Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

State of the art payment and analysis tool *

Keeping track of transactions and planning your business can be time consuming and inaccurate without the right technology. To this end, significant time and money has been spent on developing a world class web reporting tool that allows councils to monitor, in real time, payments made on the Bill EXPRESS™ network.

The tool is an essential part of the Bill EXPRESS™ technology that has been installed in more than 1,200 newsagencies to accept in person bill payment for some of Australia’s biggest councils and commercial organisations. Companies such as Optus and Primus Telecom, plus Local Governments like Gold Coast City Council and the City of Casey in Victoria, are among the many billers to join the Bill EXPRESS™ network in the past few months.

As the volumes of transactions increase, council executives are seeking to understand the payment behaviour of their ratepayers – to forecast more accurately operational requirements, such as cashflow.

The Bill EXPRESS™ online reporting tool gives Council staff access to their accounts 24 hours a day, using encryption based technology that demands unique user names and passwords. It creates tremendous efficiency for revenue and finance departments, providing a detailed snapshot of financial transactions in real time. Staff can see all forms of bill payments made on the Bill EXPRESS™ network – those made in person at newsagencies, at the ServiceATM® in Coles Supermarkets, through the Interactive Voice-Recognition (IVR) system, or over the Internet.

“Great emphasis has been placed on developing this facet of our technology,” said Julian Little, a director of Bill EXPRESS™, an Australian company. “There are many outstanding examples of reporting tools around the world, especially among freight companies like UPS. Our team has endeavoured to meet and surpass global best practice, so that the application will meet all expectations right down to a local level.”

The reporting tool allows council staff to analyse and evaluate the transaction data. A simple software wizard allows them to produce graphs to show trends in payment growth, peak periods for transactions and volumes via the four main Bill EXPRESS™ payment channels – in person, ServiceATM®, IVR and Internet. Council staff can trace specific payments using the data range, a customer account number or the receipt number supplied with each Bill EXPRESS™ transaction.

“We are providing to councils a world class bill payment network that improves customer service and is supported by a high performance, simple to use administrative interface,” Julian Little said. “We invite your interest in making Bill EXPRESS™ a supplier of an essential part of your payments strategy.”

* Copy supplied by Bill EXPRESS™

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