If cash is going the way of the dinosaur, like some experts predict, then you may think the cheque has already gone extinct. The situation is quite the opposite. Although the total number of cheques has declined over the years, the value of cheque payments has actually increased.
Why? Many businesses are still using cheques, especially for higher-value transactions.
Just because your business is still using cheques, though, doesn’t mean you need to use 20th-century technologies to process them. Just as technology has been revolutionizing cash handling, so too has it transformed how you deal with cheques.
Cheque scanners are designed to increase the efficiency of processing cheques, saving time and money along the way. The digital scanners capture images of the front and back of the cheque and note the amount, bank account, signature, and so on.
What other advantages do cheque scanners have? Here are five of the biggest benefits for your business.
1. Save on Administrative and Labour Costs
When it comes to handling cheques, the costs associated with it may surprise you. The biggest surprise for most business owners is just what percentage of those costs are associated with administration. You need to pay people to handle and manage cheques, after all.
Like any good business owner, you’re always on the lookout for ways to reduce these costs. That’s where a cheque scanner comes in.
When you invest in a scanner, you reduce the amount of time needed to process a cheque. Better yet, your team will be better able to avoid the errors that come along with manually processing transactions. The scanner speeds up processing and makes it more accurate, meaning your team has more time to handle other important tasks.
You’ll also save on storage costs, since you no longer need to keep physical copies of cheques on hand. Everything is stored digitally instead.
2. Increase Your Security
Cheque scanners cut down on potential fraud by verifying and authenticating each cheque you process. Cheques submitted digitally are verified using digital signatures and public key cryptography, giving your business additional security.
Scanners also pare back the number of touchpoints that cheques travel through. The result? There are fewer hands processing any given cheque, reducing the margin of error.
3. Get Access to Data
Traditionally, hard copies of cheques were kept on file so information could be looked up and confirmed. With many cheque-scanning technologies, you can easily sort and store the same information digitally.
The software that comes with your new cheque scanner will help you simplify this process. Although capabilities change depending on the program and the bank you’re with, the digital system provides faster access to data than manual processes ever could.
4. Deposit Cheques Remotely
Remote deposit is one of the biggest advantages of investing in a cheque scanner. With it, you can deposit and process a cheque with just a few clicks. Once scanned, your paper cheque is transformed into a digital image that is sent to a bank and deposited. This gives you access to those funds much sooner than traditional cheque processing. It allows banks to easily verify and authenticate cheques.
5. Improve Productivity
Manually processing cheques is labour intensive. You must photocopy both sides of the cheque, enter data, and physically file the cheque. If your business accepts a large volume of cheques each day, this time-intensive process adds up.
Scanning technology allows you to process cheques right away by storing, organizing, and depositing them quickly and automatically. With cheques processed in a flash, your team can accomplish more on their to-do lists every day.
Ready to leap into the new era of cheque scanning? Get in touch with the experts and discover what the right technology can do for your business.
