Dream Maker Podcast
Dream Maker Podcast
#SuperBanker Movin' Money Tyler
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We're taking a little different angle for this episode, as Chris talks with our newest Accredited Banking Professional (a/k/a #SuperBanker) Tyler Newell. Tyler is in charge of FNB's Treasury Management Services. So what is that anyway? Well, you're going to have to listen in to learn more on ways that Tyler puts his "superpowers" to use helping businesses improve efficiencies and reduce their fraud risk.
Welcome to DreamMaker. A podcast brought to you by first national bank of Syracuse at F and B . We strive to make sure that every life we touch is improved. Join us for each episode. As we cover a wide range of topics from financial wellness and marketing to mental health and ways to enjoy life over, we're all we may even teach you a thing or two about cultivating healthy soil. We are here to improve your life. And so glad you've joined us today. Now, here are your host for today's episode of dream maker .
Speaker 2Well, welcome everybody to this week's episode of our dream podcast. I'm Chris Floyd present CEO of the first national bank. And today I got with me one of our newest, we call super bankers or accredited banking professionals, probably more technically we have Tyler Newell . Tyler is our , uh , what it , I guess we call it the deposit treasury management services specialist, or I don't know exactly. <laugh> I'll let you explain your title. Uh , Tyler , uh , works out of our garden city branch and, and , uh , has been a great addition for our team. So we'll start have a Tyler, don't you tell me your real title and kinda a little history on yourself when we get going,
Speaker 3For sure. Thanks, Chris. Yeah, my, our title that we chose here is , uh , treasury services representative, and , uh, I've been involved in treasury services for a number of years now. Uh, first got into banking back in oh eight and have been just kind running through it ever since , uh , the last , um , probably six years or so. I been focused in treasury services, which is helping businesses become more efficient with their accounts payable, their accounts receivable , um , payroll options, credit card processing , uh , helping with fraud mitigation, and then with some excess management there too . So with those , uh, yeah, that's kind of what treasury services is and what , uh , we've started to create here at first national bank. So
Speaker 2Yeah, that's one of those deals. I think you think like, what is that? And, you know, sometimes there's so many little features that , um, you know, businesses don't and understand what I'll get rolled together, and then there's just so much technical aspect to getting things actually working. Right. Uh, it gets to be quite the adventure too. So let's start with , uh, you mentioned, you know, one of the things the merchant processing that we do , um, and, you know, you've had a lot of experience of that and you've kind of helped us quite a on re making our program better. Um , what are the, you know, challenges you see coming up and what, or I guess, how have you helped some of our customers get switched over and what things have you seen that have helped? Sure.
Speaker 3You know, I think the biggest thing that we've been able to bring to help our customers is just educating them on how it works and what it is, you know, no one's going out there telling you, you know, this is how processing should work. These are what fees you should pay. You know, this is what you should expect to see. This is how hardware is changing. You know, one, the biggest things, especially in the last 10 years is hardware for processing back in 2015, when , uh, there was a deadline that the, the visa, MasterCard processing group put out there where you had to have to be able to accept chip cards, you know, and before that everyone was just swiping their cards. It was you not a big deal, but then security is, is a huge part of merchant processing. And that's when they brought out me those EMV chip cards and they made it mandatory to be able to process those by, you know, October, 2015. And if you weren't, there was a lot of fees associated with that, you know, and there's not a lot of information given out there. There's a lot of middleman processors like to collect those fees , you know, and then looking, even in the last two years, you know, with the pandemic, most people didn't want to use cash. Everyone wanted to go contactless. And so the next big push for hardware is being able to accept contactless cards or even digital wallets, you know, and a lot of processors, they don't educate their P on , on what they , their customers and what they need, and our customers don't know what they need or how to even get to that . So a lot of what we've been able to do is just education, you know, the rules that are changing hardware, that's changing and just getting out in front of people and helping them .
Speaker 2Yeah. And I think a lot of times what's kinda unique too about cards is, you know , um, they are really, I won't say prime target for fraud people to try to steal money and , um, uh , you know, and really the best part for our customers I think is it's, they're protected, right. Um, you know, if it's a fraud deal, they're getting their money back. Um, but you know, the other part is the rest of our system between the visa MasterCards, us and merchants are handling the , taking those losses. And so a lot of those things, like you said, are preventing, trying to prevent those as much as we can. And , uh, it's kind of amazing how much that new technology makes a big difference on how we can prevent fraud. So especially that contact stuff that's way different. I think. So how many , uh , like percent of terminals do you think are getting switched to contactless or have you, would you , I dunno if you have any good stats on that or good idea?
