Banking RFP Questions & Answers

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1 Banking RFP s & s Does your current banking services provider or a 3rd party vendor provide payroll card services? If yes, how many employees are currently utilizing a pay card? Please provide details upon ACH file transmissions. Are they imported via the current provider s online banking portal, or submitted via direct transmission? ACH per item 57,091 Please clarify if these are ach transactions you originate or have been authorized by you to be processed by others. Please provide the amount of the ach files you submit, frequency and type (vendor, payroll 21,000 employees, cash concentration etc). Please provide two (2) to three (3) months current Account Analysis statements (summary and detail) showing aggregate monthly average deposit balances, applicable earnings credit rates and deposit services used with activity volumes and current unit pricing included. Can the District provide a copy of the most recent analysis statement(s) of the current banking services provider? Please provide 2 Months Analysis Statements for all accounts included in this proposal. We currently do not utilize pay card services, but plan to under the new contract. So, no employees are currently paid with a pay card. Our ACH transmissions are created in PeopleSoft and transmitted to our current bank as a direct transmission with PGP encryption. The School District creates the ACH files through our ERP system, PeopleSoft. We create 3 ACH files. The first two are from our payroll account: Direct Deposit of payroll and Child Support Payments transmitted to the State of Florida. The third file is from our disbursement account for select vendor payments. The only vendors paid via ACH are charter schools (pass through payments from the State of Florida) and 403 B payments (payments deducted from employee's payroll that are sent to their 403 B accounts). We have attached the most recent analysis statements for the General Banking and Safekeeping Accounts. Analysis statements for School Banking have not been included as as most schools do not receive the statements and currently pay no fees. The volumed provided on the Bank Fee Form within the RFP are average volumes based on analysis statements from July 2010 through June 2011 (our last fiscal year) for the General Banking Services and Safekeeping/Custody. Since we do not have analysis statements for the schools, the volumes for the School Accounts are based on the activity of about 40% of the schools during the month of January See response to question 4. See response to question 4. Please provide prior three months account analysis statements See response to question 4. Will the District provide a copy of your most recent Account Analysis statement for all District account groups? See response to question 4. Page 1 of 8

2 Banking RFP s & s Please provide details on the file format required for the data transmission. 822 formatted or a custom file format? What is the District s current invoiced payment cycle? Monthly, quarterly. 822 format The School District is currently using balances to offset all fees and we intend to do that over the course of this contract. Balances roll forward for one quarter. For planning purposes, we would like this to be an annual cycle. School Activity Accounts (176) Vault Services is referenced in the Cost of Deposits from 177 schools and the District Office are picked up by Dunbar. Services Form for this group of accounts. Please provide the following The deposits are delivered to the location preferred by each banking institution. information: Schools are not allowed to make deposits. All deposits must be picked up by our # of schools who are currently setup to have your Armored Courier armored courier service. Approximately $5 million of cash is deposited to our school (Dunbar) pick up deposits and delivery them to their processing center to accounts and $10.1 to the School Food Service and District accounts. be processed. # of schools who are currently setup to have your Armored Courier (Dunbar) pick up deposits and deliver them to a branch of the bank to be processed # of schools who go to the bank themselves to make the deposits. Also for each of the above please provide the estimated Cash Deposited per month. What is the name of the Armored Courier currently utilized and do you plan to continue with this provider? What is the pickup schedule for Armored Courier? Can the District provide a current statement of assets currently held in their custody account, an idea of trade volume on a monthly basis, and a list of all investment managers (if any). Please provide a copy of the most recent Custodial and Investment statements providing the dollar amount of the assets, and the underlying investments? Dunbar Armored Inc. Yes, the current contract expires March 31, 2013 with an additional one(1) year renewal remaining on the bid. 148 locations are picked up 2 times per week 14 locations are picked up 3 times per week 1 location is picked up 4 times per weeks 15 locations are picked up 5 times per week The most recent statement is attached. The District has a contract with PFM Asset Management to act as the District's Investment Advisor. Historical data is available by viewing our quarterly investment reports online at See response to question 14. Page 2 of 8

