The Check 21 Law that went into affect in 2004 can make life so much easier for your company. If you receive consumer checks, vendor checks, business checks, government checks, virtually any kind of check drawn on a US bank, you can now do from the convenience of your companys' location (or remote location) the same thing that only the top 5 or so banks are now doing for their customers. What is it? Accounts Receivable Conversion!

Because of 9/11 and the fact that billions of dollars in checks were stranded on the ground when the airplanes were all grounded, Congress passed a law that went into affect in Oct 2004 that would allow for image conversion of checks for companies and banks. Your companies AR dept can now image the checks and send them to the Fed and into the company's bank account and NEVER leave the office.

There are two major ways to accomplish this that are available today. One is the use of a document imaging terminal, and a software program installed on your computer. The other utilizes a document imaging terminal, a computer, and Internet access to secure servers off location, with no software to buy.

Accounts Receivable Conversion (ARC) can reduce hours of work and time in preparing deposits. No longer do you need to copy checks, enter them manually into your accounts receivable software, spend time looking up accounts, waste valuable time in filling out deposit slips and going to the bank or having an armored car service do it for you. Once you have completed the image process, you can actually import all your information into your particular accounting software. You can even do recurring billing in house, without outsourcing it with added expense.

Companies i know have streamlined their Accounts Receivable Dept from a nightmare to a breeze. Major Result? They find huge savings in dollars, man hours, and wasted time trying to recoup NSF checks. Some solutions even allow for near elimination of contact with the customer over NSF checks, and substantial savings in the process.

Projections are that within 10 years, 80% of mid to large size companies will be doing their accounts receivable conversion in house through ARC. Yours should definitely consider it.