Speaker 3Um, not off the top of my head, but it's, it is definitely one of the most important deals. I know credit card volume and it's has increased , um , at least 60% from 2020 till now. And almost everybody before that was taking cash payments. They've, they've kind of switched to card because people aren't wanting to, you know, get out in person and go, you know, give you cash, be that close. And so contactless and digital wallet especially have really boomed. I know before, when we meet with customers say six, seven years ago, when we we'd say, okay, 20% of your, your annual , uh, sales are gonna be credit card volume. That number has now grown and now 45% of their annual sales or credit card volume just within the last two years. You know, and that's just telling you how mu many more people are wanting to use their card and want to use contactless, or, you know, apple pay, Google pay, using those to pay for their transactions now versus getting out their card, handing it to somebody else. You know, it , it's, it's really quite a bit in the last two years. Yeah . So hardware definitely has to change so they can, they can meet what their customers are wanting to do.
Speaker 2And the , I think what everybody loves about the contact list too, and it doesn't matter whether you're using a , uh , contactless card, like one of ours or the, the wallets digital wallets, like the apple pay, Google pay is just my gosh, it's fast. <affirmative> it is unreal that how fast the transaction gets approved, you know?
Speaker 3Right. And more secure, you know, it it's, there's always, since cards have been around, people have been able to put little , uh, swiper machines on the machines to steal credit card information, you know? And so as safety increases and , um, everything increases with card protection, you know, the contact list , the NFC transactions, the digital wallets that just provides more security. So your funds are safer and that's what people wanna do. They want to be as safe as possible in making their transactions. And that's the number one way to do so right now, is that digital wallet or those NFC transactions.
Speaker 2Yeah. Yeah. And it's , uh , cuz really, I guess, you know, to make, you know, especially the Google wallets, I guess what really happens is that what they call it tokenization, right? The card, the number gets tokenized. So it's like a temporary deal or something like somebody can't just sit there with a , a reader and steal stuff off your phone. So that's kind of a really slick for about
Speaker 3That for sure. Cause it's protecting the card number, the CBD code on the back and um, your , the expiration date and everything's protected by that specific token. That's only good for that one transaction so that token's never regenerated, never used, never shared ever again. And so it it's incredibly safe.
Speaker 2Yeah. It's uh , it's amazing. I don't know if you ever get a hundred percent have had all the fraud guys, but it's a , it's a battle, but it's, you know, the technology and especially I think really the, the more retail stores, you know, especially the fast food stuff, the faster that goes. I mean, no , nobody wants to sit there and wait and just like, oh, is this going through? But that it feels like nearly instant dangerous when you do it. So that is the really cool part I think.
Speaker 3Oh , incredibly.
Speaker 2Yeah. And one thing I think it's coming down the road fairly quick. Um, I'm not sure we haven't really set a timeline for it, but a , a the ability to actually calculate a virtual card, right. Instead of actually printing a card, you'll just have a , essentially a number sitting on your phone and be able to use it that way. So, but probably the point where we have to like have a lot more of those terminals out there too. Cause there's a lot of older terminals too , run around right
Speaker 3There . There , there really is, you know, a lot of the older machines are still in the gas pumps and there's there's rules that are being put out there, making man mandatory to update some of that information. And , you know, that's where we really come in to help educate customers saying, Hey, here's some of the deadlines for those required hardware updates to keep you compliant with visa , MasterCard standards. Um, you know, and I guess that's a good segue into, you know, where we're continuing to try and stay ahead of those fraudsters, you know, making sure our customers understand the PCI compliance , um, which is required of anyone who takes credit card processing. They're required to go through this test and survey to make sure they're doing everything that visa mask card discovered also that they're required to do. And that's, I think is also a huge piece that's missing that isn't explained to merchants when they start taking credit cards. You know, the processor doesn't really care if you're complaining or not, cuz they're still getting their fee income, but you know, we, as, you know, the bank definitely want you to be safe and protected all throughout. And that's another big area where we've been helping customers and really focusing our attention, you know , making sure their complaint would be master .
