Tips to Consider When Opening an Online Banking Account

Opening an online bank account in a time when we turn to the Internet for just about everything is very tempting. There are a lot of reasons why people want to leave the concept of the brick and mortar bank behind for a bank that does business strictly online. These modern bank accounts offer consumers a simple and convenient way to manage their money from the comfort of their own home. If you plan to open an online bank account in the near future, these tips will help you do it easily and safely.

Choosing Your Bank

The banks compete on the return on your money (APY) that they can offer, and it makes sense to compare this number as you make your selection. You should also consider the services that are being offered to ensure that you can do everything you need with your new bank. Online bill pay, offering CD's and a number of other options are services that you may need immediately or sometime down the road. Since you are not going to be seeing these people face-to-face, review their track record and length of time in business. These needs to be a comfort factor when choosing a bank. For example, Capitol One 360, formerly ING Direct, is one of the more popular online banks. Knowing that a great number of people bank with your prospective bank can give you a sense of security.

Opening the Account

The banks have made it very easy to open accounts online, and you should be prepared for the whole thing to last about 15 minutes from start to finish. Navigate to the bank's website and select the link to open a new account. As with any other bank account, you will need to supply personal information like your social security number and your contact information. Entering this information is safe and secure as long as you follow standard computer security practices. Online banks are required by law to verify your identity. Make sure that you have a driver's license or another valid form of government identification ready. Make sure to keep a check from your old bank with you as you fill out the information. You may need to enter check data in order to transfer funds from the old bank to the new bank.

Save Time and Improve Cash Flow

There's no reason to add 20 minutes to your day for you.

Check? What's a check? You've probably heard people say that. The popularity of online bill-pay and credit or debit cards has led to the demise of many paper checkbooks.

But a lot of your customers (especially commercial/corporate) may still be using them, and that can mean multiple trips to the bank every week to deposit them. If you wait until you have several, your deposits will be delayed and your cash flow slowed down.

Intuit's Check Solution for QuickBooks may be just the solution for your business. You can accept check payments over the phone or scan the checks when they arrive in your office. Payments are deposited into your account anywhere from 1 to 4 days, depending on time of day, day of week and holidays. Most times my checks are in my account by the next day. Here are some benefits:

Faster payments. Since you can accept check payments over the phone, you don' t need to wait for the check to come via snail mail.

Save time (yours or staff): You don't have to fill out a deposit slip and go to the bank. If you scan the checks, both sides of the check are copied and stored in your QuickBooks data file no more standing by the copier to make copies of checks! This could also save you money - labor is a significant expense for most businesses, and if you're the owner, your time is valuable and better spent strategizing and making sales.

Improved accuracy. With check scanning, the numbers are entered for you. It's so easy to type a lengthy number incorrectly, especially if you're processing a number of transactions.

Decreased risk of fraud. The more people that handle a paper check, the more likely financial fraud is, so this cuts down on the number of handlers.

Lower fees. While there are fees associated with accepting e-checks, the fee per check is a very low flat rate, instead of a percent of the amount as with credit cards.

How it works

There are two methods with Intuit's check solutions.

    Electronic Check - When you accept payment over the phone or are not using a scanner, go to receive payments in QuickBooks and enter the customer and amount as usual.
        Payment method is E-Check
        Check the box at the bottom of the screen next to Process E-Check payment when saving, and save the payment record.
        You will be prompted to enter the routing and account information from the check; QuickBooks will lead you through the necessary steps.

    Check Scanning
        Click on Customers>Check Processing Activities>Scan Checks
        Scan the check (you can scan multiple checks at one time)
        Verify the information scanned correctly.
        Record the payment now or later. If you choose to do it now, Intuit will look for an appropriate open invoice. If unable to find and match, a button will appear for Receive Payments and then you can match the payment with appropriate invoice. All the payment information will be entered for you already.
        If you scanned multiple checks, you'll be asked to review each one.
        Send checks for processing - this will send the entire batch of checks you scanned.
    You'll then be asked if you want to make a deposit now or record later. If you do it now, all the checks will be on one deposit for you.

