Monday 19 May 2008

Westpac Internet Banking

A Westpac Community Solutions Account is accessible via internet banking and is ideal for not for profit organisations with multiple signatories to simply receive and make payments. This tailored solution is FREE to set up with no monthly service or transaction fees for activities such as BPAY, Direct Entry, and cheque and branch transactions. If you’re paying a bill without BPAY using online banking you would use the “Pay Anyone” facility at $0.25 cents per payment. That’s cheaper than a postage stamp and envelope!

To open an account for a community organisation you’ll need to provide either:
  • a certificate of registration/certificate of incorporation for community groups; or
  • an ATO income tax exemption certificate; or
  • a Memorandum and Articles of association stating ‘not for profits’ status, or
  • Meeting Minutes.

For internet access you’ll also need to set up Business Online to allow multiple signatories (with various authority levels available) to access accounts and transfer funds online.

To start paying bills using Westpac internet banking just follow these simple steps:-

  1. Open a Community Solutions account (remembering to provide one of the items listed above to open the account);
  2. Each signatory provides 100 point identification (if they are not already known to Westpac);
  3. Complete a Business Online form, outlining the number of signatories;
  4. Each signatory is allocated an access level and a userid/password;
  5. The treasurer logs in and creates a payment;
  6. It sits in a Pending List waiting for authorisation;
  7. Another signatory logs in with their userid to authorise the payment (assuming they’ve seen the invoice you’re paying);
  8. The payment is then automatically submitted when it is authorised (if only two signatories are required for example).

To set up an account for your community organisation, simply visit any Westpac Branch and talk to a Business Banker.

If you would like to provide comments about this post to help volunteer treasurers, please do.