WE'VE GOT THE WHOLE TRANSACTION IN OUR HANDS: TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT WHOLETAIL LOCKBOX

Corporations have spent millions on accounts receivables systems in order to facilitate and reap the benefits of faster funds collection and reduced in-house processing expenses.  While they eagerly await a return on those investments, they may not realize they already have access to a tool that will help them improve receivables management.

Know what it is?  It’s their bank lockbox.

Banks have offered retail and wholesale lockbox accounts for years and recently blended the two into a unique offering known as wholetail lockbox.  Thanks to wholetail lockbox, which combines the technical advantages of high-speed retail lockbox processing with the flexibility and data collection capabilities of low-volume wholesale lockbox processing, companies finally have access to the receivables data necessary to streamline A/R posting and reduce payment exceptions.

Wachovia offers wholetail lockbox processing as a “lite” version of its retail lockbox service for high-volume, low-dollar remittances.  This wholetail solution is targeted to companies with 500 to 20,000 scannable documents and payments per month, including those in the mortgage, real estate, property management, healthcare, insurance, tax, utility and telecommunications market segments.  The service is designed for customers that also receive non-scannable documents, single payments with multiple remittances, multiple checks with a single remittance, and payments that do not match the billed amounts.

An upgrade over traditional retail lockbox capabilities, Wachovia’s wholetail service is able to automate data capture on supplemental remittance documents, reducing the cost, time and errors corporate A/R departments used to absorb as part of the posting process.  Image transmissions further relieve the common pains of receivables management.

Here’s how it works

Customer payments, along with any machine-readable remittance coupons, are mailed directly to the corporate customer’s post office box.  Incoming mail is picked up several times a day and on weekends at some sites.  The mail is opened and scanned, and a check digit routine is used to validate captured data from the scan line, resulting in a higher hit rate and fewer errors for receivables posting. 

Once checks are encoded and endorsed, funds are deposited to the client’s Wachovia account, and a report is produced that lists all payments received, in batch and sequence order.  An image transmission is sent to the client daily so they can update their accounts receivable files automatically.  With Wachovia’s advanced image technology, corporate clients have ready access to a Web-based archive of all the receivables data they need.

Is wholetail lockbox right for you?

If you receive consumer-to-business payments, wholetail lockbox processing can help you gain control over accurate payments posting, allowing you to redeploy staff, better serve your customers and reduce costly exceptions.  Wholetail lockbox processing also facilitates automated updating of customer records.  And by partnering with Wachovia, there’s no need for you to purchase equipment to archive images or for any of the back-office infrastructure (i.e. equipment, maintenance contracts, supplies, payment processing staff) needed to process wholetail items in-house.  This service also allows you to consolidate all your receivables data capture with a single bank.

The payoffs that come from faster funds collection and reduced in-house processing expenses are the primary reason a bank’s lockbox is so effective.  In today’s competitive business environment, leveraging this blended flavor of lockbox may be just what you need to improve your company’s receivables management.

Email This Page     Printer Friendly Version