3 Banking RFP s & s Please provide a current holdings list and most recent custody 16 statements. Please provide a custodial transaction history as well if not indicated by 17 the statements. Please provide a statement from the custody account showing average number of monthly anticipated transactions 18 Will the District require investment accounting or valuations? Please provide a copy of the District s current investment policy statement if available. Should each payment be moved separately, or is one aggregate amount acceptable? Would the School District require that they be swept into a money market fund, or is it to be moved over to a DDA? The Proposer shall monitor and record the collection of funds in District accounts. Can the District please provide more details on this requirement? Create, maintain, and retain all records relating to securities held in custody in the District's accounts to meet the requirements and obligations under generally accepted accounting principles. Can the District please provide more details on this requirement? How would BB&T be expected to handle income received into the custody account (from interest, maturities, calls, etc): See response to question 14. See response to question 14. See response to question 14. We expect the monthly statement to include book and current market values. The District's Current Investment Policy is attached. Each transaction must be detailed individually in the custody accounts. Funds transferred to a DDA account can be aggregated. The District will keep funds in a DDA to offset fees. Other funds will be invested in a money market account. When monies are received, either due to interest payments, maturities, calls, sales, etc. the proposer shall monitor the transaction to verify the funds are received and recorded in the bank's system. The District needs to see the transactions in the statements on online reports. The District will need to see each specific transaction in monthly statements and online reports so we can properly record the transactions in our financial system and in our financial reports, which are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. All income related to the securities will be deposited to the custody account. The District will work with the provider to arrange standard instructions, i.e. deposit the funds into a money market. There should be an account that will hold balances needed to offset fees. Depending on market conditions, securities may be purchased to invest monies on a short term basis. In that case, we the securities mature, the District will transfer the funds to the District's General School Fund Account. Page 3 of 8

4 Banking RFP s & s If moving to a DDA, how often does the District require the funds be moved daily/weekly etc? Are you depositing monies in tamper evident bags? Yes. Deposit Vault 3,503 Please confirm if this is the month volume of deposits processed at the vault processing center. Is it the intent of the District to implement Remote Deposit Capture at the district offices or will there be multiple locations? Remote Deposit Items please provide the number of items deposited via this service Will your coin deposits be counted with a declared amount? Yes. Do you receive any foreign checks or foreign coins? If so, can you please provide volumes? Please confirm the average monthly balances of all accounts. Currently, the funds are transferred daily. However, that is necessary only when the funds will be transferred to the District's General School Fund Account. In most cases, the funds will be reinvested in securities or a money market fund. That is the average number of deposits processed by our current bank at their processing center for the District's main depository account and School Food Service Account. We intend to implement Remote Deposit Capture at the District office. We will also implement the service at our schools if the service is cost beneficial for us. The only account currently using Remote Deposit Capture is our 3rd party account for Worker's Compensation. They processed 50 items during the last fiscal year. The District is interested in implementing this service for other accounts as part of this contract. Our policy is to not accept foreign currency or foreign checks. Based on our review, no foreign items were processed through the District's General Bank accounts. 3 checks were processed at our schools. We would appreciate it if the bank would notify District staff when foreign currency is received so we can ensure it does not recur. The balance in the General Banking Accounts will depend on the amount required to offset fees. During the last fiscal year, our average balance with our current bank was $249 million. The average balance In the School Bank accounts over the last fiscal year was $14 million. Page 4 of 8

5 Banking RFP s & s What is the anticipated average balance available for overnight investment and/or compensating balance? If the balance structure is seasonal, please provide details. Can you also provide a summary of the investment portfolio to include security description, balance and maturities? Please provide details on the account structure and access. 1) Does the District provide the 3rd party online access via the District s online profile? 2) Please describe the funding process for receivables deposited into the account. 3) How are disbursements from the account performed..check, ACH, wire transfer? Are internal accounts managed on a centralized or de centralized basis? Are all the 176 accounts in a Public Funds Collateralized Account and if so are they required to be in this type of account? Are bank statements for the School Activity Accounts mailed to the individual schools or to one centralized address (The District)? Please confirm what the average monthly balance will be for 176 School Accounts. Would the School District consider including the check deposits from the 176 accounts into the Vault Services you are currently utilizing for the cash deposits from each school as opposed to Remote Deposit? Please provide prior three months merchant services statements We will adjust the balance in the account based on the funds needed for compensating balances. The total cash managed by the District currently ranges from $1.1 billion to $400 million depending on the time of the year. Our cash is cyclical; a chart is attached to summarizes our cash from FY 2007 through the projected end of FY A statement from our current safekeeping provider is attached. 1) The company will have access through our profile. 2) The District maintains a balance in the account and transfers funds to the account as needed via wire transfer 3) Disbursements are handled by check Each account is currently managed by the school in a de centralized fashion. However, with this contract, the billing will be centralized to the District Office. Additionally, it is our intent that the District will become the first point of contact for issues with the School Bank Accounts. The accounts may be centralized during the term of this contract. Yes and yes. Florida Statute requires that all our monies, including those held in school activity accounts, be held in a qualified public depository account. Bank statement are mailed to each individual school. Analysis statements should grouped and sent to the District office in an electronic format. The average monthly balance in the School Accounts is $14 million. We are currently sending check and cash together to the cash vault for processing. We are interested in using remote deposit capture only if it makes financial sense. The most recent statement is attached. Page 5 of 8