Speaker 2Yeah, that's a good point because a lot of times , uh, those are huge fines. Um, essentially that system is set up to prevent fraud, right. Or you're doing the , the merchants doing the right steps to prevent fraud or bad people from using those cards. And um, there's a lot of steps. Um, <affirmative> and kind of , I guess, so along that line, so most people may even realize, but um, you know, of course we offer services straight through. I mean, you're , I guess if you get merchant card services through our bank, basically they're dealing with you and your team, right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so if they have a question they can call you and you can, can we use , uh , first data I guess, or is that what they're still called? I think ,
Speaker 3Uh, it , it was first data. They were recently purchased by Fiserv. So they're rebranding everything from first data to Fiserv now
Speaker 2Fiserv, but yeah. So they're probably what are they the biggest car process
Speaker 3Yep . In
Speaker 2The country. Yeah. And so one advantage, I think it helps with having and Tyler's, you can, if, you know, you're not calling a one 800 number wherever you're getting Tyler <laugh> to help you with your problem. Right. And uh , all the people that help him. So , um , that makes a big difference. So like , um, you know, before, I guess we went with, had you and went with Fiserv , there was a lot of, I wanna say , um, I guess what's the typical BA or how does that work? I mean , I'm asking this question right yet. I don't think, but you know, typically we used a company kind of just outsourced it. Um, or if we had a referral, like we had a customer that needed, wanna use cards, we just gave them to this other person. Um, and they kind of handled it. So we weren't very involved in it. And that's, I guess is fairly frequent, I guess you would say or common and
Speaker 3Yeah. Yeah. I would say most , uh, most of how the process would work when many people is there would be , um, a middle man that would connect somebody with, you know, the , the business to the processor and that middle man would charge a fee in between. And they didn't really work a lot with, you know, us or anyone else realistically. And they , and that's what it's most common to that versus how we're doing it now.
Speaker 2And , uh, probably the disadvantage, I guess, of that or the main disadvantages , um, were , I guess you had a salesman combined. Did you ever see 'em again? Right.
Speaker 3You know exactly. Yeah. We, we that's unfortunately really popular in the merchant world is they'll have somebody kind of show up to your business, say, Hey, you know, I do this business, this business and this business, you know, that's why you should sign up with us cuz we're helping, you know, your neighboring businesses. And then you'll never see that guy again, he shows up in a big suit in a flashy Cadillac and then just drives off into the night , you know? Yeah . And then you don't have anyone to talk to answer your questions and those independent sales or ISOs as what we call them in the merchant world. They, they do a lot of things. Their statements are confusing. There there's a lot of extra fees tacked on because that's how, you know, they keep their lights on and there's not really a good point of contact versus the way we have it now is we're partnered with, for staff or Fiserv . And so I very closely with the reps that are doing the pricing, I work very closely with the, the installation teams that are building the profiles on the backend. Um, if you get a new terminal or anything, I go out on site , I work with Fiserv , we're there together. We make sure everything's installed. We do the training and then we service everything from beyond the point . So if you need help with, you know, terminal doesn't work, I out help you we'll call , uh , Fiserv together. Um, if for any reason you have questions on your statements, we don't shy away from answering those questions. We want you to be looking at those statements and seeing how you're processing. We answer those questions, which, you know, nine out of 10 times when I'm talking to somebody, they don't know where their statement even is or how to get access to their are processing numbers . And that's just an unfortunate thing. But through what we've built with our partnership with Fiserv , we've really taken a step beyond what normal processing looks like.
Speaker 2And one of the neat things about that is , um, what kind of been actually been doing at fairly cost effective as well, too. What kind of savings do most of our customers have when they get switched over?
Speaker 3Oh goodness. There it's, it's kind of hard to put a , a real number on it, but we're able, so the biggest difference I would say is when impressed , when we find a processor they're going, the , the business is going through , um , X, Y , Z company. And that XYZ company is connecting them to the processor. So they're not only , uh , paying the regular processing charges, but they're also paying fees to X, Y , Z company. And what we're doing is we're cutting out that middle man . When you get, when we get them connected with Fiserv , it's direct, there's no one in, in between. There's no any intermediate fees, there's no extra processing fees or extra statement fees. It's direct that way. We're able to cut out quite a bit of those middle man . And I would say, you know, we're saving people on average thousand to $2,000 a year in processing fees just by cutting out that middle man and making sure they're getting the exact fees , they should be paying from the processor without anything added over the top. Uh <laugh> you know, I ran into a customer they're paying $30 a month and just a statement fee, you know, and <laugh> , and just cutting that out yearly was a pretty big impact to them , you know, cause there's no statement fees, there's nothing like that when you're direct with the processor, it's exactly the fees that you should be paying through visa asset card . And then just the processing keys on the top. There's nothing else added, which is pretty fantastic.
