Bills 2.0

New Features Make Bill Approvals and Payment Even Easier!

Approving Bills Just Got Even Easier and More Efficient!

Approvers can approve multiple bills from their bill approval list!  To approve several bills at once simply check the box to select the bills you want to approve and click "approve". 

If you need to add notes to the bill when approving, click on "Slideshow Approval" and you will see individual bills (including images) and can enter notes and approve or deny each bill. 

 

It is Now Even Easier and Faster to Void Payments

You can now void recent payments from the bill detail screen without having to contact our Operations team.   As long as the payment has not cleared (by check or electronically), payments will be credited to your account automatically or a new check will be issued.

It is Now Easier to Discover and Resolve Checks That Have Not Cleared

It is inevitable that some check payments may not get to a vendor either because of an unknown change in address or problem with the mail. The best solution is to start paying your vendors with ePayments! But, in situations where check payments are still required we have made it easier to review and resolve checks that have been outstanding for too long.

The Bill.com To Do list will show authorized users how many checks are outstanding.

Simply click on the link to review uncashed checks.  Checks that have been outstanding for more than 20 days will be highlighted in red.  You can choose to void and credit the payment to your account or void and reissue the check to the vendor.

Now Receive Automatic Notification of Returned Checks

When a check is returned to Bill.com by the US Mail you will be notified via email and you’ll see a task in your To-Do list to advise you that action is required to continue processing the payment. 

Clicking on this link will allow you to review the returned check information and take action. You can update the vendor information and reissue the check or void and credit the payment to your account.

Increased Controls for Accountant Console Users

A new Staff role for the accounting firm staff which allows the firm to limit what an accounting firm user sees within the Accountant Console.   Staff users get free access to client accounts but cannot view or change client billing options, alter your logo, or add new client accounts.

Note that this role restricts what an accountant user can do in the Accountant Console and does not determine a user's role within a client organization (Administrator, Payer, Clerk, etc.). Accountant users can be restricted as "Staff" users in the console but be Administrators (or other roles) in individual client accounts.

  

 Let us know what you think of these new features!!!!

New Feature: Custom Roles Provide Greater Control and Flexibility

We often hear that one of the most powerful capabilities of Bill.com for small and medium-sized businesses as well as accountants and their clients is our multi-user, process-centric approach to the entire AP process from bill presentment, through approvals, through payment.

Enabling multi-user access to an entirely online AP process, including making payments more efficient through a secure, integrated experience with your bank, requires a system built from the ground up that supports role-based user access, provides automated workflow, and enforces financial controls. And it must give organizations a great deal of flexibility to design a process that works the way they do (and satisfies their auditors!!).

This weekend, we extended our approach to defining user roles, making it possible for organizations to fine-tune user access to information and features within Bill.com.

Our original roles (which are all still available) already provide a great deal of flexibility and security:

With new custom roles, Bill.com customers have access to much more granular permissions and actions than are available with our standard roles. You can now:

• "Clone" existing roles and modify specific attributes to fine tune what your users can do
• Control user activities including what objects they can view/manage within Bill.com
• Fine tune the use of certain key features

Some sample role customizations include:

• Allowing users to manage bills but not access other documents
• Enabling users to only perform one task, like entering bills
• Allowing users to sync with the accounting system even though they cannot manage bills
• Creating a view-only role for auditors
• and many more options!

For instance, you can now set different permissions to view or manage (create/update/delete) different object/document types:

You can also control whether a user that has been assigned to approve a bill should have access to supporting documents or not (if they do not have it by default):

And, you have more flexibility to define what users can do with payments:

We also provide permission options for system and user setup (for example, allowing you to give some users permission to create, approve, and pay bills, but restricting their ability to add new users).

With this new feature, businesses and accounting firms will have even more flexibility and control over user access and ability to enforce separation of duties. 

Of course, if your organization does not need this kind of flexibility our standard roles are still available!

We hope you like this new and very powerful feature!

New Feature: CSV Import for Accounts, Vendors, and Departments

Bill.com customer have always enjoyed very tight integration with QuickBooks and Intacct, including the ability to synchronize general ledger accounts, vendors, and departments (if you are using departments) between those products and Bill.com (2-way sync between Bill.com and QuickBooks and 1-way sync from Intacct to Bill.com).

Now, organizations using other accounting packages such as Thomson Reuters Write-Up CS, Peachtree, Great Plains, NetSuite and other packages have a new option for populating Bill.com with this crucial data using a CSV Import Feature, making it easier to use Bill.com and ultimately gain tremendous efficiency in the APand bill payments processes. 

Go to the Set Up > Accounting > Sync and you will see options for importing these objects directly into Bill.com (we also provide you access to sample import files and help files that outline required formats).

