Can I Sign Georgia Banking Word

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all right it's five after the hour we will wait no more you snooze you lose everybody thank you for being here my name is Jeremy Duncan I'm one of the founders of right way and it's a it's a privilege to work with each and every one of you we thank you for your trust and the opportunity to to work work hard for you guys and we will continue to do so the purpose of this webinar is to obviously explain to you you know why you're here explain to you the Republic Bank program and to do that for us we have the one the only known by many and loved by all Carter Dempsey is with us Carter you there yeah yeah beer thank you I don't know it wondered here yeah could you hear the dole roar in the background yeah done by one oh yeah it was wonderful wonderful I love by all I don't know but but I thank you for the kind words should we change it to tolerated by many yeah that that much better yeah okay hey whatever you're comfortable with I like people like me a little bit anyway so Carter is he's a wealth of knowledge awesome dude works incredibly hard it's been in the industry for a long time literally knows everyone and probably everything about them he's an encyclopedia of the tax industry we probably could ask you just to present on the tax industry as a whole but I think just to you know kind of scope the conversation will focus on Republic thanks program and I'm gonna switch it over to you got something to show us yeah it's up on the screen all right I'm gonna switch you to be the presenter we should get a pop-up here in a second I tried to make a an intro graphic that was my attempt that I don't know if I have a future in that field but see you get a pop up on your side yeah I'm actually screen here I'm going to pull out the cord to go click on that minor oh I see you now I see you there all right all right cool with that being said let me just kind of give a another little preface we're on Lex like two of your thing with with that being said we do have a section for questions I will be monitoring those questions if it's relevant to the section that Carter is speaking about we will then address it if it's not we will then hold that off and I'll try to get to it I will be messaging you back and forth maybe you submit some questions and kind of take it that way so Carter if I jump in on you somebody asked a great question and it should should be working there I got a message here a second ago that said no sound if anybody else is having any audio problems please let me know it could be just an individual that didn't call in to the number or didn't click the computer button or something I'll have somebody in the office reach out to them to figure that out anybody else having I guess you wouldn't hear me so I guess I can send out a message to everybody here in a minute Carter I can see your secondary display your slide I think you want to your sound just went out can't hear you anymore Duncan alright I can barely hear you can I get started please okay so thank you everybody for joining us today we appreciate you up to do business with you and we know in a season where there's been a lot of changes there's a lot of questions so hopefully we can get all those addressed I want to give you some more information about our program as you know there have been some changes the advances have gone up to 6,000 we'll get there so as I said we're a partner excited be a partner of rightwe software and happy to meet with all of you today so let's get started the refund transfer program the wonderful refund transfer program the right way has the fee associated with the fed is thirty nine ninety five and the subsequent funding fee is ten as you know some time ago you change to whatever funds first the federal fee is assessed and then each subsequent funding or the subsequent funding is ten dollars so as the case may be in some states the state will fund first the Fed fee applies then the $10.00 supplies to the Fed when it comes in obviously this year there have been some changes associated with the NetSpend card they've doubled the incentive that's paid out in real time which is ten dollars just the net spent and they also are making money available from the receipt of the ACH file as opposed to the effective date so for instance last year when the when path act began funding we received the ACH file on the 16th with an effective date of the 22nd this next season net spend is actually going to make that money available as the case where last year would be the sixteenth versus the 22nd we don't know the specific e-filing date this year definitively but basically if you use a card the money will abate be available on the card much sooner than it was in the previous year and a beautiful thing the pricing option is locked for right way as well which makes it easier for you to prepare to complete your enrollment occur are you you've seen in the industry can you hear me better now I hear you perfect wonderful life turned off my computer audio and went just called in that it seems like the card take rate for one reason or another is actually going up is that seems you need a trend like each year it's just I don't know if it's just becoming a more accepted method but it seems like you guys the banking groups as a whole have really refined the card side of things where it used to kind of be for lack of a better term a train wreck like a cards were a constant pain point that it's like it's dialed in now is that well we're late the average car election rate used to be somewhere between one and two percent that has doubled it's now closer to 4% having said that it's not just cards direct deposits greatly equipped eclipse checks this past year as well but I heard that most prepares some of the fraud issues have been dealt with to where you get an envelope or you're in the number associated with the envelope as opposed to the card number people are storing those cards better to ensure that they're not taken you know from the time of funding so cards only constitute about 4% of disbursement method type but it has grown from half now some euros love their cards and other areas do less than ten so there are some advantages to it but most reason people avoided it still because it is a real fraud attractor so an arrow is also like when the taxpayer leaves their office that they don't have to come back and the thing with the card is is it's not like the direct posit once you're gone you're gone the I just used to talk a lot of trash