Speaker 2Yeah. And one of the things , so I probably a lot of people too , or I visit with some customers like, man just don't screw it up. Right. Cause that card's important. You know, we said what 40% of the transactions, right. Are , uh , sales, I guess the business sales nowaday or your average business probably is going through our car driven , you know, that thing's gotta work. So is that really, what kind of issues do have you seen with actually like switching over? How easy, how hard? Um, I'm sure there's always horror stories, but how's, that process works and, and from what you've seen ,
Speaker 3Um, it it's the easiest part is when, when we go to set somebody up, we build everything out on the Pfizer side first and make sure the account is tested and ready to go. So that way, day one, when we decide, Hey, we're gonna flip on our switch and turn off the other , um, our side is ready to go so they can start processing immediately. That way that's a seamless transition. Um, some of the problems that we've run into is trying to get the other side closed , cuz some of those ISOs don't like to let go <laugh> so getting in contact with them to make sure they stop <laugh> is generally the hard part. But uh, with the transition it's seamless, we, if we're generally we're bringing out a newer terminal, cuz a lot of, of the terminals, like we mentioned before outdated or we're switching systems, it's just plugging our numbers into the back end of their accounting software. And whenever we go live it it's just a seamless switch. There's no downtime, there's no , uh , MIS transactions they're going within seconds.
Speaker 2And some people would have specific point of sale program. Does that , have we had much issues getting people switched over or, or again, how do you get that integrated I guess, into those different programs? Sure. A
Speaker 3Sure. A lot of companies that use their own type of accounting software or if they're restaurants, there's a lot of specific software built around , uh , different processing features on the back end other system. And to get somebody switched over it's as easy as just getting some of those numbers from their own account, with that accounting software and just building it into our side , um, to funding compatibility has been really easy on our end since for since first data, which is now Fiserv is such a large company that's been doing processing, you know, since the beginning there's a lot of those systems are just compatible with Fiserv and how they have things built out. It's very rare that we find , uh, a software that proprietary generally, the only time we run into issues is some of those ISOs or those sales companies on merchant processing, they'll build their own software that only works with that ISO and that happens every now and again. But when we do find those, the software and stuff, that first data now , which is now Irv has , uh, is do . And so we're able to get them more servicing needs anyway. So we really haven't ran into a lot that we aren't compatible with.
Speaker 2OK . Well that's good. Cause uh , I dunno , that's people worry about how , how do we get things as , you know, hooked together and working, working well that way.
Speaker 3So right. And I think that kind of goes back to educating because there's just no one's out there telling people how this should work. And a lot of people think that when they're processing is like, if they're a restaurant that their , so their , their , uh , software they're using is their processor. And they think that that's all the same when it's really not, when it's just an account number and , and , uh, processor number just plugged in into the software. And as easy as just switching those out with the next one to get those switched and it doesn't affect how they run business, it doesn't affect their inventory. It doesn't affect anything whatsoever. It's just changing on the backend, who's charging those fees for the credit card service . And that's like I said, just that misinformation that people just aren't aware of
Speaker 2Right now, how easy is it too ? Cause I was thinking , um, do some of the terminal I , and what I'm thinking of is like we all part of that Fise product is prob people have probably seen a Clover terminal mm-hmm <affirmative> type out there too are some of those kind of customized so they can actually , um , well I wanna say kind of be that front end forum or is that possible? Oh
Speaker 3Yeah. The Clover products that Fiserv owns are just , uh , almost no one can really compare to 'em , there's a number of different terminals where they can go from just a little handheld one to a full , uh , desk terminal. Like you would see , um , at a restaurant or something, a big computer system, but the ability that Clover has, which kind of sets them aside is they can add a whole lot of different modules to it. Like if it's a restaurant, you can then add every single one of your plates into the system. That way you can just, you know, tap an image and it just calculates it for you . Um, if it's a store or say like a salon, and if they're running a weekend special, you know, like say 15% off haircuts or, you know, 20% off of this type of merchandise they sell, they can actually save their customer like emails and information into the system and then email out marketing material to their, so that way they don't mess out on those sales or features, you know, and it even goes, as far as if you're looking to hire somebody or do scheduling for your business, you can even add those on, through the Clover software as well. So what we're, we're doing more than just, you know, helping them with their credit card processing fees, we're actually helping them with marketing or the hiring process or the day-to-day activities for their business as well , which is very powerful.