As always, let us know what you think!

Tip: Digitize and access more than bills with Bill.com!

Most of our customers are used to the way Bill.com allows you to easily digitize bills, approve them, and pay them. But you can also store and access any document using Bill.com. Business bill payment usually requires access to many more types of documents than just a bill... signed vendor contracts, service level agreements, bank statements, work estimates, financial reports, expense reports, etc.Typically these are stuffed in endless file cabinets and require valuable time to find.

With Bill.com you can fax, email, or upload any type of document and store them in native format (Word, Excel, PPT, etc except when you send by fax) so they are digitized and accessible them anywhere.

By doing this:

• You have access to all the supporting documents you need to make financial decisions anytime, anywhere (even on a web-enabled mobile device)
• You can easily find documents because they are automatically scanned using OCR and search-able site-wide
• You don't have to worry about intermediate steps such as scanning/naming documents and filing them locally before adding them to Bill.com
• You can have vendors or customers send documents directly into Bill.com and avoid handling paper at all
• You can get rid of all those cumbersome file cabinets (yes, our customers shred documents once they are in Bill.com)

It's this easy-- Simply fax, email or upload a document to Bill.com and....

• Tag it as a "vendor document" rather than a bill. This will allow you to attach the document to a vendor and easily access it from the Vendor Summary page
• Tag a document as a "company document" and assign it to a hierarchical file folder so you can access it in a file folder or find it through integrated search

Do this and you have access to all your documents whenever you need them without waiting until you are in the office to look in the file cabinet or having to ask employees to find them and deliver/email them to you.

And, it's not just handy when paying bills.... getting ready to hire a contractor to work on a project and can't remember what rate you paid the last person to help you? Look it up in seconds in Bill.com.

Happy Shredding!

New Transaction Detail Export for Thomson Reuters Write-Up CS

Just in time for end-of-year write up (or getting started with 2010) we have added a detailed transaction data export for Thomson Reuters Write-Up CS users.

To export Bill.com transaction data into Thomson  Reuters Write-up CS simply go to the Reports tab and select the appropriate Thomson Reuters Write up report, either:

• Thomson Reuters Write-up CS Summary Export: This report contains transaction summary data for each GL account
  

• Thomson Reuters Write-up CS Detail Export:  This report creates detailed bill and payment data 

Both reports are created on a cash reporting basis. 

The new Detail Export allows Write-Up CS customers to do more detailed write up and perform bank account reconciliation because it contains every individual transaction and not just a summary of each expense account.

To import the data into Write-Up CS, go to the Accountant's Assistant and upload the exported report. 

Enhanced LIVE Bill.com Customer Support

Customer Support has always been a priority at Bill.com. We know that when you have an issue, most often you need it resolved quickly. Unlike many vendors that have shifted towards only "submitting inquiries" via a website and expecting 24 hour turnaround, Bill.com has continued to maintain LIVE support so you can simply pick up the phone and talk with an expert in real time when you need to.

We are now enhancing our LIVE support option to include electronic chat!

We are now beta testing a chat capability for support that is integrated with the product. 

You will be chatting in real time with the same agents you speak with and email today, however you will be able to do it while more easily multi-tasking and doing other work while not being tethered to the phone.

Of course, the phone is still available when you need it.

We want your feedback!

New Feature: Enhanced ePayment Setup

We have made it faster and easier to set up vendors to receive electronic ePayments from Bill.com. A few new features include:

Ability to add a vendor by entering their Bill.com Payment Network ID

Whenever a vendor registers for the Bill.com Payment Network they will now receive a Payment Network ID. You can set up that vendor to receive ePayments whenever you pay them by simply asking them to provide you with their Payment Network ID. This way you no longer have to "invite" them to join the network if you know they are already registered.

When you go to the "Setup ePayments" page for that vendor and you will see the option to enter their ID.

Invite Multiple Vendors to Register at Once

You can now invite multiple vendors to joint the Bill.com Payment Network rather than inviting them individually. From the Vendor page in Bill.com, simply select "Setup ePayments" without selecting an individual vendor and you will have the option to select multiple vendors from a list and send them all invitations at once.

New Feature: Enhanced Vendor Credit Management

This weekend we added Enhanced Vendor Credit Management to Bill.com. This new feature makes it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to accept vendor credits, route them for review and apply them when paying bills... all through Bill.com and fully synced with QuickBooks or Intacct.