on cards and so I'm trying to back that up now that they're actually working well and not causing it's more headaches than their work so yeah and I think the card companies are trying to move the needle with election rate I just actually keep in mind that across the entire industry the maximum election is still 4% so does our constant arts percentage but it has grown from dr. school so with respect to the easy advance this next year but a lot of questions a lot of changes I mean I think this is the third iteration the preparers have heard about the advance this year in terms of the advance amount Republic did meet the street in terms of going up in the advance amount we are doing the full 6,000 now a couple interesting things about our advance and the pre Acton I'll get into those in a minute but this is just to kind of give you a snapshot of Republic sees the advance one of the things that we did was as we drop the e ROC pretty substantially last year many preparers said hey we love your advance but the fee is a little bit of a hard pill to swallow so we're public does well is listening to its client so we were 68 last year we drop that arrow fee to 45 regardless of the tier but there is a fee that's been incorporated to the taxpayer now Republic is a state chartered bank so we are subject to Kentucky laws as to the finance charge that we have which actually benefits the taxpayer because all of ours are below 36% but our top amount is actually twenty four point three three percent calculated on 26 days so as you see forty five dollars regardless of the advance amount is charged to you to prepare and then to the taxpayer there's additional fee as you can see the APR is listed on the right hand side this will also be disclosed in the software the total fee between the taxpayer and preparer is listed in the total fee column and these are the advanced amounts that are available to tax payer now we have a plus and a basic you do select the advanced program that you want upon enrollment so if you choose the plus you have access to all those amounts you choose the basic it is only $1,500 but the fee is $30 versus the 40 last year and the taxpayer cost oh sorry that that's a little skewed but the tax payer cost is $30 the total fee being $60 there are the net refund amount associated with taxpayers we calculated average refund to increase across all refund ranges to be about four hundred and ninety dollars next year interestingly enough the taxpayers that were affected most pertaining to their refund were single where if their refund was are a thousand or less in the upcoming season their refunds could be reduced or eliminated but above that population and different filing statuses the average refund increased by about four hundred and ninety dollars so the advance our regular advance begins during hub testing as I said the IRS hasn't announced a specific date what we've heard preliminary is that January 22nd is the first day of hub testing the first day of regular FL is January 28th not the 21st for hub because obviously that's Martin Luther King we do make our advance available to first year ero give me those two give me those dates again Carter what were those two days because that that sounds later than what I done so it has not been confirmed by the iron rod well it has not been confirmed by the IRS yet but an initial call that we had the IRS estimated based on the form set final form set not being released pacifically as it relates to 88 67 being in the middle of December that they anticipated hub testing not to start till January 22nd as I said not the 21st because that's Martin Luther King and the first ever again or you I'll be honoring for you now that is not confirmed when the IRS releases those specific dates obviously those dates with respect the advance we start our regular advance and hub testing so there's a right now sounds like yeah they're normally wrong about everything else that they release but it's usually that they're even further behind schedule which is my concern well we'll find out together of course of course this call is being recorded for your convenience so the IRS and I can review that at a later date I'll edit I got all the edit powers I'll take that out so as I said one of the important differentiators of Republic's advances because we do make our regular advance available to first-time heroes we also do not have a mini and in turn do not have a minimum funding percentage associated with our regular advance if you're new to filing you can have access to our advance the pre act is a different story which we'll get to next but you can becoming the industry for the first time they had danced because Republic tries to design products with the euros and taxpayers in mind we know just because you're starting it doesn't mean that you don't need to be competitive and although you may not be able to get the pre-act your first year you do need to have the advance to remain competitive in the marketplace it is available in all 50 states it is available for all disbursement types checks direct deposit debit card Walmart direct cash and we're committed to providing the best advance to the taxpayer so our goal is to ensure that the taxpayer walks out with the highest advance amount from the office based on the fact that really not only you competing with mom-and-pop next door but you're competing with Jackson Hewitt Liberty H&R Block you need to be competitive now one little nuance to our program this year is because we added a tax payer finance charge the tax payer has the ability to choose the amount from what they're eligible for and down so for instance taxpayer sits in front of you there are refunds above eight thousand dollars net refund they're eligible for six thousand you say okay the fee to you is one hundred and four dollars and they say I don't want to pay that you could say well I get you as little as five hundred four 1274 now you and I both know the tax payer wants to complain so they want the highest advance amount they can get they're looking to see you have a solution for 99.9 percent of them when you provide a solution they're likely to choose the highest amount but to have that answer the tax payer you are actually able to select any amount they're eligible for and below okay so the other thing that's kind of republics claim to fame is we had the highest average amount in the industry and that's including the national brands last year $1,700 this next season we expect that to increase to above $2,500 now last year we had about a 400 ollar