All posts by Telpay Incorporated

Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

3 Ways that Telpay Makes B2B Payments Easier

At Telpay, we help build great relationships between businesses and their customers. Like every relationship, the needs can vary considerably from one organization to the next. That’s why we look at every possibility and devise custom solutions. Here are three ways that we’ve made things easier for you:

1. Error-free account number validation
Have you ever wondered how Telpay can immediately validate a customer account number?

Account numbers are often 16 digits long or more, so it’s easy to input it incorrectly. Within each account number, there is always one of the numbers designated as a verification digit. That number corresponds to a complex math formula. At Telpay, we’ve worked out all the formulas required to make sure that account numbers are correct immediately as you finish entering them. Correcting any errors at the point of entry is a lot easier than correcting it at a later stage. We have your back.
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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

3 Reasons to Push Funds for Your Telpay Payments

It was true when Ben Franklin wrote it in the 1740s, and it’s true now: time is money. This is one reason why you should consider funding your Telpay payments via online banking rather than using your bank’s funds transfer or wire service. Doing so could cut your payment processing time by at least 75%.

Here are three more reasons.

1. It’s fast

Once you set up Telpay as a biller (payee) to fund your payments, we can process your payments as early as next business day (two for payroll). You just have to make sure that you send your payment file and funds to us one day before your payment date or two days prior to your payroll date. With this quick turnaround time, it can mean the difference between an early payment discount and none at all.

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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

How to Manage Accounts Receivable with Pre-Authorized Debits

One thing we probably do not focus enough on here at Telpay is our ability to let our clients manage their accounts receivable through pre-authorized debits (PADs). Imagine having all your accounts receivable collected on a single day with virtually no effort. That is what PADs can do for you.

Payments Canada has a set of PAD rules and standards that all businesses have to follow. These rules protect the account holder from abuse. However, as long as requirements are met, this is a service of significant advantage to everyone.

PADs are the best option to use when collecting recurring payments such as rents, mortgages, monthly fees, and insurance premiums. However, regular monthly billings such as bookkeeping and accounting service fees, professional and club dues can also be collected by this method. You must have your customer’s permission to debit their bank accounts. PAD samples used by our clients are reviewed to make sure they meet the requirements established by Payments Canada. Getting that permission is most often built into your agreement with your customer.

With Telpay for Business electronic payment software, you can efficiently manage your collections list, import a collection file, and maintain the collection file. If you are an existing Telpay for Business customer, to get started all you need to do is apply for the PAD service. There is a setup fee and transaction fee, but no extra monthly fee, making it even more affordable to use.

Here are some tips for a successful implementation of PADs:

1. Make sure your billings are of a type that suits the requirements of Payments Canada. Only recurring types of billings are permitted.

2. Get permission from your customers to debit their bank account using the required form.

3. Notify your customers when you are ready to begin debiting them. Telpay notifies its customers that they will be debiting approximately ten (10) days in advance of actual debit. This gives your customers time to view your bill before they are debited.

4. With our PAD service, you send us a file of your monthly debits. Telpay will then debit your customers on the day specified and forward the funds to your bank account as soon as they are cleared. Typically there is a four (4) day hold.

To learn more about PADs, contact 1-800-665-0302 or visit telpay.ca/for-business/get-paid.

Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Critical Factors to Consider Before Offering International Payments

As our world becomes smaller and globalization continues to be a reality for business, the need for international payments and understanding the requirements and nuances of this important service are crucial as your customers’ needs become more frequent and complex. International payments will be a featured series over the next several months, which will provide insight on the benefits of international payments, regulations, and how to protect your business against any risks involved. Keep an eye out for the upcoming articles and learn how to use international payments to help your business evolve and expand.

We are pleased to have Mr. Paul Rechner, MBA, President of Payline by ICE, provide his insights, thoughts, and perspectives on International Payments as part of our Telpay Expert Series. 

Critical Factors to Consider Before Offering International Payments

Being able to open up options for sourcing products, materials or services from outside of Canada allows businesses a competitive edge, both in terms of variety and potentially cost, but it can come with some intimidating steps including language barriers, customs clearing, foreign exchange accounting and management of exchange rates and payments.

It is crucial, as these needs grow, to understand what payment methods are available to make payment to vendors in different regions and to be able to assess the cost and convenience to find the right mix for your needs. Understand that there are methods that can be convenient for you, but detrimental to your vendors and methods that are convenient for your vendors but costly for you, and ultimately strive for methods that work well for both parties.

Those new to dealing with international payments often tend to use their existing Canadian credit cards, and by doing so, incur merchant fees for their vendors (approx. 2.5%) and are usually paying a markup on the exchange rate of around 3.5%, meaning that there is 6% of the payment value funding the process. This is fine for smaller payments, but adds up when they grow. Similarly, there are online-oriented payment providers like Paypal, that are quick and efficient, but again, can be costly in terms of exchange rates and not suitable for growing payments or for all vendors.

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Telpay Payment News
Bringing You Payment Insights, Trends and Best Practices

Why You Should Use an Online Payroll Provider

Our special guest contributor this month is one of our Payroll Partners, Brad Rougeau of PayTickr, a cloud-based mobile time tracking with payroll system that offers small, mobile businesses a simple and affordable system for keeping track of their employees and automating payroll runs.

It’s that time of the month again – payroll. This may well be an exciting time for your team members who are anticipating a payment, but not for you, or whoever is responsible for payroll. You know exactly how much time and effort it takes, and if the process does not go smoothly, you could end up with some issues – including ornery employees. As someone who runs payroll for multiple companies with upwards of 20 employees, I can relate.

To manage this process efficiently and effectively, I use an online payroll provider, and I think everyone should consider this type of payroll service for their business. All you need to do is supply the system with relevant employee details. Once you input the data into the software, the rest of the payroll process will essentially take care of itself.

Why should you use an online payroll provider? Here are three compelling reasons to consider it.

1. It saves you time

Manually processing your payroll can be time-consuming. We already know that. However, in the grand scheme of things, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Frustration tends to trickle down to your employees when their cheque or direct deposit takes a surprising amount of time to clear.

Last year, the Canadian Payroll Association conducted a survey and reported that 47 percent of respondents said it would be difficult to meet their financial obligations if their paycheque was delayed.

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