It’s no secret that the usage of cheques has been on the decline for several years and the increase of electronic payments options has been steadily on the rise. It is especially apparent when you feel the sting of what it now costs to order cheques when your supplier doesn’t want to accept another form of payment.

But why are some vendors and suppliers adverse to accepting electronic payments when there are so many benefits?

• They are paid more quickly and securely.
• It’s easy. The funds are directly deposited into their accounts. No-muss. No-fuss.
• Electronic payments come with details as to what the payment is for.
• No depositing or misplacing of cheques to be worried about.
• They are FREE.

If there was any doubt about how common electronic funds transfers (EFTs) and credit cards have become for Canadian businesses, a recent Payments Canada report put it to rest. In 2020, EFTs made up 25% of total business payment value in this country, while credit cards accounted for 24%.   

That credit card number in particular was unheard of just five years previous. But as that Payments Canada report suggests, there have been four key drivers of credit card usage among businesses recently: payment acceptance, rewards, perceived convenience, and easier control of payments.

It’s no secret that money is a huge contributor of stress to people, and tax season just seems to shine a great big spotlight on the issue. Money takes center stage at tax time, even if you’ve been able to brush it under the rug up until this point. This stress is multiplied significantly if you are an Accountant or Bookkeeper.

Accountants Tally Up the Stress

Does tax season mean late nights in the office followed by a McDonald’s run? As deadlines approach, do you start to develop a twitch in one eye? These are signs that you may need to take steps to manage your stress.

If you manage a business such as an Insurance Company, Property Management Company, or Day Care (for example),  accepting payments with PAD (pre-authorized debit) can make it easier for your customers to make their payments to you.

Are your customers still sending you cheques? The cost to purchase cheques is on the rise, but the hidden cost of cheques is the loss of time to you both. The customer has to order and prepare cheques and then deliver them to you, either in person or by mail and you may have to make follow-up calls to your customers to ensure that cheque is indeed in the mail. Save your customers time and money – offer them the convenience of PAD.

In 1985, William Loewen had grown Comcheq to a national company with 22 branches stretching out across Canada. At the time, Canadians living remotely didn’t have a way to make their bill payments in a timely fashion. Bill payments weren’t available by phone and the internet didn’t exist so people had to mail cheques to their creditors; a slow process indeed.

Bill recognized the need for a better way to pay and thus, Telpay was born. This innovative, new technology gave Canadians the option to pay their bills quickly, conveniently, and in a way which they had never imagined possible; by phone. By 2004, Telpay had grown from telephone payments to electronic payments and continued to evolve into the all-in-one payment system it is today.