How payment speed has transformed customer experience

Umbrella payroll businesses like BoostPay have specific payment requirements. They receive funds from their recruitment agency clients and then pay out to agency workers soon after to ensure those workers receive their funds as quickly as possible. 

But traditional banking processes aren’t able to meet this level of turnaround. 

“To pay workers by a certain day, often first thing on Friday morning, we needed clients to pay us several days beforehand so we could make a Bacs transfer, which was difficult for those with cashflow challenges. 

Even when we were using Faster Payments, there was still a delay. We would have to download a CSV file, which could take over an hour because of the size of the file, then give it to our bank, and then they’d take several hours before they sent it off. Due to their cut-off times, if we were sending the file late in the afternoon, we had no idea when it would be paid the next morning.”

Using Modulr’s integration with My Digital, BoostPay avoids delays and opacity. Payments are made by BoostPay directly, and end workers receive them within 90 seconds. 

No cut-off times means that payments can be added, removed or updated right up until the last minute – ideal for clients whose workers are slow to complete timesheets. Payments can even be made in any batch size needed on-demand, so no worker will have to wait for their pay due to delays from colleagues. 

“It’s completely changed what we can offer clients. If they want to send us funds the night before and workers be paid the following morning – we can do that. "

“It’s completely changed what we can offer clients. If they want to send us funds the night before and workers be paid the following morning – we can do that. If workers are slow and late to submit their timesheets, we can even do same-day payments. It’s hugely advantageous in a time when cashflow can be tight and not everyone can have payment files prepared at a certain time. 

Efficiencies saving time and money 

BoostPay’s previous approach to payments wasn’t just slow, it took a lot of manual input from staff from start to finish. After preparing files, there was often further work needed to chase payments, or make a change if details had been incorrect. This then added to the cost. 

“Using a bank to make payments was a five-step process for us, whereas using Modulr through My Digital, so much of that is automated. We’ve cut costs on payment fees by 50% so far compared to our old bank, and spend less time having to speak to unhelpful bank managers chasing a payment that has been sent to the wrong place. 

We’ve also been impressed by how scalable it is. Our business has grown over the past year and we haven’t had to hire any additional staff as the Modulr integration with My Digital is so quick and easy to use. Modulr has been a gamechanger for us.” 

Happier customers means fewer support enquiries 

For BoostPay, looking after agency workers is the priority above everything else. But when slow banking processes would result in payment delays, it was BoostPay that had to deal with the fallout, despite doing everything they could to ensure payments were on time. 

“We would sometimes receive over 500 calls on a Friday morning from workers asking when they’d get their money, and there was nothing helpful we could tell them. All we could say was that they’d receive it at some point by the end of the working day. They might need to get petrol on their way to work or pay bills or whatever else, but it was completely out of our hands. It was so frustrating for our team that we had done our part but it looked like we were to blame. Now, we get zero calls like that. This enables the team to focus on other areas of the business, and it’s also much better for team morale."

A nightmare on Christmas – why BoostPay came to Modulr 

There were many reasons why BoostPay were exploring moving away from their banking provider, but one story encapsulates the frustration of working with outdated approaches to payments.

“One year, on Christmas day, all workers for all of our clients were mistakenly paid twice, so £2.5 million had to be recovered. This obviously caused a lot of confusion for the workers and stress for me and my clients. I was constantly getting calls and we didn’t receive a statement from the bank that we could send to clients until two days after Boxing Day. 

When the money had finally been recovered the bank gave us no explanation and no apology. 

Modulr has been a different story from start to finish. A former colleague recommended it to us as they had used it at an accountancy practice, and if we ever need to speak to the team, we pick up the phone and they’re there. We were also impressed by their due diligence process. Just because they’re not a bank it didn’t mean their security was any weaker or they were willing to onboard anyone. We’ve never doubted their security and compliance."

Looking to the future

“Modulr has been so good for us that it’s made us look at every aspect of our business to see where we can do things more efficiently."

“Modulr has been so good for us that it’s made us look at every aspect of our business to see where we can do things more efficiently. It has showed us that better ways of operating are possible.” 

Modulr specialises in umbrella payroll payment solutions and is integrated with some of the largest software providers in the space including My Digital, Zeel and Staffology. If you’d like to find out more about what it can do for your business, you can do so here or get in touch with us today.