In the past decade, we have seen technology in all forms expand faster than the speed of sound. We have expanded our lingo to include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, we discuss our memory capacity in our Smartphone’s, iPods and iPads, we save to the “Cloud” and read our books on a Kindle. Our encyclopedias have been recycled in favor of Google, Wikipedia and the like, and we keep in touch with friends, family, classmates and mere acquaintances on Facebook. Remember when an apple was something you ate? I can’t believe all of the exciting innovations technology has shown us in my lifetime. Like everyone else, I thrive on all it has to offer. However, there is a downside to all of this technical wizardry, and that’s the change that has occurred in customer service. I recently called my cell phone carrier to inquire about removing my son from our phone plan. He is a college graduate, making his way in the workforce, and finally his phone is up for renewal so he can have his own plan. After calling the 800 number and “speaking” with an automated voice that answered my call, I quickly realized the trade-off we sacrifice in the name of technology. I spent a good few minutes repeating to the “voice” on the phone that I wanted to speak with a customer representative, no-go, the voice couldn’t understand my request. I tried the word agent, support, technician and finally I said I wanted to purchase a phone, a-ha, those were the magic words that got me to a real person. It took over ten minutes and I finally reached someone to help me with my request. I now realize why our customers are so happy with our customer support. At Red Wing Software, we have worked hard to be a progressive company in the technology world, but we work equally as hard to offer customers the personalized service they have always known and should expect!

Every business seems to have some recurring transactions. Recurring payments are those you have to pay more than once, and often on a regular basis, such as monthly bills, insurance payments, rent and more. You can use the recurring payments function in Accounts Payable to streamline the process of paying monthly expenses.

Individual Recurring Transaction

Creating an individual recurring transaction involves setting up and saving the basic information on the invoice, so it can be retrieved and processed each time you need to pay that invoice/vendor. Typically you would enter a description that is familiar, so you can find the correct transaction each time you need to use it. Once you have entered all the necessary information for the individual recurring invoice, that invoice will be saved in a list of recurring transactions. When it comes time to processes the invoice, simply select it from the list, open and edit the dollar amount (if necessary), and save the transaction.

Groups of Recurring Transactions

For even more efficiency, set up your recurring transactions within a group (or batch)! For your monthly recurring transactions, set them up in a monthly recurring group, for your quarterly transactions a quarterly group, and so on. First, create the name of your transaction batch, for instance “Monthly Recurring Bills.” Set up individual transactions and assign each of them to their group. By assigning the transactions to a group, the entire group of transactions can be created easily when needed. When it comes time to run a group of invoices, you go in and change any information if needed, run those invoices, and print them along with a check.

Setting up and using recurring transactions can save you significant time!

I want to use my space in this blog post to thank the many people that help us develop and deliver quality products that meet the needs of our customers. The people I’m talking about are the partners and customers that participate in our focus groups, and offer suggestions for improvements to our products.

As we continually work to improve any of our supported products, we use a documented process that includes reviewing all of the suggestions that have been submitted by the users of that particular product. We maintain a database of those suggestions, and have several design meetings involving staff members from every appropriate department in the organization.

As we finalize the new product features, we include a group of partners and customers to help us be assured that what we are implementing in the new software is actually what the market needs. We, of course, can’t include each and every suggestion to a product in any one release, but continue to review all suggestions received by our organization.

Thanks to all that participate in this process, and keep those ideas flowing.

Direct deposit is a feature included within a payroll program that allows you to deposit employee pay directly into a bank account. Payroll software programs vary when it comes to their direct deposit capabilities. For example, some systems allow you to deposit funds to your choice of bank account, while others require the money to be transferred via their service. Here are some factors to consider when trying to find the right direct deposit feature for your business.

Transfer options.

There are two main ways payroll systems allow you to transfer pay. You can either have the funds deposited directly into each employee’s individual bank account from your own choice of bank, or you can use a service which takes the funds and deposits them into the employee bank accounts for you. By using your own bank to deposit the funds, you may save money; however some banks do charge for this service and fees vary greatly. Using a service to deposit the funds does incur ongoing costs also, so be sure to check the costs of the service before deciding on one.

Deposit employee pay and third party pay.

Obviously the most important aspect of direct deposit is the ability to distribute employee pay to their bank accounts. But some payroll systems go a step further, and also provide an option to deposit third party pay electronically. This function allows employers to pay third party payees, such as 401K management companies or insurance companies, via electronic deposit, rather than processing a check manually. Sending these payments electronically can be a huge time saver when compared to writing and sending paper checks.

Deposit to multiple bank accounts.

A basic direct deposit system will allow for one account, but some systems allow for multiple deposit accounts. This way, employees can deposit part of their check to checking, part to savings, another part to a holiday savings account, and so on. While this typically does not cost the employer extra, it provides employees with the perk of more comprehensive money management options. So it’s a win-win!

Pay cards

Some payroll companies offer employers the option of loading (depositing) employee pay to a pay card (a debit card) instead of into a regular bank account. This is an excellent option for employees who do not have bank accounts. For those without bank accounts, it eliminates concern about where to cash a check, and also the associated check cashing costs.

It pays to use direct deposit, and all the features that go along with it. Check into your payroll software and what it can offer you for direct deposit. You could be on your way to great time savings and happier employees.