Bill.com Blog

Come see us at the 52nd Annual IFA Convention!

We are excited to attend the 52nd Annual IFA Convention this year. Last year at the IFA Convention, we introduced a program that enabled Franchisees to gain anywhere, anytime access to their accounts payables and receivables across all their units in real time.

Date: February 11-14 Location: Orlando World Center Marriott, Florida Booth Number: 111 *Win an iPad2

This year Bill.com is announcing a key feature that is critical in any franchise success, cash flow. Unlike the error-prone and highly manual spreadsheet-based cash flow management processes that most rely on today, Bill.com gives franchisees a true picture of their real-time financial position in order to make the right decisions at precisely the right times for their business. Bill.com brings all your cash flow operations into the 21st century — with remarkable simplicity and virtually no learning curve. Through one easy-to-use command and control system you get incredible insight, control and security your current methods can’t match.

Through the Bill.com Franchise program, franchisees can access a dashboard showing open tasks, cash flow, pending bills, and upcoming payments across their network of stores and locations. Bill.com is helping 100's of franchisees save up to 75 percent of the time and cost of handling and paying bills.

"Since taking advantage of Bill.com's end-to-end payable process, Creative Management has successfully paid over 5,000 invoices in a little over one year and has reduced the cost of bill pay by roughly 750%," claims Brian Benge, Controller of Creative Management. Creative Management has saved over 1,800 accounts payable processing hours in a year – it exemplifies the power of Bill.com.

At the show, we will be featuring case studies about our franchise customers such as Creative Management, 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, and Miracle Ear, so you can learn more about their success using Bill.com.

We would love for you stop by Booth 111 to say hello and learn more about Bill.com. When you stop by don't forget to enter our *iPad2 raffle!

Hope to see you in Orlando!

 

Sea View Partners' Patrick Teixeira Explains the Benefits of Bill.com

Utilizing a cloud-based solution like Bill.com was an easy decision for Sea View Partners and their customers. Before using Bill.com, their payables process was time-consuming and often resulted in incomplete documentation. Invoices were manually entered, documents weren't easily accessible, and the overall process needed to be changed.

After Bill.com, Sea View Partners is able to access their client's invoices in a matter of seconds. "Everything they would ever need is right there — they love it, Teixeira said." All the details and documents needed are right at their fingertips.

Watch today's video to hear more from Patrick.

   

Sea View Partners specializes in outsourced solutions for Accounting, HR Consulting and IT Support.

@Billcom Customer Tip: Voiding a Bill Payment

If you need to void a bill payment:

1. Point to the Payables tab and click View Payments. This displays the Scheduled Payments page.  
2. Above the list of scheduled payments, click the History link. This displays the Payments History page.
3. Find the payment you want to void and click on Payment Confirmation. This displays the Bill Payment Info page.
4. Click Void Payment (or Void Check if check already sent to vendor).
5. If the payment was made outside of Bill.com, confirm the request and the payment will be voided. If the payment was already synced to QuickBooks Desktop or Intacct, the payment will be deleted in the next sync.
6. If the payment was made via Bill.com, enter the reason of the void and choose one of the two options below:
• Remit funds back to your account.
• Reissue a new payment to the vendor. In this case, please verify that the remittance information in the vendor set up is correct.

Note: you have to be authorized in the bank account (AKAs "verified user") to request a void for Bill.com payments

If the payment hasn't been sent to the vendor yet, your request will be processed and the confirmation will be displayed.

If the payment has already been sent to the vendor as a check, our Operations Department will review the check status and confirm your request via email.

If you are QuickBooks user and voided a bill payment in Bill.com, you will need to also void the payment in QuickBooks.

Case Study: How Chaney & Associates Doubled its Revenue Within Two Years of Moving to the Cloud

We recently caught up with Steve Chaney, CPA and President
of Chaney & Associates to learn about how he doubled his organization’s revenue and created a consistent, standardized workflow that all his clients follow, after he moved his business to the cloud.

Chaney & Associates, a progressive accounting firm with a non-for-profit niche, discovered an 89 percent growth in revenue within two years of implementing cloud accounting solutions, such as the Bill.com online bill management solution.

In the following case study, Chaney will share the challenges his firm faced doing business the traditional way and share the success his practice is currently experiencing with a cloud-based service delivery platform, including how to:

 • Grow your client base: Chaney & Associates grew their client base 319% in two years, and now support over 314 Non-Profit organizations in their firm. 

