First Look: Whitney Bank’s Small Business Bill Payment Service

Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com

CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR) and Whitney National Bank (Nasdaq: WTNY) announced that Whitney has incorporated CheckFree’s WebPay for Small Business service as part of its Whitney Business Online offering. According to the companies, Whitney Business BillPay offers small business customers a customized electronic bill payment application that enables easy and secure online payment of all bills.

By offering services such as Whitney Business Bill Pay as part of its online capabilities, Whitney says it is capitalizing on the continued growth in the number of small businesses that use the Internet to manage their finances. Small business customers can also take advantage of the convenience, ease-of- use and control associated with online bill payment. Whitney small business clients can click to approve bills for payment, determining when and how much will be paid. Small business banking users may be able to leverage electronic bill pay as a way to streamline their accounts payable, manage float, save valuable time and money, and experience more efficient record keeping.

Whitney’s product is driven by CheckFree’s third generation user interface, with payments powered by CheckFree’s Genesis platform. This technology should provide Whitney’s small business banking customers with enhanced features such as:

Comprehensive Business Payment Fields — Whitney Business Customers can include key remittance information with their electronic payment, including invoice, discount and adjustment information. This should allow their vendor to easily identify and apply the payment. Business customers can assign their own check number to each payment for better tracking and reconciliation within small business accounting programs.

Improved Record-Keeping Capabilities — Small businesses can better their bookkeeping abilities by downloading all payment activity directly into various financial management software packages including Intuit’s QuickBooks or Quicken, and Microsoft Money.

Guaranteed Transactions — Payments scheduled to arrive on time are guaranteed, backed by the CheckFree Guarantee, which protects against liability for late fees and interest charges.

Electronic Bill Delivery — Small businesses can receive bills electronically from companies nationwide in addition to various regional telecommunications, utility, credit card companies and more.

Customizable User Interface — Customizable front-end capabilities allow Whitney to brand the user interface as Whitney Business BillPay, thus providing a seamless online banking experience to their small business clients.

Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing addresses the technology needs of small businesses, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees and/or less than $7 million in annual sales.

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