Blog

As Senior Director of Marketing at Bill.com, I am using my decades of marketing experience to help move Bill.com to the next step.

I knew I wanted to be in marketing ever since I was a little kid. At 8, I didn’t just have a lemonade stand; I set mine up next to the local tennis courts, had different flavors and added ice! By age 10 my paper route was an excellent opportunity to market my other skills as a pet sitter, baby sitter, and general task rabbit. By 12 I had honed my skills as a marketer and parlayed these to help with outreach and fundraising for local charities and causes.

Fast-forward a few years (okay, decades), and I am still doing marketing and still leveraging these skills for good causes. Eight years ago I co-founded an endurance training and fundraising program to support the Ronald House at Stanford, called Team Ronald McDonald House, (Team RMH for short).

Ronald McDonald House at Stanford creates a “home-away-from-home” and supportive community for the families of little ones with life-threatening illnesses, receiving or waiting for treatment at Packard Children’s Hospital. For these families every day can be a challenge. They are so focused on their child, that it is hard to think about the day-to-day tasks that you and I take for granted, such as grocery shopping, doing a load of laundry or making a sandwich for lunch. Ronald McDonald House at Stanford provides a bit of respite so they can focus on their number one priority: the health of their child.

Ronald McDonald House at Stanford opened its doors in 1979 with just 12 rooms. The House can now accommodate 47 families per night in private rooms and features a communal kitchen and dining room, Children’s Activity Room, Teen Recreation Center, Computer Center, family library, and fitness center, in addition to a selection of program offerings that promote a sense of normalcy for each member of the family. When severe illness strikes a family, it isn’t just the patient who is affected. Regardless of whether they are adult, patient, or sibling, Ronald McDonald House at Stanford nurtures the whole family.

Ninety-five percent of the budget for the House has to be raised each year from the community, grants and special programs, like Team RMH. This 3-month, comprehensive training program, prepares runners and walkers to participate in the Big Sur Half Marathon taking place on Sunday, November 18, 2012 in Monterey, CA. This year we will have our very own Team Bill.com taking part, including Bill.com employees, their families and friends (and maybe even a few Bill.com customers - hint, hint). 

The picture you see is of Kalmia. At the time it was taken she was sixteen and staying at the House for an extensive period of time. She lives in Hawaii when she’s not at the Packard Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House. She and her mother both trained with Team RMH and ran the event in 2010. We always have inspiring people on our Team. It’s hard to complain about your training when you know that as soon as she is done with her run, she has to go back into the hospital for more tests and treatments. 

Make your next steps count! Join us for an upcoming Information Meeting or check out the Team website to learn more, www.teamrmh.org. Or if you would like to make a donation to support Team Bill.com, click here.

- Christina Del Villar, Senior Director of Marketing

Combined with Bill.com’s Cloud-based AP and AR System, it Offers the First Full Picture of Businesses’ Complete Cash Flow

PALO ALTO, CALIF. – June 27, 2012 - Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced the general availability of its powerful cash management feature that completes the Cash Flow Command and Control System™. This new feature leverages Bill.com's proprietary, cloud-based accounts payable and accounts receivable systems to deliver a more fluid method of cash flow management than ever before possible. Bill.com’s cash flow system is the only solution that connects user’s banks, books and business, enabling companies of all sizes to finally rid themselves of the cumbersome, error-prone and highly manual spreadsheets that have plagued finance for decades.

The cash flow solution empowers finance leaders with a comprehensive view of their cash forecast and the ability to take immediate action with unprecedented control and precision. Unlike the spreadsheet-based cash flow management processes that most businesses rely on today, the Cash Flow Command and Control System links directly to the users' key financial sources, including accounting systems, to gather information and populate automatically.  

Mac Frampton, co-owner, CFO and artist for Alkehest Artists and Attractions, uses Bill.com’s powerful cash flow system to manage his concert business, which requires him to book and track 40 artists as they perform across the country. Prior to Bill.com, Frampton often had difficulty tracking payments and knowing his cash flow position at any given time. His business relies on payments from clients which arrive at varying times based on when events take place.

