Request to Pay – The cheque is not in the post

Saying “the cheque is in the post” is laughed at a great deal these days. You could assume that people are late to pay or it’s an excuse to not pay at all. It’s a little simpler than that: “the cheque is in the post” normally means the person doesn’t yet have the money to pay or are delaying the payment to match their cash flow. Its age old, everybody has experienced that message via text, phone or email. Many will have heard the long diatribe of excuses for payment not being made. It’s a valid technique, albeit admittedly a rather rudimental way to delay payment!

That changes in 2020. A supplier can send a Request to Pay (RtP) to the payee. It will become a diarised payment in their schedule once approved. Have a look at AccessPay’s blog for a great 5 minute read on how it works.

“With Request to Pay, the customer knows when they’re going to get paid and the bank has certainty of the fate of the payment”

RTP is quite ingenious. It allows a supplier to manage the relationship between them and the payee instead of the other way around. The benefits are high for both the customer and the bank. The customer knows when they’re going to get paid with an industry message, and the bank has certainty of the fate of a payment and when it will arrive.  This is invaluable information. If a bank knows a client is going to be paid, a more certain cash flow can be assumed, and lending becomes much lower risk. The commercial benefits of RTP are very much for the bank.

…but how are banks going to do it?

My interest is in how it will work. As a rule, banks work on today and yesterday’s information. Any future cash flow has generally been provisioned to them by means of a cash flow solution or in most cases a spreadsheet. The problem with a spreadsheet is that it has user driven data. RTP changes that: the information is credible – be that a refusal of payment, a part-payment or a delay.

So how are our banks going to do this? They must embed technology in their digital offerings so the consumer can experience the benefits. That’s hard. What they need is a banking app that shows them yesterday, today, tomorrow and beyond!

Cashfac and Request to Pay

At Cashfac we see Request to Pay as a great proving ground for our technology. We have been providing people with a view of yesterday, today and tomorrow for over twenty years. Customers using our core technology have been able to see their bank account and cash flow in the same place for some time. RtP makes this a more credible data set with approved future-dated payments being created within the forecast. It’s accurate and reliable.

RtP has considerable benefits for small business and retail customers. We’ve been providing the concept for many years and now by using Slide – our free banking and cashflow app – we look forward to the next evolution of benefitting our end customers and bank partners.

For More Information

For more information on RtP, simply fill out the below form to request a conversation.