Speaker 2Right. So that really, you know, and cause that's more probably what challenge you see in small businesses. So Tyler is , we kind of , you know, you know , part of where you're the treasury management services we provide. When you go out and visit with customers, what are the kinda the biggest, I don't know, issues, you find that where you can help customers be more efficient , um , or me more profitable saving money or what kind of things are you looking for?
Speaker 3Sure. Yeah. When we, when we go out and visit with customers, we're not going out there. We're just one thing in mind that we're just gonna say, here's what we're gonna do for you to make your life different. We're we're asking questions, we're trying to find out how they're currently operating to see if there's any way we can kind of enhance that or free up their employees, you know, to save them time and , and money on their end. Um, you know, some of the biggest areas we've been able to help is, is payroll services. You know, a lot of people are still cutting checks or they have three different payrolls for different employees that they have that are doing different things at different times. Um , you know, or if they got people they're paying , you know, stipends daily to , or, or anything like that, they're having a lot of checks, you know, we're able to go in there and, and help automate that service and give 'em the ability to direct deposit those type deals , uh, for their employees, you know , uh , pay , uh , receivables as well. We have a lot of customers that might have to wait 10 days on a check, you know, they don't know any other way of getting that done. And then we can help them, you know, set up auto debits or help , um, other type help their customers get money into them quicker than just waiting 10 days for a check, getting mailed to them .
Speaker 2Yeah. A lot of times too, you think about, wow, you mail the bill and get it back. You , you know, you can't trust the mail for anything really. So it's gonna take three forever to get there. So, oh , kinda a mess, but uh, yeah, getting that money out quickly is yeah . Pretty important. Yeah. And especially nowadays, you know, shoot ACH moving faster and you know, at some point we're be moving stuff in day really pretty quickly. So what about , um, some of the other , uh , fraud, mitigation deals, have you seen and kind of been worked well for customers?
Speaker 3Sure. Um, one thing that we've been really helping a lot of our customers recently is , uh, setting up a separate expense account for their team. Like we, we , I have a customer who runs a tracking company and he has about four trucks and, and he was, you know, going ahead of time and, and filling up the trucks for him and, and trying to do all the maintenance and stuff himself, when we can set up a separate expense account where he can transfer money as needed. And then we can really control how the debit cards are used. So we can hand a debit cut out to one of his truckers. He can turn on the , a certain dollar amount that he can go fill up if he wants to , or if he needs to pick up something when he is on the road or supplies, you know, so it's not only saving him time, but it's giving his people the ability to get things done as they need to. And we can really control the cash in and out of that account, we control where the cards are being spent and , you know, and that's been really huge is being able to offer those type of expense accounts and getting debit cards in the hands of their employees. That's been really powerful lately, as well as there's some customers that we've met with that have already experienced some sort of check fraud. I know I , there's just hundreds of stories I could tell of employers like employees getting their two checks and, and going in and changing them , adding an extra zero at the end of their paycheck, or, you know, other companies I've helped with it at their check stocks stolen. And the employees went and just went and wrote their own checks, you know, and one of the biggest tools to combat that is we is positive pay to where a company uploads a list of all their checks that they've written. And that way , as they come in to clear their account, it's check those checks that are clearing their account are checked against the list that they uploaded. If that check isn't on that list that they told us to, to pay those checks are gonna be held until that business can then log in online and look and say, okay, yeah, I did write this. I just forgot to upload it or no, this isn't a real check and decline it that way. We're really empowering our customers to really control how their money leaves their account. And I think that is just one of the best tools that we can, that we've been able to really get off the ground this year.
Speaker 2Is that , uh, does it check the amounts too ?
Speaker 3Yeah. It checks the amounts, the date , the check was written and , uh, and the , uh , check number.
Speaker 2So if any, one of the three doesn't match, it's saying like, say the system's saying, Hey, what's we got a problem here.
Speaker 3Yep , exactly.
