Retail Lockbox
Streamline small-dollar payment collection
Few professionals face more demands on their time than business owners with large transaction volume. One area
requiring constant oversight is the daily flow of small-dollar payments and the accompanying volume of deposits.
That’s why Citizens Commercial Banking (“Citizens”) offers its Retail Lockbox solution, a streamlined way to
manage payments and maximize cash flow.
A big convenience for small-dollar payments
Many Transactions,
One Streamlined Solution
Ideal for businesses with frequently recurring or installment-type
payments, Citizens’ Retail Lockbox service equips you to quickly collect,
process, record and deposit a large volume of small-dollar consumer
payments. The service ensures that deposits are made into your corporate
account in a secure and timely manner. You eliminate worry and delays
by minimizing mail, processing and collection float. By reducing lags in
processing, you make sure you don’t lose potential interest income due to
inefficient cash flow, and you also benefit from access to more accurate
information. Timely reporting enables you to make more informed
decisions regarding borrowing or investing. And, with the automated
delivery of information, you can realize immediate improvement in
account receivables posting.
Our Retail Lockbox solution accelerates your cash flow by pairing efficient
collection of account receivables with timely payment data reporting. Your
customers can send payments and invoices to an assigned P.O. Box, which
are then picked up and processed quickly and seamlessly according to your
specifications. Remittances are picked up throughout each business day,
resulting in the expedited availability of funds.
High Efficiency, Well Equipped Features
With Retail Lockbox, you eliminate one more daily concern by handing
over the routine depositing of funds to our expert team. Because deposits
are made on your behalf, there’s no more running to the bank, so you can
stay focused on the core aspects of your business.
The Retail Lockbox service features a 100% image-based platform.
Remittance documents are machine-readable and can be processed
automatically by Citizens. The system captures payment data that can be
transmitted directly to you for upload into your own receivables system.
Added Benefits
Record keeping and information-access are available at your fingertips.
With the Retail Lockbox web-based Long Term Archive, you can complete
searches, review deposit information and make annotations.
Your oversight is further enhanced with the Client Decision Module,
which enables you to provide Citizens with correct posting information
on transactions that do not meet your processing specifications.
All the Support You Require
At Citizens, we want to make sure you take full advantage of our
solutions. That’s why we’ve made our Retail Lockbox offering as
user-friendly as possible. It’s easy to set up and manage. We follow a
project plan methodology working closely with you throughout the
implementation process.
Delivered with Citizens’ strong focus on customer service, assistance
with the Retail Lockbox solution is just a call away. Our dedicated
representatives are here to help you make the most of this service.
Retail Lockbox Image Platform
Our Retail Lockbox service uses an advanced image platform to processes
over one million payments each month. The stability and flexibility of
the platform allows us to offer customized solutions using the latest
reconciliation methods that incorporate scanning, imaging, data entry and
archive services.
Check payments are routed through the lockbox, which will image/
process checks and remittance documents, and then deposit items
into your designated account(s). At a specific time each day a file with
payment detail information will be transmitted to your receivables system
expediting the receivables posting process.
Specialized Retail Lockbox Service Options
In addition to standard remittance processing, our automated Retail
Lockbox system offers specialized service options that can provide
additional benefits. Our objective is to provide automation tools that will
drive down operational costs while moving your account to a paperless
processing environment.
•A
ccount Lookup. Payments received without an account number can
be validated against a customer-supplied database. We’ll validate at least
two fields of information to confirm the identity of the customer and
enable the payment to be processed.
•R
emote Capture. This service allows clients to capture payment
transactions at their office and transmit them to the Retail Lockbox
processing site to complete the deposit and posting process. This
solution merges office payments into our Retail Lockbox channel
which in turns eliminates the effort, time delays and costs associated
with manual posting. In addition, all transactions, regardless of capture
location, can be stored in one archive for research purposes.
