Strength in covers: Perma-Bound adds years of life to school and library books.

Perma-Bound is a family-owned company that understands the value of a dollar — especially when working with cost-conscious schools.

Based in Jacksonville, Illinois, Perma-Bound is in the business of helping school districts stretch their book budgets further. Using premium, partially manual techniques its founders learned in Europe, the 70-year-old company rebinds textbooks and library books, extending their lives by up to ten years. Known as “the strongest books you can buy,” Perma-Bound books are found in classrooms from New York City to Los Angeles and countless communities in between.

Building a better payment system.

School districts aren’t the only ones benefiting from Perma-Bounds’ budget-stretching mission. The company’s leaders know how to squeeze value from the opportunities before them as well.

Consider the payment system the company uses to pay publishers of the new paperback books it purchases for its extensive online sales inventory, as well as suppliers of the materials needed for new and used book rebinding, several who expect payment at the time an order is placed or upon shipment, explained Kate Petersen, the company’s Secretary-Treasurer.

“It’s much easier to make these payments by card than by check,” she said. “It’s faster, and much more efficient.”

When Petersen joined Perma-Bound early in 2022, however, she found that the company’s existing card payment program didn’t offer the functionality and transparency she wanted.

“From a technology perspective, that platform was very old school,” Petersen said. “It didn’t offer any account reconciliation and management tools.” And while the company received a revenue share for card payments each year, the amount was unpredictable.

With just one Accounts Payable (AP) staffer, Petersen wanted to upgrade their payment technology to improve efficiency. So, when an account manager who Petersen knew from Commerce Bank reached out to discuss the AP Card program offered by CommercePayments®, she was eager to listen.

Petersen already knew that the CommercePayments® solution would allow Perma-Bound to pay invoices and purchase orders with one-time-use virtual cards, earning a revenue share with every payment.

But the platform, she learned, also did much more. “We previously could only download reports in a PDF format,” she explained. “The tools, reporting features and self-service options on the Commerce platform are much more robust and transparent.”

For example, with the CommercePayments® solution, it is possible to see when a vendor retrieves a payment. Revenue share is predictable. “The platform also makes it really easy to filter data to create our own custom reports, so we don’t spend hours looking for information,” Petersen said.

Within months of joining Perma-Bound, Petersen switched the company’s AP Card program to Commerce. At about the same time, the company also began using purchasing cards from CommercePayments® to pay for online purchases, travel and other expenses.

Onboarding success.

The transition to the new AP Card platform exceeded expectations, Petersen said. “I’ve done a lot of system implementations in my career, and this was the smoothest, least painful onboarding I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

The company works with more than 730 publishers and suppliers. The CommercePayments® team helped enroll larger ones in the program and supported Perma-Bounds’ efforts to set up or transition smaller ones. Only about 30 percent of Perma-Bounds’ vendors are now paid by check.

“Our entire team from Commerce are great to work with,” Petersen added. “Our account manager is fantastic — proactive, friendly, helpful — always responsive to our questions and offering new ideas and suggestions.”

Making every penny count.

In 2023 — the first full year with the new platform — Perma-Bound’s electronic payments totaled over $15 million. More than half were completed with the AP Card with the remainder made by purchasing card.

Petersen expects to migrate more payments from purchasing cards to the AP Card program in the years ahead. “When we set up large suppliers with a card on file, the AP payment process is more automated than the purchasing card program, saving us time,” she explained. “The revenue share on AP Cards is also greater.”

Perma-Bound’s lone AP staffer has grown particularly savvy about matching suppliers with payment methods that fit their needs and maximize rebate opportunities, Petersen said. With a tutorial from Commerce, she quickly learned how to enroll new vendors with considerable success.

“Many of our vendors appreciate faster payments,” she said. “We have also cut down on the hassles associated with checks that are lost in the mail.”

The new platform also meets Petersen’s productivity goals. “With the enhanced functionality, accounting is now easier and more efficient,” Petersen said. “As we grow, that is important.”

CommercePayments® is a solution provided by Commerce Bank.