Today, when ATM withdrawals and credit cards seem like dated banking technologies, business checks are showing no signs of becoming obsolete. While personal users have moved on to mobile banking and online wallets, the business community is still heavily dependent on paper checks. It’s not just because business owners are too sluggish to accept the new changes. The popularity of paper checks is due to the fact that they come with a long list of unique features that other payment methods simply do not. In this post, we break down the 5 unique features of business checks that are preventing them from going extinct.
They Have Become a Branding Medium: Business checks have evolved over the years to become more than just a payment method. These paper mediums offer enough branding real estate for a company logo, tagline and other business information. This means writing a check allows businesses to kill two birds with one stone. They get to make business payments to their vendors and they boost their brand visibility in the process. The demand for checks customized for businesses is on the high. Both local firms and large conglomerates want their business checks to match their company colors as well as feature full-color logos.
The Memo Field Allow Users to Attach Messages: While personal check users often use the space to write funny comments, businesses use the memo field to keep a record of all their payments. Among other details, businesses usually write down the invoice number for which the payment was made. This enables them to look up a bank statement and instantly filter out the payment details for particular vendors and invoices. The memo field is so important that some businesses choose to pay extra for an additional memo line.
Business Checks Can Be Given to Anyone: The problem with online banking and credit cards is that not everyone can receive the payments made using these methods. To accept credit card payments, the recipient needs to have a credit card terminal. Some vendors or workers don’t even have banking accounts and prefer to accept payments in cash. A to-cash business check is pretty much universally accepted. These can be given to people without the need to register their banking accounts and to people who have no accounts.
Checks Are Compatible with Accounting Software: This is a big one. Most businesses use accounting software packages such as QuickBooks to maintain their balance sheets. While there are new accounting programs that work with online payment modes, most small businesses don’t want to endure the cost and effort of overhauling their existing systems. This means as long as businesses continue to use software packages to print checks and keep records of the payments made, there is little chance of paper checks going obsolete.
They Are Not Network or Internet Dependent: A lot of business owners are not familiar with online banking and phone banking. There are also several remote locations where digital networks and phone networks are unreliable, to say the least. In these remote towns and villages, check payments and going to physical banking locations is still prevalent.
