PayPlan
From 70,000 letters a month to £100k annual savings
PayPlan, part of Totemic, provides free debt advice and communicates with creditors on behalf of over 100,000 people every year. That takes a lot of post, including statements, account summaries, updates, leaflets and welcome packs. Before Postworks, PayPlan was printing and posting around 70,000 letters every month using two employees, two printers and an expensive folder-inserter. By outsourcing post to Postworks, they now have digital workflows that handle complex documents, reduce manual effort and save around £100k each year.
The Challenge
PayPlan was at the mercy of the print queue
PayPlan sends a huge volume of important letters every month. Many contain sensitive personal information, and the business communicates with some of the biggest creditors in the UK. Getting post right was essential, but the old process made that harder than it needed to be.
The team relied on two employees, two printers and one expensive folder-inserter. The printers kept breaking down, the backlog kept growing and costs kept rising. PayPlan had even invested in document software to make things easier, but implementation was so tricky and time intensive that the project never gained traction.
Simon Linforth, Communications Director at Totemic, wanted post to be easy. But outsourcing was not a simple decision when so much of the mail contained sensitive, personal information.
Other suppliers made the process feel harder than it should have been. One offered poor customer service. Another tried to push the business through a painful contract process without a trial. Downstream Access providers could deliver the post, but they would not help create, sort and print the documents. It seemed like a failed experiment, until Simon tried Postworks.
A closer look at the results
70,000 letters a month
High-volume creditor communications are now managed through Postworks.
Employees freed from post
Manual mailing no longer depend on the in-house team.
£100k saved each year
PayPlan has reduced the cost of post by outsourcing to Postworks.
The Turning Point
Finding a supplier that made post simple
Postworks gave PayPlan a way to remove the pressure of printers, folder-inserters, document software and manual post room processes. Instead of PayPlan having to manage each moving part internally, Postworks recreated their complex document requirements as digital workflows. Different letters have different rules, including postage type, envelope size and specific inserts based on the contents of the letter. With Postworks, those workflows can be set up quickly whenever a new requirement appears.
The Postworks software takes PayPlan’s complex documents and manual processes and turns them into digital workflows. That means letters can be created, sorted, printed and posted without relying on broken printers, expensive machines or a never-ending print queue.
If Simon or the document team need to know what happened to a letter, they can log into the Postworks Hub and see who sent it, when it was sent, where it was sent and when it was posted. Custom reports also give line item detail and cost visibility, which is especially valuable for a business audited by the Financial Conduct Authority.
“I know I keep repeating myself, but Postworks just makes everything so easy.”
Simon LinforthCommunications Director, Totemic
The Outcome
High-volume post without the in-house post room
With Postworks in place, PayPlan no longer has to throw money at printers, post room software or random machines. Their post process now runs through digital workflows that support scale, reporting and security.
Key Results
📬 High-volume post handled externally
Around 70,000 pieces of post a month are managed through Postworks.
📊 Clear reporting for regulated teams
The Postworks portal shows letter status, cost and line item detail for audit visibility.
💷 £100k saved each year
Outsourcing post has helped PayPlan reduce annual costs significantly.
🔐 Sensitive documents handled securely
End-to-end, bank-level encryption helps protect personal information throughout the process.
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