Sendpoint: Merchant
Retail Solution
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Sendpoint: Merchant - a better way of handling your customers' checks.
What if … when customers pay by check after your bank has closed for the day, you
could still get same-day credit at your bank for those checks?
What if …the “audit” of the checks in the cash drawer could be automated and your
company could eliminate the entire preparation of check deposits in every store?
What if … customer checks written on low-balance accounts could be presented to
their banks sooner than other checks – making it more likely that you will be paid?
What if … all the checks written in everyone of your stores could easily be made
into image bank deposits, so they would not have to be transported to the bank?
What if … at the end of the day, your headquarters could automatically schedule
consolidated image check deposits to the bank or banks of your choice for all your
stores, to achieve low cost routing and best availability of funds?
Sendpoint: Merchant is a complete outsourced service that provides ready answers.
The question isn't, "What if?" but, "Why not?"
Check 21 has enabled businesses (like your company) to truncate checks by creating
digital images of them, then transmitting them electronically to banks for electronic
deposit. The processing of digital images and data instead of paper reduces costs
for banks.
The good news for your retail chain is that you will also be able to lower bank
fees by making image deposits instead of un-encoded or pre-encoded deposits. You'll
enjoy immediate availability of funds for a high percentage of the deposits you
make, and the remainder will be available on the next day. And you will be able
to make deposits later, to include checks written into the evening hours.
A surprisingly simple process
When the Sendpoint service is implemented in your stores, cashiers can submit checks
to the store's service counter at the end of their shifts, at multiple times during
their shifts – or any time, day or night, for that matter.
From the service counter, checks are scanned for MICR data and image (at a rate
of up to 200 per minute), and transmitted to a secure centralized server. This is
performed using a scanner, PC and our automatically distributable Windows®-based
software application.
Check amounts are automatically recognized as they are scanned using CAR (Courtesy
Amount Recognition) and LAR (Legal Amount Recognition) technology. Transactions
are balanced to control totals before transmission, to ensure “clean” deposits.
After the images are sent from your stores to our service, they are automatically
sorted by a routine set up by your treasury department to maximize availability
and reduce bank fees. This routine produces consolidated image deposits. Most banks
in the U.S. will be able to accept such deposits, which will be transmitted to them
electronically, reducing clearing times, bank fees and reconcilement issues. Based
on the agreements you reach with your bank(s), image deposits can be transmitted
at various times during the day, or accumulated for a once-a-day deposit. Paper
checks will be disposed of at your individual stores, after the period of time agreed
upon with your bank(s).
By using Sendpoint, you can forget all about pre-encoding, night drops and a mid-afternoon
availability cut-off. Funds from “on-us” checks deposited directly to your banks
as images will be available to you one or two days sooner than they are now. And,
the deposit "window" for same-day deposits will be widened to include checks written
after banking hours. In this way, more checks can be deposited for that day, resulting
in faster funds availability.
A real cost cutter for you
By way of example, for a typical supermarket chain, the cost of handling a check
is between 30 and 38 cents (when you consider cashier and service desk prep, transportation
costs, bank fees and float). You could cut these costs by as much as a third with
Sendpoint: Merchant.
At the same time, costs for implementing the process are modest. Only a PC and a
check scanner is needed at the store’s service counter.. Fully secure and encrypted
data and image transmission is easily handled using your existing store communications
lines to the internet. If you don’t allow your stores access to the internet, no
problem, our solution will work on your intranet as well!
A good image opens up a world of possibilities
While the Sendpoint service is built to provide you with a simple and dependable
means of creating image deposits, its technology provides many additional features.
The service will fully track your deposits by cashier/lane, store and bank. Temporary
repositories of data can be used to research return items and errors.
A full shopping list
Is your retail chain looking for a full list of benefits? You may be able to fill
your entire list by making one purchase – Sendpoint: Merchant from Metavante Image
Solutions. Contact us today to learn more.
- Lower bank fees (Image deposits incur significantly lower fees when compared
to un-encoded or pre-encoded deposits.)
- Better funds availability (When you make image deposits, a high percentage will
be available immediately – and virtually all the rest will be available the next
day.)
- A wider deposit "window" (Image deposits will open the window considerably – from
mid-afternoon to late at night.)
- Fewer NSFs (Ever heard of the "first to the bank gets the funds" rule? With image
deposits, you invariably win that race, reducing return items.)
- Lower transportation costs - ask how our customers with cash and check deposits
have achieved this.