Aquaid

Freedman Products Ltd is a franchise of award-winning watercooler company, Aquaid. Founded in 1992 and quickly expanding across England, Wales and Scotland, Aquaid’s unique association with Christian Aid has ensured that they continue to provide premium watercoolers and bottled water.

When Freedman Products Ltd searched for a reliable and cost-effective Bacs solution that would continue to facilitate Direct Debits from customers, SmarterPay On Premise really stood out.

“We were immediately attracted to the competitive pricing of the SmarterPay solution and the free trial period, which allowed us to make a more informed decision,” said Alex Freedman of Freedman Products, a franchised dealer of Aquaid water systems.

SmarterPay On Premise is a Bacsapproved funds transfer solution, designed to make paying staff/suppliers and collecting customer payments easier and is ideal for businesses looking to set up Direct Debit and Direct Credit payments.

Freedman Products began using Direct Debits to collect payments from customers in mid-2004 to cope with the increasing demand for its products. Commenting on the move to Direct Debits, Maggi Langton, Senior Administrator at Freedman Products, said: “Being able to standardise customer payments using Direct Debit was a good thing for us to do, because it saves us a lot time arranging for customer payments to be made.”

The Solution

They were prompted to find a new Bacs solution when, without warning, the cost of their annual licence was substantially increased by their previous vendor.

Differentiating itself from other water cooler companies, the award-winning Aquaid has partnered with several highprofile charities including Christian Aid, Pump Aid and The Africa Trust and donated more than £14 million to third world water projects to date.

Following this unexpected price hike, Freedman Products’ set about looking for a reliable and cost-effective Bacs solution that would continue to facilitate Direct Debits from customers and found it, in SmarterPay On Premise.

Freedman Products was immediately assigned to a SmarterPay specialist who listened to their specific business requirements before making a recommendation on how to integrate SmarterPay with their accounting software, Sage Accounts 50.

Langton was particularly impressed with the customer service of the SmarterPay team. She said: “Everyone was so helpful and really listened to what we needed. It was great not to be shoehorned into an existing solution or pressured to spend money on additional functionality we didn’t require.”

SmarterPay On Premise

SmarterPay On Premise allows you to organise, automate and manage your business payments easily and effectively to pay your staff and suppliers on time and collect customer payments. Working alongside your existing accounting, payroll or membership management software discover the following benefits:

• Automated Bacs submissions
• Reduced manual business costs
• Real-time visibility of payments
• Full audit trail and reporting options
• Bureau options available
• Industry-standard encryption & digital signatures

For more information about SmarterPay On Premise or any other products and services, please get in touch.