The Salvation Army Canada & Bermuda Finance Department BANKING SERVICES IN CANADA: Switch From CIBC to RBC UPDATE #6 Topic: Post Transition By now, most of you will have started banking with RBC. We would like to thank you all most sincerely for your cooperation and support during transition. We trust that the move has gone smoothly and that you are satisfied with the service you are receiving. This update contains important reminders as well as new information about service at RBC and what to expect post transition. We have organized the document into the following sections. Please take the time to review those that are applicable to you. Table of Contents: Topic Page Topic Page 1. Service at RBC 2 8. Issues with on-line bill payment 4 service 2. Funding your CIBC Account 2 9. Reimbursement for unused cheque 4 after moving to RBC stock 3. Funding your non CIBC 2 10. Banking information in the TFM 4 account after moving to RBC 4. Closing your old account 3 11. Bank reconciliation and G/L issues 5 5. Ordering deposit books and 3 12. Sending payment files to RBC 5 bags electronically 6. Depositing at RBC branches 4 13. Advising 3 rd Parties 6 (other than your home branch) 7. Using CIBC s night deposit bags 4 14. Service for RAC Clients 6 If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either of the following Finance Department staff: Patricia Dunbar at 416-422-6236 or at patricia_dunbar@can.salvationarmy.org OR Jinny Ghai at 416-422-6152 or at jinny_ghai@can.salvationarmy.org - Page 1 of 7 -
1. Service at RBC In your Welcome Kit, you should have received a sheet with service contacts at RBC. For your convenience, this information is repeated below. a) Day to day banking: Susanna Eugenio is your dedicated service representative. Susanna is available to answer your queries about transactions, statements and also to conduct investigations on your behalf (e.g. missing statements, deposits, explanations of charges, copies of items and so forth). She can be reached at: Telephone: 1-866-638-5211 or 416-974-0275 (if you are in the Toronto area) Fax: 1-888-955-9705 or 416-955-6213 (Toronto area) b) Technical support: For RBC Express related issues, please contact the RBC Help Desk at 1-800-362-8535 or 1-800-769-2535 (option 1). c) Escalation at RBC: If you are dissatisfied with customer service, and wish to escalate a query, please contact: Sylvia Hischer, Assistant Manager, Client Services Tel : 416-974-3655 Fax: 416-974-4974 (Primary contact for Non-Lending Deposit Services and administration issues not resolved by the support areas within Royal Bank of Canada.) Bill Clementi, Senior Account Manager, Tel: 416-974-4619 Fax: 416-974-4974 (Responsible for overall client relationship, including lending and non-lending requirements, liaison with other units within Royal Bank Financial Group.) d) Escalation to THQ Finance Department: Treasury staff is always available to assist with issues that are not resolved to your satisfaction or that are out of the ordinary. If you are not satisfied with the service you receive from RBC, please let Jinny Ghai know as soon as possible. It will be helpful if you can provide specifics - name of your contact(s) at RBC, time of the call(s), nature of your query and so forth. This will assist us and RBC in improving service. 2. Funding your CIBC Account after moving to RBC A number of you will have overdrafts in your old CIBC accounts. You do not have to worry about these as THQ has left funds in CIBC to cover any overdrafts. Starting in March 2008, THQ will transfer funds from your RBC account to clear these overdrafts on the first of the month. If you have a positive balance in your CIBC account, this will also be transferred by THQ to your new RBC account on the first of the month. 3. Funding your non CIBC account after moving to RBC If you do not bank with CIBC and are moving to RBC, you will have written a cheque (payable to your own ministry unit) on your old account and deposited it into your RBC account. You should also have left sufficient funds in your old account to cover - Page 2 of 7 -
