All posts by : Justin Jaksha

AUSTIN, TX – ePayPolicy, the insurance industry’s most popular payments platform, announced today two awards that highlight company culture and leadership. The recognition comes from the workplace site Comparably, where ePayPolicy was selected from tens of thousands of companies, winning awards for Best Company Culture and Best CEO.

Comparably Awards are derived from sentiment ratings anonymously provided by employees about their workplaces in multiple categories on Comparably.com during a 12-month period. Winners are then determined based on 20 core culture metrics, ranging from work-life balance and environment to compensation and career growth.

ePayPolicy joins other respected companies winning Comparably awards such as Netflix, HubSpot and Adobe.

“We’re honored to be selected for these awards based on direct and anonymous feedback from our team members,” said Allyson Hoffman, Director, People Operations. “Comparably helps us get a sense of what’s working and what we can improve, and we’re thankful to make this list for another year.”

“I’m really proud of the work environment we’ve created and the company that we’re building together,” added CEO Mark Engels.

ePayPolicy was previously honored this year as an Inc. 5000 award winner, as well as one of BuiltIn Austin’s Best Places to Work.

Headquartered in Austin, TX, ePayPolicy is currently hiring for a number of positions. Learn more at epaypolicy.com/careers.

About ePayPolicyBuilt by insurance professionals for the insurance industry, ePayPolicy is the fastest, easiest and most secure way to move money for insurance. ePayPolicy’s products bring insurance payments up to speed for agencies, carriers, MGAs and PFCs, with secure online payment pages and automated check processing, with CheckMate. 6,000+ insurance companies trust ePayPolicy to handle their payments every day. Learn more: ePayPolicy.com

Austin, TX Aug 16, 2023- Inc. magazine announced that ePayPolicy is No. 1565 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, one of the most well-known rankings of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. 

The ranking provides a data-driven look at the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent, entrepreneurial businesses. Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other household name brands gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. This was ePayPolicy’s second year to apply, and second year to make the list.

“We’re honored to be recognized again as one of the fastest growing private companies,” said CEO Mark Engels. “It’s a testament to the value that our products bring to our customers, and the incredible team we have that works hard to build them.”

ePayPolicy was built for the insurance industry and serves them exclusively. ePayPolicy’s founders experienced the firsthand frustration of limited tech solutions and entrenched customer behaviors when it came to payments, leading to most payments still being handled in the form of paper checks. 

The company started with secure, online payment pages branded to the insurance organization’s business. Last year, they introduced CheckMate, an integrated lockbox solution for companies still dealing with a mix of online and check payments.

“Our customers continue to tell us what tools they need to keep making payments easier for them,” said Engels. “It’s a partnership that allows us to build the tools that agencies, managing general agents, brokers, carriers and premium finance companies are asking for specifically.”

Already this year, ePayPolicy has announced Payables Connect – an integrated, automated payables solution as well as the upcoming release of Finance Connect, which will allow ePayPolicy’s customers to add integrated premium financing, with their existing partners right at online checkout. 

“At the end of the day, we want to make payments one of the easiest things our customers do,” said Engels. “And we are as focused as ever on building the platform to make that a reality.”

About ePayPolicy

ePayPolicy offers easier payment tools, built just for insurance. ePayPolicy’s products bring insurance payments up to speed for agencies, carriers, MGAs and PFCs, with secure online payment pages, automated check processing, payables reconciliation and more. 6,500+ insurance companies trust ePayPolicy and their expert, live support team to handle their payments every day. Learn more: ePayPolicy.com

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 

Methodology 

The 2023 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2019 and 2022. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2019. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2022. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2019 is $100,000; the minimum for 2022 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

Built In announced that ePayPolicy was honored in its 2023 Best Places To Work Awards. The annual awards program includes companies of all sizes, from startups to those in the enterprise, and honors both remote-first employers as well as companies in large tech markets across the U.S. 

“It’s always an honor to receive recognition like this, especially in a city like Austin with so many great companies,” said CEO Mark Engels. “Our culture, benefits and smart, motivated people help us keep and attract the talent that makes ePay such a rewarding place to work.”

ePayPolicy celebrated the award of four Comparably awards just last month, and was an Inc. 5000 winner in 2022. The company now serves more than 6,000 customers in the insurance industry.

Built In determines the winners of Best Places to Work based on an algorithm, using company data about compensation and benefits. To reflect the benefits candidates are searching for more frequently on Built In, the program also weighs criteria like remote and flexible work opportunities, programs for DEI and other people-first cultural offerings.  

“It’s my honor to congratulate this year’s Best Places to Work winners,” says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer, Built In. “These exemplary companies understand their people are their most valuable asset, and they’ve stepped up to meet the modern professional’s new expectations, including the desire to work for companies that deliver purpose, growth and inclusion. These winners set the stage for a human-centered future of work, and we can’t wait to see that future unfold.”  

