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The Collins Companies Centralize Payments Around
ACOM’s EZPayManager Payment Management Solution
THE BACKGROUND
In the span of 150 years, what began with the purchase of
1,500 acres of hardwood forest and a sawmill in Western
Pennsylvania has become an enterprise that extends from
coastal Oregon and California to Pennsylvania and
encompasses forestry, wood products and retail.
Based in Portland, Oregon, The Collins Companies is
comprised of three companies with seven divisions. Collins
Companies harvests and processes softwoods on the West
Coast and hardwoods in Pennsylvania and West Virginia,
manufactures wood products such as siding and trim, and
operates building supply centers in four California cities.
Until fairly recently, each location worked autonomously; but in
2001 the company acquired Cedar Open Accounts financial
software, installed via a Citrix server. The new arrangement
allowed the remote locations to centralize accounting on the
corporate server, dramatically improving financial controls, but
the individual units continued to disburse the accounts
payables locally, using varying levels of technology.
Historically, each Collins location had its own pre-printed multipart
check forms and numbering systems and most of the
divisions printed and signed their checks manually. The
exception was a high-volume site that used a check-signing
software package that was showing its age, according to
Controller Marilyn Hendrick. The local units ran their payables
through a two-person review process, manually verifying checks
against invoices. Confirmed, the checks went to two additional
persons for manual signatures, or in one case, to the mechanical
signature machine. According to Hendrick, each check run at
each location normally took from two to four hours to complete.
Recently, software from ACOM Solutions, Inc. has allowed
the company to standardize and streamline its processes,
saving time and resources and improving cash
management.
IMPULSE FOR CHANGE
“The individual companies issue 100 to 600 checks per week and
we have always been concerned about the issues of security that
are associated with pre-printed check forms and excessive
manual activity,” Hendrick said. “When the check-signing
software started to have system integration issues, it presented
us with an opportunity to reevaluate how we were doing accounts
payable. We decided that a change was needed.”
The change is now in place. Instead of each business unit
printing and distributing its own checks, payments now are
centralized at Portland headquarters.
Much of the payment process has been automated,
expensive pre-printed check stock has been
eliminated, along with its secure inventory control
headaches, and manual activity has been reduced to
a minimum.
In pursuing the change, Collins management examined
three MICR laser check processing systems. Another
Portland-area Open Accounts user, Hampden Industries,
earlier had purchased the EZPayManager solution from
ACOM Solutions, Inc. and was extremely satisfied with
the results, Hendrick said. After reviewing all the
alternatives, Collins Companies acquired the network
version of EZPayManager in late 2005.
EZPayManager is a multi-modular solution that
allows users to replace their expensive pre-printed
check forms with electronic check templates and
generate complete, signed checks on blank security
check stock, printed in a single pass through a MICRenhanced
laser printer. It is compatible with all hardware
and operating systems, it integrates seamlessly with
business software solutions, and the total payment
solution package provides an extensive range of options,
including:
- ACH electronic payments
- Check Fraud Alert (Positive Pay)
- Electronic Payment Notifications (or remittance
advice) via email, fax, F-EDI, web-posting and PDF
- Web-based monitoring modules for internal and
payee payment tracking
- Secure Watch, which allows users to set up handsoff
monitoring of security-sensitive activities related
to the processing and configuration of payment
information
- AutoProcess, which allows check runs to be
scheduled and then started and completed in a
completely untended modem
- ACOM also provides a wide selection of blank
security check stock and printing supplies, and a
line of MICR-enhanced laser printers
STREAMLINING CHECK PRODUCTION
Collins Companies opted for a checks-only solution,
along with implementation services and supplies (MICR
toner and blank security check stock).
The organization maintains individual checking accounts
for each of its three interrelated divisions, and when the
company purchased EZPayManager, it also purchased
implementation services for three electronic checkbooks.
Hendrick sent sample check files and copies of the pre-printed
check forms to ACOM, where implementation specialists
created electronic versions of the check forms.
The forms include all corporate and checking account
information and MICR lines, exactly as on the hard copy
forms, along with electronic signatures. Almost infinitely
reusable but easy to modify, the finished electronic forms are
stored in software on a Microsoft Windows server at corporate
headquarters.
When a check run is scheduled, payment data (payee,
amount, dates, check numbers, etc.) are merged with the
respective checkbook form. EZPayManager formats the
individual checks, along with the payment notification/remittance advice data indicating the invoices that are being
paid. The merged check file proceeds to the MICR laser
printer, where the complete, signed checks and payment
notifications are generated on blank security check stock in a
single pass through the printer. Since the payment files
undergo a comprehensive review prior to printing, they are
immediately ready for mailing.
BENEFITS OF CENTRALIZATION
In the centralized operation, checks continue to be generated
every Friday, with some contracts calling for payments on the
10th and the 25th of each month. A few checks are produced
manually as well.
Under the new arrangement, each unit or division enters its
own payables data into the Open Accounts software. The
scheduled payments are reviewed by a second person at the
location to assure controls are in place so that they match up
with the invoices being paid. Checks are printed in Portland,
reviewed by two persons in the headquarters’ accounting
department, and mailed from the central location.
“All of the invoices are scanned into the accounting system
and we normally are familiar with the payees, so if questions
arise, they can be resolved quickly by reviewing the back-up,”
Hendrick says. “When the disbursement process was
performed locally, it took two to four hours at each location,
but now all of this activity is performed in a fraction of the
time, in Portland.”
Besides saving a significant amount of personnel
and equipment resources at each location, the new
payables solution has also enhanced cash
management processes at headquarters, says
Controller Hendrick.
“Since we now only need one bank account per
company, cash management is much more effective;
I know what payments are at one time from one
person,” she says. “Previously, scheduling cash
transfers meant communicating with different individuals
every time there was a check run, but now that is
reduced to a single person and the process is much
simpler, more efficient and more secure.”
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