• Reduce operating costs AND paperwork: Chaney eliminated roughly $70,000 annually in staff hours and courier fees, by implementing cloud-based solutions and resulted in an 89% annual growth in revenue.

• Gain better financial visibility: Bill.com’s real-time reports and cash flow dashboards provide strategic and more profitable controllership services.

• Create standardized repeatable processes: Learn how an integrated accounting solution and Bill.com’s bill payment software can improve workflow and client collaboration, ACH processing…and much more!

“The point of touches to my clients has been dramatically reduced. We no longer have to process and cut checks manually; billing and reporting are now generated electronically. We’re letting technology do the ‘heavy lifting,’ rather than having people create those efficiencies. That’s how we are able to improve our effective rate.” — Steve Chaney

Learn more on how Bill.com has become Chaney & Associates core marketing asset in attracting new clients!

Download the complete case study here.

 

 

 

 

@Billcom Customer Tip: Deleting or Adding a User

Do you want make changes to your 'Users' in your Bill.com account?

How do I add a new user?
1. In the upper right, mouse over .  Then click Settings > Overview.  
2. On the Overview page, under Permissions, click Users.  
3. On the Users page, click New.  
4. Enter their name, email address, and what role/responsibility they have for bill payment.
5. Click Save.
6. On the Users (Emails) page, tell us when/how often to email the new user.
7. Click Save.

How do I delete a user (make inactive)?
1. In the upper right, mouse over .  Then click Settings > Overview.
2. On the Overview page, under Permissions, click Users.  
3. On the Users page, click the user's name.  
4. On the Users (Details) page, click Del.

Innovating in the Space Between

I have always been drawn to challenges that sit between traditional disciplines. In college, this landed me in a major with a weird name and classes that spanned math, computer science, operations research, and statistics. In this major (Mathematical and Computational Sciences), I traveled with a small group of cohorts through the very different worlds that these four areas brought to life. I’m not sure I fit in with any of the worlds completely (Why don’t real math majors need to write anything down to solve the problems? What was my probability professor talking about?), but I learned that there is something really special about solving problems with the perspective of multiple disciplines. Looking back on it, I now realize that it was a great foundation for innovation.

Stanford’s president, John Hennessey, describes the potential for innovation in this space between: “When multiple disciplines come together and different perspectives are shared, there's no limit to the collaboration, creativity, and innovation that can occur.”

I was drawn to Bill.com because it presents a great challenge that sits between multiple worlds. For us to build our vision of a cash flow command and control center, we need to work with traditional disciplines such as accounting, banking, and workflow as well a key area with no discipline: that big stack of financial paperwork that taunts every business owner, entrepreneur, or finance leader.

You may have seen our recent announcement that we are now partnering with banks, while continuing to work directly with businesses and accountants. I’m excited by our ability to bring the businesses’ and accountants’ perspective to the banks. I’m equally excited by the possibilities for improving our overall bill payment solution by working more closely with banks. Last year, we partnered with Intuit to launch Intuit Anywhere and we were able to deliver a great new sync capability with QuickBooks Online. This year, I’m confident that we’ll be able to add more innovative solutions to Bill.com as we spend time directly in the banking world.   

Bill.com wouldn’t exist if we didn’t spend time in between banking, accounting, workflow, and traditional paper-oriented processes. Please join me in this space between. I always welcome your feedback, challenges, suggestions, and ideas on how we can make Bill.com a better solution for your business.

Thank you for reading,

Mark Orttung
COO
@morttung

Employee Spotlight - A World Where...

In addition to my immensely satisfying career helping others as leader of Bill.com’s Customer Support team, I really enjoy being a part of my local Palo Alto community. I moved here from Reno, Nevada about eight years ago and have been enjoying everything the San Francisco area has to offer ever since – mild weather, open-minded people, beautiful vistas, and diversity. I’m primarily involved in my community in three different ways, which help to support my values, and the world I’d like to live in. 