increase in our average advance amount this year we're looking at approximately $800 a lot of that is due to the advanced amount increasing so greatly now I noticed that I've been getting lost a lot of questions about the three to the $6,000 hop well if you think about the average taxpayers refund and the average advance amount because we're not calculating on the basis of well if your score is 92 94 or 96 you know if we can't do this then we're coming at 25% of refund no cost well that advance amount is limited to only $2,000 so even though that difference between the six thousand three thousand you don't see the four and five that is still higher than the 25% that say meta or TPG is doing to not exceed two thousand it means you will be providing a higher advance to your taxpayer with Republic Bank ask you to keep that in mind any questions here that the thing that I think is unique about your guyses program is that the dollar amounts selected and the fee quoted would be if approved would actually be the dollar amount charged as opposed to there possibly being a variance based on the finance charge depending on funding so very good point so what the book does not do is play follow the bouncing ball the amount of the finance charge is fixed on the basis of the twenty six days so for instance if the taxpayer funds well after the twenty six days we don't say like say for the six thousand where it's only twenty four point three three percent if they're approved for the six thousand and then they fund it in 40 days we're not saying well those extra days will allow us to charge an additional finance charge to get up to the 36 percent no it remains at the hundred and four dollars at the twenty four point three three percent and respectively with the thirty five point seven seven as well the if approved for that advance amount then the feed to the taxpayer remains the same which creates a better opportunity for the preparer or two because they don't have to explain well your refund didn't fund in the anticipated days that they the average refund funds that you want to remove the obstacles for taxpayers to complain because that creates an undue circumstance for you to have to explain things that really aren't your bag you know as a preparer you know well that's the bank that's not a good explanation to taxpayers it's the reason why they look elsewhere in the following year any other questions on that before we get to the meat on the bone everybody wants to hear about the pre-act I don't have any questions in the hopper oh there we go what does the taxpayer advance approval ray how many clients out of a hundred can we expect to get approved that is a challenging question I think you talk about your averages but that's a good one last year last year all approval rating this is a two-parter because a lot of people have been asking the question about pay stub filing which you know do you have ww2 the actual official answer is is when you file the return when you do the return for an advance it's locked the return has to be ready to file you don't get an opportunity to go back and change and some of those returns that we were the only ones that did the pre act in the industry last year in the independent and some f those initial returns were actually scheduled seeds well we had a seventy one and a half percent approval rating on schedule C's and we were just north of 70% on our advanced pre act as well because we have the same tax payer underwriting criteria for the pre act to the post act advance the big difference between our disclosed approval rating was the fact that we don't have pre declines the other programs put things in place that say if this taxpayer does not meet this criteria then they cannot apply for the loan and the bank technically doesn't have to count that as a decline because the taxpayer is not actually able to apply we allow the taxpayer to apply to decision on the back end to accommodate for those circumstances now yes there's a couple deal killers but they're not along the lines of what the other banks are applying for instance you can't have a bank product associated with an 8888 you can't be splitting out the refund and then hope that they're going to get an advance on the basis of splitting their refund but those are the only types of things so our approval rating is a true representation of an approval rating based on us not saying well we had an 80% approval rating but that's because there were many taxpayers that we just didn't allow to apply for the loan on the basis of what was within the return all right so when you indicative of the previous year we were north of 70% as a true approval rating now previous year taxpayers were turning to you that's an average because you have a population where that you have a taxpayer history and you have a population where the taxpayer came to you for the very first time that's an average between the two you know a tax preparer that has had a tax payer come to them for three or four years and they didn't grow any clients in the upcoming years some of those zeros experienced in 93 94 percent approval rating because those tax that tax payer population is stable it's the same taxpayers but there's a lot of fluctuation in the industry where you may get 25 to 30% new tax payers and based on that aggregate the average the approval rating is north of 70% so what you were saying Carter just said many clarifies that the you guys have a true figure in terms of your actual average your percentage of approvals whereas other banks will exclude from their calculation everything that is an auto decline because of what exists on the tax return they will just basically not factor that in they'll only factor in the calculation for return that met all of their criteria and then what they approved on those right it's basically a marketing game they do that for that gadget of mark so when we're at the trade shows they could say I had an 80% approval rating yeah but how many tax payers did you not allow to apply based on the return criteria it's not a true representation gotcha yep you make statistics a you can make statistics say whatever you want depending on how you interpret the data that's understood so 71% was your guys's average reading the question can we use pay stubs is a negative I mean yes for estimates the IRS you ain't can't file tax returns using a pay stub the w-2 seemed to be out there for a lot of people as far as if they're using a ADP or paycheck sort of service the taxpayer should have the ability to go in and get