Save Time And Money By Banking Online
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday August 4, 1997
THE reality of electronic banking has expanded the list of interesting things you can do at two in the morning. Nowadays it's possible to complete most banking tasks while rugged up in bed with your trusty laptop.
All the major banks now provide software that allows customers remote access to their bank accounts. Armed with this software, a PC and a modem, you can manage your business and personal finances from almost anywhere, 24 hours a day. You can transfer money between accounts, check account balances, download your latest statement details, or see how much is outstanding on your credit card.
For many business people, the idea of electronic banking may seem daunting, particularly as the range of services varies so much from one bank to another. What are the advantages of connecting to one of these services and what issues should you consider?
The most obvious advantage of electronic banking is that it saves time. Once you're in the habit, it's much quicker to pay employees or suppliers by direct funds transfer than by any other method. Not only do you avoid writing cheques by hand, but most banking products will import employee or supplier payment details directly from your accounting or payroll software.
As well as this, electronic banking provides increased access to information about your accounts. With most banks, you can view or print your statement at any time, and sort statement transactions either by amount or by cheque number. You can also save this transaction detail directly as a file and import this information into a spreadsheet or accounting records.
One word of warning here. Although it may seem fantastic that you can import transactions directly from your bank statement into your accounting records, there's a definite catch.
Usually, the idea of secure accounting is that chequebooks and deposit books act as the main reference, so that you can compare your records with the bank's records. In contrast, allowing your bank to provide the source documentation for your accounting records does away with this valuable double-check and seems a strange idea for business.
Another quirky area is in the proprietary nature of these products. For example, if you had QuickLine (a Commonwealth Bank product), you could easily transfer money from a Commonwealth account to a Westpac account. However, it would not be possible to transfer money from a Westpac account to a Commonwealth account using QuickLine.
This principle applies to all of the banks and for some products extends even to account types within the one bank. National Online Business excludes home loans, personal loans, credit cards and term deposits from the services it provides; QuickLine excludes home loans and passbook accounts. On the other hand, the Advance Bank allows access to all account types, and will even allow customers to open new term deposit accounts online.
If you're looking around, be aware of transaction fees, as these vary enormously with electronic banking products. The cheapest is the Advance Bank's Internet service, which provides free software and no transaction charges. At the other end of the scale, you'll find Westpac's PC HandyLine product, which costs $495 to set up, plus a monthly service fee of $35. Other banks will charge per transaction, regardless of whether this transaction was
performed electronically or with a normal chequebook.
On a more positive note, electronic banking services have the potential to save money, especially when it comes to debits tax. If you pay several suppliers in one batch by direct funds transfer, only one debit will appear in your bank account. Because of the obscure way in which debits tax is calculated, one large amount will attract less debits tax than many small amounts. This saving in debits tax can amount to several hundred dollars in the course of a year.
For more information on electronic banking, contact your bank, or visit its web site. Ask about QuickLine (Commonwealth Bank); StateLine (Colonial Bank); National Online Business (National Australia Bank); PC HandyLine (Westpac) or I Bank (Advance). Commonwealth Bank customers might be interested to know that QuickLine is being offered free of charge now as long as you subscribe for a minimum of 12 months.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald
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