It used to be that small businesses
were at a disadvantage when it
came to being able to afford the newest technology. The exorbitant
costs of that technology, combined
with the limited resources of a small
business, hampered its ability to purchase software that would help it run
more efficiently.
“The whole industry has evolved to
the point where it’s become less
expensive for the consumer,” says Will
Thatcher, vice president and affiliate
head of the Greater Cincinnati
Business Banking Division, Fifth Third
Bank. “It has moved the price point
down to where the small-business person has been able to take full advantage of some of these products.”
In Part II, Smart Business asked
Thatcher about returning deposited
checks back to customers on a CDROM and fraud as it relates to credit
cards.
What are some other products companies can use to fight fraud?
Another thing to come out of fraud
protection is positive pay. The client
will deliver to the bank a file, via
Excel or another database format, of
all the checks that they agree should
be paid. The process is inexpensive
and it alerts the bank to not remit payment if the details on the check do not
match the file. If somebody steals your
checks or tries to make duplicate
checks then obviously those check
numbers would never be on the
approved list. This has been one way
technology has allowed the client to
take control of what’s paid out in
terms of checks as a method of loss
prevention.
Another product that people use for
different reasons is to receive their
checks back on a CD-ROM. It saves
them storage space but also lets business owners quickly flip through an
image of all the checks that were written that month to see if there’s any
they don’t agree with. We have several customers who have found fraud in
their own company just by viewing the
discs. The discs are easy to view and
can be sent to the clients’ accounting
firms so that they can get a head start
in reconciling the books each month
or quarter or year. It’s another way to
stay on top of things, which helps cut
down on fraud.
What about fraud and credit cards?
Protection against fraud as it relates
to credit cards has changed considerably in the last 10 years. Companies
used to have multiple corporate credit
card lines, and they’d have maybe 15
to 20 salespeople with $500 or $1,000
credit limits on those cards. At the end
of the month, the salespeople would
have to submit their expense reports
and the bank would generate a separate bill for all 20 different cards.
Thanks to technology, we now have
been able to do several things over the
Internet that aid the clients in limiting
fraudulent purchases.
One, you can identify in which industries your employees can spend
money. You can prohibit them from
buying gas with the card or going to restaurants or hardware stores. A lot
of our contractors, for example, when
they have people going out to the job
site, want to make certain the corporate credit cards are being used at specific material-type businesses and
nowhere else. If someone tries to use
the card at a prohibited establishment,
the card will simply come up as not
valid.
Also, you can view a report each day
via the bank’s Web site showing what
the cardholders spent, where they
spent it and what time the transaction
took place. Then one bill is e-mailed to
the client each month with a general
summary at the end of the year.
Has advanced cell phone technology
helped?
Through technology you can have a
credit card machine that’s integrated
into a cell phone. This allows sales
staff to sell remotely, accept the credit card and receive approval right
there on-site. Clients used to have to
set up a satellite office and install a
land line just to accept credit cards.
Now companies can equip their sales
staff with mobile credit card machines
that are as compact as a cell phone to
help create a positive customer experience. The sales reps simply swipe a
card and confirm the credit card sale
while in the presence of the client and
to print a receipt. At the end of the
day, the sales are reconciled at a central area that, in turn, ‘batches out’
with the credit card provider. This is
especially handy for companies that
rely on outside sales reps.
WILL THATCHER is vice president and affiliate head of the
Greater Cincinnati Business Banking Division, Fifth Third Bank.
Reach him at (513) 534-7037 or [email protected].