The finance department of our company insists on paying local suppliers by cheque and the suppliers are forced to come to our offices to collect the cheques. Seems to me that in 2016 we should change to modern online transfers to reduce paperwork and make it quick and convenient, but our finance department are resisting this. Just wondering what other local companies do or if anyone has any comments.

Expect your company wants more of paper trail of payments than can be provided by electronic payment. Maybe it reduces follow-on complaints/law suits in regards to not being paid, documentation/receipts related to taxes, etc.

Listen to the finance department.

One of the things they may be concerned about is that if you use online banking then there is always the possibility that some staff member will transfer all the company's money away.

The wife pays sales reps by cheque. It stops them running off with cash which has been known to happen in the past with other businesses.

Cash or credit card if she's at their business.

Bank transfer to regular suppliers followed by a photo of the transfer receipt sent to the suppliers Line account.

It gives her a good paper trail and on the rare occasion payment was queried it was settled without problem.

Thanks for the comments so far. Our overseas suppliers are already paid by online wire transfers, sometimes over THB10M at a time, and so I doubt that this is related to fears about staff stealing.

I think it is related to having an offline paper trail, and I accepted that for several years because I know Thai bureaucracy loves paperwork. However, more and more of our local clients, especially the local subsidiaries of multinationals, are paying us by online transfers nowadays so I guess it is starting to change.