Do you make copies of checks for every incoming customer payment?

Gary,

Neat idea. Do you think that it is good enough that my banks (chase, BOA, Wells, etc) record copies?

I used to do the "staple order to invoice to check", but internationally this is meaningless (literally), and I've gone virtual on everything...so I've figured the bank image is as good as me DMSing a copy.

Your thoughts?

KP

Some banks don't necessarily make copies of deposits as much as they do copies of your out going checks. By scanning your incoming payment checks you can readily access them without needing to ask for copies from your bank. Which saves time and possibly fees.

In that commercial credit reports are not an exact science, there can be significant discrepancies between what an agency considers a recommended credit limit and the reality of payments being made by a customer.

Since the alternative to asking any lender for a higher credit limit on a customer is asking that customer to submit their current financial statements, this method of evidence of payment has a much lower threshold.

You should look at using a lockbox to save clerical time, improve internal control and because you get an image of every check.

Companies using Remote Deposit Capture to make their check deposits directly from their office online will be able to see the individual check deposited and have the image stored online for future use in the manner requested.

As Tim mentions, using remote deposits allowed us to streamline our process by using the image saved from the deposit record as our backup as needed. It has been very useful benefit. Prior to using remote deposits, we did photocopy checks for audit backup.

Ascentis uses remote deposit and we file the pdf deposit with images for audit purposes. We have also went paperless for our AP process with Bill.com who recently added an AR feature. Bill.com is easy to implement and use and is very cost effective for both small and large companies.

Funny you should ask. I grew up old school and still staple a copy of the check to my invoice. Just recently, I noticed an invoice in one of my customer's files did not have a check attached. 2 months ago I generated an estimate for my customer, they approved the estimate, I ordered the product and it was delivered to their site but, I never converted the estimate into an invoice. Once I generated and emailed the invoice they cut me a check 3 days later; obviously they had been waiting!