Bill.com Blog

Exciting new features to kick off Spring!

Spring is here and we're celebrating by launching a ton of new exciting features! 

We’re Growing Attached to Attachments

You’ve always been able to store documents with bills, vendors, and your company.  Now you can also form healthy attachments to accounts (in your Bill.com Chart of Accounts), customers, invoices, and payments received.    

Want to attach a contract to a customer?  A timesheet to an invoice?  A cleared check image to an offline payment?  Just bring them into Bill.com the way you’ve always brought in documents, then tell us what you want to attach them to. 

And it’s always nice to share. So when you attach a document to a customer or a customer invoice, you can choose to share that document with them:  they can download it to take a look or make changes to their copy.  Share an estimate with a customer, a purchase order for one of their invoices, or any supporting document.  

Make It Easier for Customers to Pay You

Let them pay by credit card!  We’ve partnered with Vantage/PayTrace, so you can set up a merchant account for accepting credit card payments at low rates. All payments go straight to your bank account, so you can put that money to work right away. 

 Vantage/PayTrace Advantages

• Instant preferred price quote - Best interchange rates  
• Month-to-month agreement - Risk-free 
• Lowest commercial card rate - Level 3 payment processing
• Unlimited personal service -  Payment consultations and specialized advice
• Reward points - Get reward points for processing payments

Also, you have the option of charging customers a convenience fee for paying by credit card.  It’s a separate charge that doesn’t appear on any customer invoices.

Mobile 2.0

Pay bills on the go?  There’s an app for that.  Send invoices to customers on the go?  The app does that, too!  Manage your day-to-day finances using our mobile app.   Approve bills.  Pay bills.  Add notes.  View and send invoices.   Share documents with customers.  All from your mobile phone.

Check out more details on our new Bill.com Mobile features here!

Better Reminders

What’s the hold up?  You’ve entered your bills and they’re (almost) ready to be paid.  The problem: someone is supposed to give their “OK to be paid” approval, but they haven’t yet.  See who is holding things up, and for how long, by clicking the Payables tab > Overview. 

Show the Flow on Your Calendar – True Cash Flow

Get a more true picture of your cash flow on the Bill.com calendar.  Hide unpaid bills to see only actual cash payments .  If you’re confident a payment is truly on the way,  include it by changing its estimated invoice payment date on the calendar.

QuickBooks Desktop Users - Now Create Invoices in QuickBooks or Bill.com!

You want to send out some invoices, because you’d like to get paid.  But you’re on the road, and QuickBooks is back at the office. No problem:  create invoices directly in Bill.com, then sync them into QuickBooks. 

Or maybe you want to keep your employees (or clients) out of QuickBooks?  Same solution:  have them create invoices directly in Bill.com, then sync the invoices into QuickBooks.  

Once synced, make any subsequent edits to invoices in QuickBooks.  Otherwise, manage your receivables in Bill.com.

When customers pay you, syncing those payments back to QuickBooks is easier now, too.  We sync one journal entry for all the payments (so you don’t need to manually record individual deposits in QuickBooks).

Company name, contact name and sales tax items on invoices are now synced to QuickBooks.  It’s all taken care of!

QuickBooks Online (QBO) through the Intuit App Center - A Better Jump Start!

We do all the heavy lifting to help you get started.  When you sign up for Bill.com through the Intuit App Center, we automatically bring over the Chart of Accounts, vendors, and items from your QBO company file.  We also bring over your unpaid and partially paid bills.  After that, you choose when (and how often) to sync Bill.com with QBO.

When you make a Bill.com payment, we automatically create a journal entry so you don't have to. 

API Updates

Get the latest version of our API and you’ll be able to manage receivables, import invoices and accept payments through your branded portal. 

Have Questions? 

We’re here to help.  As always, click “Support” in your Bill.com account to contact us. 

The Bill.com Team

Bill.com Mobile 2.0

Pay business bills on the go?  There’s an app for that.  Send invoices to customers on the go?  With Bill.com Mobile 2.0 The app does that, too! 

No matter what device you use, you can access Bill.com Mobile at https://app.bill.com/m. Want to see what it looks like? You can try it from any browser on a Mac or PC by clicking on the link above!

All you need to do from any mobile device is go to the URL above (best to bookmark it!) or just access the normal login page (you will be redirected to the mobile login page automatically). Bill.com Mobile works with android, iphone, blackberry, everything else. It's not just for the iPhone!

Very soon, we will launch a native iPhone app in the iTunes App Store. However you do not need to download anything to start using Bill.com Mobile today!

Here are the key features:

New Receivables Features

With the latest version you can now manage online invoicing and receivables via Bill.com Mobile.

• View a dashboard of open and overdue invoices
• View a list of received electronic payments (the money is in your account with no trips to the bank!)
• View images of your customer invoices, exactly as your customers see them
• Send/Email invoices to your customers from your mobile device
• Send your customers reminders to pay
• Collaborate with customers by adding notes and reading notes your customers send you

 

 

New Payables Features for Bill.com Mobile

We've also updated Bill.com Mobile with new Payables features!

