Put Lion Power To Work For Your Business!
Written: Aug 12 '06 (Updated Feb 13 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great products, truly outstanding service
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: They have done an outstanding job of handling our business banking needs.
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| Saxguy's Full Review: Harris Bank |
This is my entry in user Bryan_Carey’s “New Millennium Write Off” write-off, celebrating his approaching the 2,000 epinion milestone. Bryan asked us to write about something that had something to do with the year 2000. Well, Harris Bank was on our mind as the fateful day approached. We hoped our preparations were sufficient. To cover all bases, we asked Harris to add $5 million more of availability on our line of credit. They did. 1/1/2000 turned out to be a non-issue for our computers and the national banking system. We were still grateful for Harris extending our availability.
Harris Bank has a long history of being a solid commercial bank in the Chicago area, even though they were acquired by Bank of Montreal in 1984. As for Lion Power, Hubert the Harris Lion has been their symbol/mascot for years.
My organization is a major not-for-profit agency in Chicago, with domestic and international programs and many donors. I am the Controller, and have a small staff of 12 plus myself in general accounting, accounts payable and remittance processing reporting to me. I have secondary responsibility for banking relations.
We need the following in a bank and Harris supplies it quite well:
Lockbox services
When you pay a bill by mailing a check to a P O Box, it is usually delivered to a bank
To process on behalf of a client. We have plenty of small deposits and Harris does this well
Money transfer
We send foreign wires to fund programs. We are able to do this through Harris’ internet-based product Directline for Business. This works great and is at a modest fee
Domestic Payments
To improve security, we send domestic electronic payments over $10,000 through the Directline product and were able to lock in the accounting by interfacing it with accounts payable.
Disbursements
Harris did a very competent job of handing our payroll until we moved it to an account controlled by our payroll vendor, AFP. Our check disbursements are handled competently. They provide us with an electronic paid item list for reconciling. We are currently evaluating a product which will automate the bank reconciliation process and improve security by not paying a check item unless the payee, check amount and check number are matched against a list we provide. This is called Positive Pay with Payee Match and I’m excited about this.
They provide images of our cashed check on CDRom and that service is cost and space-effective.
Electronic deposits
Through Directline, we are able to initiate electronic deposits from donors and funding agencies. This also works well.
Merchant Services
Harris introduced us to a sister organization, Moneris Systems, that processes credit card donations and fees on our behalf, competently, at a competitive rate. We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Moneris handles it all for us.
Remote Deposit
We are finishing testing of a product that permit us to clear ourselves, through a scanner and software they provide, checks received in our building which are not sent to the lockbox. Now, there have been some issues, which we are resolving, but it’s working pretty well. It means that we do not need a courier for depositing checks. We like this product so much so that two sister organizations, based in the same building, have moved their on-premises deposit activity to Harris using remote deposit.
Investments
We choose to be VERY conservative in our investments, but Harris has provided some long term debt and money funds to improve our return on unused funds.
I suppose there are other banks that can do all this well. Harris has not been perfect, but they have been consistently good and very responsive. Their fees are certainly not cheap, but they are fair. However, I saved the best for last:
The Harris bankers assigned to us provide truly outstanding service
They are accessible and reasonable. They try to understand our business. They look to help us with new ideas. When needed, they are willing to scramble.
Like, yesterday. We had a group traveling to a conference in Toronto, with about a dozen students whose expenses we are covering. Our New York office asked for a check which would be used to cover the expenses. Well, that office has their administrative challenges and we were asked to do this on a very short time frame. I don’t understand exactly how it happened, but someone in the sponsoring business unit decided to deliver the check by hand in Canada instead of sending it by courier to New York.
So, I got a call yesterday morning, basically saying we have a US check for expenses that we cannot cash in Canada. That was a problem. Most Canadian banks will not cash a check for a non-customer, particularly in US funds.
So, I did what any good Controller would do. I deplored the need for scrambling, and then I scrambled. Bank of Montreal (BMO), Harris’ owner is obviously a Canadian bank. I figured that, if I could locate the nearest branch, maybe Harris could arrange for the check to get cashed. I located the branch nearest to the conference. The conference center had no idea where the nearest BMO branch was, but I found a hotel nearby and called the concierge, who found the main branch and the phone number.
I called the Harris VP on our account and described the situation. He said that he would contact the branch and see what he could do. This was at about 11:00am on a Friday. Time was of the essence because Toronto is an hour ahead of Chicago and the main branch might close for the weekend. Shortly after lunch, I got a call back. The main branch would cash the check. He gave me two contact names, which I got to our staff person in Toronto. I didn’t get any more frantic calls, which I interpreted as meaning everything was ok.
This is the second time I’ve had to scramble on a difficult banking situation, and Harris has come through each time.
Frankly, it’s frustrating as back office staff, to have to resort to heroic measures to rescue a transaction that would have been easy if the paperwork had been done on time. Like many organizations, we have had to reduce staff, and the amount of time spent on rework of bad transactions is onerous, particularly when using established routines and procedures uses a lot less effort.
The program staff complain about extra procedures. They often don’t know that we are pressured by the Patriot Act on disbursements and our internal auditor and board committees on compliance. They don’t understand what goes into good financial control and administration these days. It’s SURE a lot more involved than 10 years ago.
So, those staff are going to get a lecture on timely paperwork when they return. That lecture will be much more effective than if Harris hadn’t come through. Then, the (incorrectly) perceived problem would have been that the Finance office messed up. I don’t need that. Neither does my boss.
Meanwhile, Harris is a solid business bank and I recommend them highly.
On a more personal note, I had an auto loan several years ago with one of their branches and it was handled well. However, I tend to recommend Chase for individual bank accounts, as they have more branches and ATMs than anybody else in the Chicago area.
Thanks for reading. God bless!
Please check out my related personal finance and business reviews:
T. Rowe Price Brokerage
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Like a Monster Movie (on Safeco Home Insurance)
Recommended:
Yes
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