All the advantages of location, a targeted marketing program and good customer service will fail to produce profit if a storage facility cannot securely process funds. EFT Network Inc. (EFTN) was founded in 1998 as a provider of automated clearing house (ACH) and electronic check-processing solutions that securely manage, support and speed the processing and clearing of funds.

Led by Steve Davis and a group of banking-services professionals, the company was initially geared to servicing collection agencies. It now provides a complete range of ACH transaction services to a wide variety of merchants including self-storage businesses, processing billions of dollars of electronic transactions annually. “EFT Network’s feature-rich products and services are highly scalable and adaptable within all business environments, via our secure, state-of-the-art, web-based system,” says Alexander Bacon, vice president of sales and marketing.

Products to Secure Money

By securing funds collection, self-storage operators can better manage profitability. EFTN offers a patent-pending Check 21 check-processing solution with ARC capabilities, recurring automated payments, telephone checks, electronic re-presentment of NSF paper checks, consolidated returns, and a host of other ACH processing and electronic-check conversion services, including point-of-purchase and Webcheck capabilities.

EFTN’s Remote Deposit/Check 21 Solution processes any type of paper check through a scanner, with cleared funds deposited to single or multiple accounts. Consumer checks are deposited as NACHA, ARC (Accounts Receivable Conversion) or BOC (Back Office Conversion) electronic items; and money orders, business checks, etc. are deposited as Check 21 image replacement documents. Anything that can be deposited at the bank (with the exception of cash and foreign checks) can be deposited through the Remote Deposit/Check 21 Solution.

The EFT/Recurring Automated Payments Solution gives self-storage operations the ability to electronically debit customers’ accounts on a regular basis for payment of fixed or variable amounts. The EFT/Telephone Check Solution allows operators to take payments from customers via phone. The transaction is originated as an electronic ACH payment. A recording of the phone conversation or written confirmation is required to be sent to the customer.

Electronic check processing provides storage operators with faster access to funds compared to traditional paper transactions. For a given batch of checks processed through EFTN, a storage facility has 100 percent of the deposited funds available within 24 to 48 hours. All checks are credited the same way. For example, 100 percent of the gross funds received in a batch file on Monday by 5 p.m. EST are in the storage company’s bank account by Wednesday morning.

EFTN can also provide clients with customized export files that allow a storage facility to import payment data into its accounting software and eliminate having to duplicate the data for payment posting. For example, EFTN’s program can scan/ process 100 checks in approximately 15 minutes vs. an average 45 minutes to process in traditional paper-based form.

By using electronic-funds transfer, a facility can maintain multiple banking relationships/depository accounts. EFTN’s software electronically consolidates deposits payments to the storage company from all its bank branches into a single or multiple accounts at a single banking institution. The storage company may be able to negotiate better transaction terms with a single bank. The remote deposit program stays with the storage facility even if it changes banks.

By using a single financial institution, bank reconciliation processes are easier, Bacon says. All deposits made by the storage centers will be separately and uniquely identified. The storage company receives a single monthly statement, from a single bank as opposed to many statements from the multiple current banking relationships. And the storage facility can reduce its cost of processing paper checks for deposit.

Developing Solutions

EFTN prides itself in its creative evolution of payment solutions for the problems faced by its customers, Bacon says. In the near future, the company is planning to release a patent-pending, remote deposit/Check 21 check-processing solution that will not involve the Internet or special check scanners but the common, everyday fax machine. This solution will be accessible to nearly every current business today, Bacon continues.

Headquartered in Hawthorne, N.Y., EFTN has branches in Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The company is also opening a satellite processing and customer-service office in Ohio.

The company’s principals serve in a variety of capacities with the national Automated Clearing House Association, The Association for Work Process Improvement, the American Collectors Association, Southern Financial Exchange and EastPay. EFTN serves Internet-linked customers in the United States and other locations; customers who do their banking in U.S. dollars, and process their deposits/payments through banks that operate under the U.S. Federal Reserve banking system. 

For more information, call 800.492.2794; visit www.redeposit.com.