A world where no one is hungry

I work for a local community garden, Almost Eden, which produces over 40 pounds of fresh produce per week for homeless shelters and food kitchens. Most of what people donate is canned, boxed or dried food. While these foods are important (and our donations are so helpful), it is immensely satisfying to be able to grow nutrient-rich, dense foods, like kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash, and beans. In the summertime, I also walk my beautiful Palo Alto neighborhoods for picking opportunities. Many people who live here, enjoy the beauty and fragrance of fruit trees in their yards, but cannot possibly consume the whole yield themselves. I offer to pick for free and donate what I pick to St. Anthony’s, this area’s largest food kitchen. The less fortunate select this produce from a “store” of sorts, which offers this fresh, delicious food for free, to those who need it. And yes, I sometimes snag a juicy peach or apricot for myself. It is all part of the fun!

A world where everyone can read

Since I was small, my life’s biggest solo pleasure is reading. I taught myself to read at age three and I have been a bookworm ever since. I would love it if absolutely everyone in the United States could read and enjoy reading the way I do. But there is an even more practical purpose for reading. Without basic skills, people cannot drive or fill out job applications or understand an apartment lease. For this reason, I volunteer with Vision Literacy in local jails, to teach inmates basic skills.Without these skills, there is no hope for these inmates’ future. Often, I simply help someone to fill out a form, to understand what a lawyer has said, to write a letter to family members or to study for their driver’s test. These basic things are so important to the inmates. As one inmate said in a letter he dictated to his mother “Mom, I am working with a tutor now so I can read and try to do something good with my future. There is hope.” To learn more, visit http://www.visionliteracy.org/.

A world where women understand their worth

As a professional woman, who has built a career working my way from the bottom up, I am especially passionate about mentoring budding female professionals in my area. Through Women Unlimited, an organization that helped me to achieve my goals, I mentor and speak to groups of professional women in various phases of their careers. I want to show that their dreams are attainable and to help foster a community that nurtures the dreams of other people. In many ways, this is what I do all day long at work, too – I help make people’s dreams possible by freeing them from the financial aspects of their business that take their time away from their core focus. In both cases, I am especially blessed to be able to make a difference in the lives of others. You’ll find when you do that, your life changes for the better, as well.

Thanks for reading,

Kathleen Echeverria
VP of Customers

Join me on Linkedin.

Bill.com to Host Webinar: 5 Steps to Grow Your Business 5x

Webinar offers finance executives the insight needed to grow and scale their business in 2012

PALO ALTO, CALIF. – Jan. 23, 2012 – Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, online invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced that it will host a complimentary 45-minute webinar titled, “Get A Leg Up On Your Competition: 5 Steps to Grow 5X” on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. PST.

Hosted by René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com, and Peter Biro, franchise entrepreneur and avid Bill.com customer, the webinar will focus on using cloud-based solutions to grow a business without adding overhead. Lacerte, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and accountant, will also discuss how he helped transform the payroll process and created a cash flow management solution that helps businesses scale for growth using cloud-based systems.

Webinar participants will gain important, real-world perspective that can help them increase business efficiency in just five easy steps. From initial implementation to best practices, the webinar will offer business owners and franchise operators the essential tips and tricks required to rise above competition.

“As a fourth generation entrepreneur, I have a deep passion for helping others grow and scale their business,” said Lacerte. “I’m excited to put my experience in the finance, software and payments industries to work for other business owners. I’d encourage anyone looking for a competitive edge to listen in and gain some practical knowledge that they can put to use immediately for their business.”

“Cloud-based solutions, like Bill.com, make it possible to scale operations and maintain financial controls over my fast-growing network of franchises,” said Biro. “We aren’t losing time tracking down paper anymore and we’re saving over 2,000 hours annually or the equivalent of one full-time hire a year. I love that we can now reinvest our energy and money into what really matters: serving and satisfying our customers. I’m looking forward to discussing how cloud-based solutions have made such a significant impact on my business, and how others also can take advantage.”

Join the Webinar

The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. PST. For additional information and to register, please visit: www.bill.com/grow or register directly here.

About Speakers:

Peter Biro is an experienced operating and transaction executive. He is the Co-founder and CFO for Mass Burger, Founder, CEO Naked Pizza Boston and a business lecturer at Babson College.@peterbiro

 

 

René Lacerte is a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and accountant who founded Bill.com in 2006, and brings more than 20+ years of experience in the finance, software and payments industries. Built from a legacy of four generations of entrepreneurs, René developed the concept for Bill.com based on personal experience growing new businesses. Prior to Bill.com, René co-founded America's #1 online payroll service PayCycle, which was acquired by Intuit in 2009. @rlacerte

 

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About Bill.com 
Bill.com is a cash flow command and control system that manages accounts 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 syncs 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 paying millions of bills worth billions of dollars using Bill.com.

