How The ASPCO Uses MoonClerk to Save Over 2 Hours a Week of Administrative Work

Abbey Tootle, Treasurer of The Artists Screen Printing Cooperative (ASPCO), talks with us about her experience in using MoonClerk.

Can you tell us a little about The Artists Screen Printing Cooperative?

The Artists Screen Printing Cooperative is a non-profit studio in Austin, Texas, that provides a shared studio space and screen printing equipment to artists and designers so that they can create original works, collaborate and learn with others.

What are your responsibilities at ASPCO?

Our co-op is all volunteer run, and I serve as the treasurer. My responsibilities include billing all members for their annual dues and monthly fees to use the studio, as well as paying bills and managing the co-op finances.

How did you get started?

My husband had the idea to start our co-op about 5 years ago. He found some other artists who were just as committed to the idea, and I’ve been lucky enough to be on the ride with them ever since!

What have been some key factors in growing your co-op?

Since we are volunteer run, we are always looking for ways to be more efficient and allocate our limited resources. Establishing processes to recruit, screen and orient new members has really improved the operation of our co-op and has eliminated a lot of headaches for our volunteer board of directors. Finding the clearest and easiest way to bill members for their monthly fees is a big part of that efficiency gain, especially when it comes to orienting new members. The payment system we were using before MoonClerk was confusing and always resulted in multiple emails flying back and forth between our new members and the membership team trying to clear up the confusion.

What do you use MoonClerk for?

ASPCO uses MoonClerk to charge recurring monthly payments to our co-op members for their usage of our shared studio space. We especially love that we can add a one-time payment to the same transaction when a new member is setting up their payment profile. We have an annual membership fee and this allows new members to take care of everything in one easy step!

Before MoonClerk, did you use another payment system?

Yes, we have used PayPal for the last 3 years.

Why did you make the switch to MoonClerk?

Ugh, I don’t think I have enough time or energy to explain all of the problems we had with PayPal! My biggest issue is that we paid $19.99 per month for an “Automatic Billing” service that was completely NOT automatic. As the treasurer, I had to go into PayPal each month and manually process a transaction for each of our 35 members. That may not sound terrible, but all of our members were on different 30 day cycles, depending on when they set up the service, so I had to log in multiple times during the month and process the transactions for members when they were within the correct 30 day window. I probably spent 3-4 hours per month managing this whole process.

The other major issue is that when a member’s payment method expired or changed, there was no way for me to identify what the issue was, PayPal would just say that “the payment cannot be processed at this time.” That caused all kinds of confusion and unnecessary communication on our end with members trying to get their account updated.

How did this affect your business?

Lost time and incredible frustration were the main effects for me.

What made you decide to use MoonClerk?

I was searching for another solution besides PayPal when I stumbled upon MoonClerk. The interface looked really clean and easy to use, so I gave it a shot.

What was your experience when switching and getting started with MoonClerk?

Setting up our account and connecting it with our bank was incredibly simple. As soon as I started setting up our first form I knew that switching to MoonClerk was a great decision. It’s like the designer anticipated every nuance and customization I might want to make, without making the form clunky or confusing. Within minutes I had a payment form that was incredibly easy to understand, yet offered all of the special options I wanted to give my members. I couldn’t wait to roll it out!

I also received excellent support and customer service from the MoonClerk team. MoonClerk is a company that wants to hear what users need and is willing to make the changes and updates to make us happy!

What do you like about MoonClerk?

The clean, simple interface is so easy to navigate on the backend, and my members have had absolutely no questions about how to set up their payment profiles on the front-end. I was able to easily customize our forms to match our co-op branding, and I can make simple tweaks to the form without having to generate new code for our website or new links to send to members via email. Also, MoonClerk automatically deposits funds from our transactions into our bank account! That’s one less step for me and makes my life easier.

How has MoonClerk improved or helped your business?

Since moving all of my members to MoonClerk, I have saved HOURS worth of time billing and documenting payments from my members. In my first week of using it alone, I saved 2 hours of work. I also have been able to offer more customized payment options to members to meet their exact needs, and creating each form is a snap.

Any advice for others who are in similar industries?

If you have members, clients or customers who are on a recurring billing plan, I just can’t recommend MoonClerk enough. It has saved me so much time and eliminated so many headaches. Give it a shot and I think you’ll love it.

Photo by @nicoatienza