BACKGROUND
The Portland Country Club was founded as a private club in 1895 by local golf enthusiasts and is the oldest organized golf club in Southern Maine. The Club celebrates a commitment to the game of golf and fosters a deep tradition of member service. Located in Falmouth, Maine, members and their guests enjoy the stunning seaside views of Casco Bay and the Portland skyline. Donald Ross designed the timeless and nationally renowned 18- hole course in 1921. The Club also features swimming, tennis – paddle and platform, pickleball, year-round dining, social activities, and special events.
Like many businesses with manual payment processes, the Portland Country Club paid their vendors by paper checks. And like many businesses, their payments were delayed due to slow delivery times by USPS. Assistant Controller Denise Hamilton stated, “I was always frustrated with how long it would take checks to reach our vendors via USPS.” Along with slow delivery times, there is the risk that payments could get lost in the mail. Lost checks could lead to check fraud, which is on the rise, with stolen checks now being sold on the dark web.
SOLUTION
In 2016, Hamilton attended a user group meeting where she learned about Corporate Spending Innovations and their accounts payable automation and payment solutions. Even though the majority of Portland Country Club’s vendors understood there was very little they could do about the speed and reliability of USPS delivery, Hamilton wanted a way to avoid late payments.
Hamilton was interested in automating Portland Country Club’s payment process with virtual cards to reduce the number of labor-intensive checks that she had to send out. While at the user group meeting, she spoke with a CSI representative. “It was just a very smooth transition. Portland Country Club signed on with CSI and found that the implementation process and the integration with ClubSelect was easy and “works seamlessly.”
Not only was the integration a smooth process, but Hamilton did not have to personally convince her vendors to take virtual cards. She provided a list of active vendors to CSI. Then, CSI’s vendor enrollment team took over. They contacted Portland Country Club’s vendors and enrolled them in virtual card payments. Some of the vendors were already accepting virtual cards from payments by other Clubs.
Hamilton found the entire process, including the CSI Paysystems training, to be very easy. Their small accounting department is enjoying the benefits of greater efficiency and reduced manual processes. “I’m not printing checks or stuffing envelopes and running them through the postage meter. I don’t have to worry as much about our checks not reaching our vendors.”