“Before Bill.com, there was a lot of human error involved in my books so cash flow was hard to track. Bill.com’s cash flow system has given me immediate precision control over my cash flow. It has been miraculous,” Frampton said. “Not only do I have far superior knowledge of when I have enough money to make investments and when I need to tighten my belt, I can do this from my mobile device in real time, which is essential for someone who travels as much as I do.” 

With this new cash flow system, users also gain the ability to drill down into invoices, bills, contracts and notes while forecasting cash. Users can move items in and out to account for "what if" scenarios, countless variables and more. The information can easily be adjusted and modeled, and the results are reflected in easy-to-understand, one-step charts and tables. Even data that isn't recorded in the Bill.com system can be added seamlessly to provide businesses with the most intelligent cash flow forecasting system available today.

With the Bill.com cash flow system, businesses can obtain a true reality check of their financial situation at any given point in time since payables and receivables information is updated automatically, instantaneously transforming into live and actionable data. In addition, Bill.com helps companies understand the best times to collect money from customers or pay bills. It simplifies the ability to send reminders for payments due, then makes adjustments to project cash flow based on the expected date of payment or receipt, not just the original due date entered into a spreadsheet.  

“Our new cash flow management is changing the game in how businesses make financial decisions by arming them with streamlined, clear data rather than complicated, cumbersome spreadsheets," said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. "As our Beta users’ success has shown, real time cash flow management helps businesses not just control their bottom line, but make the investments and decisions needed to manage and grow their businesses as aggressively and easily as possible.” 

Availability

For more information on how to sign up for a risk-free trial of the new cash flow solution from Bill.com, please go to www.bill.com.  

About Bill.com

 Bill.com is a cash flow command and control system that manages accounts payable and receivable for businesses of all sizes. Offering online bill pay, custom invoicing services, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access, Bill.com's services easily sync to users' accounting software programs and online bank accounts to better control company financials. Bill.com guards against errors and employs enterprise-class fraud protections that current methods cannot match. More than 100,000 users are now getting paid and paying millions of bills, worth billions of dollars, using Bill.com. Financial institutions can now offer these benefits to their business customers by integrating Bill.com with their banking platform.

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For more information, please contact:

Eileen Conway

Scout PR

650-245-9015

Eileen@scoutprsf.com

Cash Forecast - Visualize future cash flow, take action now

Eliminate surprises by seeing in advance when cash will be tight. Observe when it’s going to be coming in and going out.

Pinpoint where you need to take action by looking over your Cash Forecast chart (formerly called “CashView”). See anything unexpected or out of the ordinary? Zoom in to the transaction details immediately below the chart for answers.

If you’ve been peering through a haze of spreadsheets to decipher your cash flow, we bring it all into focus. You get the picture.

The Cash Forecast chart enables you to project your future cash flow.

Payables - Get the big picture

Clicking the Payables tab now takes you to the Payables Overview. On one page, see a summary of everything you most want to know:

• How many bills are coming due soon? What’s the total dollar amount?
• How long have bills been waiting to get approved?
• Who needs to approve them?
• For bill payments you’ve scheduled:
  • How many are coming up?
  • How many recently happened?
  • What are the total dollar amounts?

Need to create a new bill? Pay one or more existing bills? Do it all, and see it all, from the Payables Overview. 

The Payables Overview allows you to see a summary of all your payables

Notes - Notice what’s notable in payables

Have you left a breadcrumb trail of Notes in your payables, but struggle to find the crumbs?  

Maybe you’re:

• Sifting through bills to see if any have Notes about special handling
• Researching a particular bill and want all the Notes at your fingertips
• Approving a batch of bills, but want to pay special attention to those that have Notes

We’ve moved Notes front and center, making them more prominent on the payables trail. Now if some detail was worth noting, it will jump off the page.

It is now easier to notice your notes.

Bill approvals - Choose how strict to be about late changes

Do you route bills for approval before you pay them? That’s a great way to stay on top of your cash flow. But what if you need to make changes AFTER one or more people have approved a bill?