any outstanding items (e.g. cheques yet to be cashed,) that will clear subsequent to February 1 st. Once all items have cleared, you may need to write another cheque to effectively zero out your old bank account, for deposit into your new RBC account. 4. Closing your old account If you previously banked with CIBC and have moved to RBC, you do not have to do anything. THQ will close your CIBC account after approximately 3 months (or earlier if all items have cleared). We will contact you directly before closing your CIBC account to ensure that it is timely to do so. If you do not bank with CIBC, you will have to close your old account. Please contact your old bank branch directly to do this, once you are certain that all outstanding items have cleared. 5. Ordering deposit books and bags THQ has been negotiating with several vendors of deposit books and bags with the goal of sourcing the lowest cost supplies for ministry units. We are recommending that you reorder deposit slips and bags from Safeguard (the Army s recommended printer for cheques). Safeguard offers fully customized deposit slips (in booklet form) at competitive prices and has agreed to reduce the price of its deposit bags to be competitive with RBC s supplier. Safeguard also offers the convenience of one stop shopping you can order cheques, deposit slips and bags at one time and save on shipping costs. To obtain a quote or to order supplies from Safeguard, you can contact the following: Attention: Ian Barrie Safeguard Marketing & Document Services Local Office GTA: (905) 693-1976 Toll-Free: (866) 313-0039 Fax Line: (866) 313-0935 Direct Voice Mail Box: (877) 461-5006 Ext.2492 E-mail: ibarrie@cogeco.ca Please remember that if you use a system or computer generated deposit form/slip (from Excel for example), you will still have to include your magnetically encoded deposit slip (available from Safeguard or RBC) with it, so that the bank can scan the account and transit information. All you have to do is enter the total amount of the deposit onto the customized slip and attach it to your own. - Page 3 of 7 -
6. Depositing at other RBC branches If you wish to make deposits at a branch other than your home branch, remember to contact Jinny Ghai for this service to be set up. If the service is not pre-arranged, you may not be able to deposit at another RBC branch. 7. Using CIBC s night deposit bags As we have communicated before, if you have an existing supply of CIBC deposit bags, RBC has agreed to accept these, until current supplies are exhausted. However, the CIBC name must be masked by either tape or a black marker. See item 5 above for information related to ordering new deposit bags. 8. Issue with on line bill payment service We have already advised affected ministries of a systems related issue with the Online Bill Payments Module in RBC Express. The function for "Adding/Modifying and Deleting" Corporate Creditors cannot be restricted at the individual user level. This means that each of the ministry units set up for Online Bill Payments can see the Corporate Creditors added by other ministries and will be able to modify and/or delete them. RBC is aware of this systems "glitch" and is making every effort to correct it. In the meantime, please remember to follow these instructions: a. Please ensure that you DO NOT DELETE or MODIFY any Corporate Creditors that have NOT been set up by you (they will have been set up by another unit, so please respect their need for this creditor). b. Please assign a "Nick Name to your creditors which will allow you to easily identify them from the list when making an Online Bill Payment. 9. Reimbursement for unused cheque stock In our first update, we advised ministries that they would be reimbursed for unused cheque inventory that could not be used after moving to RBC. We are in the process of calculating the amount to be reimbursed to each ministry based on the information you supplied in the Bank Transition Form. We expect to deposit a credit into your RBC account before the end of March. 10. Banking Information in the Territorial Finance Manual (TFM) Section 8 of the TFM currently contains forms and a detailed description of the processes to follow when operating a CIBC bank account (opening and closing accounts, changes in signing authority, access to on line banking, obtaining new services, etc.). We are updating the TFM to include the processes to follow for RBC accounts and will advise you under separate cover when this is complete. The TFM will be the primary source of banking related information. - Page 4 of 7 -
11. Bank reconciliations and GL issues For the 3 month transition period, starting with February, you will need to use both the new RBC bank statement and your old CIBC bank statement in order to complete your Bank Reconciliations. The CIBC account statements will be necessary for any items clearing subsequent to February 1 st. Note that, if you currently have one single GL Cash At Bank account, you do not need to create a new GL account for the RBC account. Simply process all transactions through the standard 111000 Cash At Bank account as you do now, and when reconciling, add the balances of the two bank statements (the old CIBC account statement and the new RBC statement). This combined total will be the figure that you will reconcile your GL Cash At Bank account to. If you feel more comfortable in creating a separate GL Cash At Bank account for the new RBC account, then this approach is fine too, but you will need to complete two separate bank reconciliations (one for each combination of bank account and GL Cash At Bank account) during the transition period. When completing your bank reconciliation, remember to have both the bank statement, and a Detailed Ledger Report for the GL Cash At Bank account handy (as the detailed ledger shows each transaction flowing through the GL). 