AP Tech Pushes Cloud-Based Checks Effort

Payments vendor AP Technology has rolled out a new product called APeChecks, which the company said is pronounced Ape-Checks. The cloud B2B payments platform includes paper checks, eCheck and ACH support. The vendor claimed the new approach can cut payments costs by 80 percent and needs no integration.

“Many of our SME customers use and print checks, even though they are an expensive payment method. We understand their reluctance to move to electronic payments and their unwillingness to make what they perceive to be massive changes to their payment processes. APeChecks provides the best of both worlds, embracing and enhancing check printing and enabling the selection of ACH or electronic payments with a click of a mouse,” CEO Richard Love said in a statement. “There is an increasing risk for merchants that handle and store credit card and account information. We were asked by businesses to mitigate their risks in a secure, remotely accessible platform that will also cease the trend toward credit card and debit card reversals. Cloud-based APeChecks accomplishes those things in a super-secure, highly flexible system that eliminates the need for merchants to gather and store payee information. And it requires no integration to implement, so barriers for adoption are completely removed.”

The service will use biometric authentication as well as person-to-person verification and is expected to be used on a wide range of mobile devices, including smartphones. The idea is for businesses to be able to approve, sign and release payments as ACH (eChecks), paperless checks, or traditional paper checks, from the cloud, mobile phones and tablets. Payees are notified immediately of payments, with the option of payments being deposited directly into merchant accounts.