House-Hasson goes paperless

House-Hasson Hardware is going the paperless route with a new initiative to stop issuing checks, invoices and statements to its vendors and dealers.

“We’re phasing in a program we call 'go green' through the balance of 2015 is to make all payments electronically to vendors and to eliminate paper invoices and payments to dealers,” said Don Hasson, president of House-Hasson Hardware. “Everything will be electronically transmitted.”

House-Hasson unveiled its plans at its October dealer market in Kentucky. There, dealers and vendors were given an opportunity to also sign up for the program.

The distributor plans to have all vendors completely on-board by the end of 2015. Dealers will have more of a choice to elect paperless, but Hasson hopes to have 50% of them going paperless by the end of 2016.

According to Hasson, the move will save the company thousands of dollars in postage alone, as well as the hours required to produce, compile and send mailings -- not to mention make followup phone calls.

"This benefits everyone in the chain,” Hasson added. “The administrative burden is reduced, checks aren’t delayed or lost in the mail, and with electronic transmittal dealers can check their House-Hasson online accounts to see that money has been received.”

Currently, about 20% of House-Hasson’s more than 2,000 dealers no longer receive paper invoices or payments by check.

“When we first talked about this it was solely considered from a cost-saving standpoint of mailing and the envelopes, printing, stuffing, and postage,” Hasson said. “But as we considered it further, we saw the broader range of benefits to everyone in our system.”