Barclaycard & KashFlow to pilot web invoicing system
Online accounting developer KashFlow pulled off the covers last week on a long-running project to integrate its web-based bookkeeping system with a Barclaycard online invoicing and payment system.
According to KashFlow founder Duane Jackson, Barclays approached him last year through a broker to see if KashFlow would adapt its software to work with a pilot e-invoicing platform Barclays wanted to develop.
The project would require KashFlow to “whitelabel” the bookkeeping software to work within the Barclays-branded system, but after a short period of soul-searching, Jackson decided to throw in his lot with the high street bank.
Jackson was reticent about the terms and scope of the Barclaycard deal, but commented: “We decided it was more important to build the bottom line than the brand. Barclays and my channel sales manager alerted me to the opportunities that exist.”
Should the pilot prove successful, the e-invoicing concept closely matches the ideas about basing business accounts around bank statements promoted several years ago on AccountingWEB by David Carter and other members.
The idea is interesting, but there are a couple of practical concerns that will need to be overcome. First is security. For the past decade IT experts have been telling users not to click suspicious attachments. Most Net users are alert enough to be wary of any link they get via email - and the prevalence of phishing emails purporting to come from major banks such as Barclays only reinforces those suspicions. If the Barclays system can find a way around that important roadblock, then there are the normal cost/benefit issues to consider for potential users.
Continued...
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What if
What if most invoices had a 10 digit number on them, then when the customer types the number into their bank website, they saw a PDF of the invoice and could choose to hit the “pay” button if they wished?
What if the customer could then choose to have all invoices sent to them by the same company to show up in the “incoming invoices” tab on their own line banking system?
What if the company could create all invoices in the “outgoing invoices” tab on their online banking system before posting/emailing them to their customers?
What if all accounting software could upload and download these invoices from the bank?
However for something like this to work, all of the bank we have to agree! (I can't Barclaycard doing something useful on their own)