do with a little improvement, then, surely it makes sense to consider such a company.   The potential to save thousands of pounds on eradicating duplicate payments is for most organisations too valuable to ignore.  A small amount of investment in recovery audit software can lead to an extensive return, and give you the satisfaction of knowing that your process is as streamlined as possible, and can be done by your very own in house team.

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

http://www.fiscaltechnologies.com/

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Bacs payments are made using approved software suppliers

The Bankers Automated Clearing services, usually identified by the abbreviation bacs, is an organisation for processing payments in the UK. It is not for profit, and the scheme was originally created to facilitate electronic payments, lessening the need for paper documents where the transfer of money is concerned. According to its official website, 5.6 billion bacs payments were made in 2009 alone, accumulating a total value of £3.83 trillion. Large, individual companies are likely to make thousands of such payments, to the value of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of pounds each year. For such large companies, processing these payments can constitute a significant obstacle in terms of administration and paperwork. Accounts payable teams can, if the situation is not monitored, and an adequate solution devised, end up swamped in stressful, confusing, and tiresome paperwork. It is for this reason that many companies choose solutions involving specially designed bacs software.

Bacs is the best method of payment for managing automated payments to and from repeat suppliers and customers. Also, of course, it is perfect for managing salary payments, because of their regularity and consistency. In fact, there is a good likelihood that your salary has, at some point in your working life, been paid through the scheme, as this is how the majority of the UK workforce is paid.

When accounts payable is run inefficiently or on inadequate software in a business, this can have a knock-on effect that trickles through the entire range of aspects of that particular company. Worse, it can result in payment errors and vulnerability to fraud. The scheme provides a rigorous approval process for would-be software suppliers, to make sure that their software is adequate. There are several criteria, among which is the authentication of parties that communicate with Bacstel-IP, or, in the case of faster payments, Secure-IP. When a software supplier satisfies this and many other requirements, it will have permission to use the ‘approved software’ logo.

The bacs scheme is an effective way of processing large volumes of secure payments. Your company’s bacs software needs to come from a fully authorised supplier, otherwise you are at risk from insecure bacs payments and payment errors costing significant amounts of money.

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

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