4 Advantages of eGOV, an Online Filing and Payment Facility in the Philippines

There are plenty of ways for government agencies in the Philippines to digitize their collection processes. In fact, eGOV is one of the solutions every employer has been looking for for a very long time. Through eGOV, any employer can do the filing and payment of PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and SSS monthly contributions and loans online, conveniently, and without the hassle of going to the branch offices.

An employer needs only an internet connection and uses either Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome as web browsers to access eGOV. eGOV’s availability to private employers is very timely and aligned with the government’s drive to foster electronic payments as well as PhilHealth’s policy on the use of electronic payment partners like BancNet.

Manual payments have been around since the beginning of time. The physical transaction—taking goods or services in terms of monetary exchange—is how humans have processed it over centuries. This procedure may be termed outdated or too conventional in the current world. Online payment has altered the norms of manual payment transactions over the years. Most employers that are informed about the use of eGOV prefer to use it. To encourage other employers to switch from manual to online, below are the advantages:

1. Increase convenience and save work time.

Online payments can increase convenience for the staff because they will save them time by eliminating the travel period to the agencies and waiting time, which will affect their workloads. Instead of waiting for long hours in the agency, staff can work on their other deliverables and increase their productivity.

2. Decrease stress and increase work productivity.

The inherent automation of online payment processing is music to the staff’s ears. With the right technology, staff can cut out manual calculations and routing of paperwork, and your staff can breathe a little easier. Less paperwork on your team’s desk means more time for other exciting projects.

Processing online payments can also help minimize the stressful communication that occurs with bounced checks. Online payments allow the department to conduct pre-authorization, which means you can make sure the funds are available and then process them once approved, increasing the productivity of the staff and reducing stress on the manual payment process.

3. Grow the department’s bottom line.

Accepting checks and fund transfers at your department can actually be more costly than the fee collected. Between bank runs, reconciliation issues, and ancillary fees, there is plenty of data to support the inefficiencies of departments collecting checks and funds for payments. Conversely, by switching to online payment processing, you can not only cut out the cost of processing checks but also have the opportunity to increase revenue.

4. Put the safety of staff first.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has opened our eyes to unexpected business disruptions. Once COVID-19 began infiltrating the globe, many businesses were forced to make drastic changes to the way they operated. Many of the abrupt changes were centered around the recommendation to ‘shelter in place’ and perform ‘social distancing’.

These instances meant that businesses needed to find ways to continue operating while limiting the number of face-to-face interactions they had with clients. Subtle changes, like bringing payments online, are a great way to decrease the number of staff waiting in banks or branch offices and limit the number of over-the-counter transactions staff handle. While the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the business world are uncertain, it is clear that a digital payment process could benefit the company in a positive way. Hopefully, the advantages of eGov in paying government remittances electronically will encourage employers to switch from manual to online payments to save costs, increase convenience, embrace digitization, and help employees experience smooth and reliable transactions through eGov.