Choose to be:

• Very strict - never allow changes to a bill that’s been approved
• Strict - allow changes until every approver has approved
• Lenient - allow changes anytime

Your choice applies to both bills and vendor credits.

Receivables - Make it easier for customers to pay you

In a perfect world, customers would pay you automatically. In fact, they’d set up to pay automatically before receiving their first invoice from you. And you could accept payment in the way that’s most convenient for your customers (typically a credit card).  

That’s our world.  So whether a customer is getting ready to pay by credit card ahead of time, or they’re updating a credit card they currently pay with, everything works perfectly.

And you get paid, automatically.  

Automatic payments make it easier for customers to pay you.

Your Bill.com Experience - Do everything you’ve been doing, only faster and easier

Details matter. We’ve been working on the details, making it easier for you to pay bills, invoice customers, and see how much cash you’re going to have:

• Text is easier to read
• Dates are easier to pick from calendars
• Tables are easier to skim
• Lists are easier to choose from
• Messages are easier to understand
• … and more

Heck, we’ve even made it nicer to sign in to your account. Because details matter, to us and to you.

Want to learn more? 
Download the June Release Powerpoint, view the recorded webinar or visit answers.bill.com 

Cathy Iconis, accountant and owner of Iconisgroup, is able to manage her clients' finances, as well as her own business, using cloud technologies. She uses QuickBooks Online as a platform, and implements Bill.com to meet all of her clients' billing needs.

The Intuit App Center features apps, such as Bill.com, that work with and enhance the QuickBooks Online experience.

Read more and learn how Cathy does it!

At 11:00 pm Sunday night, I started my New York adventure. I’ve never been to New York before, and was excited to see the city, but even better, I was on my way to collect an award!  

About 6 months before my trip, Customer Support applied for an American Business Awards Stevie Award and we won! The national awards dinner was in New York, so I hopped on a redeye and by morning, I was in the city!

My adventure started in a cab from the airport to the Marriott hotel on Broadway. The traffic was horrendous and what should have been a 30 minute cab ride took over 2 hours. The cab driver started out with long sighs, moved to chewing his nails and honking and eventually started shouting out the window. He “offered” to drop me off a half a mile from my hotel, insisting it was a “nice walk” but I let him know that he could take me the whole way to the hotel. “This is such a stressful job,” he murmured as he yanked my bags out of the trunk. I patted his arm in understanding, because in essence, he is also a customer service professional, but I don’t think I’ll be hiring him to serve customers at Bill.com anytime soon.

While walking around the city, I saw so many neat shops and amazing sights. Just like in Chicago (a city where I have spent a lot of time), the buildings make me feel miniscule and somewhat overwhelmed. Since I have so many friends in Chicago, I thought I should sample some New York pizza and put an end to the debate, at least for myself. After my little personal contest, I don’t even think calling them both pizza is appropriate. They’re very different, with the crispy lightness of the New York pizza contrasting with the thick, warm gooeyness of Chicago pizza. I actually like the lighter crust but prefer the richer sauce I’ve had in Chicago. (So nothing was settled and likely, more pizza must be consumed, in both cities, before the final ruling can be given).

Before the Stevie Awards ceremony, there was a cocktail reception. I stopped by a table to balance my hors d’oeurves and my wine glass and ended up making some delightful new friends in the health care industry. One of them is from the Pacific Northwest, like my sisters, and me, and my sister currently manages her favorite hometown pub. I promptly made her a “free drinks because Kathleen says so” card for her to present to my sister which earned me several hugs. I now have three new lifelong friends, and we’re already connecting and reminiscing our amazing Stevies evening, thanks to the magic of social media.

As the awards were announced, in between tweets to acknowledge the many great companies winning awards in various categories, I reflected on connections and how precious and important they are. Every employee in the customer support department is connected to me, and my network in some way, and in many cases, to each other. We extend this connection and this genuine feeling of belonging and togetherness with our customers -- we are working toward the common goal of customer success. It is also reflected in the Bill.com product itself, which drives collaboration between buyers and suppliers, vendors and customers, and business owners and their accountants.