Speaker 2So, and like, so if I was a customer, I think that sounds like a lot of work for me to do that. <laugh> how , how hard is it to upload those files and , um, how the , for that , for like, you know, for me to do that, if I'm, you know, kicking out checks or whatnot
Speaker 3Uh, it's, it's very easy. A lot of the accounting softwares that our customers use can just generate that list for you. And then you just upload to our go , you log into our website, you click upload and upload the list. So we make it very easy. And again, one of the best things about it , you know, it's fully serviced by us here at the bank. There's no third parties involved. So when we're getting it set up , um, you know, they're working with Kim, myself, Leslie, and we're building the system for him . We're doing the training, we're involved all the time and we tell our customers, Hey, you know, we'll be on EV a , the phone with you and walk you through uploading every single time until you feel comfortable doing it. You know, we're there every step of the way. It's not like we just dump off, hit some logins and say, here you go, good luck. We're, we're there every step of the way.
Speaker 2Okay . Cause that makes a lot easier to, you've done it to where they don't have to worry about. Cause a lot of times you just, you know, to me, a lot of technology deals this , you know, the repetition and getting the , used to how it's gonna work. And, you know , once you get kind of , kinda in shape or used to doing it, then it works fairly easily . Yeah.
Speaker 3Oh yeah . I have a number of customer . I , we do that for everything , payroll, wires , anything that we do online with them , we were there every step of the way . And I, I had a customer, she called me probably every Friday for a month as she did payroll and , and towards the end, she would just call me and she'd like, Hey, just getting , keep you on the line, just in case. And then she'd process in about, you know, 20 seconds. And then she's like, all right , I got it. Thank you. And then we'd hang up. And that was just our routine every Friday at nine o'clock she'd call me and <laugh>, we'd have a nice little chat and she'd upload it and we'd be good to go. She doesn't call me anymore, which is the, the , the one downside, but still a good side, you know, is once , uh , our customers are good to go, you know, I don't hear from 'em . So no news is good news and <laugh> , you know, I do my follow ups , but it it's fun having those interactions and, and seeing them get excited about it and then just going forward with it. So
Speaker 2Yeah, <laugh> , that's pretty good. Yeah. Cause you know, that's the hard part too about techn , you know, there's so many ways that technology makes things easier, faster, more efficient, you know, but at the same time, you know, part of what makes, you know, banking fun for us is being with customers really and help them . Right.
Speaker 3<laugh> yeah . Getting outta the office and being side by side , helping them out. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2Exactly. I , yeah, that's, that's a lot of fun to do, but yeah. Um, so also , um, gimme thinking the cash management, you mentioned something about how be efficient with your cash. What are some cool tools or cool things you've seen customer use that have been really helped them be more efficient with their cash and how they utilize it? Sure. Cause sometimes that gets to me kinda , you know, like, well, how I got , I got cash in the bank or I pay my loan down. What other ways can we be more efficient I guess, or you've seen customers do that?
Speaker 3Sure, definitely. I know one thing that we we've really helped is how they're , uh, saving their cash and moving it around. You know, we, we utilize a lot of the tools from the profit first book and we're able to help set up those accounts where it has some of those auto transfers to where they're able to, to know, you know, this money is set aside for, you know, paying themselves first, this part set aside for taxes and really helping them , um, save in , organize their cash to make them more efficient versus, you know, them waiting till the end of the year to pay taxes and trying to figure out where that money is gonna come from. Um , you know, also able to help them, you know, we work very closely with the retail side, getting them set up with different CDs and things with different , um, times that they come to able to help them, you know, put more money into expense accounts to, to monitor how they're spending their cash more just to, to, so they're more aware of where their cash is going. You know, cuz the worst thing is, you know, that we've heard from customers, you know, is like we make all this money throughout the week. I wanna know where it's going. You know, so that's how we help their efficiencies is help them, you know, organize it better. So they know where that money is going, help them watch it go in and out and how they're transferring and using it more to make it more efficient that way, you know, the office managers not going out and spending a thousand dollars on , on paper for the office when they don't need it, you know , we're able to really help them watch it, you know, and see how they're using their money daily .
