B & B Payee Services
Success Story
This Payee Service Doubled Its Client Base after Embracing AccuFund
B&B Payee Services of Ypsilanti, MI is a 501(c-3) non-profit providing representative payee services, federal fiduciary services, conservator services, and financial management assistance to people who have low income, disabilities, receive Social Security or veteran’s benefits, or have financial obstacles. Their services include personalized budgeting, regular and reliable distribution of funds, prompt payment of bills, account reports printed according to request, budgeting for special needs and savings goals, assisting case managers and support coordinators with maintenance of benefits, and completing all required reports for Social Security.
A Search to Replace QuickBooks Led to AccuFund
As of 2009, B&B Payee Services was managing the funds and expenses for 200 clients. They were using QuickBooks for their accounting, but finding the application could no longer handle their growing client base and their accounting processes were becoming slow and inefficient.
B&B Payee Services had daily check runs of up to 200 checks that were cumbersome and could take up to two hours. Assembling one report could require several steps, as there is a great deal of information required in reports to client trustees and the Social Security Administration. Because payee services manage other people’s money, there is a high degree of accountability and the need to provide accurate, thorough and detailed reports. There is also a high level of management needed because the SSA and Veterans Administration requires individual accounting for each client.
“We knew that there was a better system out there that would enable us to be more efficient and allow us to grow our client base,” said Bobby Johnson, CEO of B&B Payee Services. A member of the B&B Payee Services board hired a consultant to research representative payee software. The consultant produced a list of three companies with solutions which met the organization’s criteria and offered what they needed. The one that stood out was AccuFund and its Representative Payee product.
“The others could not even compare to what AccuFund offers as far as ease of use and customer support,” explained Johnson. “With AccuFund, we could purchase and own the software, while the others required us to lease their products. Best of all, AccuFund has the reporting capabilities to meet our needs. We saw that AccuFund could grow with us as well as help us grow. After they provided us with the initial training session, there was consensus among everyone that it felt right.”
AccuFund Frees up Time to Focus on the Business
AccuFund Representative Payee is a solution for social service and government agencies that act as fiscal guardians for clients or patients who are unable to manage their finances. Used as a stand-alone product or with the AccuFund Accounting Suite, Representative Payee alleviates the detail-intensive burden of coordinating accounting for individual clients, providing capabilities that enable tremendous time-savings and improved convenience.
With AccuFund Representative Payee, B&B Payee Services can take client deposit information from the bank and upload it without having to touch it. The organization has a huge amount of cash coming from the SSA that previously took them at least 2-3 hours per deposit date to enter. Now, in just a few minutes, and with just a few clicks, they can go to a treasury management site, download all the deposit information from the bank’s site and create an Excel worksheet to convert the data and import it directly to each client’s account in AccuFund.
“I have freed up time that I can now use to focus on the business rather than having to perform time-consuming, day-to-day tasks,” affirmed Johnson. “AccuFund can easily handle the types of accounts we have. Bank reconciliations that used to take hours now take only minutes.”
The AccuFund Representative Payee check writing system includes positive pay functionality that allows B&B Payee Services to export check run details to the bank and avoid any check fraud or forgeries.
As a result of all the time-saving capabilities AccuFund Representative Payee provides, B&B Payee Services has been able to almost double its client base — from 200 clients in 2009 to about 400 clients today.
Hours Saved Turn into Business Growth
Since installing AccuFund Representative Payee in 2009, B&B Payee Services has saved hours and sometimes days performing its numerous check runs. At the beginning of the month, they run the checks for client rents, a very labor-intensive task that previously took 3-4 days for two people to perform and required them to make sure they had the correct check paper stock for each check. Now the monthly rent check runs take only one person 6-8 hours. The client personal spending allowance checks that are run at the end of each week once took 5-6 hours to do but now take no more than an hour.
AccuFund Representative Payee also streamlined check printing processes for B&B Payee Services by enabling them to print individual client account information on plain check stock as a part of a single check run. B&B Payee had cost savings related to reduced check printing, mailing through consolidated check printing — direct cost improvements at each step.
“We have freed up so much time with just the check writing alone,” said Johnson. “The daily check runs that would take up to two hours to do are now just an after-thought and take only five minutes. The time savings have allowed us to have a four to five fold increase in our efficiency.”
AccuFund Representative Payee allows B&B Payee Services to save another large portion of time with its ability to automatically calculate and post the SSA-allowed Representative Payee fees. Prior to using AccuFund Representative Payee, B&B Payee Services was calculating and posting these fees manually about two or more times per month for each individual client, which would take 2-3 hours per month. AccuFund automatically informs them who needs to be billed and how much, and its calculation highlights any additional fees to collect and the whole process takes 15 minutes a month. Cash flow is improved since manual entries aren’t required and funds are collected more quickly and easily. When SSA updates the fee calculation each year, AccuFund sets it up one time.
AccuFund Representative Payee enables B&B Payee Services to save time on generating reports as well. With the annual report they need to do on each client for the SSA, pulling together all the required information would take about 45 minutes to an hour per client. Now, with just three clicks, they can feed the information directly into the SSA Form, taking only five minutes.
AccuFund Representative Payee also allows a largely paperless intake, as it can scan all client documents and images, including SSA approvals, lease information, client budgets, etc.
Whenever B&B Payee Services has a new report it needs to create, they know they can call on AccuFund or Don Erickson at NFP Solutions, the reseller from whom they bought the software.
“I can call Don or any of the techs at AccuFund whenever I have a question or need something and they’ll always have an answer or be able to assist me,” said Johnson. “We have a great business and working relationship.”
As a result of all the time-saving capabilities AccuFund Representative Payee provides, B&B Payee Services has been able to almost double its client base — from 200 clients in 2009 to about 400 clients today.
“I don’t know how we could have done what we’re doing now without AccuFund,” declared Johnson. “I know we’ll continue to expand with it in the future, especially when we add locations. I have nothing but praise for AccuFund and its Representative Payee solution.”
“I have freed up time that I can now use to focus on the business rather than having to perform time-consuming, day-to-day tasks,” affirmed Johnson. “AccuFund can easily handle the types of accounts we have. Bank reconciliations that used to take hours now take only minutes.”
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