The Challenge

As schools are starting to see more and more NSF checks they are being forced to spend tightly budgeted dollars on collections or stop accepting checks all together. This creates a real burden for the nation’s school districts.  If a district chooses not to accept checks, liability is increased at the schools due to additional cash handling. On the other hand as schools continue to take checks, resources are required to collect on bad checks or pay a third party agency at a premium. Even when schools attempt to collect on bad checks the rate of success is low and costly.

Schools tend to look for alternative forms of payment offerings, however these typically have a large upfront and ongoing support cost.  With budgets becoming tighter and smaller, schools are looking for cost effective ways to assist in balancing their budgets, so they can continue to receive federal funding.  These accounts are published, for review by the school board , public, state and federal agencies.   Federal funding is based on the allotted funding for the school which requires all monies in a specific General Ledger account to be completely balanced, for example nutrition accounts.

The Solution

checXchange™ products and services benefit not only public and private schools but also institutions of higher learning.   The checXchange™ service is free and there are no upfront or ongoing costs to the schools.  Reporting tools are included with the service and are accessible via the internet through a web browser of choice.

Returned checks are simply routed from the bank to checXchange™ with no interference from the school required.  Updates via email or fax are available on returned checks or can be accessed through the reporting tools via the web.  checXchange™ will electronically process the returned checks for collection and deposit 100% of the face value into the schools account.  When processing electronically the success rate is increased to 75-85%.

A free check guarantee program is also provided to schools for nutrition accounts.  This provides the school a low risk solution and allows administrators to focus on other school needs like the students. Schools can now accept checks at a lower risk, which helps lower the liability of handled cash.  Districts have a simple solution for schools to handle bad checks, reducing the need for school personnel to make embarrassing collection phone calls or withhold grades.

Collections of dishonored checks allow the school system to operate effectively throughout the year.  checXchange™ provides documentation at the end of the fiscal year for outside auditors to evaluate the collection of all checks.  These tools are required for an audit that is made public to the appropriate agencies.  A “clean” audit is critical for the district’s accountability and a basis for continued public trust and future funding.

The checXchange™ School Program was designed to be a hassle free program with zero monetary costs to the school system. Your school should be free to focus on education, not collecting payments.

Schools should not have to spend their limited resources chasing payment for bad checks. With our School Check Guarantee program, you can delegate the hassles of processing returned checks to checXchange™, automatically forwarding them to our processing center for collection. checXchange™ reporting is tailored specifically to your school’s needs.