You can now:

• Fax, email or upload credit documentation (credit memos, statements, etc) into Bill.com just like bills
• Route vendor credits to reviewers (including users that do not have access to your accounting system)
• View and apply credits when making payments (you can choose to apply all or a portion of the vendor credits)
• Get reminded of available credits whenever you are looking at vendor information or paying bills

In addition:

• Check vouchers and ePayment confirmation emails will indicate when credits are applied
• Credits will sync with QuickBooks and Intacct and can be exported using our standard reports

Enter credits

• Simply fax, email, or upload vendor credit memos or statements containing credits to your inbox in Bill.com
• Note that credits can now be recorded without needing access to your accounting system... you can delegate the task to an office manager or do it on the road!

Route Vendor Credits Automatically

• Using Bill.com you can have employees (and contractors) who do not have access to your accounting system review vendor credits
  
• If you need others to review the vendor credit, verify amounts or approve them for use, simply add their names and Bill.com will take care of showing them the digital image of the vendor credit and gathering approvals online
• When entering vendor credits you have access to vendor information, vendor contracts, and past vendor credits
• vendor credits can be assigned to GL accounts, jobs, and departments/classes so when they are synchronized with your accounting package they are properly classified

Apply Credits When Paying Bills

• When you pay your bills, Bill.com will inform you if there are available credits
• Simply click on the link to review and apply credits to the payment

Determine How Much of the Credit You Want to Apply

• Simply select which credits (and how much of the credit) you want to apply and Bill.com will adjust the payment amount!

Review and Pay Bills

• Once the credit is applied you are returned to the "Pay Bills" page where you can make the payment
• You will see that a credit has been applied and have the option to make adjustments at any time prior to payment
• When Bill.com makes the payment your vendors will be notified that a credit was applied (on both checks as well as their ePayment notification emails!)

Synchronize with your Accounting Package

• Bill.com makes sure that the vendor credit is properly applied to the bill in QuickBooks or Intacct and credits will be reflected in your chart of accounts
• You can view credits within your accounting package and see where they were applied

We hope you like the new features and will provide us feedback!

Paying employee expenses electronically with Bill.com

Businesses of all sizes routinely reimburse employee expenses. But small and medium sized businesses typically do it the old fashioned way, by filing paper copies or expense reports and receipts and cutting paper checks. This is is time intensive and results in slower payments, and slower access to funds for employees.

While employee expense reimbursement was not the primary reason for creating Bill.com, it turns out that many of our customers use us for just that. Especially now that our ePayment capability makes it easy to pay employees electronically.

In a nutshell, here is what our customers are doing:

• Filling out expense reports using a company's existing process (typically with Word or Excel files).
• Faxing or emailing those forms to their company's Bill.com account along with images of their receipts
• The finance team can then classify all expenses using the general ledger information synchronized with either QuickBooks or Intacct.
• The expense report is then routed to the employee for the "electronic signature" and then routed to management and the finance team. Every step of the process is recorded in the audit log for future reference and all the documents are stored digitally-- the employee can literally shred the receipts and any paper documents.
• Once the expense report is approved, the finance team (or employer) simply pays the employee via Bill.com. If the employee's bank information is present (and it typically is because the same finance team set them up in payroll) then the employee is paid electronically via ePayments, directly to their bank account. If their bank information is not in the system, they get paid by check (without requiring the finance team to print, sign, or distribute the check).
• As an added bonus, the employee receives an automated email when the payment is sent and when funds are available in their bank account. All without any work on the part of the finance team or whoever processed the payment.
• If an employee has a question about payment status, the finance team can look up payment information with a few clicks.

To learn more and try it 30 days risk free, visit http://www.bill.com/businesses/expense-reimbursement.php

Good advice on scanners

One of the benefits of Bill.com is that we make it easy to go paperless by allowing businesses to digitize bills by using a simple fax machine (every Bill.com account gets a unique fax number as part of the monthly service fee). However, once you really get going we think it is a greeat idea to invest in a good scanner.

CPA2Biz points out in a blog post, as does Alexandra DeFelice that good scanners will make all the difference for accounting firms entering tax season, but also for any business in our opinion. 

A couple things we recommend in addition to their good advice:

• Speed is good. When dealing with bills you often have a lot of pages and don't have time to wait.
• Get a scanner that supports automatic Duplex scanning. Many bills are double-sided. You do not want a scanner that makes you flip the pages to scan the back pages. many scanners like the Fujitsu Scansnap will automatically detect and scan both sides of a document while not scanning blank pages.
• Get a scanner that supports "scan to email". Services like Bill.com make it easy to automate workflow and avoid having to handle and file documents on hard drives and corporate document management systems. If your scanner can automatically send a document to an email address you avoid having to save a pdf document on a host computer and then figure out what to do with it. You simply program the scanner to send documents to Bill.com and you never have to worry about the local document....it's filed automatically for you.

Paperless is the future. While you can get cheap scanners, in our experience spending a little more money (even only a few hundred dollars) will pay off by saving a lot of time and frustration many times over.