The high cost of writing paper checks

There is something satisfying about a neat stack of envelopes all ready for the mail. It makes you feel productive, like you’re getting things done. What you don’t see in that stack full of paper checks is the unnecessary costs of check writing — both in time and money.While many privately owned businesses have legacy accounting systems that involve printing paper checks and mailing them to vendors, check writing is an overhead expense that you can and should eliminate. The costs of your AP operations may be invisible, but they are all too real.

How much are paper checks costing you?

According to an estimate by Bill.com, sending out paper checks could cost a business more than $2,000 every month. Including labor, bank fees, check printing, and postage, that’s over $24,000 a year to send 500 checks a month. By comparison, the analysis estimates the cost of automated bill payment at just $140 per month.

At that rate, over the course of a year, you could save almost $23,000 by automating your accounts payable.Think about how many checks your company writes every month. Then talk with your staff and find out how much time they spend preparing and mailing those checks. Add on any bank fees, postage and other costs and you start to get a picture of your true cost of writing and sending paper checks.

There is an additional price for manual bill payment: opportunity cost. What could your staff do with their time if they weren’t processing paper checks? How could they use those lost hours to improve the operations of your business? Once you assess the value of that lost labor, then you can truly see what writing paper checks costs your company.

Three benefits of automated bill payment vs. writing paper checks

In addition to reducing staff time to near zero, automating your AP with electronic bill payment has other benefits.

• Greater security. Paper checks can get lost in the mail or go missing in the office. Moving your AP online is more secure. An automated bill payment platform such as Bookkeeping Connect, a PwC product, can offer you the highest level of cloud security. When you move your AP to the cloud, you know where your information is and that it’s secure.

• Improved AP operations. No more scrambling because someone was out sick on the day the bills needed to go out. No more late payments because of outdated accounting systems that don’t have the functionality your business needs. No more payments sent to the wrong address or lost (and untrackable) in the mail. No more cancelling and reissuing checks.

• Accurate and up-to-the-minute financial information. When you automate your accounts payable, you can have the information you need for vital financial reporting on demand. You don’t have to wait for a staff member to put a cost trend report together—you can access it in an online dashboard in an instant.

When you make the switch, you’ll probably wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

The value of integrated accounting

You could automate your bill payments through an online platform that only handles bill payments. However, that gives you just a single function, rather than a suite of accounting tools. If your staff has to interface with several different platforms to complete accounting tasks, you may continue to lose out on potential time savings. In addition, if you create a hybrid of legacy systems combined with automated AP, you can end up with an unstable accounting operation that may be susceptible to failure.

Different systems strung together can lead to lost data and hidden errors.The right approach to automating your accounts payable is through a privately owned business accounting platform that can put all your financials in one place, or better yet, outsourcing your accounting altogether to a specialized team. With reporting, financial management, and bill payment off of your plate and out of your hands, you can save on overhead and gain valuable insights. With all your financials in one place, you can get bookkeeping and accounting done right by professionals.

An accounts payable created by accountants for businesses like yours

PwC designed Bookkeeping Connect to put the knowledge of PwC accounting professionals within reach of businesses like yours. Bookkeeping Connect's team oversees not only AP but also EBITDA reports, plus income and revenue trend reporting.When you bring on Bookkeeping Connect as your company’s bookkeeper, you can redirect staff time or even optimize the staff your business needs to run smoothly.

Migrating from paper checks and legacy accounting operations is seamless because PwC provides support throughout the process. To stay competitive, your company should move at the speed of modern business. Bookkeeping Connect can provide the actionable financial data you need to make smart choices for your business operations. When you’re ready to shred your paper checks and stop your company’s bill paying operations from being a time-consuming chore, Bookkeeping Connect is ready to automate your accounts payable. But electronic bill payment is only one of the many advantages of handing your accounting over to Bookkeeping Connect.

Meet with our team to find out all the ways it can help your business operate more profitably.