Lab@Home is a health services company in the medical testing industry. They provide easy and convenient medical laboratory testing from the comfort of your home without needing to head out to clinics or hospitals.
“We first started as a Facebook page wanting to connect people who needed to get their medical tests done in laboratories, at the comfort of their own homes. The take-up rate was great, and that's when the founder made it a business."
Lab@Home started in the middle of a pandemic. With waves of the Covid-19 virus wreaking chaos across the globe, Lab@Home saw the need to provide medical tests to individuals in a safe space — their homes. When the founder saw the opportunity to turn it from a pet project to a full-on business, they decided to hire Toshi Zialcita as operations manager to establish the business structure and polish up operational standards.
As an experienced operator, setting up the financial system was at the top of Toshi's to-do list.
Getting the Finance Side in Check
Setting up financial operations turned out to be one of the biggest headaches Toshi faced. Here were some problems that Lab@Home had to overcome:
- Impractical banking registrations. Traditional corporate accounts often entail a lengthy approval process. But it was essential to have a standalone account for the business, since using personal accounts would muddle the monetary records.
- Platforms that don't fit. Toshi considered using Paypal for receiving payments. But it didn't pan out too well — not many people use Paypal locally. It ended up reflecting badly on their customers for not being user-centric.
- Disbursement issues. Lab@home has multiple touch points with partners and staffing, and Toshi foresaw that there would be issues with disbursing salaries and payments. The fees from Payroll distribution services of HR agencies were too hefty at 30-50%, especially for a starting business.
Finding a solution through NextPay
“[With NextPay], everything was simple and effortless. I didn’t have to queue or go through long verification processes. Everything is online, and it was really smooth.”
While Toshi was in the middle of finding a solution to their issues, he found NextPay. Compared to setting up an account with banks, NextPay’s setup and onboarding surprised Toshi. On top of having an easy sign-up process, what caught his attention was the convenience of doing batch transfers to any major bank and e-wallet in the Philippines.
Toshi shared that they had to deal with five different banks among their employees, which were a hassle since they had to transfer to each individual. Plus, those transactions came with high fees. NextPay solved that problem for him.
After getting on a quick chat with NextPay co-founder Aldrich Tan, he gave it a shot.
Payment in a breeze
Having been in organizations with legacy processes, Toshi knows exactly how it’s like to do payroll. He shared that completing payroll would usually take his team 2 - 3 days using traditional banking. It was stressful for his staff since there was often more room for error and delays.
Toshi finds it a totally different experience disbursing funds with NextPay. Instead of hiring a payment assistant to coordinate between several parties, he now does it himself with just a few clicks. "NextPay took a lot of stress out of paying my employees. Instead of wasting my time playing around with transfer limits and inter-banking transfer complications, I can now schedule payroll well a week in advance. It’s more or less a ‘set-and-forget’ part of the operations.” he explained.
As for paying partnering labs, he liked that he could key in all his partner’s payment information at once and save their details in his account. The next time he has to pay them, it’s a simple two-step process of selecting them and keying in the payment amount. Toshi said that it eliminated a lot of repetitive manual work.
Invoices that speed up payment
When it comes to Lab@Home’s customer-facing operations, they used to be bogged down with legacy processes. Things like calling up customers to check for payment take up a bulk of their time. Good growth in a company comes with inevitable teething troubles. And in this case, it’s monitoring hundreds of invoices generated in a brief span of 2 months.
After incorporating digital invoices through NextPay into their workflow, Toshi experienced an increase in productivity with automation. Issuing invoices is now just a matter of a few clicks instead of manual data entry.
He observed that invoices get paid much faster as well.“I like the invoice feature from NextPay because it’s attached with a payment link. This makes it much easier for our customers to pay. Having the ability to pay straight from the invoice increases the speed and percentage of our completed transaction, which improves our cash flow,” he shared.
NextPay's dashboard also helped Toshi to know the status of invoices — whether they've been unpaid for a certain amount of time or if they're overdue. Customers are also automatically sent reminders. Nowadays, Toshi logs into NextPay every day to monitor the financial health of the business. The increased transparency helped him in managing cash flow and being more efficient.
Increasing positive interactions with customers
The automated SMS feature helped boost their branding and customer-centric reputation. From disbursement to digital invoicing, everyone gets an SMS whenever a payment is processed. Toshi received feedback from suppliers, employees, and customers and they said that loved getting an instant SMS notification.
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He also shared that the SMS feature was especially helpful for their customers who have to file for refunds. "To them, knowing that they have been refunded through an SMS without having to double-check their bank accounts is an exceptional experience. The SMS feature is, without a doubt, the MVP here.”
Enjoying the Results
Save 2-3 days each month
What used to take days in scheduling payroll can now be completed in 15-20 minutes. “I like that I can even preschedule salary payment. When I have pockets of time, I log in to NextPay and schedule our employee salary disbursement. Sometimes I do it the week before it’s due. I find this makes me less stressed and gives peace of mind that our employees will always be paid on time.”
Save money; capital reinvested in the business
With payment collection and disbursement being more efficient, Toshi can now do away with hiring someone dedicated to handling payment issues. He estimates the savings to be around 30% of the total expenses he would otherwise have to spend each month. Aside from saving from a headcount, they also saved on high transaction fees from banks and HR agencies.
Less stress, more strategic time
The ease in handling payment-related matters not only helped take the pressure off from running the business but also allowed for better use of time. Toshi shared that they now don't have to worry about certain processes such as the time-consuming employee disbursements, since they are now automated via NextPay. Lab@Home has more time now to concentrate on strategic meetings to scale the business.
NextPay provided convenience and relief
All in all, Toshi will be the first to agree that NextPay eliminated several operational inefficiencies and helped recover valuable time, thus allowing them to save money and level up their business.
When asked to summarize the value NextPay provides, Toshi describes it as: “Convenience and relief.” He continues:
“NextPay frees up time for me to focus on what matters instead of busy operational work. I think I can borrow the words from our customers. Convenience because NextPay helped us simplify many things operationally. And with the transparency it provides, we have our fingers on the pulse of the business all the time. That gives us an enormous relief from the many uncertainties of running a business.”
Will Toshi recommend any businesses to get into NextPay? Definitely.
“I have already recommended it to friends and family. One of them has talked to their CEO about it. So we’re excited about what’s coming next!”
