Software facilitates online electronic bill payment.
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Press Release Summary:
Targeting small business customers, CheckFree Small Business(SM) is an integrated electronic bill payment, invoicing, and receivables solution that allows management of these functions from centralized web-based service location. It streamlines online banking processes including viewing payment history, receiving and paying electronic bills, establishing bill reminders and alerts, and creating/sending/managing invoices.
Original Press Release:
CheckFree Small Business(SM) Delivers Electronic Bill Payment, Invoicing and Receivables Solution for Financial Institutions' Small Business Customers
CheckFree Solution Provides Vehicle for New Revenue Streams
ATLANTA and LAS VEGAS, Nov. 14 / -- BAI Retail Delivery Conference & Expo, Booth # 1417 -- CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR) today launched CheckFree Small Business, an integrated electronic bill payment, invoicing and receivables solution that financial institutions can offer to their small business customers.
CheckFree Small Business is a sophisticated solution, but it is both simple for the small business owner to use and easy for financial institutions to integrate within their existing online banking offering. Built on the industry-leading CheckFree Web(SM) platform, CheckFree Small Business goes beyond online bill payment by providing capabilities to help small businesses manage their invoicing and receivables functions - from one centralized web- based service location.
"Small businesses are often overlooked, as most new products and services are designed for big businesses or for consumers," said Jeff Weikert, senior vice president of the Consumer Service Provider business unit in CheckFree's Electronic Commerce Division. "Many entrepreneurs running small companies have been using the electronic billing and payment services offered by their banks that were originally designed for consumers. Now, small business owners will have a solution customized specifically for their needs."
New Revenue and Marketing Opportunity
The Internet is becoming an increasingly important channel through which many small businesses interact with their financial institutions. An estimated 40 percent of small businesses currently use online banking services and that figure is expected to grow to 60 percent by the end of 2008, according to a recent Aite Group report titled "Winning the Hearts and Wallets of Small Business Customers."
Research conducted for CheckFree indicates that small business owners value online bill payment and receivables functionality and are willing to pay a nominal monthly fee for specialized features. Small business owners have typically been more profitable customers for financial institutions because they carry higher average account balances and utilize more banking services. CheckFree Small Business not only provides a potential new revenue source for financial institutions, but it also provides cross-selling opportunities for banks to market other business solutions, such as payroll services and lines of credit.
Better Organization Means Better Cash Control
A critical component of the new solution is the Payment Center, which provides users with a consolidated, real-time view of their cash flow positions, including recently paid and pending bill payments, as well as customer receivables. CheckFree Small Business also helps reduce many traditionally manual bookkeeping processes and streamlines accounts payable and receivable tasks online, including:
o Paying bills online and viewing payment history
o Receiving and paying electronic bills (e-bills)
o Establishing bill reminders and alerts
o Creating, sending and managing invoices
o Automatic reconciling of invoices with electronic payments from customers
As a result of these timesaving functions, small business owners can free up more time to focus on growing their businesses. In addition, CheckFree Small Business will integrate with CheckFree Financial View(SM), a suite of financial management tools that financial services institutions can offer to their customers.
"With CheckFree Small Business, small business customers will finally have the financial tools they need to more effectively manage bill payments, invoicing and receivables, while their financial institutions will experience the innovation and quality they have come to expect from CheckFree's industry- leading online bill payment applications," said Weikert.
Innovative Features for Small Businesses
CheckFree Small Business provides sophisticated features and functionality not seen in other solutions on the market today. Electronic invoicing, presentment and payment (EIPP) is a key element of the solution, providing small business customers with a new way to manage their invoicing and receivable tasks online. The EIPP capabilities of CheckFree Small Business include:
o Invoice and Receivables Management- Small business owners can create
invoices and send them to their customers via email and view up to 15
months of invoice history. Users also have the option of receiving
electronic payments from their customers via dedicated payment sites.
Those electronic payments are automatically reconciled with
corresponding invoices.
o Optional Co-Branded Payment Site- An optional service enables a small
business to receive electronic payments from its customers through a
secure, dedicated website that is co-branded with the business'
financial institution. Receivables can be collected in a more timely
manner than traditional offline methods.
In addition, the solution offers bill payment functionality specifically designed to meet the needs of small business owners, including:
o Multi-Tiered Authority Levels- A small business can establish different
authority levels with restricted access to certain tasks, enabling it to
delegate payment and invoicing roles while maintaining control over the
account. Audit trails for payments and invoices show actions taken by
authorized users and provide additional security.
o Extended Remittance Capabilities- CheckFree Small Business users are
able to pay multiple invoices at the same time with single payments that
include invoice details for tracking purposes. The solution allows them
to quickly and easily reconcile their invoices with payments.
CheckFree has demonstrated its ability to transform innovative electronic billing and payment technology into proven, market-ready solutions that enable financial services organizations to meet their acquisition, retention and optimization goals through their secure online channels. CheckFree solutions enable both consumers and small business customers to view and manage more of their overall financial standing anywhere, any time, with the same security, intuitive functionality and convenience they have come to expect and trust from their financial institutions' online channels.
CheckFree's solutions include online integrated personal finance management; online account opening, funding and transfer capabilities; electronic billing and payment for consumers; electronic invoice presentment, payment and receivables solutions for small business banking customers; mobile payment solutions; flexible web services technology for electronic billing and payment; and payment fraud detection and prevention.
About CheckFree (http://www.checkfreecorp.com/)
Founded in 1981, CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR) provides financial electronic commerce services and products to organizations around the world. CheckFree Electronic Commerce solutions enable thousands of financial services providers and billers to offer the convenience of receiving and paying household bills online, via phone or in person through retail outlets. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management solutions and outsourced services to hundreds of financial services organizations, which manage about $1.5 trillion in assets. CheckFree Software develops, markets and supports payment processing solutions that are used by financial institutions to process more than two-thirds of the 14 billion Automated Clearing House transactions in the United States, and supports reconciliation, exception management, risk management, transaction process management, corporate actions processing, and compliance within thousands of organizations worldwide.
First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: saroehl@checkfree.com
Source: CheckFree Corporation
CONTACT: Media relations, Judy DeRango Wicks, +1-678-375-1595, or jdwicks@checkfree.com;
Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/