them online in advance of being released by paper I highly recommend you know talking to your clients about that so they can get in and get it get access to them is there going to be yeah what were proposed to get funds from those who are being held for debt okay so let me answer that as a two-part response so one I strongly encourage every preparer to use the system that allows you to access w-2s electronically it's much like when you're getting a direct deposit for a taxpayer versus them getting mailed to check the time it takes to mail the check because of that process takes a long time it's the same way with the issuance of w-2s part of the reason why people that receive the w-2 is electronically through some service like a ADP or paychecks there's actually about seven is because it's made available much sooner than it would take for them to print those and mail those off because they do them all at once whereas they hang them out electronically as they become available so that January 2nd date many more preparers that are accessing those electronically will be able to file for advances because of the availability of that information electronically not only is it you moving into the current decade its use servicing the taxpayer better and more efficiently so if you're not aware of that become aware of it because it will help you beat your competition because so many people are still very behind on that today they just don't realize they can get that information in that manner now the other thing what was the second part of that Jeremy at the weekend I think we could pump that second question because it has to do with I think we can grab that other question a little bit later I'll jump onto the meetin's jump on to the meat and potatoes so actually question was what do you recommend for snagging those w-2s online well so what you have to do is it's very specific to where the employee was employed okay right so like for instance if you're next to a Walmart or a target all of those employees w-2s are made available ektron eclis some of the smaller businesses limit you in your opportunities because they still haven't evolved to the point of making that information available through those services the larger the business of who you're getting your pool of tax payers from the more established the more likely it is you can access that electronically so it's really based on the employer not the service in particular so that makes sense yeah I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all or back door sort of w2 skeleton key I think it's you have to access it from whomever they're receiving their payroll services through so you need to be a prick get into ADP your paychecks or any of the other processors okay now the meat on the bone because I want to tell you right now for Republic being the only program that offered the pre active the independence base last year we actually had four para si material growth because for the first time in a long time they were competing with the big box chains okay you're actually offering an advance as early as a big box change and right now it appears that your advanced amount is very close to what they're offering which makes you very competitive okay so a little bit about the pre act the pre act is basically just as the name implies it's pre acknowledgment you're going to have the return ready to file is going to go to the software company which then in turn sends it to the bank with the bank application a decision is made on the loan in minutes we had checks going to the street in ten minutes last year on January fourth for $2,500 literally that fast before taxpayers left the office because it's automated and what will happen is is as you have those returns available the software company will send them to the US keep them in queue and stockpile them to send them the IRS when they open and we essentially start decisioning those loans right then and there and issuing the disbursements through you and you will have some tax payers that will walk out of the office with their cheque from the time they sat down to do the return with you which is great because that's the best marketing you can have it starts on January 2nd this year as opposed to January 4th it is available for both our plus and ei this year we're only charging a premium of $25 well last year we were ten but it was 68 so it's now forty five and twenty five so we're seventy which means we're the lowest price in the marketplace for the pre-act versus the 79 others are charging because we have a year under our belts and learning how to do this better it is up to six thousand dollars that's available for the pre-act it is available for all disbursement types we are committed to providing the best advanced to the tap for the taxpayer which means we're trying to ensure they get the most money we did have the is average amount in the industry by approximately $500 last year at $1700 this next year we intend that to be over 2500 which is an $800 increase and as I said before with the pre-act the taxpayer is ale eligible to choose the amount they're eligible for and down because of that circumstance where they may say well I don't want to pay that fee so they can choose any of the amounts below that for the advance and as I said before last year checks were on the street within 10 minutes of the receipt of the tax return and bank application because that process is automated and keep in mind if that means you're doing a return at 2 o'clock in the morning because this is automated it's not a person it's a system so you could be issued a check at that period as well now with the pre act there is something a little different than the regular advance the regular advance I told you could be a first year oh no Mendon minimum funding criteria the pre-atkins higher risk unfortunately that's the case that's where the premium and cost comes into play and it also means that republic did have to zip up a little bit you must have had an 85 percent funding or greater from the previous season to be eligible for the pre act now if you were with right way last year and you enroll with Republic that information on your funding should be passed through should it's not should it not have been you're just basically providing the total amount of Bank products submitted based on what was funded to indicate that it was 85 percent or greater in order to have the pre eligibility now this completely sets Republic apart from the rest of the marketplace this is very big and we feel like it's an edge we have