The bank lockbox allows William Douglas to streamline the homeowner dues payment process. With the bank lockbox, when an homeowner association member writes a check and mails their payment in, their check goes directly to the bank and bypasses our offices. The lockbox receives and deposits those payments at least one day earlier, and makes the entire process much more efficient for all parties. The biggest benefit to our clients is the cost savings brought about by the lockbox process. The efficiencies reduce our staffing needs, and we pass those savings along to our clients.
Lockbox Overview
The main reason for the lockbox service is speed and efficiency. Lockbox services deposits payments into the Association’s checking account more quickly.
The bank lockbox receives mail multiple times throughout the day, while our office location only receives mail once a day from the postal service. If a payment misses delivery to our office, it results in an additional day delay in being deposited. In contrast, lockboxes offer more opportunities to capture payments and make deposits to the association’s account. In reducing the amount of time it takes for funds to hit the association’s bank account, the association has less outstanding “float” funds out there and funds become available for use in a more timely manner.
Imaging and Lockboxes
The bank offers an imaging based lockbox service. An image based service scans everything that comes into the association’s lockbox so that it can be viewed electronically. Payments can generally be viewed electronically the same day they reach the lockbox.
The ability to view checks that the membership sends in can be very beneficial. It aids in the response to membership inquiries and makes resolving problems easier.
Automation
Automation is an additional benefit of the bank lockbox by making accounts receivable easier to manage. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs literally “read” everything and store the output electronically. This allows the lockbox to read the remittance data such as the member name, check amount, and other information on the check. In addition, having computers doing this process generally result in less data entry errors.