Then it was magic time... Bill.com won the bronze Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year. I proudly held the award, hands trembling a little bit, and vamped for pictures; excited to bring the trophy home to the Bill.com service team and inspired to continue to grow and develop the world-class support our customers have come to expect from us.

New Expert and Guru Programs Provide Accounting Practices Using Bill.com with Competitive Advantages and Unique Branding Opportunities

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — June 13, 2012 – Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, online invoicing and cash flow management solutions for businesses, today rolled out a new certification program for accounting firms. The program provides accounting firms using Bill.com with the opportunity to brand their business as a Bill.com Expert or Guru, acknowledging their ability to pass along tremendous benefits to customers via progressive cloud-based accounting practices. The Bill.com Certification Program will help firms endorse their expertise in cloud-based finance management, enabling them to streamline back office operations and substantially grow business while maximizing their ROI.

“Bill.com is pleased to introduce our official Expert and Guru Certification program to accounting firms nationwide,” said René Lacerte, CEO and Founder of Bill.com. “Our company has always been dedicated to forming quality, long-term relationships with our customers, and we developed this program to properly educate accountants on how to maximize Bill.com’s potential. The program is designed to help accountants build credibility in the cloud, improve pricing strategies and increase their bottom line.”

The unique certification program consists of self-directed online courses that offer accountants two types of certification based on the level of training completed: Bill.com Expert and Bill.com Guru. The Bill.com Expert Certification helps accountants tailor custom solutions and automate processes for greater client efficiency. Instilled through the latest distance learning techniques, the Expert curriculum covers advanced features, expert business process workflow solutions and deeper product functionality.

The Bill.com Guru Certification elevates training to the next level, helping firms re-engineer their own processes and deliver higher levels of service more profitably. The Guru curriculum helps firms operate more strategically while developing new revenue streams – all with the same number of staff. As Bill.com Gurus receive an advanced understanding of workflow scenarios via a set of multimedia tools, they emerge as true masters of profitable client management in cloud-based environments.

Certification Program Levels

Bill.com Expert course topics include:

• In-depth knowledge of Bill.com, getting clients started and how the console works
• Thorough understanding of accounts payable, accounts receivable and document management capabilities
• Streamlining workflow and maximizing efficiencies with Bill.com

Bill.com Guru course topics include:

• Optimized workflow best practices
• Successful implementations and client workflow designs
• Videos about successful implementations and client workflow redesign
• Measuring ROI of Bill.com implementations
• Pricing strategies based on clients’ unique workflow

Prior to today’s mainstream program rollout, Bill.com invited a number of customers to participate in the certification program directly. As a result, 112 firms and 186 individuals are already Bill.com certified to-date. Through the display of Bill.com certified badges on their signatures, websites and blogs, these firms and accountants are now able to exhibit a level of credibility above and beyond their competitors, boosting their visibility in the public eye and their perception as a trusted advisor.

Bill.com is the only client service solution that works with all major accounting software and every U.S. bank, and clients benefit from the elimination of paperwork and the streamlined AP, AR and cash flow management features the system provides. Becoming Bill.com certified allows accounting practices to manage all of their clients from one, single screen, also enabling them to increase their revenues and margins by providing higher-level advisory services, and increased service in general, without adding staff or costs.

“Bill.com is an important component of our growth strategy and we felt it was critical to complete the Guru Certification process” said Calvin Wilder, SmartBooks’s co-founder and Bill.com Guru. “The certification training provided us with the tools to improve our efficiency allowing us to make more productive use of the time we spend supporting clients. With Bill.com we can deliver more value to clients while increasing our profit margin."

Pricing and Availability
The Bill.com Certification Program is offered to all accounting firms registered in the Bill.com Accountant Program. For more information on the program, its benefits, and pricing, please visit: http://www.bill.com/accountants/ or http://www.bill.com/accountants/certification-program.php.

About Bill.com

Bill.com is a cash flow command and control system that manages accounts payable and receivable for businesses of all sizes. Offering online bill pay, custom invoicing services, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access, Bill.com's service easily syncs to customers' accounting software programs and online bank accounts to better control company financials. Bill.com guards against errors and employs enterprise-class fraud protections that current methods cannot match. More than 100,000 companies are now getting paid and paying millions of bills worth billions of dollars using Bill.com. Financial institutions can now offer the benefits of Bill.com to their business customers by using Bill.com as part of their business-banking platform. 

