Why Choose Us

No matter what—the billing gets done, and done right.

A Message from Scott MacDougal

Why choose Cornerstone? Unless we´ve met at a trade event, you may not know us. You may not be aware of the many security companies that we support. And because we provide services that directly impact your account base, we completely understand that you have questions and a decision to use us demands some research.

Let me start with our approach - we are perfectionists, obsessed that our system works well for our customers. We´ve built detailed procedure manuals targeted at key quality questions:

  • Are we doing everything we can to make sure the invoices are correct?
  • As we post payments, are we taking extra time on exceptions to make sure we post with 100% accuracy?
  • Are we answering the phone when customers call, and quickly resolving their issue?
  • Are we training our customers´ staff, so they are comfortable with our system?

So ours is an operations mind set – our goal is to make sure things work for our customers, and are running smoothly. The bad news for Cornerstone is that having this mind set means we probably don’t focus enough on selling and signing up our next security company. I can live with that. Over the long haul, I want to make sure we under-promise and over-deliver.

The good news is that we have a base of very happy customers. We lose customers when they decide to sell out to one of the national players, which we accept as part of the way our industry  works.

Almost all of our customers handled their billing in-house before working with us. And, since our billing agreements are short-term, they could all return to in-house billing at any time. We’re gratified that they don’t, which means they see Cornerstone as a very good value. As they begin working with our online system, they see that it’s safe, it’s easy, and it saves them a lot of time every month.

The owners of  the security company who are our customers are looking for ways to work smarter – and our solutions are a big step in the right direction. While security companies have the big benefit of a recurring revenue base, they also have the hassle of a large volume of small ticket billing transactions required to support that base. Every 100 recurring invoices means 300 separate transactions that need accurate handling.

For instance, 100 Recurring Invoices (outbound) PLUS 100 Receipts (checks or autopayments) to review and post against the open invoices PLUS 100 payments to clear and to account for (deposit checks or clear autopayments through a merchant account) = 300 Total Transactions.

Cornerstone´s Full Service solution will handle about 290 of these 300 transactions for you – a huge reduction in your administrative load. Your staff suddenly has the time to be pro-active, to follow through with this handful of exceptions (like slow-pay accounts), help solicit referrals and other services from your existing accounts, whittle down your past-due balances, and so on. There’s a long list of tasks that are much more critical to your business than the clerical work we handle for you…especially since we guarantee that we’ll handle the work accurately.

Because Cornerstone has developed economies of scale, we’ve automated many parts of our processing, and have driven down our pricing over the years. So our fees are very reasonable – it should cost you no more to use Cornerstone than to manage these tasks in-house. And many customers have told us that we save them money. They also love the fact that the billing gets done, on time and professionally, no matter how busy things are in the office.

Finally, we have extremely high standards for our staff. We hire very carefully, and train based on a ´zero-errors´ standard. When our customers call for help, they expect fast, friendly, and professional service. I will accept nothing less. I’m personally available most days, if you want to talk to me. We expect to become a trusted ally that  you can count on for help and advice as you build your business.

I hope this helps answer the ´why´ question…call me to discuss further, or ask for references – the dealers that work with us every day. I´m at
(888) 629-8101 x2. I hope to hear from you.