CCR Magazine

The Supper Club, the country’s exclusive club for high growth entrepreneurs, has signed a rental agreement for ALBACSip from pioneering developer of electronic payment software solutions, Albany Software. This secure e-payment solution will smooth management of monthly membership payments through the collection of Direct Debits.

The decision to rent the solution allows the club access to business-critical payment software for a monthly-fee rather than an upfront expenditure. ALBACSip will automatically manage The Supper Club’s hundreds of monthly member payments, streamlining existing processes, eliminating errors and increase efficiency across the club.

The Supper Club is a group of the country’s most innovative, fast growth entrepreneurs who mutually share knowledge, experience and contacts. The Supper Club assists individual members with business issues and opportunities where possible, and arranges events for confidential discussions and the sharing of best practice between peers. The Supper Club collects monthly membership payments, as well as ad-hoc payments for seminars and events.

Experiencing recurring errors with its previous accounting solution, Jane Gomez, Operations Director at The Supper Club details the importance of selecting ALBACSip, “As an exclusive club we strive to offer our customers the premium service that our members expect to receive. Our previous electronic payments solution was prone to errors. We would find that the solution would occasionally take a payment from the customer’s credit card instead of bank account, not only creating more work for us but also damaging our reputation. Therefore it was integral that we moved to a robust solution that would be able to meet the needs of the club and our members.”

Gomez continues, “ALBACSip offers us a Bacs payment solution with varying levels of authorisation affording The Supper Club maximum control over our monthly Direct Debit collections – instantly eliminating errors. The solution also offers us the ability to streamline our existing operations placing a high value on the time-savings we expect to receive within a short time of using the solution and enabling the club to deliver a first-rate service to our customers.”

The Supper Club is one of the first to select the solution on Albany’s rental offering allowing the organisation to pay for the solution for a monthly fee rather than an upfront capital outlay. Gomez comments, “By selecting the solution on a monthly basis it helps us manage our cash flow and is in line with with the way we engage with other suppliers.”

Future plans for The Supper Club include the move to a cloud accounting solution. This online financial package offering comes from the dynamic partnership of FinancialForce.com and Albany ePAYMENTS – a new composite application that works in conjunction with FinancialForce.com’s Software as a Service (SaaS) accounting solution to facilitate online Bacs payments - providing customers with a fully automated on demand, end-to-end payment system. Gomez adds, “Through selecting the fully-integrated system from FinancialForce.com and Albany Software we will be able to use one solution to facilitate all our accounting and payment processes, allowing us to significantly streamline processes, provide additional flexibility and add greater operational efficiency.”

Gomez concludes, “Albany Software has an excellent reputation which provides us with the reassurance and peace of mind that we are implementing a reliable, trusted and proven solution. We also feel secure in the knowledge that Albany can provide the support and expertise as and when we require it, as well as see us through a smooth transition to an integrated cloud accounting solution.”

(Source - Albany Press Release)