In November 2022, the Winnipeg Sea Bears became the newest franchise in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL). Team president Jason Smith knew that Winnipeg had a strong basketball community, so he was confident that the Sea Bears would be successful. But he had no idea just how hungry fans would be for men’s professional basketball in the city. He found out quickly. On May 27, 2023, the Sea Bears played their first game in front of about 7,500 fans, shattering the previous CEBL attendance record by almost 3,000. That year, the team broke eight of its own attendance records and has continued packing the Canada Life Centre ever since.
The Sea Bears’ rapid success meant that the team’s accounts payable system quickly became obsolete. Initially, the team thought that paying every vendor using a traditional manual cheque system combined with QuickBooks would work.
“But it was very labour-intensive,” says Smith. “You have to go through each invoice, make sure it’s actually a payable and that it’s approved. And then from that, someone has to create a cheque, two people have to sign the cheque, and then you have to mail it.”
As the team exceeded expectations on the court in that first year so did its number of transactions off the court. From halftime performers to food vendors, more people had to get paid. The old-school payment system just couldn’t keep up.
“We needed to pivot to something that was more robust, intuitive, that could move as quickly as the world around us,” says Smith.
The new system that the Sea Bears pivoted to in that first year had Telpay at its core. It was an instant gamechanger, says Smith.
“Honestly, I like everything about what Telpay does for us,” he says. “It’s quicker, it’s easier, it’s safer for us to use, it integrates really well with QuickBooks, and it allows us to work on our own timeline.”
It also removes several layers of administration, he adds.
Now, instead of all of those manual steps, the Sea Bears’ accountant simply enters the invoices into the system, Smith gets an email that there are payments to be approved, he approves them in the system when he gets the chance, and then the e-payments go out. No printing cheques, no worrying about mail.
The biggest benefit of using Telpay has been the streamlining of the payment process, says Smith.
“We’re a small business with a limited number of people. Every employee’s hour is valuable to us,” he says. “So when we can shave hours off of the accounting process while also ensuring that we’re paying things timely and correctly, we can use the hours in our day more effectively in helping to grow the business. Telpay helps us do that.”
LOCATION:
Winnipeg, Manitoba
WHAT WE USE TELPAY FOR:
Accounts Payable – Bill Payments
WHY WE SWITCHED TO TELPAY:
“As we grew faster than we expected, it turned out to be a lot more complex and challenging to keep up with our accounts payables. We needed a solution that could move as fast as the world around us.”
