Case study
Law Society
Client
Law Society
Company size
200 to 500
Activity
Regulatory Body
Platform features
Payment Requests
Dedicated accounts
The Law Society of Ireland is the educational, representative, and regulatory body for solicitors in Ireland. It was established in 1830 and plays a key role in overseeing legal education, professional standards, and providing services to its members. The Society represents over 13,000 solicitors across Ireland.
The Challenge
The Law Society of Ireland faced significant challenges in managing and identifying payments from solicitors for their annual practicing certificates, courses and other miscellaneous products. With approximately 13,000 solicitors making payments each year through card payments or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). The Society experienced inefficiencies and errors on the card payment side which did not provide comprehensive or reliable payment information. The missing data fields and cumbersome process of manually downloading and matching statements made reconciliation difficult and time-consuming.
On the EFT side, solicitors would send their payments, but issues arose with references not being set correctly, making it hard to identify who the payments were from. The Society’s reliance on a pillar bank for processing payments added to the problem, as the system did not always clearly identify the payer, further complicating reconciliation efforts. Additionally, their payment management processes were highly manual. Staff would spend hours copying and pasting information from payments into spreadsheets, adding further delays and inefficiencies, particularly when dealing with hundreds, if not thousands, of payments weekly. This cumbersome and error-prone process was slowing down operations, leading to significant inefficiencies for the Society.
The Solution
Payment Requests
NoFrixion provided the Law Society of Ireland with several solutions to address their payment challenges. Firstly, NoFrixion implemented the payment request functionality, allowing them to accurately track payments made by card and a new payment method - “Pay by Bank”. Pay by Bank allows a customer to pay directly from their bank in a checkout situation. This system ensures that after a solicitor has paid, the payment is immediately identifiable and reconcilable to the accounts team. Additionally, with NoFrixion’s support they integrated the payment request functionality with their membership software, Aptify, so that when a solicitor pays for their annual practicing certificate, the invoice is automatically updated to paid in Aptify, eliminating the need for manual intervention by the accounts team.
Virtual IBANs
NoFrixion also introduced the concept of virtual IBANs to the Law Society. Instead of using a single IBAN for all payments, each law firm or solicitor receives a unique IBAN. This ensures that payments are instantly identifiable and automatically reconciled, with funds being swept into the Law Society’s main account. This streamlined the process, as they no longer had to manually track and query multiple payments to confirm the source and purpose.
Finally, NoFrixionl automated the previously manual task of copying payment information into spreadsheets. Using the NoFrixion open API, the law society is able to create scripts that generate daily reports with all payment information automatically compiled into an Excel file, saving considerable time and effort.
In conclusion, the Law Society of Ireland faced multiple obstacles with payment identification and reconciliation, which led to significant inefficiencies and delays. By integrating with NoFrixion they can now trace and track payments with much greater accuracy and speed. This not only resolves their reconciliation issues but also saves the organisation thousands of working hours by automating previously manual processes, leading to a more efficient and streamlined payment system.