Bill.com Contacts: 
AlexaRae Antekeier
415-249-6778
alexarae@finnpartners.com 

Allison Yochim
415-348-2724
allison@finnpartners.com 

 

@Billcom Customer Tip: Why Was My Check Payment Late?

A check payment did not arrive within the expected timeframe. What happened?

In Bill.com, payments sent via ePayment will always arrive on the arrival date specified when you schedule the payment. Checks typically arrive in four business days. However, some factors such as high-volume mail days, holiday weekends, and certain locations might impact check delivery. If you are making a payment during a high-volume period or to a location with variable mail service, we recommend allowing extra time for delivery or setting up the vendor to receive ePayments, which will eliminate any delay.            

4 Questions for Scott Kregel, Kregel & Company, CPA

Q1. How did you get into your line of work?
My guess is that accounting is a part of my bloodline. My father was a managing partner in a mid-size CPA firm in Michigan, my brother is a CFO in another family business, and my sister does bookkeeping. So I proudly followed in my family's footsteps and opened my own firm, Kregel & Company CPA, in July 2009.

I find great satisfaction and enjoyment in engaging with customers at a level that few have the opportunity to experience. When our client’s trust us with their finances it strengthens our relationship in a truly authentic way.
 
Q2. What have you learned through the school of hard knocks?
As a small business owner, I experience many of the same challenges that our customers face. We are confronted with big decisions on a regular basis and emotionally we have to pace ourselves to deal with them appropriately. Carrying high levels of anxiety will beat you down and lower your creativity — identifying those triggers and dealing with them proactively, will increase your effectiveness in relating with others.

Q3. What keeps you up at night?
Although, my wife claims I talk in my sleep about tax deductions, I honestly sleep pretty well at night. I believe in my firm’s ability to genuinely help others and put them in a better position by working with us. This same peace of mind and confidence is something that helps us keep things in perspective.

Q4. How has Bill.com helped you chase your dreams?
Bill.com has been an excellent financial tool to introduce to customers and prospects. Our practice utilizes cloud-based solutions and it is an important part of our strategy to offer Bill.com to our clients. Bill.com’s ability to access online invoicing and bill payment functions, such as ACH transactions, from anywhere is a tremendous value proposition. We are excited for our small business clients to enjoy Bill.com’s friendly user interface, which doesn’t require a customer to learn an entire general ledger system, just to pay a bill or send an invoice.

To download a complete PDF of Scott's 4 Questions, click here.

Join us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Note: 4 Questions is a regular feature on the Bill.com blog where we ask the same 4 questions of a different Bill.com customer. Given the tremendous passion and can-do attitude of small and mid-sized businesses, we believe these same 4 Questions will result not in repeat answers, but in interesting insight into many different journeys. Want to be profiled? Tweet @billcom or email us and let us know!

@Billcom Customer Tip: The Difference Between Paying and Approving Your Bills

You are new to the Bill.com system and need to get a bill to be approved and paid in a short amount of time. You approve the bill, yet nothing happens. Why not? Why is the bill not being paid, when I approve it?

Bill.com splits the task of approving the bill and paying the bill, into two processes. When your bill is ready to be paid to your vendors, you will need to approve it first. 

To do that, you will want add an approver to the bill:

Once the approver has been added to the bill, the payer of your account will receive an email that the bill is ready to be paid. They will need to log in, go to Payables > Pay Bills > Select your bill and hit pay. It’s that simple!

4 Questions for Lee J. Knoll, COO of Knoll & Company, P.C.

Q1. How did you get into your line of work?
It is fairly simple how I became a practicing CPA. My father, who has been a practicing for over 40 years, started his own CPA firm in 1979. I knew that following in his footsteps was always an option and when I entered college, I chose accounting as my major. Although I enjoyed accounting, I was enthralled with the prospects of Sports Science and transferred to Colorado State University. When I completed my studies, I found there weren’t many jobs in Sports Science/Wellness in Colorado.

Around the same time, my dad’s partner at his CPA firm was leaving, so in 1992, I went to work for my dad. I found out that I really loved accounting work, audits and learning all the different ways people made money. I returned to school, completed the required accounting courses, and earned my CPA.

I soon became a partner and have been running Knoll & Company, P.C. since 1996, so that my dad can slow down and start retirement.

