Distributed Branch Capture
Distributed Branch Capture and / or In-House Lockbox
Historically, businesses whose environments are characterized by very complex wholesale payments and/or lower volumes often chose to receive their payments directly at their corporate facility or distributed branch location. With technological advancements in electronic deposit, integrated receivables workflow and cash application, an additional and growing number of corporations are also evaluating the opportunity to bring the entire lockbox process “in-house” as well. This may be very economical from an operations standpoint as well as providing a process model that delivers a measurable competitive advantage in terms of service delivery and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, a distributed branch could offer point of sale (POS) transactions.
Corporations of virtually any size can maintain and enhance this “in-house” focused model by introducing the following process changes with OPEN SCAN:
At your branch and/or corporate location:
Employees will scan checks and remits as received either through the mail or directly from walk-in customers through a lightweight “smart” client local application.
- A POS interface can be provided for on the spot purchase transactions
- If captured at a branch, images will be transmitted automatically to your shared services or centralized data center corporate location.
At your corporate location:
- The OPEN SCAN software will reside behind your firewall.
- Data will automatically be extracted from images flowing in from both the corporate and branch locations.
- Extracted data will be intelligently matched against an open invoice file and established business rules.
- Cash application personnel will complete minimal exception handling including deductions and short pays from a single user interface screen.
- Decoupled electronic or email based payments and remittances will be integrated into the work flow.
- The OPEN SCAN solution will export a highly accurate posting file in a standardized format to the AR system at the end of the business day.
- An Image Cash Letter will be generated for electronic deposit of checks received at both the branch and corporate locations.
- If configured appropriately, branch personnel can access images, data and transaction status for local dispute management.
This “in-house” model streamlines existing receivables processing infrastructure, provides flexibility in terms of the location of receipting and generates a range of benefits that directly impact operational efficiency:
- Creates access of check and remit images the same day as received by either the branch and/or corporate location thereby eliminating the unnecessary storage of paper documents
- Provides an integrated receivables workflow of all payments whether they arrive at the branch or corporation or electronically.
- Automates the extraction and posting of remittance data
- Cash application occurs the same day both paper and electronic payments are received
- Exception handling is easily researched and managed from a single screen without the need of consulting a bank portal or the A/R system
- The data accuracy of the posting file to the back end A/R system is in the high 90% range
- Deductions and short pays are efficiently processed
- A/R and frequently Collections personnel are far more productive and free to engage clients in more business driven conversations.
- Cash application and dispute management can be executed at the greatest point of efficiency and customer service; either the branch or corporate location.
- IT involvement to implement and support the software is minimal
The bottom-line is a more automated, simplified and faster process, oftentimes days faster. With more efficient tools and greater productivity, employees can be re-purposed into activities that drive greater business value.