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As companies continue to look for ways to increase profitability, one tenet to keep in mind is that for most businesses, time is money.

You'll see just how true this is if you'll start asking yourself a few questions about your organization and the way it manages people and money:

• Where can you reduce the amount of time it takes your staff to complete a job?
• Where can you outsource certain activities to free up your staff to sell product or perform other jobs that only they can do?
• How can you turn time into reduced expenses or increased cash flow in the way you manage your company's finances?

We'll let management or human resources gurus help with answers on those first two questions. On the third, let me suggest looking at all aspects of your internal financial management processes. You should be looking at everything from your billing system to resource allocation to the intricacies of cash flow to maximize the value of every dollar your company makes.

Using Cash Management to Your Advantage

For many companies, using cash management services is one of the most effective ways to:

• increase cash flow,
• free up employees' time to do tasks that others outside the company cannot handle, and
• get customers' payments into your accounts more quickly

For instance, you can use wholesale lockbox services to outsource the function of depositing accounts receivable checks. In a wholesale lockbox arrangement, your customers' payments are directed to a specific P.O. Box which is emptied by your financial institution daily. Their cash management staff will then sort and empty each envelope, sort the contents, copy the checks, and make your deposit. They then put check copies and other contents back with the envelope and send all of it to your accounts receivable staff. To further reduce mail times, some institutions such as Pinnacle use P.O. Boxes at the main Nashville Post Office near the airport. While your staff still has to post the payments once they receive the envelopes and contents, the money is already in the bank for your use. Additionally, your staff no longer has to sort payments, fill out deposit slips and drive to the bank to make the deposit.

With some of the newer technologies, which Pinnacle will have in place by early March, you can further eliminate work steps for your employees by using internet delivery of work associated with lockbox services. The same process is used, except all checks and accompanying documents are run through a high-speed scanner and the documentation is made available to your business through online banking. This process eliminates significant mail times, gets your money into your account as quickly as possible, allows you to post almost instantly and requires no time out of the office by your staff.

Up until a few of years ago, lockbox services were primarily used by companies with large-dollar checks coming in each month. Today, particularly with online capabilities, all types of companies (medical practices and small businesses, for example) are using lockbox services as an outsourcing tool.

There are a myriad of other tools and services that can help companies get the most of every dollar, from Zero Balance Account Services and Sweep Investment Services to electronic payment methods and automatic account reconciliation.

In considering any of these options, you should be looking for solutions that make your team more productive and/or ensure you are not leaving money on the table.

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