You'll need a merchant account with Intuit if you don't already have one.

The Importance Of Directors Duties For Any Company

No company can run without the proper staff and that includes the management team and the director, as well as all the other staff that are needed, right through to the canteen lady and the janitor. Each person has their duties and responsibilities that if done well will all become part of the fabric of the company or organization. Directors duties are probably one of the most important as without a director, the ship is virtually rudderless.

So what does a director do? They don't just walk around ensuring that everyone does what they are supposed to. In fact, that is the managers' job. The director has many other things to attend to and one of the most important is to know what the financial position of the company is at all times, not just at the end of the financial year.

When the director knows what the cash flow is and what the financial position of the company is, it will aid him in making certain decisions that are going to cost the company money. If he - or she - does not know they may well agree to something that costs more than the company can afford. This is highly likely to cause insolvency.

While the director does not need to do the actual record keeping, it is certainly his duty to avail himself of the facts and details about it all. This can be as simple as talking to the company's accountant. Such knowledge must be used to the best effect to bring into the company all that is needed to make it a going concern and keep it powering on into the future.

In addition, with such governance comes great responsibly to act in the best interests of the company, but also to not use such a position to gain benefits for yourself or anyone else, or to cause anything detrimental to happen to the company. The director's position is one of trust and responsibility. They are the recipient of a great deal of confidential information and so must be people who can be trusted to keep that information away from the eyes of others.

How to Approach Sino Financials Markets in the Current Year

The Solactive China Financials index tracks a total of thirty six of the top Sino Bank Equity, evaluates the sector and its growth quite effectively and even offers participation in the form of an Index attuned China Financials ETF. The Solactive benchmark [Bloomberg ticker - CHIF] has delivered returns of 16.29% for the Year 2012 and the annualized returns since its inception in December 2009 are a little less than 2%.

Banks of China enjoy a definite edge over their counterparts because of the sheer numbers of consumers available to them and these numbers are still rising. The heavy economic growth of the last twenty years has changed the demographics in these parts of Asia, two decades of good business meant better payouts for the Chinese workers, businesses have grown drastically due to the aggressive and global demand for local products, the households have seen a major appreciation of their immovable assets amid this massive wave of globalization in China which exists even today has led to massive swell in the numbers of the middle classes, who now want to upgrade their life styles with the increased disposable incomes and wealth.

Credit card giant Master Card carried out a survey in 2010 to derive forecasts on the credit card users in China. As per the report net credit cards in circulation were to reach 230 million by 2011, which it already did and by 2020 the figure for these plastic units in use will be a whooping 900 million.

This is real growth of more than 400% in just nine years.

Another plus is a supportive state in the nation and the past year's growth wouldn't have been possible without a little help from the government. The top four banks of China boasted a balance sheet in black largely owing to the central bank directives. Their loan rates were bloated as much as 30%, where as interests charged were 10% higher than the central bank's deposit rate, although these top institutions did consume a major chunk of bad debts from the LGFVs segment, but largely enjoyed profits in the wake of the new norms.

The bigger positive lies in the understanding of an investor who are seeking to indulge in the Sino Financial funds and equity, it is a simple realization that the buck does not stop here; the growth that has been seen in case of credit card will apply to all or at least most consumer products and the biggest purchasing and loaning activity will come from the first time owners of varied items like smart phone, cars, laptops and most primarily the new end users of the realty. A surge in the housing markets of China will not only justify the state's aggressive approach towards infrastructure, it will also account for most of the extended loans from the banks domiciled in the nation.

China, most analysts say will eventually outperform the rest of the BRIC and will surpass USA in terms of net GDP by 2027.

A good basis to this asset is a long positive outlook relying on bona fide business sense rather than the market frenzy, which is a common sight in the emerging capital markets. The projected growth is impossible without a good banking structure and that's what makes Invest China Financials Sector an interesting space to watch throughout 2013 and beyond.