ABOUT BUILT IN’S BEST PLACES TO WORK 

Built In’s esteemed Best Places to Work Awards, now in its fifth year, honor companies across numerous categories: 100 Best Places to Work, 50 Best Startup Places to Work, 100 Best Midsize Places to Work, 100 Best Large Places to Work and Editor’s Choice: 100 Best Hybrid Places to Work. The program honors companies – remote, hybrid and in-office – with the best total rewards packages across the U.S. and in the following tech hubs: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC. 

AUSTIN, TX – ePayPolicy, the insurance industry’s most popular payments platform, announced today four awards that highlight company culture and leadership. The recognition comes from the workplace site Comparably, where ePayPolicy was selected from tens of thousands of companies, winning awards for Best Company Culture, Best CEO, Best Company for Women and Best Company for Diversity.

Comparably Awards are derived from sentiment ratings anonymously provided by employees about their workplaces in multiple categories on Comparably.com during a 12-month period. Winners are then determined based on 20 core culture metrics, ranging from work-life balance and environment to compensation and career growth.

ePayPolicy joins other respected companies in the Small/Medium-sized category, such as Strava, Mixpanel and Route. This was ePayPolicy’s first year to apply.

“We didn’t set out to win vanity awards,” said Allyson Hoffman, ePayPolicy’s Direct of People Operations. “We wanted to hear directly from our people what they felt was working and what we could make better for them. Comparably gave us timely and specific insight, and we were honored that so much of it was so positive.”

“The awards were an unexpected bonus,” added Hoffman.

“Our mission is to delight our customers in the insurance industry,” added CEO Mark Engels. “That’s not possible if our employees don’t feel valued, respected and heard in the workplace. I’m really proud of the work environment we’ve created and the company that we’re building together.”

ePayPolicy was previously honored this year as an Inc. 5000 award winner, as well as one of BuiltIn Austin’s Best Places to Work.

Headquartered in Austin, TX, ePayPolicy is currently hiring for a number of positions. Learn more at epaypolicy.com/careers.

About ePayPolicyBuilt by insurance professionals for the insurance industry, ePayPolicy is the fastest, easiest and most secure way to move money for insurance. ePayPolicy’s products bring insurance payments up to speed for agencies, carriers, MGAs and PFCs, with secure online payment pages and automated check processing, with CheckMate. 6,000+ insurance companies trust ePayPolicy to handle their payments every day. Learn more: ePayPolicy.com

The average company uses 100+ SaaS (software as a service) tools, according to the most conservative surveys. Some studies double that number. 

Given this high usage of tools designed by different teams, integrations ideally help companies use these tools in concert. Or at least, a little more efficiently.

At ePayPolicy, we talk about integrations often. We want to make payments the easiest thing your business does. But payments don’t exist in a vacuum – there’s a lot of accounting and reconciliation work that comes before and after. 

And integrations help make magic out of that process.

Why Integrate?

Integrations make sure all the data displayed on your payment page during the payment process is pulled directly from your accounting system, and the record of that payment makes its way back to the software your team uses to reconcile the payment to your invoices and accounts. Integrating connects your custom payment page to your open invoices, removing double work, human error and time-sucking manual data entry. 

Integrations create time for you, and allow your teams to refocus efforts elsewhere.

Integrations also unlock specific features that make life easier for both your customers and your account team. Things like: AutoPay, Batch Payables, Invoice Notifications and more. 

Who Should Integrate?

Without putting a firm cap on it, we’d suggest anyone taking more than 10 payments a month consider it. And if you’re in the 30+ bracket, it’s a no brainer.

How Easy is it to Integrate?

Before getting into particulars, we’ll mention that both our Support and Account Management teams do this for our customers all day, every day, and they love to do it. 

A perfectly reasonable reaction for a customer might be “This sounds great, but I don’t know how or have the time to do it.” Great! Let us do it. If you can schedule a meeting with Support and respond to just a handful of email tasks (at most), we can help you do the heavy lifting. 

In many cases, integrations can be handled entirely in 1-2 emails and in just a few minutes. We’ve built them (and continue to build them) to be as easy as possible to set up.

What Integrations does ePayPolicy offer?

A lot. We’ve built integrations with the most popular management systems, and we’re adding more all the time.

But even that isn’t the whole answer, as we routinely create custom API connections for customers using custom, in-house or niche solutions.

Why Don’t Customers Integrate?

We don’t know? But seriously, we ask ourselves this often, and can only assume we’re not articulating the value clearly enough. If you’re taking even a dozen checks, and looking for ways to bring efficiency to your operations, there’s value.

The feedback we do hear, though, is usually along the lines of “Oh, I thought this would be more difficult.” Our insurance customers often come with decades of manual habits, and it’s not just that old habits die hard; it’s that they’ve done enough business to see trends rise and fall, and some tech efforts fall flat.