• View document images of your bills
• Approve bills and add approver notes
• Review all approver notes prior to paying
• Make payments from multiple bank accounts (it's completely secure... no bank account information is exchanged between your mobile device and our servers!)
• Adjust payment processing date to optimize cash flow
• Adjust payment amounts

We hope you love these new features and continue to benefit from optimized access to your daily financial processes... anytime, anywhere!

The Bill.com Team

 

 

Sneak Peek: Upgrades Coming This Weekend!

It is hard to imagine, but spring is here and so is the New Bill.com. We could hardly wait to get this release out - Sexy new Mobile App, Doc's attaching, Improved Cash Flow Calendar, Credit Card Payments, QuickBooks updates and more. All coming this weekend!

Here's a sneak peak:

• Attached to Attachments: You've always been able to store documents with bills, vendors, and your company. Now you can also attach them to accounts (in your Bill.com Chart of Accounts), customers, invoices, and payments received.

• Improved Cash Flow Calendar: Get a truly complete picture of your cash flow on the Bill.com calendar. Hide unpaid bills to see only actual cash payments.
  
  
• Mobile 2.0: Need to pay bills and send invoices on the go? The Bill.com Mobile does that! Approve bills. Pay bills. Add notes. View and send invoices. Collaborate with Customers. It's all there!
  
  
• Receivables Users: Get Paid by Credit Card: We've partnered with Vantage/PayTrace, so you can set up a merchant account for accepting payments at low rates. In addition, you have the option of charging a convenience fee that appears as a separate charge and will not appear on customer invoices.
  
  
• QuickBooks Desktop Users: Create Invoices Anywhere: You're on the open road but QuickBooks is back at the office, no problem, create invoices directly in Bill.com, then sync them into QuickBooks! Once synced, make any subsequent edits to invoices in QuickBooks; or, manage your receivables in Bill.com. Syncing customer payments back to QuickBooks is easier now, too, we sync one journal entry for all the payments!
  
  
• Better Approvals: You've entered your bills and they're ready, pending approval, to be paid. Now easily see who has your process hostage, and for how long in your payables overview page. No more hold-ups!
  
  
• API Updates: Get the latest version of our API and you'll be able to manage receivables, import invoices and accept payments through your branded portal.

Best of all, because we are a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product, you don't have to do anything to use these new features. No upgrades and no IT help required. Sign on to your account Saturday and the new features will all be there!

The Bill.com Team

A Special Earth Day Thank You to Our Customers!

BIll.com wants to take a moment to thank our customers for embracing the cloud and going paperless! Here are some ways they are saving the environment.... 

On line Payments

Did you know that Bill.com Customers are paying over $2B in bill payments annually and are eliminating millions of paper documents, stamps and envelopes every year? That's saving some real trees! Not to mention headaches! 

Document Storage

Bill.com Customers have been taking advantage of their unlimited documents storage and have uploaded: bills, contracts, proposals, billing statements, tax forms, invoices, you name it. They no longer print, copy and file documents. Everything is stored in digital files and available at the touch of a click from anywhere (including mobile devices!).  

Electronic Vendor Network

Bill.com's vendor network allows our customers to easily setup vendor and customer payments via Bill.com ePayments. They can now pay any vendor or get paid by any customer 100% electronically! No more paper checks. No more stamps and envelopes. No more trips to the bank for either our customer or their vendors! Think of the fuel savings (and the saved time)!!!

At Bill.com we are passionate about eliminating paper (and wasted time) from every aspect of the payment and invoicing process. We are proud to work with so many businesses that are chasing their dreams, and not paper. And helping the environment at the same time!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

The Bill.com Team

“The Thank You Economy” Wisdom from Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk made a local appearance this week at Kepler’s bookstore in Menlo Park and a few of us Bill-dot-comers went out to hear what he had to say. We’ve read his new book “The Thank You Economy” – as well as 2009’s bestseller “Crush It” -- and believe Vaynerchuk’s message can help small businesses win loyal customers for life. (It can also help small businesses turn into gargantuan ones, as evidenced by Wine Library TV metamorphosis into $60 million annual business.)

If the 234-page book had to be distilled down into a central premise, it would be these words from the book jacket:

"Gone are the days when a blizzard of marketing dollars can overwhelm the airwaves, shut out the competition, and grab customer awareness. Now customers' demands for authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty, and good intent have made it necessary for companies and brands to revert to a level of customer service rarely seen since our great-grandparents' day, when business owners often knew their customers personally, and gave them individual attention.”

Or to Twitterize this thought even further with Vaynerchuk’s own words at Monday’s gathering:

Caring is the new battleground.

If you can out-care your competitors, you win. If you don’t, someone else wins. Vaynerchuk predicts that we’re living through the biggest culture shift of our time and only brands that can be humanized have a chance of surviving.

Recognizing that small businesses are stretched as it is, Vaynerchuk recommends seeing social media outreach not as a distraction from your core business, but part of it. The most effective tool for every business owner? Search.twitter.com, which Vaynerchuk recommends business owners use daily to do an “audit” of their own business name and industry terms. Then respond quickly to happy or disgruntled customers, learn about opportunities early, listen to how customers describe their needs and join the conversation.

