The challenge

Ranked in the Accountancy Age’s Top 50 and with its head office in the City of London, Gerald Edelman is a progressive business big on innovation and finding ways to operate more efficiently.

With 20 partners within the Gerald Edelman group and over 140 employees, the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, Dan Spackman, was keen to improve the invoice payment process for their clients whilst reducing the admin time internally.

Dan explains, “We have offered card payments as a payment option for a number of years, but this was an outdated system whereby a Finance team member was required to key in the payment information. This meant we could only handle card transactions during office hours. In the world we live in, this wasn’t good enough for our clients. We needed to offer more flexibility as we know our clients are busy and often on the road, so they need to be able to deal with these things easily, on the go and from any device. This led me to look at the different options available and ultimately led me to Blink.”

The solution

Blink has been making accepting and tracking payments easier for accountants all around the UK. After receiving a recommendation from their IT advisor, Jeremy Hyman Associates, to use Blink's services, Gerald Edelman reached out to us to learn more about how we could collaborate.

The accountancy firm’s existing payment options of bank transfer, cheque (which they intended to phase out) and card payment over the phone during office hours was a shining example of the old way of doing things. This left a lot of scope for Blink to suggest improvements, which were all implemented by the client.

_{Dan sums it up this way, “Payments via Blink is the best solution I’ve come across. It ticks all the boxes to allow us to take online payments via card, open banking and direct debit. The platform also gives us access to reports as well as the ability to create unique payment links that we can send by email or SMS to our clients.”}

Client-specific payment links are trackable, and Gerald Edelman can see if and when a client opens the link and has paid the invoice. The client’s name, email address and/or mobile number, the amount, and reference are all pre-populated details on the payment page that the client opens after receiving the Blink payment link. There is also a Blink page that the firm’s clients can use to pay online via card or open banking. The Blink page and payment links on-screen environments can reflect the accountancy firm’s logo and branding, enabling a more professional user experience.

The outcome

The changeover from the legacy system to the Blink platform took just under two weeks to complete and did not interrupt any usual business operations.

Karan Mehta, Sales Director at Blink, said, “It’s always rewarding for us to see the business transformation that’s possible when a new client like Gerald Edelman is so open to doing things better. They were particularly impressed that our virtual terminal enables simultaneous access for multiple users (in this case, the firm’s Finance team), securely, and from any place at any time via a web browser.”

_{Dan Spackman is also very pleased with how his firm’s first experience with Blink has played out. He says, “The value of making it easier for our clients to pay their invoices and the time we save our team on admin and chasing payments is hugely significant. The Blink team certainly couldn’t have been more helpful in making it happen. As efficiency drives go, this move really takes our credit control processes to the next level.”}