Check Processing
Checks may be declining, but for most grocery chains, this form of payment is still a primary source of funds. It therefore deserves the incorporation of a fast, accurate check authorization at the heart of your checkout operation.
The Midax Check Authorization System is an in-house program that is probably the smartest check processing system you can find, anywhere. It’s a fully integrated positive authorization system, which runs on your own central database and is truly online across all levels of the organization.
Eliminate the need for costly maintenance of your records by outside sources, the per-record charges so commonly charged by most third party providers. Your central database gives you all the advantages of a full velocity system on checks, thus stopping runners between stores and across chains.
It’s not just nice to have. It’s essential to your business!
Operationally, there are two principle methods of implementing the system:
- With a MICR in every lane or
- A card-based approach, fully integrated into the POS or standalone.
POS Vendor systems supported include NCR 2127, NCR ACS, NCR ACS IR, IBM SA., IBM Ace, ISS45, BassPoint, ACR, Scanmaster 1 and 2
If you opt for the MICR, the account # is the bank account #. However, to cover for customers with multiple bank accounts, each new bank account # will prompt for a DL # and we use that
- to check whether the customer is already on file with a known limit,
- to note all bank accounts a customer uses and
- to ensure we have the key data on file for bad check collection when necessary.
For new customers or customers without a limit yet established, we can route automatically to an external database of your choice and write the result of that inquiry into the Midax database, so that customer history can start being created automatically on day one. Run your own Courtesy Card System and maintain as little or as much customer information as required. It is totally account based.
Midax also includes hooks into debt collection services so that third parties can both collect on your behalf and maintain your Midax check authorization database.
Spouse links are also available on the system. In addition, Midax also checks for same bank account number, address and telephone number for any customer on file. This flags potential relationships not reported to Midax in the customer registration procedure and therefore allows the retailer to minimize his risk in card issuance.
We can also inherit history, by converting your existing check files, positive or negative. We can also allow you to share the history with other retailers or you can make that history available to third party check auth vendors. This makes conversion of existing systems and files much easier for the organization, saving time and money.
That history is stored centrally on the chain database or on a shared Midax database that can be used across several chains cooperating on the same Midax network, under the auspices of a wholesaler, for example. That database is accessed with each transaction over the internal network. As a consequence, each transaction decision is based on all transactions in the chain, not just in the one store. Result: you stop runners.
Conventionally, most check authorization systems use a manual process of allocating customers to limit groups. In Midax we don't do that. We discuss with you the rules you want to apply and build them into the configuration so that the transactions manage themselves. So if a customer's checks are good, Midax automatically maintains them in a group, which reflects the daily and weekly level of their purchases. As a consequence, good customer declines and overrides are reduced and customer satisfaction increases.
Midax also includes check presentment. That eliminates further administrative overhead.
Now, what happens when a customer does get declined? Conventionally, there is a decline code and that is that. With Midax, we can return meaningful messages to the POS display, which allow a supervisor to make an instant and qualified decision. Perhaps the customer has gone $1 over his limit, perhaps $100 over his limit. You need to know to avoid holding up the lane or the customer. (Be aware, though, that any exceptions of this nature are captured and reported separately, to avoid abuse.)
So that is fine for personal checks, but how do we deal with payroll checks? We define separate limits and suggest you use the Midax facility to log employer checks against customers, so that Midax checks a) valid customer b) valid limit c) valid employer check and d) employer check limit. This allows you to offer check-cashing facilities to your customers only, not to the photocopy expert out in your car park, cranking out fraudulent payroll checks.
Network Down….NO Problem!
With Midax Offline Backup, each update of the central database is broadcast to the designated offline backup PC in each store. If the frame or the central server is down, Midax automatically switches to the in-store backup PC, which uses its last known copy of the central database as its authorization medium. Then Midax buffers the transactions for transmission to HQ, when lines are re-established, and that, too is an automatic process: Midax keeps retrying connection until it can access the host again. Then it posts buffered transactions and reverts to central authorization.
Midax captures, traces and reports on every data movement and change, thus combining automated processes that speed up processing and reduce fraud, while allowing you to slice and dice the data any which way you want.
Want To Offer Your Own Debit Card …..We Can Do That Too!
We can send daily posting file to the ACH switch of your choice and configure it to your spec or use our association with the Debitman Network to make the process simple and cost effective. Offer all the features of debit to your customers and reap the benefits of a lower cost, guaranteed transaction.
