Provide the option for a monthly fee, instead of Net of Fees
Bank reconciliations would be made much easier if gross receipts were deposited into the bank and the accrued fee was debited in one lump sum. This would allow for easier bank matching and fewer manual entries.
netting fees messes up the bank reconcilation process. Why are you doing this? It's totally insane and not what the rest of the merchants do. I wouldn't care if you debited fees daily but separetly. We record the revenue seperate from the expense.
My original suggestion was that it be made an 'option' to choose one or the other as other credit card merchants do. This would eliminate the issue you're describing below with budgeting. The additional time spent reconciling the deposits cost businesses money as well in labor costs. Creating a transaction volume standard for opting in to this option would also eliminate the possibility of negative balances occurring.
Please consider that these are suggestions from actual accountants who are familiar with finance, cost management and who also use your services. This is constructive criticism that should be taken into consideration.
Thanks again for hearing out these suggestions and taking the time to respond!
Thanks Tony for your response, it is appreciated. I completely understand your view point. The only addition I’d like to share is this is a difficult balance but we do truly understand all positions. Many of our customers prefer this approach to that of having to follow up with finance departments at the end of the months work to pay invoices (ensure funds are available for full fees) follow up on adjustments, have negative balances resulting in suspension of accounts, etc. some customers also prefer the approach with the understanding that their funds disbursed daily are net and allow for allocation straight to their missions without the concern of future invoices. These outcomes outweigh the admin time in reconciliation. Other customers feel the reconciliation is to admin heavy with this approach. I’d recommend a weekly reconciliation than monthly to assist in reducing the burden with reconciliation, if possible.
Taking the input of a number of data points and with the balance of security and fraudulent risks, our direction resulted with our current approach. I share only to hopefully position that we do try to understand all of our customer needs and outcomes. But completely understand that not all solutions fit all customer models.
That's unfortunate. I understand what you say, but other companies choose to do this despite risks. Even a daily lump sum credit would be better than the netting that currently happens. To me, this shows a lack of understanding on your part of the needs of your customers.
Hello Yamile, Thank you kindly for posting this idea and thank you Tony and Meghan for adding your additional comments. I wanted to respond and share that its not so much that other processors offers this and Blackbaud doesn’t, but that this has been a strategic decision by Blackbaud in partnership with our Treasury and Compliance departments. This strategic decisions was taken for a number of reasons, with Fraudulent risk, security and compliance risks all top of the agenda. For these reasons I need to share that BBMS would not be planning on offering monthly fees that would be debited in one lump sum, but continue with our existing offering of fees debited per transaction and with our daily disbursement capabilities.
Yes, yes, yes! Every other credit processor that we have used in the past has debited monthly fees in one lump sum and provided a statement justifying those fees. We just recently transitioned to Blackbaud's Billing Management, which requires BBMS as the credit card processor. If it didn't, we would use a different credit card processor, because reconciling has been a nightmare. The credit card fee charged in Billing Management doesn't match the credit card fee charged by BBMS. It is always more or less, which requires a manual adjustment on our end. This is time consuming and ineffective.
Yamile Ynostrosa
netting fees messes up the bank reconcilation process. Why are you doing this? It's totally insane and not what the rest of the merchants do. I wouldn't care if you debited fees daily but separetly. We record the revenue seperate from the expense.
Thank you Shaun for your response!
My original suggestion was that it be made an 'option' to choose one or the other as other credit card merchants do. This would eliminate the issue you're describing below with budgeting. The additional time spent reconciling the deposits cost businesses money as well in labor costs. Creating a transaction volume standard for opting in to this option would also eliminate the possibility of negative balances occurring.
Please consider that these are suggestions from actual accountants who are familiar with finance, cost management and who also use your services. This is constructive criticism that should be taken into consideration.
Thanks again for hearing out these suggestions and taking the time to respond!
Thanks Tony for your response, it is appreciated. I completely understand your view point. The only addition I’d like to share is this is a difficult balance but we do truly understand all positions. Many of our customers prefer this approach to that of having to follow up with finance departments at the end of the months work to pay invoices (ensure funds are available for full fees) follow up on adjustments, have negative balances resulting in suspension of accounts, etc. some customers also prefer the approach with the understanding that their funds disbursed daily are net and allow for allocation straight to their missions without the concern of future invoices. These outcomes outweigh the admin time in reconciliation. Other customers feel the reconciliation is to admin heavy with this approach. I’d recommend a weekly reconciliation than monthly to assist in reducing the burden with reconciliation, if possible.
Taking the input of a number of data points and with the balance of security and fraudulent risks, our direction resulted with our current approach. I share only to hopefully position that we do try to understand all of our customer needs and outcomes. But completely understand that not all solutions fit all customer models.
Thank you,
Shaun
That's unfortunate. I understand what you say, but other companies choose to do this despite risks. Even a daily lump sum credit would be better than the netting that currently happens. To me, this shows a lack of understanding on your part of the needs of your customers.
Hello Yamile, Thank you kindly for posting this idea and thank you Tony and Meghan for adding your additional comments. I wanted to respond and share that its not so much that other processors offers this and Blackbaud doesn’t, but that this has been a strategic decision by Blackbaud in partnership with our Treasury and Compliance departments. This strategic decisions was taken for a number of reasons, with Fraudulent risk, security and compliance risks all top of the agenda. For these reasons I need to share that BBMS would not be planning on offering monthly fees that would be debited in one lump sum, but continue with our existing offering of fees debited per transaction and with our daily disbursement capabilities.
Thank you,
Shaun.
Yes, yes, yes! Every other credit processor that we have used in the past has debited monthly fees in one lump sum and provided a statement justifying those fees. We just recently transitioned to Blackbaud's Billing Management, which requires BBMS as the credit card processor. If it didn't, we would use a different credit card processor, because reconciling has been a nightmare. The credit card fee charged in Billing Management doesn't match the credit card fee charged by BBMS. It is always more or less, which requires a manual adjustment on our end. This is time consuming and ineffective.
Absolutely! Other processors do this, it is standard as far as I can tell. Please consider.