6 Banking RFP s & s During the Pre Bid Conference a request was made for the Merchant Statements with the understanding that it is not part of the bid now however if the result of a proposal would be favorable to the School District you may consider issuing a separate RFP for this service. Please provide the Merchant Statements from your provider. Current Day Transactions please provide the volume as it was not included. Does the District intend on making either direct deposit of payroll or payment via pay card mandatory for all employees, both current as well as future? The most recent statement is attached. The average number of current day transactions each month was 347 during the last fiscal year. Yes, the District intends to pay all employees electronically but some employees are currently paid via check. Travel reimbursement is currently paid as a check but will also be converted to an electronic payment in the near future. Until that time, we expect our bank to cash employee checks drawn on the bank at no charge. How many of your employees are currently on Direct Deposit? 23,995 people were paid via direct deposit this month How many receive an actual check (and would it be converted to a Payroll Card? Of the 2,000 checks issued monthly, does this number include off cycle checks or are they all related to non direct deposit employees? Please provide details upon transmissions. Are they imported via the current provider s online banking portal, or submitted via direct transmission? Paid Item Inquiry 19 please describe this service. 1,281 people were paid via check this month. It is the District's intent to pay these employees via direct deposit. Those employees that cannot be converted to direct deposit will be paid via a pay card. The figure includes off cycle checks. We plan to work to eliminate all paper checks for employees over the next few months. However, the schedule will depend on the pay card program selected. The District downloads the files from the bank's portal or transmission center. If an employee or vendor indicates they have not received a check or have lost a check, we look online to see if the check has been cashed in the period since our last statement. If the check has not been cashed, a stop payment is issued. If the check has been cashed, we use the image of the paid check to determine if it was cashed fraudulently. Page 6 of 8

7 Banking RFP s & s Does the District currently utilize Payee Positive Pay? Does your current bank provide your account reconciliation via a Direct Transmission? Does your Positive Pay upload match your disbursement schedule? Please clarify if you have all of the accounts on one CD Rom or if a separate CD Rom is required for each account. Please provide the total number of locations for Deposit Reconciliation Service. What is the current accounting system used to import daily transactions? Does the platform accept BAI 2, text and CSV file formats? Regarding the preparation of the RFP and the format you require from us do you need us to include responses to 12.2 through 16.2 only? Or should we also include responses to the Scope of Services 10.0 through 10.46? With the limitation of 100MB per vendor response, and 30MB per document through DemandStar, is it acceptable to submit only a link to the most recent annual reports? Can the District provide a Word copy of the RFP? No, although Payee Information is included in the file transmitted to our current bank. The District may choose to take advantage of Payee Positive Pay if the implementation is cost beneficial. Yes We generally provide the positive pay file one or two days before checks are released. Information for payroll is transmitted on Wednesday, right after the ACH file is transmitted for a Friday payroll. The file for vendor payment is transmitted one day before the checks are mailed. Off cycle payroll checks are keyed into the online bank system. If completed prior to 11am, the check can be cashed after 2pm. We try to limit this activity and hope to use direct deposit or paycards to handle this in the future. All accounts can be on a single cd, but we need multiple copies of the cd each month. There are currently 205 locations identified for the Deposit Reconciliation Service on our School Food Service Account. The District uses PeopleSoft for Finance and HR. Currently, we key the daily transactions into excel and then import them to PeopleSoft. BAI files can only be used to import bank statements. Text files and CSV files could be used if we modify our current business practice. The District expects proposers to provide all services described within the Scope of Services. If a proposer is not able to provide any service described in section 10, that should be noted within the response. Similarly, if a proposer is able to provide additional services not detailed within the section, that should also be noted within the response. No. Please upload that information with your documents or as a separate file if needed. No, the document is only available in the pdf format on DemandStar. Page 7 of 8

8 Banking RFP s & s Is the School District of Palm Beach County willing to negotiate the terms/contents of its Request for Proposal? Please provide the estimated dollar amount and a breakdown of the denominations for the change orders you will need to request? We will negotiate the contracts. However, it should be noted that the basic services described in the scope of services must be provided. There are two change orders each year, both at the beginning of the school year for the School Food Service Account. One is called the "Change Fund Request" and the second is called "Petty Cash Fund Request". The Petty Cash Request is $100 per school. The Change Fund Request amount ranges from $50 to $1500 depending on the size of the program. The detailed information is attached. What is the average amount of the annual change order request? The Petty Cash Request totally $16,900 and the Change Fund Request totaled $34,400 for August Can you please clarify what you require for this question? (Section 13.8, page 15) What operating system does the District use for their PC network? Are there any plans to upgrade the IT systems in the short term? Please provide the name of the ERP/Treasury Management Systems and Accounting Software currently utilized. This question is referencing audits performed on the bank. If the bank receives recommendations from their auditor, who monitors if the appropriate action was taken? Describe the process. The District has a routine replacement schedule for all computers. Computers at the District offices and in School offices are running on Windows XP and Windows Server We also use Microsoft Office New computers purchased are running Windows 7 and all computers will be upgraded or replaced in the next couple of years. The District uses PeopleSoft for Finance and HR. This system was recently upgraded from version 8.9 to 9.1, which is the latest version available. The Treasury module was not implemented. We use Sympro to track investments and debt. Our schools use School Cash, provided by KEV, as their accounting software. School Food Services use WebSmart to track school food service payments. Page 8 of 8