reprinted with thanks to InterceptEFT

Onsharp’s SmartPay system helps companies easily create and send their monthly statements through e-mail. Using data from the company’s back-end accounting system, SmartPay helps customers securely pay the invoice directly from e-mail or by accessing an online portal. Customers can also review payment history, schedule payments, update account information and change personal information. The e-mails and online portal can be customized with the company’s logo and colors.

"Onsharp is an ideal strategic partner for InterceptEFT," said Ryan Conley, InterceptEFT’s Director of Card Services. "Our customers have asked for additional accounts receivable and electronic payment services. With the SmartPay Solution we co-developed with Onsharp, we are able to offer the security and flexibility we set out to provide."

Conley added that more businesses want to reduce the volume of their paper-based statements, and EBPP is an excellent way to provide "green" payment options. "More importantly," said Conley, "in today’s economy businesses are looking for ways to reduce costs and increase cash flow. SmartPay does both."

"SmartPay helps companies save paper, printing, envelope and postage costs," said Joe Sandin, President at Onsharp. "With a single click, customers can pay their invoice directly or use the online portal. Companies see improved cash flow by receiving customer payments much faster compared to paper billing."

The SmartPay Solution also allows companies to make phone-based payments on behalf of customers who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with online payments. Phone, chat and e-mail support is free to customers. For more information, please visit the official SmartPay website at http://www.gosmartpay.com.

About InterceptEFT

InterceptEFT is a national leader in payment-processing services and software. Since its inception in 1993, InterceptEFT has been one of the fastest growing, technologically advanced, and widely recognized electronic transaction processors in the industry. InterceptEFT offers a wide-range of solutions, including ACH processing, credit card processing, check conversion/guarantee, ACH/check verification, remote deposit, and image processing. InterceptEFT gives companies the tools they need to streamline financial transactions so they can accomplish more and stress less. For more information, visit http://www.intercepteft.com.

About Onsharp

Onsharp is a regional provider of web consulting services for small to medium-sized businesses. Onsharp offers a full array of web solutions, including web strategy, web design, web development, web marketing, search engine optimization and web hosting. Onsharp is dedicated to driving success for its clients by harnessing the power of Web technologies in order to give them a strategic advantage in their marketplace. For more information, visit http://www.onsharp.com.

The new Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) is a part of the Economic Stimulus Package that hasn't gotten much press or led to much controversy, but for health care professionals, it's one of the most important sections.

HITECH gives incentive funding -- up to $44,000 in the first year for providers who get started quickly -- for setting up electronic records systems and for using them. In brief, the act provides that medical practices  using electronic record-keeping "in a meaningful way" by 2011 will receive these incentives.

Why would the U.S. government be willing to pay medical offices to move toward paperless office systems?

In a congressional report a few years ago, it was estimated that the U.S. health system overall could save $36 billion each year by shifting to electronic recordkeeping. This is an enormous savings not from cutting services, limiting individual choice, or even hoping for an increase in personal responsibility in health-related behaviors, but simply from updating office procedures to a system that's better in many ways for both patients and workers. With the U.S. health care industry facing many tough choices, it's nice to see an easy one.

The first round of incentives begins in 2011, but in 2015 the disincentives begin - providers who aren't using electronic systems will begin receiving payment reductions on Medicare reimbursement.

The key is for providers to begin using electronic office systems now. In order to be using these systems in a meaningful way by 2011, it makes sense to go ahead and establish electronic systems now. Onsharp's SmartPay is a great place to begin. An economical, easy to use e-billing solution, SmartPay will be one of the easiest changes your office has ever tried. You can upload patient information from your current database to get started. With no software purchases to make and no special hardware or new skills required, you can have the system in place and in use quickly. Most offices -- medical or not -- will find that using SmartPay is a cost-saving measure. Medical offices in many states will receive upfront state funding to subsidize the costs of changing to electronic systems, and mhealth care professionals nationwide will then be eligible for payments rewarding meaningful use of these systems. Cost is simply not a factor in the switch -- except in the sense that failing to switch can cost your practice money.

Contact SmartPay today to see how well SmartPay can work for you.

 

 

We believe that online invoicing, such as Onsharp’s SmartPay system, can have a significant, positive environmental impact.

 

But how much evidence is there for this claim? After all, digital invoicing requires electricity.

 

Studies on the subject have been conducted, both by providers of e-billing systems and by independent organizations.

 

One example is the comparative Life Cycle Assessment conducted for Australian company Converga by Hatch Consulting. Comparing Converga’s 18-step paper system with online invoicing, the study concluded that every million invoices processed digitally yielded a savings of 800 tons of CO2 and 3200 trees.  The model included the storage and eventual destruction of the paper invoices, as well as the multiple copies used, the transportation of those copies hither and yon, and the resources involved in producing them.

 

The Environmental Defense Fund supplied data for paperless billing company Avolent, supplier to corporations such as Dell and OfficeDepot, which suggested that their system was able to have a cumulative impact equivalent to saving over a million trees, 300 million pounds of greenhouse gases, a billion gallons of wastewater, and 100 million pounds of solid waste.

These are large numbers; smaller businesses may think that their own impact will be insignificant. After all, a company that sends out fifty or a hundred invoices a month won’t reach a million invoices for about a thousand years. Hearing that the European Union as a whole could avoid using 2700 tons of ink may not have much emotional impact on a company that just runs down to the office supply store for a new ink cartridge every few months.

But the use of paper in particular is something about which we should all be concerned. Here are some facts about paper use to think about: 

• Paper production accounts for the majority of world wood use.
• Paper production also uses large amounts of water and electricity.
• Paper production requires the use of highly toxic chemicals, including chlorine, identified by the Union of Concerned Scientists as the most environmentally toxic common chemical.
• Paper makes up almost 40% of the solid waste stream
• The pulp and paper industry has one of the highest pollution intensities of the 74 industrial sectors measured by the Toxic Release Inventory Program of the EPA.

And, while we are inclined to think of an invoice as a single sheet of paper, this is unrealistic. 

Consider the elements of paper invoicing:

• Paper records of transactions are kept, possibly including receipts, timelogs, manual tickets, etc.
• Copies of these records are made and submitted to different departments and individuals for processing, transported in various ways. The papers may be approved, copied, filed, and transported to other departments. 
• Statements are prepared, using paper, ink, and electricity. Copies may be made at this point as well.
• Other papers, such as advertisements, may also be prepared at this time to make the mailing of invoices more cost-effective. Paper, ink, and electricity are used.
• Wastepaper is likely to be produced at any stage up to this point.
• Statements are transported by mail, using envelopes and postage.
• Statements are opened, and may be copied and filed at this point as well. Copies may also be sent to other departments for approval or further processing.
• Checks are written and mailed, using paper, ink, envelopes, and postage. Checks may be cut with computers, using electricity as well. More copies might be made and filed. Statements may be copied and added to the check for mailing. 
• Statements or copies of statements and any other papers up to this point may be filed and then archived or destroyed at a later time.
• Paper records of checks may be prepared and stored.

Using the Pay It Green calculator allows individuals and businesses to calculate the difference their own personal changes could make, expressed in terms of trees planted and waste saved. For many, this more concrete way of thinking about the advantages of electronic billing could be more manageable, and a more accessible and therefore more persuasive argument.

 

References:

Converga’s Comparative LCA

BusinessGreen.com

Environmental Impact of the Paper Industry

PayItGreen environmental impact calculator

Toxic Release Inventory Program