Case Study: How Gunnison Bank and Trust Company Won Time Back with AccuAccount
The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company is a $143 million financial institution in Gunnison, Colorado. Founded in 1910, The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company offers a variety of banking solutions for individuals and businesses in the Gunnison Valley.
With a geographic footprint that included two local branches and a loan production office in Denver, The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company realized that a paper-only approach to document management was no longer scalable.
In this case study, you’ll learn why The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company implemented AccuAccount.
“If you want your entire team on the same page across multiple branches, AccuAccount is definitely the way to go.” September Sack, Loan Operations Clerk at The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company
Overcoming the Inefficiency of Paper Documents & Manual Ticklers
When September Sack was hired on as a Loan Operations Clerk, The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company still tracked paper loan files with spreadsheets.
“Managing annual financials required a lot of time-consuming work,” said September Sack, Loan Operations Clerk at The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company. “Our process involved printing off a report from the core, pulling each paper file, manually comparing the report to the file, and then updating the spreadsheet.”
Tracking missing documents required additional work—and spreadsheets.
“We maintained a separate spreadsheet to track missing documents,” Sack said. “This spreadsheet contained the information that we used to generate notice letters for customers.”
As customer documents arrived, September then had to manually update her spreadsheet in order to avoid outdated data. She also had a tremendous amount of new paper to organize, hole punch, and file.
“Our loan storage room was completely maxed out,” Sack said. “We were bursting at the seams with paper documents.”
Maintaining everything in paper format also created operational delays that negatively impacted the customer experience. Verifying customer signatures at the Crested Butte branch was particularly inefficient.
“Signature cards were stored in hard copy format at the main branch,” Sack said. “As a result, the Crested Butte branch was frequently calling for faxed copies of customer signature cards.”
Elevating Productivity with Less Paper
Realizing the need for a digital approach to document management, The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company implemented AccuAccount.
Scanning customer documents into AccuAccount solved the bank’s document storage limitations and eliminated time-consuming administrative work, such as hole punching documents and transporting physical file folders.
“Saving documents into a digital format accelerates the upfront work involved with creating a loan file,” Sack said. “We use barcodes to get all of the closing documents into AccuAccount with a single scan.”
Electronic access to documents enables staff to provide enhanced levels of customer service in less time.
“Staff no longer have to put customers on hold, pull their files, and filter through them,” Sack said. “AccuAccount enables fingertip access to the information that users need, which allows them to provide immediate answers to questions.”
Signature verification, in particular, is more streamlined with AccuAccount.
“Tellers love AccuAccount because they can immediately and discreetly verify customer signatures in just a few clicks,” Sack said. “No more calling, scanning, and faxing of signature cards.”
And, being digital helped The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company weather the COVID-19 pandemic that caused significant operational challenges for almost every financial institution on the planet.
“AccuAccount put us in a better spot to pivot rapidly toward a work-from-home paradigm,” Sack said. “I can’t imagine how things would have played out without digital access to our documents and reports.”
Tracking without Ticklers
Automated reporting in AccuAccount reduces manual data entry while providing enhanced levels of transparency.
“We’re spending less time in Microsoft Excel these days,” Sack said. “AccuAccount automatically tracks exception data and sends out reports to our loan officers so they know when to take action.”
Case in point, The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company is leveraging AccuAccount’s built-in reporting and tracking capabilities to streamline how it manages title policies. AccuAccount automatically notifies (via email) the loan officer when a final title policy is ready for review. After reviewing the title policy, the loan officer simply marks a task as completed in AccuAccount, which creates an electronic paper trail for both internal reporting and external audits.
Speaking of audits, AccuAccount is also making an impact there, too.
“I love the audit feature. It’s so clean and simple for auditors and examiners, and they love it too,” Sack said. “In fact, examiners now conduct their exams virtually instead of coming into our office.”
Maximizing Efficiency with Loan Approval Workflows
Moving forward, The Gunnison Bank and Trust Company plans to automate even more aspects of its loan management process—starting with loan approval.
“We’re evaluating how AccuApproval could help us streamline our pre-closing workflow,” Sack said. “From automating disclosures to tracking insurance and appraisals, AccuApproval offers a number of features that could be very beneficial.”
Does your bank need a fresh approach to loan document management? Watch an on-demand demo of AccuAccount.