Waterside Monclova HOA eliminates manual check processing with Zego Pay Lockbox
About Waterside Monclova
Waterside Monclova HOA is an Active Lifestyle Community that offers a variety of attractive floor plans and amenities such as lakes, parks, and walking trails in beautiful Ohio. With a goal of improving their daily operations and easing the burdensome process for check handling, the team replaced their traditional Lockbox with the Zego Pay Lockbox.
Results highlights:
The challenge and goals
Waterside Monclova homeowners pay their community association dues via checks, paid in full, which are sent in with their statements. Previously checks were mailed to a lockbox provided by the community’s bank. Because the bank offered no automation or integration with their systems, the community manager was responsible for following a 3-step manual process to ensure checks were processed correctly:
1. Log in to download a spreadsheet containing check information from the bank
2. Review, audit and edit information for accuracy
3. Upload information into the Enumerate accounting software.
Although homeowner dues are only paid periodically, this was “a daily process that took a lot of time”, said Sheila Bahnsen, Community Manager.
“We did sometimes have issues with checks that were keyed in incorrectly, maybe the amount didn’t match, or checks that weren’t paid in full.” shared Sheila, “This was another step where our bank rep would call me and say I have this check, what would you like me to do?”
Reducing the time-consuming workflows and the costs associated with manual check processing were a couple of the goals that the Waterside team wanted to achieve with Zego.
The solution
Integration and Reconciliation
A key to achieving Waterside’s goals of reducing the time and effort spent on manual check processing was to find a provider that integrated with their accounting software, Enumerate. Zego Pay Lockbox offers a seamless Enumerate integration. Checks are mailed by residents directly to a PO box, where they are processed and integrated directly with Zego Pay and Enumerate - no manual data entry required.
“With Zego I don’t have to do anything daily. I just glance at my reports to see where we are. It’s a big time saver in my day of not having to find quiet time to do manual data processing, make sure I don’t make an error, and double check that my sheets are correct.”
Payments Review and Exception Handling
As soon as homeowner checks are received at the PO box and processed, they are visible for the Waterside team to review online. All resident payments, including digital payments made through Zego, are available in their Zego portal.
“I was always looking at 2 or 3 spots before. Now I can just look in one spot if a payment is missing or credited to the wrong person. When I look in Zego I can see right away what’s going on.”
Any exceptions can be viewed and a decision can be made on what action to take, right online. For example, a payment can be accepted, rejected or assigned to a different homeowner. This saves time and prevents the back-and-forth communication Waterside previously had to go through in dealing with exceptions through their bank.
Onboarding and Homeowner Experience
It was important to both the Waterside and Zego teams to ensure homeowners and staff had a smooth transition from one lockbox solution to another. The Zego team supported Waterside by collaborating together closely and providing the necessary information.
“We communicated early to let homeowners know we were making this change. This didn’t impact them in any way. It was just a matter of communicating a change in address and mailing the check to a new PO box.”
Waterside’s previous lockbox provider also activated a mail forwarding service, just in case any checks went to the old address. “It’s been a nice smooth transition. For homeowners there was no issue. For me, I don’t have to look at Excel sheets every morning.”
Eliminate check processing with Lockbox for dues payments
Give your homeowners the option to pay by check without having to receive another check in your office. Demo Zego Pay Lockbox today to learn how our fully integrated solution can convert checks to digital payments.
The results
- Smooth lockbox transition with minimal homeowner impact
- Substantial time savings due to Enumerate integration and online exception handling
- Improved workflows thanks to increased automation and single-source-view of all homeowner payments
The Waterside team enjoyed a seamless transition to Zego Pay Lockbox and has benefitted by saving time and improving their daily operations. “The lockbox process with Zego has been nice and seamless. I haven’t had to give it a second thought. The whole process has been amazing from start to finish.”
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