Speaker 2Yeah. That pro the first book, I was kind of fortunate if I got to hear Mike Malitz I , I might have said that wrong too, cuz he's I don't pronounce last name, but you know, I remember him tell on the stories like when he was starting, his business is like, yeah, his accountant says, Hey, congratulations, you made 15,000 this year. And he's like, awesome. He's like, where's it at? Cause it was not . And um , you know, to me it was just makes so much sense. Um, you know, how the control money in how to move it around. And we've actually also , um, you know, Tyler's talking about businesses, I've, you know, shoot, I, you know, a lot of people, including myself kind of use kind of a similar system running your personal accounts cuz it's amazing how, when you think only got X here and it controls how much you spend or how much of, you know, it doesn't matter if you're a business or personal or whatever, you know, sometimes do you see that money in your account? And then you think what , you know, you don't realize what else is coming out like taxes, you know, maybe my draw or whatever I want to have is , is going to be there. So it's a really powerful tool as far as managing cash in the business.
Speaker 3But yeah, I use it a very similar system personally that I took from that book too. So <laugh> yeah . It's
Speaker 2And too , you know, I want you to talk about technology used to , um, you know, everybody had a check ledger book or whatnot and you know, businesses. Yeah . I remember, yeah . My FA farm, you know, they had a handwritten ledger <laugh> , you know, back in the day and uh, so you knew how much money you had, but you know, today it's pretty easy. You look up your mobile app, mm-hmm <affirmative> your , our business customers can do that too and see how much money they have and well , they may not, you know, you don't realize whether things are coming due or things are out there to pay. So it's yeah. Amazing tool I think, to , to use.
Speaker 3So yeah, I think the times that having just one chain account as your operating account , everything coming in and out of it's kind of a over with as prevalent as fraud is and , and the more expenses are on business. Being able to separate that out in multiple accounts has really helped quite a bit of people understand that they're accordingly ,
Speaker 2You know , one thing we've mentioned several times , uh, so far Tyler's fraud, you know, and all that's kind of a big deal and, and the multiple ways , um, um , what might talk a little bit about the fraud checklist you go through with customers and sure . What kind of things you as you go through that?
Speaker 3Yeah, we, yeah, we are pretty fortunate that we, we have that seven point fraud prevention checklist. So what we do is there's a team of us, there's myself , uh , Caleb woods , um , Jennifer Rios , we, we go and meet with our customers and we have this checklist that we go through and it covers a wide variety of everything from technology to, you know, how are passwords kept ? You know, how are they do audits on their cast drawers? It covers , uh , HR, you know, how you know, documentation is handled, who has access to what there's about over a hundred questions on there that we really go out there. And what we do is we, we sit down with the customers and go through these. And the idea is to find areas. We think there might, that are weaker, that fraud could potentially happen. And so once we go through, we sit down with the business owner and most times the office manager as well. And we go through these questions. Once we do that, we go back and kind of analyze and say, okay , here's where we think, you know, fraud could be. And then we , we back with the customer and, and share with them our results and say, okay , here's where we think there's a higher chance of fraud. And here's, you know, a recommendation how to prevent this from happening and , and how to get this accomplished. And , and then we help them from that point on make , you know, tighten up some of those areas that might be , um, that hadn't been thought of before or , um , and give them more ideas on how to protect their business more. Chris, I can't hear you. It's been muted.
Speaker 2Yeah. Nobody goes out and think when I hire somebody, like I'm gonna hire a, person's gonna steal from me. Right. And nobody thinks that, or that's not my plan. Right. You know, no , you know , we don't actually go in, not like you're going a queue, somebody is stealing or whatnot , but it's amazing how many , um , businesses here in locally , um , that I could go name off that probably lost over half a million dollars , um , basically to employee embezzlement or who knows what types of things. And , uh , you just don't think it can happen to me or you don't think it can happen out here. Um , but unfortunate, sad thing is it does. And, and it's amazing when you kinda get into some deals of how creative people are, <laugh> , you know, as far as what they figure out the weaknesses in the system. And that's the , that's really what you're trying to say is where's the weaknesses at, and how do I strengthen 'em and
Speaker 3Exactly, you know, and it could be something as easy as, you know , every business has wifi , you know, and every business has a protected wifi that customers own access to, well , you know, we can, we can teach you how to make that invisible. So when people go to on their phones, they connect to wifi , they don't even see your private wifi, you know, something as easy as that, or, you know, the common thing , uh , employees writing down their passwords on sticky notes and having it right on their monitors. You know, it's, it's easy for someone to be at, you know, your , your , or businesses customer services. And they just kinda lean over a little bit, see some passwords, you know? Um, so I mean , there's a lot of tools, you know, you know, the employee theft is huge, but there's a lot of other stuff from outside influences that we can just help, you know, kind of give you an idea of what to, to do to help protect yourself further. You know , uh , I remember, gosh, 10 years ago when I was first getting into banking and fraud, there was a , I will never forget watching this , uh , news broadcast where there's , uh , huge buildings that have their HR department just hiring people out there to hack and do accounts and steal information, you know, and those are always around and gonna be around. And, and this is just a tool we, we do to help customer protect themselves cuz that's, you know, our number one thing.
