Royal mail business account

[k100danny]

Hi i wonder if anyone can help me, i run an online retail business and send around 3000 small packages per year, i send to the uk and international. I tend to have someone take all of these to the post office which is time consuming and also i know royal mail offers cheaper prices for a business accounts. I have stuck with what i know so far but now i am trying to make the business even more profitable and for this i need to free up some time.

My problem with opening a royal mail business account is really the transferring over, how are parcels sent ect? I mean if i have 20 items going to the uk, 5 going abroad, 10 that need signing for this is easy to tell the guy at the post office and he does the service i ask, is doing this myself through a business account more work?

I don't mind sending say all of my uk items via the same method and then once every few days taking the international items to the post office if this makes it easier.

also with my postage its easy, I put my postage receipt into my costs folder, when using an online account what happens? do you sign up for DD and then just get an invoice each month?

any help would be much appreciated. Kind regards

 

[Raw Rob]

You have to enter your order for the various products you want onto the RM website. And put them into different sacks depending on service. So you have to do that part rather than the guy at the Post Office, but you save time queuing and save money so probably worth while. And you can get them to collect from you daily, for free if you spend over a certain amount (was £5000, not sure if it still is), saving more time.
Yes, you get an invoice once a month, usually paid by DD.

 

[anthonyd]

My problem with opening a royal mail business account is really the transferring over, how are parcels sent ect? I mean if i have 20 items going to the uk, 5 going abroad, 10 that need signing for this is easy to tell the guy at the post office and he does the service i ask, is doing this myself through a business account more work?

These are all entered into your order on the Royal Mail website, and you bag them separately into 1st Class/2nd Class/Airmail etc.

It's probably worth noting depending on how many items you send per year and of what size you'd probably qualify for the RM 24/48 service, essentially the same as 1st and 2nd class mail but it's far cheaper for items > 1kg, and if you're VAT registered it works out even cheaper as these are charged with VAT (where as 1st/2nd class aren't)

If you use any order processing software (e.g. Linnworks) then you can automate the process even more as some have the facility to link in to Royal Mail Accounts and automatically upload your order/print the appropriate labels you need to place on parcels

I don't mind sending say all of my uk items via the same method and then once every few days taking the international items to the post office if this makes it easier.

International parcels can still be done via Royal Mail account, they just need bagging/labelling separately

also with my postage its easy, I put my postage receipt into my costs folder, when using an online account what happens? do you sign up for DD and then just get an invoice each month?

Assuming you pass the credit checks etc. you'd normally get 30 days credit paid via DD & invoices from RM accordingly.

 

[exceedmedia]

The free collection is now for accounts turning over £15,000 per year of revenue with RM, otherwise its £775+vat per year for a daily collection.

 

[JPMiddleton]

You can also drop your sacks off at a Royal Mail sorting office if you don't want to go to a PO, but then a fair amount of times they share the same location anyway.

 

[RedOnion]

To get a free collection straight away you need to prove that you have spent over £15,000 on postage in the last year.

If you can't, then they will charge you the £775 plus VAT. However, that will be refunded once you reach £15,000 in a year. This can be from previous postings as well as ones that you do once the collection starts, just as long as you have spent, and can prove it, £15,000 in a year.

Tracy