The process typically takes two or three days, depending on how long the recipient waits before making a deposit. Add in the mail, and it can stretch into a seven- or 10-day ordeal. Writing physical checks is time consuming, it’s inexact, and it’s rife with potential fraud. Yet many businesses still do it—perhaps out of habit, or perhaps because they haven’t considered a better way.
“A lot of customers are used to writing checks to pay employees, to pay vendors, or to collect membership fees. But there’s a way to electronically send money to employees when it’s pay day, or have clients pay membership fees, and it moves money faster,” says Tiffany Taber, Chief Operations Officer at Prospect Bank, which has been serving Central Illinois since 1873. “Often when businesses send checks through the mail in a window envelope, it’s obvious, and that check can be stolen. But you don’t have to worry about that when it’s all electronic. It’s done through your computer, and it’s faster than paper checks.”
That electronic payment and collection system, known as an automated clearing house (or ACH), is a hallmark of the BankWise program that Prospect Bank offers to its business customers. The system allows cash flow to be handled online at any time, day or night, without the delay incurred by writing checks. No more waiting in line at the bank, or waiting on the mail, or waiting on physical checks to clear your account; business finances can even be managed over a mobile device thanks to the BankWise app.
No more keeping track of paper
What started as an electronic tool that businesses could use to sweep excess funds into a secondary investment account, BankWise has grown into a full suite of products that puts the power of financial management and supervision directly into the hands of the business owner or financial officer. A cornerstone of the program is ACH Manager, which allows businesses to make payments electronically, even scheduling them to go out on a specific date.
As opposed to a five- or 10-day lag time with physical checks, an ACH transaction gets the money to the payee “that same day, or the next day,” Taber says. “They can see their activity as it's occurring. To me, that would be easier to manage than waiting until your month-end statement and going through and marking off, ‘OK, this check cleared, this check cleared,’ and trying to replicate something that happened a month ago or more. Your end-of-month process for balancing books would be a lot easier. You don't have go through and look at all the paper and keep track of it. It's just all right there, every day, right in front of you.”
The BankWise system is more than an electronic cash manager. Users can still employ it to set up sweep accounts that are directed into an investment fund that helps bolster the bottom line of a business, or pay down a line of credit, or prevent overdrafts. They can save money and time by requesting wire transfers electronically. Transactions can be exported to software like QuickBooks which can make it easier to manage finances. There’s a way to have bills payed online, to set up alerts that signal any account activity, and to allow paper checks to be scanned and deposited electronically.
“There are so many solutions and customizable options,” Taber says, “that it’s a great option for anyone, from smaller businesses to our larger commercial customers.”
Sweeps, wire transfers, and more
The BankWise app puts all that power at a business owner’s fingertips. From a mobile device, the app allows users to monitor account balances, view recent transactions, move money between accounts and deposit physical checks by snapping a photo of them. ACH and wire transfers can also be approved through the BankWise app, which also sends users notifications when approvals are pending. And like everything else involving Prospect Bank, the entire system is built on reliability, security, and customer service.
Whether accessed via the app or a computer, BankWise “gives our commercial customers a quick and easy way to access their transactions, their account history and move money between their accounts,” Taber says. “They can see funds that have been swept the day before, how much money may sweep in a day based on their activity, how money is flowing throughout the day. And they can see all this activity as it’s occurring.”
No more paper checks, no more multi-day waits, no more worries about window envelopes being stolen out of the mail and used for fraudulent purposes. When it comes to individuals, 78 percent of Americans now bank via mobile app or website, according to a recent Ipsos-Forbes survey. With BankWise, businesses can discover that ease, convenience, and security themselves.
Interested in learning more about the BankWise program at Prospect Bank? Visit one of its ten locations across Central Illinois and Indiana, including Terre Haute, call (877) 465-4154, or visit BankProspect.com for further information.