Q2. What have you learned through the school of hard knocks?
I have learned to never under value your services, always be eager to try new things, and always stand behind your business.

Q3. What keeps you up at night?
It is an important responsibility to keep our customer’s businesses running smoothly, so I tend to worry about the balance of work, and day-to-day operations.

Q4. How has Bill.com helped your business chase its dreams?
Bill.com’s bill payment software has helped our firm dramatically. We always know what bills have been paid online and what have not. We no longer have to manually sign checks anymore. Now we use the ACH payments that are built into Bill.com’s solution. Bill.com’s approval process and payables system has made Knoll & Company more efficient — allowing us to quickly review our clients bills, assess if they are being recorded correctly, and most efficiently, we do not have to be in the office to approve or pay them.

Our firm has just started using Bill.com Receivables, so the online invoicing has really had a positive impact on our client’s businesses. Our firm also loves Bill.com’s document storage capabilities — we know exactly where all the copies of the bills, contracts, and supporting documents are. We don’t have to look through a paper file cabinet or drive to the office to find the details – you really can’t beat that!

Download a complete PDF of these 4 Questions.

Note: 4 Questions is a regular feature on the Bill.com blog where we ask the same 4 questions of a different Bill.com customer. Given the tremendous passion and can-do attitude of small and mid-sized businesses, we believe these same 4 Questions will result not in repeat answers, but in interesting insight into many different journeys. Want to be profiled? Tweet @billcom or email us and let us know!

 

@Billcom Customer Tip: Set Up Payments Through an Additional Bank Account

To pay different vendors from different bank accounts, or to receive customers' online payments in a separate bank account — set up for payments through an additional bank account.  

In your Bill.com account, you must be authorized to set up for payments through an additional bank account. To see if you're authorized,  mouse over  . Then click Settings > Overview. On the Overview page, under Permissions, click Users. For Authorized Funding Methods, you must have Bank.

To set up for payments (part 1 of 2): Enter your bank details
1. In the upper right, mouse over  .  Then click Settings > Overview.
2. On the Overview page, under Your Company, click Bank Accounts.
3. On the Bank Accounts page, click Set up new bank.

We walk you through a short series of questions to confirm your identity.  

To set up for payments (part 2 of 2): Verify in 1-2 business days

1. We'll make a small deposit and a matching withdrawal (less than $1) to your bank account, which should appear in 1-2 business days.
2. Check your bank account for the amount of the matching transactions.
3. Log in to your Bill.com account, and on the To Do List, click Verify bank....

4. On the Bank Account page, enter the amount of the matching transactions.
5. Click Verify. 

On the Bank Account details page:

• To pre-select this bank account for all bills you pay: At Payables - Default Account?, click Make Primary (you can change it on-the-fly as you pay bills).

• To receive all online payments from customers in this bank account: At Receivables - Who can pay me?, click Make Primary.

• To give others permission to use this bank account for Bill.com payments, click Add above the list of Authorized Users.

Heather Richter Speaks on Office Life Before and Since Bill.com

We recently caught up with Heather Richter from Wegner CPAs to find out what kind of impact Bill.com has on her office.

"Before Bill.com, our office was hectic! There was paper flying everywhere and we were receiving a large amount of our clients mail…Life after Bill.com is amazing — We love the features and the efficiency that Bill.com offers," Richter said.

Richter started using a new integration program that links Sage Peachtree's accounting package to Bill.com's online bill payment software. "Now," Richter says, "bills arrive via e-mail or fax and we upload them directly into our system. Our clients approve payments online, from their offices or from wherever they're traveling, on smart phones or laptops."

Watch today's video to hear more great experiences about Wegner CPAs and Bill.com.

 

Wegner LLP, CPAs and Consultants is a full-service accounting firm that was established in 1949, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Join us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Read our case study for Wegner CPAs.

@Billcom Customer Tip: How can I get paid?

Bank Transfers? PayPal? Credit Card?

Get paid directly from the customer's bank account (Bill.com ePayment), through PayPal, and/or by credit card.

If you choose to get paid directly from the customer's bank account, payment will be deposited into your bank account in 2-3 business days (based on your receivables limits), and you pay a low flat fee.

If you choose to get paid through PayPal, payment is instantly available in your PayPal account, and you pay PayPal Standard fees.

If you choose to get paid by credit card, set up a Merchant Services account through our partnership with Vantage Card Services and PayTrace (low rates and a month-to-month agreement).