Retail Lockbox
Streamline small-dollar payment collection
•C
redit Card Payments. This option enables your customers, who wish
to do so, to pay by credit card instead of check.
•L
ong Term Archive. Access and view all transaction activity which can
include both paper and electronic transactions. Perform research, view
checks and related documents on the same day or next day (standard 90
day storage period or up to 7 years). Substitute / virtual documents are
used to identify electronic payments (e.g., ACH, EDI and Wire).
•O
nline Bill Payments. An eLockbox solution for online bill payments.
We contact major online bill payer services and instruct them to cease
paper check creation and implement electronic processing. Our lockbox
receives the check data electronically and combines online bill payer
remittances with lockbox files, reducing errors related to data entry
and expediting payment processing by one to three days. This solution
creates a straight through process (STP) that reduces exposure to
inherent points of failure in mail handling and check processing. It is
beneficial for clients to combine online bill payer remittances with
lockbox files to avoid processing multiple files from multiple vendors
directly, which results in a cumbersome manual or multiple-file
management process.
•S
ingle Box Multiple DDA Processing. The flexibility of our
platform allows us to offer customized virtual sorting and deposit
solutions which supports multiple account processing using a single
lockbox. This cost saving service option is ideal for companies that need
to segregate deposits by business entities and want to avoid paying for
multiple lockboxes.
• Return Item Reversal. Return item information can be transmitted
to the lockbox from Citizens. We then systematically re-process the
transaction, matching the payment that was originally posted to the
account. With the original payment identified, we can create a reverse
payment and appended it to the daily posting file. The dishonored item
will be applied within your receivable system, registering the transaction
as an open item.
• Electronic Payments Integration. Electronic payments, made in
conjunction with the lockbox service, are received directly into your
DDA. We can integrate electronic receipts with regular lockbox data
transmissions and provide a single receivables file that includes lockbox,
ACH and wire payment details.
• Derogatory/Stop/Positive Files and Opt Outs. This service
accommodates derogatory files comprised of specific items you may
not want processed. We will identify these remittances, such as items
related to closed accounts, and discontinue processing them. We can also
accommodate a positive file of items that you do want processed.
• Client Decision Module. The Client Decision Module (CDM) enables
users to view exception transactions online. The most common exception
items include missing account numbers, non-exact payments and
unbalanced multiples. After viewing coupon, invoice and/or check,
users can accept, hold or reject payments. When users accept payments,
they enter the required information into pre-defined fields within
the decision screen. Fields have built-in edits to ensure users input
information accurately to the lockbox. Online decisioning reduces the
risk of “live” checks, coupons and invoices being mailed back to payers.
It can also be used for non-monetary transactions such as reviewing
correspondence received without payment (e.g. direct debit information
or change of address).
A Team Behind Every Transaction
At Citizens, you get not only great products but also support from the
committed professionals who stand behind them. Through working
with us, you automatically gain the support of a responsive team of
knowledgeable representatives. We take a consultative approach and are
ready to share tools, methodologies and insights to help you plan, track
and optimize your working capital. We’re here to make sure that your
program runs smoothly, answering questions and helping you make the
most of the solution.
Over the course of our relationship, we stay in step with you to help you
meet challenges as your business needs continue to evolve. Both today
and tomorrow, Citizens is prepared to work harder for you - and to
provide the solutions that do too.
For more information about how Citizens Commercial
Banking can support your business needs, please contact
your local Treasury Solutions representative or
contact us at 1-877-228-6155. Or visit us at
citizenscommercialbanking.com/treasurymanagement.
• I mage Transmissions and Storage. We can provide an end of day
transmission of images in .TIF format and tailor file output specifically for
your accounting or image archive system. We also can deliver transaction
date and images in an encrypted DVD or CD-ROM.
©2015 Citizens Financial Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Citizens Commercial Banking is a brand name of Citizens Bank, N.A. and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. Member FDIC. CMSS4105L_412362_RtLkBx