F.A.Q.

1. My billing and payment data is extremely sensitive, how do I know it is being transferred securely?

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TPi can set up a secure transfer to your preference…secure FTP transmission, encrypted email, Virtual Private Network, dedicated pipeline, or any other industry standard means that you are comfortable with. We can put you directly in-touch with our Director of IT in order to discuss your options.

Our facility is very secure and monitored, and our employees’ movements are restricted to only the operational areas they are cleared for. We work very closely with banking institutions and the USPS and we choose to adhere to the same security standards as they use. We are compliant with current identity theft concerns, and also employ multiple redundant securities and business continuity strategies.

2. What file formats can you accept?

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TPi can work with virtually any type of format you may encounter in an accounting environment. These include, but are not limited to: XML, PDF, TXT, EBCIDIC, IBM AFP, Microsoft Excel, Access and many, many more. We have particular experience in integrating with your proprietary and/or third party programs such as Incode, for the Utilities Billing industry. We maintain Sequel databases and employ IBM AS400 programmers in-house.

3. Our business uses QuickBooks. Can you still help me?

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Certainly we can! Instead of printing your bills to your desktop laser printer, hand-folding and stuffing the bills into envelopes, placing expensive adhesive address labels and stamps, and driving to the post office…simply create a PDF of your billing run and send it to us electronically. We may even be able to offer you same day service into the USPS mail stream.

4. Our company is a larger business; we have multiple operators managing the billing process and use a proprietary billing system. I don’t want to have to train my staff for a lot of process changes.

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This is one of our primary goals for you as well. Our strength is in our programming and data processing. We invest heavily in these skills, so that you don’t have to change your processes at all. We can usually work with whatever data type(s) may be readily available from your proprietary or third-party applications, but we also have experience in dealing with your third-party developers directly, in order to make the most seamless transition for you.

5. Can you help me design my billing statement?

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Absolutely! We have decades of experience in the billing industry, we can design your bill from the start, or replicate and/or make changes to your existing bill layout. We are happy to advise you on what we know to be effective, but you are in full control.

6. What are my options?

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We can do as little as addressing and applying discounted postage to your already produced mail pieces, or we can offer you a turn-key solution from the ground up. Our materials buying power affords you the most competitive prices on everything from paper and envelopes to full color glossy printing for postcards, flyers and booklets for mailing.

7. You mention “discounted postage”, is that the same as “bulk mail”?

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For all intents and purposes, yes. TPi will CASS certify, PAVE process and NCOAlink verify your mailing address data, and qualify your mailings at the lowest possible postage rate. We also offer you reports back on the quality of your mailing data at no additional charge.

8. How much of a discount can I expect?

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First-Class mail, single-piece letter rate is currently 49 cents. TPi can qualify your first-class mail as low as 37.8 cents. If you have a marketing mail piece (promotional flyer, postcard, self-mailer, etc), you can qualify for Standard Mail rates, sometimes lower than 20 cents per piece. Non-Profit qualified mailers can sometimes mail for less than 12.1 cents per piece. That is over 75% less than the full rate! If you are currently applying 44 cent postage to ANY of your business mail, we can really show you an immediate cost benefit.

9. Are any jobs too large or too small?

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Not really…however the USPS requires a minimum of 200 qualified mail pieces to make the discounts for Standard-Rate and Non-Profit postal discounts. 500 is the minimum in order to achieve the First-Class discounted rates. On the other end of the scale, we are well equipped to produce 500,000 or more mail pieces per month, and we have additional floor space available if we need to expand significantly beyond that for you.

10. I’m doing okay with my mailing, but our administrative staff is sometimes overwhelmed with the number of payments coming in everyday, not to mention the rush hour traffic on the daily drive to the bank.

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TPi offers Lock Box Remittance Services just for you. We utilize the same equipment, processes and security as your bank does. Your payments are directed to our secure facility, where we sort and open the mail, scan in the checks and coupons, balance the runs and post the funds electronically.

11. How will you get the cancelled checks back to me? Won’t I then have to manually enter payments on my end, back into my accounting system?

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The Check 21 system is paperless, wherein images of your checks and coupons are available online for your verification. In addition, our programming staff can custom design output files for direct import back into your accounting system. Batches are processed multiple times daily, and due to the electronic nature of the process, funds are available in the timeliest manner possible.

12. My company has the manpower and equipment to handle the billing each month, we get postal discounts, and don’t have too much trouble processing our payments…is there anything else you offer that might benefit me?

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Maybe you are ready to move to the next level, but find the expense of new technology a little more than you can absorb right now. Perhaps you would like to offer your customers all the advantages that electronic billing has to offer, but you don’t have the technological expertise to get there. TPi can help you achieve all the advantages that companies like your cell phone provider, or your credit card companies possess in offering electronic presentment and payment options. We can offer delivery of your billing statements by a number of means, including faxed statements, emailed statements, or statements that can be viewed and paid online. We also offer automatic periodic payment solutions by credit card or bank account draft as well. You may find a surprisingly large cost savings by converting your customer base to online billing and payments.