# Dealing with cheques



## bobharris (12 Mar 2013)

I run a small business and we receive 10-20 cheques every week.  We attach each cheque to a deposit slip and put the client ID on the deposit slip.  All those go into a quick lodge envelope once a week and are dropped off at the bank.  This way our statement shows exactly which deposit goes with which customer.

Now the bank is getting rid of the quick lodge and I'm going to have to queue at the bank and wait which is a pain and a waste of my time.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a more efficient way of doing this?  Do any banks in Ireland offer an edeposit facility for cheques?

(We do encourage them to pay by eft but most of them won't or can't)

Thanks.


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## shweeney (12 Mar 2013)

which bank? - I'm with AIB and Ulster Bank and they both have quicklodge facilities in-branch, and seem very keen for people to use them rather than go to the counter.


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## oldnick (12 Mar 2013)

Surely the bank has a post-box/letter-slit? 
One of my shops was some distance /time away from the bank and sometimes inconvenient to use during the day . On the way home we'd shove an envelope thru the post-box containing cheques. No different from quick-lodge.


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## bobharris (12 Mar 2013)

Yeah, it is AIB.  They have gotten rid of their quick lodge about two weeks ago and said they are not going to bring it back.


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## delgirl (12 Mar 2013)

That's really a step backwards.  We're with Bank of Ireland and they have lodgement ATM's where we can use our Laser/Debit card to lodge company cheques really quickly.  It scans the cheque, you confirm the amount, get a receipt and you're away.  Strange that AIB don't have a similar system.


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## smeharg (12 Mar 2013)

AIB are changing the quicklodge system.  You now need a debit card to use it.

The problem I see here is that customers are paying by cheque and not EFT.  I'd be concentrating on getting them to pay that way rather than on the quickest way to make a manual lodgement.

How much "encouragement" are you giving?? If it's merely including your bank details on your invoices it's obviously not enough.  Have you tried calling the offenders to determine why they can't or won't pay by EFT?


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## STEINER (12 Mar 2013)

bobharris said:


> I run a small business and we receive 10-20 cheques every week.  We attach each cheque to a deposit slip and put the client ID on the deposit slip.  All those go into a quick lodge envelope once a week and are dropped off at the bank.  This way our statement shows exactly which deposit goes with which customer.
> 
> Now the bank is getting rid of the quick lodge and I'm going to have to queue at the bank and wait which is a pain and a waste of my time.
> 
> ...



I have worked in jobs where I prepared the daily lodgement.  The ones in city centre I'd just walk to AIB or BOI and lodge.  In a larger company not convenient to a branch the lodgement was couriered to bank daily.

Save time by not doing an individual lodgement slip for each cheque.  A total lodgement figure for the week on a bank statement is easily analysed in your cash book or on excel and can also be jotted down on the back of the bank lodgement stub.

If your cash flow is not suffering from one lodgement a week then that works for you.  A lot of businesses lodge daily, one weekly lodgement shouldn't impact too much on your time.


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## delgirl (12 Mar 2013)

smeharg said:


> The problem I see here is that customers are paying by cheque and not EFT. I'd be concentrating on getting them to pay that way rather than on the quickest way to make a manual lodgement.
> 
> How much "encouragement" are you giving?? If it's merely including your bank details on your invoices it's obviously not enough. Have you tried calling the offenders to determine why they can't or won't pay by EFT?


At the moment we're just happy to get paid at all, so no chance of us rocking the boat with clients.  We provide the information for EFT, but if they want to write a cheque and use snail mail, that's fine with us!


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## bobharris (12 Mar 2013)

smeharg said:


> The problem I see here is that customers are paying by cheque and not EFT.  I'd be concentrating on getting them to pay that way rather than on the quickest way to make a manual lodgement.



 We'd love for all of them to move to EFT but that simply isn't possible based on the way some of them are run.  Even discounting them a small amount won't help.



STEINER said:


> Save time by not doing an individual lodgement slip for each cheque.  A total lodgement figure for the week on a bank statement is easily analysed in your cash book or on excel and can also be jotted down on the back of the bank lodgement stub.



Cash book?  Excel?  We have a custom crm system that manages our invoices and payments.  Our bookeeper then enters from there into the accounting system.  I might ask him if he's ok with that but it really really annoys me that the bank can't itemise my cheques for me.  

I'd rather change banks TBH.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I'd love to be able to edeposit from my mobile phone and never set foot in the branch.


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## mathepac (12 Mar 2013)

Do people still photocopy cheques? I used to do this and physically file them with the lodgment docket-number as the reference, making it easy to tie the cheques to a statement reference.

Now I scan them into a FileMaker Pro database still using the the lodgment docket-number as the reference, but also taking the MICR info from the bottom of the cheque, so I have the image and traceability data captured in one pass.

My local BoI has a new elodgement facility which I haven't tried yet and my local AIB is scheduled to close later this year, passing work to An Post.


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## smeharg (12 Mar 2013)

bobharris said:


> We'd love for all of them to move to EFT but that simply isn't possible based on the way some of them are run. Even discounting them a small amount won't help.


 
Where there's a will there's a way. 



bobharris said:


> ...it really really annoys me that the bank can't itemise my cheques for me.


 
Why do you need this if there's a summary recorded elsewhere? 



bobharris said:


> ... I'd love to be able to edeposit from my mobile phone and never set foot in the branch.


 
How does that work?


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## bobharris (12 Mar 2013)

smeharg said:


> Where there's a will there's a way.



You haven't met my customers. 



smeharg said:


> Why do you need this if there's a summary recorded elsewhere?


Point taken, I just don't like to change 



smeharg said:


> How does that work?



For my american bank I have a mobile banking app for my phone.  I sign into the app and click on edeposit.  I tell it the amount, the account and then use the phone to take a photo of the front and back of the cheque.  Presto, deposited.


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## smeharg (13 Mar 2013)

bobharris said:


> For my american bank I have a mobile banking app for my phone. I sign into the app and click on edeposit. I tell it the amount, the account and then use the phone to take a photo of the front and back of the cheque. Presto, deposited.


 
Wow! Could get a bit tedious with a lot of cheques though. I'm not sure if the archaic Irish clearing system would accomodate this, but I could be wrong.


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## Rudolf289 (13 Mar 2013)

bobharris said:


> I run a small business and we receive 10-20 cheques every week.  We attach each cheque to a deposit slip and put the client ID on the deposit slip.  All those go into a quick lodge envelope once a week and are dropped off at the bank.  This way our statement shows exactly which deposit goes with which customer.
> 
> Now the bank is getting rid of the quick lodge and I'm going to have to queue at the bank and wait which is a pain and a waste of my time.
> 
> ...



I am with AIB. I do my lodgements through the NEW quick lodge facility. I received a lodgement card that I use with the new machine in the AIB branch.
I can lodge a number of cheques in one go. I have a choice of a summary transaction slip or a per cheque record (in fact the slip copies the cheque)

Surprised that your AIB branch has done away with the "old" quick lodge facility and not replaced it with the new lodgement facility. There is a tendency in all banks (also bank in BOI) to reduce staff at the counter and process payments electronically through the use of quick lodge type of facilities

Maybe you need to speak to the manager and see if there any new developments coming down the track for the branch ?

Cheers,
Rudolf289


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