on the other programs because they didn't have this experience last year to know our pre AK is eligible through hub testings of the first day of regular efile we are going to provide you the opportunity to opt out and hub testing if you want but I strongly encourage you to reconsider that because hub testing let's just say it is on the basis from the 28th and the first day of regular efile being or 22nd the first day regularly found being on the 28th Martin Luther King is on the 21st last year the IRS provided acknowledgments from hub testing from 9:00 to 5:00 Eastern Standard Time nice and weekends and the holiday they weren't doing so so if in the instance you shut down the pre-act during hub testing you're only getting advances at that time the 25 goes away yes but you're only getting advances once the acknowledgement is received and sent by the transmitter to the bank which definitely delays the process for the taxpayers getting the advances because from January 2nd it's been going so fast you're going to feel like oh this is fantastic and then all of a sudden when it goes to a post act world that process slows down and it puts gaps in the nights and weekends and Martin Luther King so Republic is the only bank committed to offering the pre act through hub testing which means that process is still just as fast and I ask you to consider not turning that off on the basis of that will matter to the taxpayer one will set you apart from those around you because the other banks are turning that off during hub testing you really want to set yourselves apart from your competitors and we have the same taxpayer underwriting criteria for our pre x2 our post act so it's not some situation where well if they were declined for the pre X they could have been approved for the post X no it's the same taxpayer underwriting criteria which means that circumstance for them to be eligible is just as high with the pre act as it is to the post act which is important to you because some of the other banks programs it's not the same they could have been they maybe disc line for the pre acts but approved for the post act which doesn't really bode well for you because that taxpayer can get up walk out those someplace else and file with them and what happens you put your work in and you didn't get paid for that work any question I think that that's a significant point as far as your continuation of the pre act all the way through hub testing the hub testing period can generally last anywhere between you know four to eight days depending on how things go and at the beginning when they test I know how it is people start getting acknowledgment they get excited and then middle of the day those acknowledgments from the IRS cut off and they're like what what happened well the same thing is going to be I think the xpect or us from support hey why isn't my return accepted well do you weren't wearing hub testing it's not tax season quite yet so now like nineteen emails a couple texts trying to explain that but anyway this doesn't make it and your customer is going to be the same mindset up why did they get money and now I'm not getting money and their return may not get accepted for just depends on what the IRS wants to do they can accept you know basically we can drain the entire database of returns that are ready to go or they can say hey send me five today send me ten that made two hundred and if you're not in that batch then you know whereas if you're republic's process you're going to keep getting mom so that is a pretty significant differentiator and actually keep in mind 9:00 to 5:00 is Eastern Standard Time so if you're in California that's 2 p.m. which means you're not printing checks for your taxpayers from you know to through the night you know and on a Friday that puts you to the following Monday that's a big gap taxpayers don't recognize that that's something where the IRS isn't processing acknowledgments they just know that someone got their check yesterday in ten minutes why can't they they don't understand that so all right reowww any other questions on that all right I think we've explained that one good that thoroughly I don't see any chats coming through if you do have any questions please send them through the questions box all right so our receivable assistance we recognize that you as an office have a need in season especially with the path act to help with your tax prep fees the pass Act specifically states that no taxpayers refund that involves EIC or additional child tax credit can be released before February 15 so what's that mean well if that's 80 to 85 percent of your business other than who pays upfront you know less than 15% of your taxpayers are funding yet you still have an office staff and costs associated with running the business so we're public does is is we do up to 50% of your tax prep fees upon acknowledgement for all the returns acknowledge that day we send out 50% of the tax prep fees the next day as a deposit there's a 2% fee on that with payment begins once funding begin but we have delayed that this year to be a little closer to the pass act funding to ensure that we're not galge ng your fees before that first big drop hits like for instance last year the largest deposit of fees for preparers was the 21st and 22nd so if we can reconcile the majority out of what you owe from the big deposit it's not wiping out your fees like the gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today where you simply don't have any operating income once that money cuts off it is available to first-time euros and I only ask you to keep in mind one thing if you come into us and it comes through the jointed fifty returns it's going to default that amount to like the fifty grand but if for any reason you know that your fees are going to be two hundred thousand dollars because you're growing and you would need access to a hundred thousand dollars you call us we'll increase that amount that you're eligible for to make all the way up to the two hundred fifty thousand dollars available to you for you to have access to we don't want to limit your opportunity to have access to those funds but systematically it will default to the amount on the basis the amount of returns that we think you do and what you're getting good access to but we're happy to raise that for you okay so if you see a lesser amount and you know you need more you call will raise if you go bac accept it that's okay any question that's the end season we're getting to the preseason where's my 200 current yes all right so