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Contact

 AlexaRae Antekeier

Finn Partners for Bill.com

415-249-6778                                                                      

alexarae@finnpartners.com 

Enhanced cash flow management tool earns top accounting honor for second year in a row

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — June 6, 2012— Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, online invoicing and cash flow management solutions for businesses, today proudly announced that its Receivables solution has been selected as a recipient of the CPA Technology Advisor’s Innovation Award for the second consecutive year. Bill.com improved upon its already industry-leading Receivables solution in the past year, further benefiting accounting professionals via product enhancements that streamline workflow, improve client relationships, provide increased accessibility to the Bill.com platform, and improve collaboration using the powerful system.

In addition, by using the latest Bill.com Receivables solution, Bill.com customers can now:

• Manage receivables from a smartphone: view invoices and payments received, track open receivables and send reminders directly from a mobile device
• Stay on top of current and future cash flow: all receivables activity is automatically updated into Bill.com CashView, streamlining the forecasting process
• Scan and record checks received into Bill.com: Bill.com makes it much simpler to close out invoices paid using checks and will automatically archive the check image for future reference

“After revolutionizing payables management, the Bill.com Receivables solution is a great tool for businesses, helping them also simplify their receipt process by using an automated online system,” said Isaac M. O’Bannon, editor of CPA Practice Advisor. “In the last few years, Bill.com has won three Innovation Awards, which is a testament to the company’s dedication to innovation that truly helps businesses and their financial professionals.”   

Winners are selected by CPA Practice Advisor’s editorial advisory board and awards committee: a select group of thought leaders within the profession and accounting and tax professionals from across the country. The publication, along with its digital content and interactive media, is the leading independent source of practice management resources and technology information for tax and accounting professionals in public practice.

“Our team is honored to be recognized two years in a row for the enhancements we’ve developed for the Bill.com Receivables platform,” said René Lacerte, CEO and founder of Bill.com. “We are certainly aware that other SaaS and mobile solutions are beginning to enter the online financial management sector. That is why we have placed such an important emphasis on continual product innovation. We are laser focused on ensuring businesses and accountants continue to benefit from Bill.com’s financial management platform, and we’re enabling them to make the smartest financial decisions possible to maximize their cash flow.”

About Bill.com
Bill.com is a cash flow command and control system that manages payables and receivables for businesses of all sizes. Offering online bill pay, custom invoicing services, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access, Bill.com's services easily sync to customers' accounting software programs and online bank accounts to better control company financials. Bill.com guards against errors and employs enterprise-class fraud protection that current methods cannot match. More than 100,000 companies are now getting paid and paying millions of bills worth billions of dollars using Bill.com. Financial institutions can now offer these benefits to their business customers by integrating Bill.com with their banking platform.

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Allison Yochim
Finn Partners for Bill.com
(415) 348-2724
Allison@finnpartners.com

How should I record credit card receipts I send to Bill.com?

1. Send your credit card receipt to your Bill.com Inbox. Then click on the receipt thumbnail and process them as if they were bills. Note: you can use the notes to payer and approvers field to alert the payer to use the Record as Paid function for these receipts (or you can record it yourself after entering the receipt information).
2. Once the bill has been entered, on the Pay Bills page, select the outstanding bills you recorded and click “Record as Paid”.
3. Then select the corresponding Credit Card account (the account type must be “Credit Card”), select “Enter check or ref#” and click Save.
4. Next time you sync, these credit card transactions will be posted directly into Credit Card accounts in your accounting software.
5. When you receive the credit card bill, you can also enter it into Bill.com so you can pay it via Bill.com. However, instead of adding each expense account in the bill, you should assign the bill expense to the Credit Card account (same used when recording the receipts).
6. Then you can pay this bill via Bill.com (you can easily set up ePayments with credit card providers since they are available in the Bill.com electronic payments directory). Next time you sync, it will update your credit card account balance accordingly.