Speaker 2Yeah. And it's , uh , and you don't think about the , uh, when you talking about the technology stuff and your WiFi's, and it's amazing too, what people are able to do. Um , just walking , you know, getting hooked into your , you know, business' wifi taking over stuff and, and we do, you know, you do see people with ransomware and , uh , uh , those kind of attacks out here too. So it's like, you know, one time, you know, I always tell people, especially this last year and a half, you know, this is the best place in the world to live in. I think , uh , just cuz you can kind of isolate from all the madness , uh, per se, but uh, uh , but those things can get you anywhere and it's amazing how many people actually have to deal with , uh , ransomware attacks and you know, things like that out here that you wouldn't think, why would they even try? But Hey Tyler. So also, you know, we talked about, you know, we visit our customers, whatnot . How do you like to keep in contact with those? Or what kind of , you know, once we have somebody set up , how do do you, what's the best way to any , if somebody else banks somewhere else, you know, what should they expect in dealing with their banker on treasury services and whatnot ?
Speaker 3Sure. Yeah. I know with , with us specifically, we like to, to touch our customers at least once a quarter , um, especially out of our merchant customers that are doing processing, I reach out to them yearly to make sure or that they're doing their PCI compliance. And uh , a lot of my customers, I reach out to quite a bit to make sure things are going well, that they have all the users set up that they need to, you know, one of my, my favorite things is to make sure the customers know that we want to be proactive in everything we're doing with them , not just reactive. A lot of times people are like, they wait to contact their treasury rep or their loan officer once something happens. And we don't wanna be that, that reactive. We wanna be proactive in protecting them and , and making sure that everything's going good and staying good ahead of time and staying ahead of those fraudsters, you know? And , and then also we , we try and keep , make sure our customers know we're, we're always available. You know, we want them, if they get some wild idea at 2:00 AM to reach out to us that next day and say, Hey, this is what I was thinking, how can I make this work? You know, we're not here just to, to give you extra things, we're here to help make your ideas work. You know, if you want to be able to have your customers log and pay through a payment portal for all your stuff, you know, and you think that's crazy idea, but you want it to work, reach out to us. We have a pretty , uh , deep team and , and knowledge of different services that we can really help make your ideas work. You know? So we want those customers reaching out to us. We want them calling us and say, Hey, how does this work? How can I make this work? And we , and we're there. You know, like I said , we want to be proactive, not just reactive.
Speaker 2That's good. Cuz a lot of times you just, like you said, you just never know. Cause I get all those you , you think about, wow, I , what about this? Like, oh yeah, we can do something like that. Well, that's cool. You know, you know, cause a lot of things that, you know, it's kind of a whole menu of things I guess, and we can kinda go pick whatever , uh , you need and makes it , makes your business more successful. Cause that's really in the , in the end, that's what we're trying to do. Right? How do we help your business succeed ? Succeed if I can say that, right?
Speaker 3Yep . Everything we do in treasury services, we customize to that exact business and what they need there . There's not, there's not a box. We just put you in it. There's there is no box. We literally customize it to your exact business, how you are doing things. It's not just a one size fits all . It's custom.
Speaker 2Nobody likes to think I gotta get just this one plan and you know, kinda like buying cable plans, right? Nobody <laugh> , nobody's like, oh , I , I don't want all these channels, you know, but basically you're paid for what you want and that way it makes a lot easier . So well awesome. Tyler, I appreciate you taking the time to visit, talk about our treasury management services. Cause that's one of those things that, you know, I think , um, there's a lot of things in there for businesses to understand what's going on. And so , um, if you have questions for Tyler, any of us, just make sure to reach out to the bank and we can help you kind of figure those things out. Um, cause there's a lot of ways we can , um , businesses can , um, make their whole operation more efficient and , and protect themselves as well. So, and we've really , uh , appreciate having Tyler with us and enjoy him working with us. So it's been a lot of fun and, and uh, just get a chance to meet him. He was , uh , a lot of being right around Tyler as well. So thanks Tyler. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 3Yeah . Thank you Chris.
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