preseason preseason is the money that you need prior to the season start set up your office equipment promotional expenses Black Friday's oh I didn't say Black Friday sorry it's 40 past two by the way so we started sending out money on November 16 for any of you here that may have applied for that and didn't get in the 16th cut within an hour we received 2000 requests and what we were trying to do is accommodate those prepares that are with us last year before we started looking at preparers that were uniquely coming to us so we still send out money on the 30th December 7th and December 14th the absolute last day to opt in is December 13th there is no circumstance outside of the possible programmatic issue where money's going out after the 14th and it's three to 40,000 per office you must have a minimum of a hundred RTS to qualify if you had an even change we will we will accommodate that if you had a compromise even where you started using this even and switch to another Ethan and we need to combine both those volumes we will accommodate that it's more than double our competitors offering and you can opt in through the taxpayer Information Center now up through the 13th it cannot exceed more than 10% of your fee revenue and it's determined on the basis of how many products you do determines the range Ravello eligible for and then 10% of your fees but we don't max it out if you go in there and apply for 5,000 10,000 or 40,000 and you don't put that you would like to get the max amount you're eligible for that's what you'll be approved by and I also ask once you apply for it if you're asking for an increase don't accept the amount until we can increase it and then you go back and accept it people get real excited they see that money out there they accept it and then they call and ask for an increase and like why didn't get my increase well you accepted the amount so just be mindful if you if you go in there and apply for it and ask for an increase wait till it's raised to go back and accept it so you're accepting it at the correct amount you can have any prior year experience with Republic Bank you did not have to be with us last year certain exceptions are made for right way euros that were not with us in a prior experience due to our relationship with right way one thing changed with our pre rep we did go to a 3% fee it's a flat fee it's not this per month compounding it's a 3% flat fee and unfortunately part of the reason for the increase in that fee is there are people like to take the money and run in order to protect ourselves against that we did raise our origination fee the advances prepaid through tax preparation fees once the season begin it is added into your wrap one important thing about this if you get $20,000 in preseason money you're in season fee assistance will not kick in until twice the amount of fees or acknowledge from the preseason money so you get $20,000 on the 30th you're in season money will not kick in until you have $40,000 and acknowledged fees before the in season fee assistance comes kicks in we just need to ensure that there's enough in the hopper to repay back before we kick in the end season because it can create a real precarious circumstance for you to loan out a lot of money not make sure recovered and then collect that back to where we create a circumstance where you're in a hole we don't want you to be in a situation where you don't have money to operate your business and season so keep that in mind you get a lot of questions on that any questions right now okay moving on yep actually it may be addressed in another slide what is the cap on prep fees preparers can charge editing your slide deck sorry what's it kept oh that's a great question thank you for asking that we must have a plant in the audience so republic realize that it's getting to be a little more challenging so we raise our max tax prep fee to 14 $99.99 this year and that's programmatic that means in the software you can charge up to 14 $99.99 the Granite Republic is also a bank we also believe in best practices so your average fee per week cannot exceed $900 so you may have circumstances where someone came in for the first time in three years to file a return and needs to you to file their previous return or you're doing bookkeeping work for which you need to charge for out of your tax prep in those instances we realize that you need to charge a little higher fees than you normally would so 14 9999 is the max be allowed to be charged but your average fee per week can tax prep just tax prep cannot exceed 900 if it does in the first week you get an email saying hey your average fee is over 900 in the second week you get an email saying hey your average fee is over 900 in the third week if your average fees are still over 900 dollars considering that you're more than halfway through the season then republic can turn you off okay we believe in accommodating the Eero but we still have to follow best practices as a bank to say we accommodate for the circumstances but we have to control the population to ensure that taxpayers are not unduly being overcharged so that means that there could be quite a few circumstances where you have a higher fee but if your average fee is closer to 375 on average then you're not likely to hit that cap three weeks in a row if you are then there's typically something going on there beyond just having a high fee okay but that's changed two years ago our backs free fee was $9.99 and the average tax prep fee was 600 so our average tax fee has raised $300 and the tax prep has raised $500 so we certainly hope that that's enough of the circumstance to create a cushion for you guys to do what it is you need to do guys and ladies excuse me do what you need to do where we that's where we go with y'all it's all inclusive y'all don't know yeah all right $500 averages I mean that's that's pretty pretty significant being that I mean I know that there's circumstances on the occasion that would dictate to be above you know $14.99 or at that but the average prep fee when we kind of ran our numbers internally you know Bank product prep fee was like three on three fifty forty yeah three forty something is a change so it seems to be pretty much the industry average as far as and that's going to you know for you those random events that you do need to creep up north of you know a thousand bucks that's going to you know pull it down to where I don't foresee a ton of problems with that nine hundred average I mean I could go do some some digging on our side to see thing