12. Sending payment files electronically to RBC Shelby Web users should be aware that the next upgrade (tentatively scheduled for March 29/30), allows the use of Shelby s ACH feature. Using this method, Shelby produces a text file in a standard which is accepted by RBC. As such, no interface is required, as the ACH system is completely integrated into the accounting system. This feature will be available to Shelby Web users in the Contribution, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable modules. Instructions on using the Shelby ACH feature can be found in Shelby s on-line user manuals, and will also be published in the Territorial Finance Manual in the coming weeks. Please remember that the File Transfer module in RBC Express can only be used for preauthorized debit files (i.e. where you are debiting third parties accounts). Direct deposit files (through which you are depositing into a third party s account) must be submitted via the File Import function in the ACH Direct Payments & Deposits module. This allows for two electronic signatures on payments, as required by Army policy. Specific instructions on using RBC Express for electronic payments are outlined in the manual called RBC Express Manual - December 2007, which was included with your Welcome Kit. If you require a soft copy of this manual, please contact Jinny or Patricia. - Page 5 of 7 -
13. Advising third parties who debit or credit your account electronically If you have arrangements with third parties to debit or credit your old CIBC bank account electronically (for such things as pre-authorized lease payments, or to receive government funding, etc.), please remember to advise them that they are to debit/credit your new RBC bank account. Please note that if your account is being debited for interest on a mortgage loan from an outside entity such as CIBC or CMHC, THQ has advised these institutions of your account change. You do not have to do anything in this regard. 14. Service for RAC Clients a) Custom deposit slips: You should have received a supply of your deposit slips directly from RBC s printer by now with instructions on how to reorder. These deposit slips are specifically for RAC clients and any other ministry unit using the NDDS system. If you have not received these, please contact Jinny as soon as possible. The NDDS deposit slip contains a line at the bottom with two pieces of information a unique identifier number assigned to your ministry unit and information that allows the bank to identify the account into which your funds are to be deposited. If you are accustomed to producing your own deposit form/slip (from Excel for example), these will be accepted by RBC. You will, however, also have to include RBC s customized NDDS deposit slip with it. All you have to do is enter the total amount of the deposit onto this slip and attach it to your own form. Because of the unique information on the slip, you can deposit it any RBC branch that is convenient (unless you are using night deposit service which is set up at a specific branch). b) Night deposit service: If you have not already done so, please stop by your RBC branch to pick up keys for the night deposit box. c) Using CIBC s night deposit bags: If you have an existing supply of CIBC deposit bags, RBC has agreed to accept these, until current supplies are exhausted. However, the CIBC name must be masked by either tape or a black marker. See next item for ordering new deposit bags. d) Reordering deposit bags: Your Welcome Kit should have included a couple of RBC plastic deposit bags. However, it has been discovered that RBC has no way of identifying or distinguishing individual RAC clients who order deposit bags at their local branch or directly from RBC s printer. Because of this, we are specifically requesting that you reorder deposit bags from Safeguard (the Army s recommended printer for cheques). THQ has been able to negotiate a competitive price from - Page 6 of 7 -
Safeguard for deposit bags. Please refer to item 5 above for the Safeguard contact information. e) Cheque Cashing Facilities: This service should also be in place, if you have requested it. As with night deposit service, the designated individuals will have to go to the specified RBC branch to cash cheques. - Page 7 of 7 -