We also understand, we’re talking about money. Revenue is the lifeblood of your company and we understand the reluctance to touch something so important.

Our advice – take it from the thousands of integrated ePayPolicy customers, and at least discuss it with your account manager so they can explain the specific value to your team.

We’re so confident Integrations will make your life easier, we’ll let you try it free for 60 days. 

Just mention it when you schedule a chat with your account manager.

Want to learn more? Check out our integrations here, or read UIP’s story about how integrations made life easier at their agency. 

We had to change our mission. And get rid of a dinosaur.

When ePay began, our website boldly claimed that we were “on a mission to replace paper checks for all agency billing.” We commissioned a local mural artist to design a massive mural in our office, featuring a giant Godzilla-esque dinosaur burning paper checks across the city. Because, why not?

But like the age of the dinosaurs, that era has come to an end.

Our founders felt the firsthand frustration of slow, manual and delayed payments that relied on checks. That led them to create our first product – our custom payment pages and dashboard – that helped grow ePay to what it is today.

5,500+ insurance companies – carriers, agencies, PFCs, brokers and MGAS – trust ePay with their digital payments.

But unlike the dinosaurs, paper checks haven’t gone away. For many companies, it’s not a quick pivot directly into digital ACH and credit card options, as much as they might prefer it.

Some customers just prefer to pay with checks.

We sat with customers across the country to see how they handled check payments, and the results were all over the place. Some processed daily, others in weekly batches. Others had “check signing parties” (woo) where they blocked out hours of time on a scheduled basis to grind through the often very manual and tedious process of reconciling check payments.

And over the past year, we’ve worked to develop a solution that we’re now proud to introduce: CheckMate.

CheckMate solves the pain of paper payments with rapid and secure check routing and automated reconciliation to your accounting systems. In the same way our digital payment pages are integrated with the most popular management and accounting systems (as well as custom API integrations), CheckMate uses those same integrations to reduce manual, double-work.

Also, no more checks piling up for dreaded “check parties.” CheckMate batches and processes checks every day, and uses the same ePay dashboard as our digital payments. One hub for all your payments. Woo.

As we talked to customers, one of them joked that they’d like to “never touch a paper check again.” With CheckMate, that’s actually possible. You can leave the checks to us.

CheckMate is the next of several enhancements we’ll be announcing over the coming months. If you’re an existing customer, and curious, we’d encourage you to reach out to your account manager or schedule some time here. If you’re new to digital payments for insurance, there’s never been a better time to schedule a demo and see how much time it’ll save your company and your customers.

Austin, TX Aug 16, 2022- Inc. magazine revealed today that ePayPolicy is No. 1256 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, one of the most prestigious and well-known rankings of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. 

The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment— its independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. This was ePayPolicy’s first year to apply.

“Everyone that’s been here is well aware of the growth we’ve been experiencing,” said CEO Mark Engels. “We were optimistic we might make this list, and it was a real honor to see where we landed. Our ranking is a reflection of our amazing team’s tireless efforts in delivering and supporting digital payments services for the insurance industry.”

The COVID-19 pandemic helped accelerate the adoption of online digital payments for insurance, an industry that has lagged behind in more modern payment adoption and where the majority of payments still change hands in the form of paper checks. But even as a post-pandemic “normal” has set in for many Americans, growth at ePayPolicy has not slowed down. 

“We were thrilled to hit our own 5,000 milestone last year, when we added our 5,000th customer,” said Engels. “And our pace of growth continues to accelerate, which allows us to invest in new digital automation services for the insurance industry, including agencies, managing general agents, brokers, carriers and premium finance companies.”

ePaypolicy’s upcoming product release, dubbed “CheckMate,” was built based on customer feedback, and is designed to help offload the burden of check payments for companies whose customers might be slower to adopt digital payments, all while keeping them on the ePayPolicy payment platform. Engels says the team has other enhancements and products planned for later this year.

“Our focus on the insurance industry allows us to have a deep understanding of the challenges our customers face as they transform the way they digitally engage with their insureds,” added Engels. “It’s this industry expertise that will continue to fuel our growth and allow us to compete for the Inc. 5000 list for years to come.”

About ePayPolicy

Built by insurance professionals for the insurance industry, ePayPolicy is the fastest, easiest and most secure way to move money for insurance. ePayPolicy’s products bring insurance payments up to speed for agencies, carriers, MGAs and PFCs, with secure online payment pages and automated check processing, with CheckMate. 5,500+ insurance companies trust ePayPolicy and their expert, live support team to handle their payments every day. Learn more: epaypolicy.com

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 

Methodology The 2022 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2018 and 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2021. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 5000 are featured in Inc.’s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.