I'll tell you I'll tell you why it even made us up that high let's say you and off have an office in New York on the Upper East Side the average rent for an office like that is forty to sixty thousand dollars a month depending on the size of it you know for the instance of cost of living the average tax prep fee is a lot higher there than it is in a small town in Georgia or Oklahoma so we accommodated on the basis of nationwide you know there are varying circumstances all right so clarify the average and the max prep B is strictly press B not include doesn't include the full cost it's just the preparation fee and e-file fee but it's just laughing we buy we don't we don't have a nice policy here or public it's all built into one there's tax guidance service pro transmitter and then like if there's an ancillary chronicler right but we don't have an eval fee we a long time ago Republic wrap that up in the tax prep budget so it gets consolidated very good okay so from some of support options we have we do the tax payer text updates if you go to Republic refund you can set it up to where the timeframe in which the taxpayers receive the text updates and delay it you cannot tailor the message but those are based on the basis of checks direct deposits so like you can have it go out from when the money is released to when the it is actually issued and then even delay it beyond that point I always suggest to people that they delay it so if they have cheques they have a chance to print all those checks and have them ready before that text goes out so they're ready to hand those out they're not going out when it's released and taxpayers are coming up before you even had a chance to print it so if you go to the Republic refund you can make that change if you go to Republic taxpayer if the taxpayer goes to Republic tax payer calm they check hands check on the status of their refund they can also call our support we do try to reduce some of the burden for preparers by dealing with taxpayer questions because we know that the average taxpayer can call ten to fourteen times per season and if you've got hundreds of taxpayers that's ridiculous so we do try to provide tools that help provide that explanation there is a mobile app which is great and I encourage you to use because it will Slyke show you how many checks you have to print and what's being released so you can kind of know how your day is you wake up in the morning you know pull that app open and be like okay it's a big day for me I need to get in the office and and get these printed and that's if you go to Android or Apple that's the Republic Bank tax refund solutions it'll stay like four public Bank and Trust TRS as a little icon we do have some online tools with some graphical representations we have an advanced modification for what's coming on the first right-hand side of that screen it has a view report or deposit and if you open it up it will show those tax payers that are releasing for that day we do send out free marketing materials and those go out here pretty soon once those go out they go out on the basis of the amount of products that you said that you did to your office once you receive that if you realize that there's something that you didn't get you need you can go on and order additional checks you do have to order your cards uniquely unless you did cards last year cards will automatically ship out to you and it says VIP option available but frankly what I did was as I took every right way office and I put them in the VIP option which means you guys come to tear to support the granted have to keep in mind with over 13,000 clients depending on the time of year there can be a wait it can happen on February 22nd last year when sixty four point seven billion dollars were released and Republic got seven billion of that yeah there was a little bit of a hold but our average hold time is less than 90 seconds you know we accommodate the hero very well because we're a large operation but what I can assure you is now that's not to say you can't ever get someone on the phones it's not great it happens everywhere but you guys are all in the VIP option which means your ef'n whenever you put that in pushes you to tier 2 it's just a little service for right way you can think right way for that I'd like to say it specifically is because of you but it's because the right way doing order right well now thank you shameless plug well we'll take it gladly we will accept it hey do you know as far as that marketing kit what goes out and by default I know that you said there's certain things and you got to order certain things is there you know a table tent and hand out again fold that's correct a bailer or what's all of them so you you get one of the things that arrows were most excited about is they want that sign to save the six thousand on it that's what they want they want that sign in the window to stay 6,000 so there's table tents there's posters there's little handout there maybe even like a desk item and then your checks and your initial supplies that you use is well go out with that from your cards as well if you did cards last year otherwise you have to order them if you go on to Republic refund on order supplies it will show you everything that's contained with that initial marketing kit and the additional things you get because one of the things we don't send out that I tell people to get because we do it at cost it's like less than 30 bucks is the Window Cling there's a window cling that's really big that has that like you put it on the inside but it's facing out that has that amount on there those are awesome those are actually so popular that each year we have to order more because we run out because so many people want those in their office because I can tell you right now last year with our advance being 2500 and taxpayers going cuckoo for cocoa puffs for that imagine what's going to be like this year with the signs saying 6000 it's going to be a field day and we honestly believe that this is a season where turbo trash will take a hit because the advances are so high that taxpayers will migrate away from online we saw a little bit of it last year amongst our channel because we did the true 2500 but that 6000 is going to speak wonder so anyway if you go under a public refund and the order supplies that will show you what's contained within that marketing kit but you can order additional supplies as well English in Spanish and I would HIGHLY advise getting that Window Cling it it's nice and that's I think it's less than 