In short, care.

And... be sure to follow Bill.com on twitter... we're listenning! @billcom, @billcom_acct, @rlacerte, @morttung

Online Invoicing Case Study: ASAP Accounting and Payroll

Homeowners associations depend on their members' monthly dues to pay for all the services needed to maintain their common facilities, from mowing the lawns to plowing the parking lots. Collecting these assessments is easy when homeowners are ... at home.

But the owners of houses, townhomes and condos in resort communities like Telluride, Colorado, may be anywhere - at their regular homes, at other vacation houses or even vacationing abroad. Tracking down and notifying 900 resort-area homeowners about their assessments and reminding them of missed payments was an enormous task for Colorado-based ASAP Accounting and Payroll Services. Then ASAP began working with Bill.com as part of the Bill.com Accountant Program through CPA2Biz to develop its online payment management system that automatically bills far-flung homeowners, keeps track of when they pay their dues, and nudges them when they don't. "Bill.com has streamlined the dues receivables process down to almost no effort at all," says Diana Murray, ASAP's director of business development.

ASAP is a 21-year-old accounting firm with five offices, in Denver and four Colorado resort communities, including Telluride, Durango, and Aspen’s Roaring Fork Valley. Among their 400 small and mid-sized business clients are 35 homeowner associations (HOAs) that usually collect dues 12 times a year. "Every month," says Murray, "our workers were mailing out dues notices to hundreds of homeowners. When the homeowners mailed back their checks, we'd pile them up, enter each one into the HOA's database, and then deposit them into the right bank accounts. When individuals missed payments, we'd mail out reminders."

Today, Bill.com's receivables package synchronizes into ASAP's accounting programs and automatically sends out e-mail dues invoices to individual homeowners. "Homeowners like the new arrangement," says Murray, "because they have control over their accounts. They can choose to initiate electronic payments each month and decide which day to pay their dues.  Some elect to set up recurring payments when the dues are consistent. "

Dan Lind, Bill.com's vice president of operations and support, reports that, on average, customers using the company's Receivables program with its e-payment option are getting paid 2 to 3 times faster than with their previous paper systems. E-payments, Lind says, average just five days from the invoice due date, while payments by check take 12 days. Murray says, "Getting paid faster makes an enormous difference to our small and mid-sized business customers who rely on steady cash-flow."

Although ASAP initially worked with Bill.com to accommodate their HOA client, the accounting firm offers it to their other clients and now has a total of 106 customers using the paperless system. "The most recent convert," Murray says, "was a firm that was manually entering their receivables into an Excel spreadsheet. Now that Bill.com is managing their payments, they have more time to devote to their clients." 

HOAs, too, need timely payments. The New San Juan Owners Association, for example, assesses monthly dues to the 26 owners including of retail stores, office suites and penthouse apartments located in historic downtown Telluride. Using the Bill.com receivables system, ASAP collects from all owners at about the same time, whether they reside in the area or live far away and rent out their mountainside condos to tourists.

Homeowners who miss the first notice receive e-mail reminders and homeowners that don't pay on time are automatically assessed late fees. The receivables system keeps a separate 'portal' for each customer with an audit trail of invoices and payments, so homeowners in Aspen, or New York, or Paris can check their accounts online, using computers or even their iPhones. "The ability for owners to access their own accounts online means fewer people calling in with questions," Murray says. And because Bill.com automatically routes HOA vendor bills through each association's approval process, board members are spending less time completing their volunteer duties.

Bill.com's paperless receivables program is also freeing up time for ASAP's staff. "We can reduce our fees to our Bill.com customers," Murray says, "and use that time to improve other services for our existing customers and attract new clients. Bill.com isn't just helping us do our work; it's actually helping us grow!"

Download Case Study PDF

Countdown to Earth Day

Friday, April 22 is Earth Day, the 41^st year of celebration for our planet. This year’s theme is A Billion Acts of Green®, celebrating over 45 million personal, organizational and corporate pledges to live and act sustainably.  How can your company get involved? Here are just a few ways:

• Organize an earth day hike, walk, run, swim or bike outing.
• Call your local Parks Department and offer to plan a park clean-up, invasive plant removal or tree planting.
• Join forces with other local businesses and environmental organizations and host an eco-fair to inform the public about ways they can build a greener future. Schedule it to coincide with your farmers market or other popular local event.
• Call a school or community center and offer to build and plant a vegetable garden and help maintain it during the year. Donate the supplies and your employees’ time.
• Host a competition for the best idea to reduce your company’s carbon emissions and support sustainability. Reward the winner with a paid day off plus the gratification of seeing their idea realized. Or invite your customers into the competition via Facebook and reward the winner with free products or services from your company throughout 2011. Check out our Earth Day logo competition!

Whatever you decide to do to recognize Earth Day, consider registering your planned action at www.earthday.org/earth-day-2011. Your employees will be even more motivated knowing they’re participating in the largest-ever environmental service movement.

And if you’re using Bill.com, pat yourself on the back. Digitizing your bill payment processes saves paper, ink and mail truck emissions.

Happy Earth Day, Everyone!