This feature describes how West Devon Borough Council developed barcoded billing for the payment of Council bills and replaced swipecards.

The Council worked in partnership with allpay and introduced an International Issuer Identification Number (IIN), which gave the council flexibility to introduce further schemes requiring extended customer references. In addition, the Council saved money by utilising allpay’s internal service codes, instead of having to purchase these through the Post Office. The barcode solution went live in March 2014, allowing West Devon’s residents to pay their council tax at any PayPoint or Post Office – which increased the number of outlets where residents could pay previously. The contract has also been structured to provide a commercial incentive for West Devon’s neighbouring authority, South Hams District Council, to utilise the service.

Ease of reconciliation

The project went live during March 2014 and the service has been excellent. All payments are received as expected which makes reconciliation very easy. The invoicing makes it very clear how many transactions have been made and whether they were made at PayPoint or at the Post Office. We haven’t had to query anything, so I can’t comment on the customer service! This indicates just how smooth the whole process is.

Fully automated solution

The main difference is how we are charged for the services. Our previous provider used to deduct their charges from the income prior to making payment to us, which often led to discrepancies; it also required manual journaling for the reconciliation. The allpay way is fully automated with daily downloads, whereas our previous company transferred the funds weekly.
Speedy responses

From the outset, allpay’s approach was very professional. The contract agreement was very clear and simple to understand, we were allocated our own Business Development Manager who took us through the set-up process and ensured we were happy and properly prepared throughout. We recently contacted allpay to discuss extending our services and received exactly the same approach and very speedy responses to our questions. For us the allpay option has worked extremely well.