30 bucks but it's good now the banners as far as all-weather banners I don't know if we have those out there I'll have to go check but there are additional items you can get out of the initial marketing kit but the initial marketing kit is basically it gets you set up to where you have things to hang in the office and things to make people aware as far as making your outside audience aware as they're coming up go get a window cling it's very well spent money on that window all right so check cashing um it will default to the state for which you reside obviously Republic Bank has its own check stock but we're in five states Wells Fargo check stock we provide as well which is much more ubiquitous out there in the nation and Walmart still stands to be one of the most popular places for taxpayers to go now we're the only ones integrated directly with Sergi so the way our check cashing goes with Walmart usually pretty smooth you know three dollars if it's a thousand or less sticks from a thousand to seventy five hundred and then the Wells Fargo you can see there as well now with the Walmart direct to cash we actually did provide an opportunity to be able to update the ID information because last year one of the big things in is the ID was entered incorrectly and then when the taxpayer went to pick up their money because it couldn't confirm the ID it was like well yeah we can't confirm this and really what it was and someone just miss keyed a number and it was one digit off we actually have the ability to update that now in real time while the taxpayer is in there for them to be able to get their money because what they don't you don't want to have to have them do is come back the office like I couldn't get my money what happened and someone put in a seven instead of a four that type of thing you know and to kind of wrap up in a season where there is uncertainty in questions of reliability exists using a program you can trust matters your public's experience and stability are not in question come see why it's just easier here we've been around a while we were the only ones with the pre-act last year we blew it out we have it again this year the difference is we have the learnings from last year others don't have we know they're scared about offering it which could affect approval ratings which could affect the experienced offices are being active in under 24 hours assuming that there's not additional information needed you know this is something where you need to be sure that you're firing on all cylinders for the season starts because when the taxpayers begin hearing about the $6,000 they're going to want to be knowing they're going to want to know as soon as they can get their money okay if you have any additional questions there's our tax office relationship support we also have a very close relationship with right way they're quite familiar with quite a few items you know basic items associated with us but we're more than happy to talk with you feel free to give us a ring Carter the question I wanted in the chat there's a question that I'm responding to that I'll continue to respond to so there is a question with respect to another vendor offering a postcard mailer to a prior client at no cost you offer a similar product if we move over to Republic we have a client retention postcard program we started it at the end of this last year it went out it's in full swing this year and it's available from Republic refund when you go out there to order it though there is a cost of postage to do so the one thing is as it relates to 70 to 16 if you're a whisper public last year you can upload your client base to have those sent out on your behalf if you weren't with Republic last year we can send you the postcards for you to send out because legally you're not allowed to send out postcards from Republic Bank for which there was not a 72 16 in place in the prior year it's a violation of the 72 16 regs yes we do have a client retention postcard mailer program but it is not free of charge it is the cost of postage to do so gotcha as far as alternate check cashing agreements I know in previous years if there's a common bank in an area or small community bank or you don't have one of the the big boys like you guys have arrangements with nearby that there was a good funds letter that you could take into bank managers or getting to that a bill if you go out to Republic refund site under the forms there's a letter of good funds directly from Republic because we are the bank what we found is is even community branches smaller of banks in other states are receptive because we are the bank you're actually using our letter of good funds as opposed to a letter good fun and as a sister company to a bank so you can use that as well a lot of people if their office is closely situated to a bank they do like to bring that into the bank in advance to get those checks cash there we just you know most people may not know this is my third program I've been with this is event the most successful I've seen with the letter of good funds because as a part of being like an agent of the bank we are the bank so sometimes they'll even contact us just to verify and because we're the bank itself then they'll confirm that information but yeah that letter of good funds is out there on Republic refund comm under the forms cool what else forget I know that your guys's customer service at least from our experience has been has been fantastic we sincerely appreciate it our relationship with you guys continues to grow or confidence in your program is is very high that you guys will be able to perform and knock it out with minimal if any challenges some processors have glitches and hiccups that we haven't had any processing errors or issues there were some none during you know each bank does their own little thing differently in terms of the way fees are handled or routed a report definitions or whatever and that's just part of a learning curve but most of that's just us learning what's going on as opposed to Republic doing something goofy they're there they're on their game we appreciate the relationship there were absolutely worth giving a look and again Carter thank you sir for dropping knowledge on us getting this up to speed and yeah thank you gonna be an awesome season thanks everybody appreciate your time hope you have a nice day look forward to working with you this next season and we are right at the 1 hour mark well done Carter well done sir alright y'all everybody have a nice day Thank You YouTube party bye-bye