News & Events
Elephant Bar Tightens Bank Reconciliation with Chesapeake's Total Reconciliation Solution (T-Recs®)
OWINGS MILLS, MD- Chesapeake System Solutions, Inc.Ū announced today that the Elephant Bar, a chain of casual dining restaurants headquartered in Goleta, CA, has purchased Chesapeake's Total Reconciliation Solution (T-RecsŪ). Elephant Bar expects to gain cost savings from reduced credit card charge-offs. "I expect substantial cost savings, both in terms of labor savings and reduced credit-card charge-offs due to missing deposits," says Luis Delgado CCM, Elephant Bar's treasury manager.
Elephant Bar started to look for automatic reconciliation software in anticipation of rapid growth and the strains placed on the reconciliation process, particularly credit card settlements.. "Credit card batches would get lost with our POS software," Delgado says, "and we lacked a defined process and tool to collect or charge off those credit-card receipts."
T-RecsŪ provides Elephant Bar with a tightly defined process for ensuring that credit card deposits have been made daily. Given that Elephant Bar's tender mix is 65% credit to 35% cash, the savings from lost or charged-off deposits alone should pay back the investment. "Missing credit batches can add up quickly," Delgado says.
T-RecsŪ allows the restaurant operator to verify all credit card activity at all its restaurants on a daily basis because a restaurant's point-of-sale system transmits this activity to T-RecsŪ when cash registers are closed out at the end of the day. T-RecsŪ reconciles gross credit card activity by restaurant with the gross activity from the settlement file from the credit card processor(s). In addition, T-Recs reconciles net credit card activity with the net settlement amounts deposited at the bank. In addition to reconciling credit card activity, T-Recs can reconcile cash, check and other tender-type activity.
Operations personnel receive a daily e-mail from T-RecsŪ, which reports the day's expected income activity and actual credit card and bank activity, as well as notes any shortages or overages. Corporate treasury managers can check with location managers and district managers to resolve any discrepancies immediately, rather than weeks after the problem.
"T-RecsŪ allows us to capture POS data and use it in a meaningful way," Delgado says. "We can be right on top of things.
The software's user friendly environment and easy learning curve were important factors in Elephant Bar's evaluation. So was Chesapeake's responsiveness. "Chesapeake was extremely professional and responsive in everything they did. They delivered what they said they would deliver," Delgado says.
Elephant Bar also purchased NetResolveTM, Chesapeake's Internet-based exception resolution system. "We expect it will help our general managers and closing managers resolve exceptions more easily," he says.
If an exception item requires research from a location, it can take more than a week to get a response. Delgado expects NetResolve's structured process and timely communications to help local managers respond to exception research requests more quickly and completely.
"NetResolve provides field personnel the freedom of mobile communication via internet accessible hand held communicators or web-linked tools, allowing them to provide exception information, quickly and easily, directly to the reconciliation area. Telephone tag and emails are eliminated, saving valuable time in recovering missing funds," notes Kaki Wynn, vice president of development for Chesapeake's T-Recs software.
About Elephant Bar
The Elephant Bar Restaurant is a dynamic, high-volume casual dining restaurant chain based in Goleta, Calif. with aggressive growth plans to expand throughout the United States. The company operates about 25 restaurants in California, Arizona, and Texas. Please visit www.elephantbar.com for more information.
About Chesapeake System Solutions
Chesapeake offers the total end-to-end treasury solution, seamlessly integrating cash management with reconciliation, account analysis and compliance. Chesapeake shares information across all applications, allowing customers to better manage treasury operations. Chesapeake's success evolves from its powerful combination of customer and industry-driven software, personalized customer support and advanced technology. Chesapeake's single-vendor product and support solution includes SmartTreasury?, a modular desktop and web-based treasury workstation,, Total Reconciliation Solution (T-RecsŪ), a comprehensive reconciliation and deposit verification system, Unclaimed Property Compliance System (UPCS?), which automates unclaimed property reporting for all 54 jurisdictions and SmartAnalysis?, which helps you quickly confirm your bank is fulfilling its promises by analyzing trends and comparing services across your banks. Please visit www.chessys.com for more information.