Bills 2.0

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!

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

Ask Lacerte: Branding Your CPA Firm

This post previously appeared in the CPA Technology Advisor.

Please join me in a thought experiment.  Think of the name of your favorite restaurant.  Just think of the name.  Try not to think about the food, the service, the ambiance or the desert.  For me it is impossible to keep it just to the name.  As soon as I think of the “Flea Street Café”, I can’t help but think of all the attributes (tasty, organic, caring service, friendly) that make it a great place to eat and my favorite in the bay area. 

A brand is not about logos and colors; it’s about what people think about when they think of a company name. Marketing professionals try to influence that with colors, logos and other techniques but ultimately the brand is considerably more complex and is built over time.  And in the case of accounting firms, the brand of the company is the brand of you.  So with that in mind, what is your brand?  What would customers say if I asked them what you stood for?  And how would you like them to answer that question?  And finally, what is the best way to go about building the brand of you?

You may not be asking or know the answers to these questions but you should.  In the absence of you directing and influencing your customers and prospects they will determine your brand attributes.  You cannot afford this.  In the age of technology and outsourcing, your biggest advantage is you.

Every interaction with a customer informs and affects your brand image.  When the customer visits your office, they soak in all the details of your office without even knowing it.  For example, a messy desk full of papers may make them wonder about your organization skills.  An empty office, may make them wonder why you aren’t more busy.  Your degrees and certifications on the wall may help them get comfortable with your credentials.  The list is endless and my guess is that you don’t want your customers wondering about such attributes. Without purpose or context you are giving away your brand.

Accounting firms today are at a cross roads... Not about their image, but how they are perceived in the minds of their clients and market.  Are they a place for businesses to drop off their shoebox of receipts and papers and get back reports/forms, or are they relevant to their clients day-to-day finances/operations?  Ultimately, this is your choice.  Whatever your choice, though, you must communicate your brand consistently to ensure your customers think of you as just taxes and forms or all of that coupled with sage advice, or something else all together.  Whatever image you pick, you probably want it to do what all brands do – create customer loyalty and as a result greater revenue.   And we all would like more revenue and less attrition.  As someone who uses accountants for personal and business here are the things that matter most to me:

Responsiveness -  We are in the information age and for better or worse, information moves much faster now.  We all expect more sooner.  If I can get an answer on Google in 1 sec that would have taken me several hours 20 years ago, why shouldn’t my accountant respond to my question in less than a few business hours?  It may not be fair, but we all are being trained to expect this.  My advice, if you can’t respond quickly, tell your customer when you will respond.  That only takes a few seconds and will reset the expectations.

Communication- Communication is an essential tool in business.  While most firms communicate the positive, one of my pet peeves is communicating the negatives/mistakes. Failure is a unique opportunity to say something about who you are and what you stand for.  If you make a mistake, acknowledging and fixing it can and will enhance your brand.  We all know that we all make mistakes.  Yet it is rare for someone to acknowledge and to proactively make it better.  These are the people we trust and ultimately that is one of the most important brand attributes an accountant can have!

Completeness – Let’s face it, your job is all about completeness.  You have to know all the tax and accounting laws that may affect your clients.  That’s a huge burden but if you don’t then your clients will look elsewhere.  Maybe not today but when they learn that something was not done completely, they’ll move.  So if you are a small firm that may not be familiar with ISO’s and AMT or Family partnerships or some other arcane law, refer the client to someone who does or better yet consult that person and let your client know that you consulted with an expert.  

Efficient Technology– As a technology entrepreneur, it should come as no surprise that this is an important brand attribute for me.  It is the way I manage my life and given what it has enabled me to do, I wonder when someone I work with is not leveraging technology.  Technology can act like a wrapper around your product and services.  You can use it to track important client details and communications, do your work more efficiently, and become more proactive (more on that later).  For me, someone who leverages technology to the fullest has probably done it to get more time and better perspective. 

Proactive advice – Finally, all of the above attributes come together in this attribute.  Going above and beyond the call of duty is the holy grail in servicing clients in any business.  Combining technology and the complete knowledge of your client will allow you to reach the ultimate responsiveness – proactive advice.  Understanding the big picture for your client, timing on retirement, portfolio and investments,  shifts in jobs, business financings, etc is an opportunity for real value add.  After all, as my mentor at Price Waterhouse told me, “the language of business is accounting”.  Make sure you read between the lines. 

Accountants are in a unique position to be consigliore for their clients.  If you can position/brand yourself as such the rewards are strong.  Good luck and happy branding.

Rene

Ask Lacerte: Preparing for Disaster with SaaS

This article previously appeared in the CPA Technology Advisor.

Imagine you are having dinner outside at a nice café in your town.  You hear a fire truck racing by, you look up and then continue your dinner.  Then you see not 1 more but 3 more coming from all the neighboring towns.  Soon there is a lot of commotion.  5 blocks away there is a plum of smoke racing into the sky.  After the initial fear for loss of life, you realize that the smoke is coming from the same block that your family business has been operating out of for the last 70 years.  You drop your napkin and run down the 5 blocks to find out that you are safe.  It is not your building that is on fire it is the building 2 doors over.  You think “Wow, I dodged that one” and go on home.

The next morning you go into work and after a few emails you realize you need to go downstairs and get something out of the files.  When you open the door to go down into the basement, you are shocked.  It is full of water.  Apparently, the fire next door took 2Million gallons to put out and much of it ended up in your basement.  All the records that you rely on to make your business run are now gone.  You no longer know what you paid  Tom the last time he did that brochure or what your contract with “Big Company” requires of you.  You realize in a heartbeat that this will be the most challenging time in running your family’s business since your grandfather started it 70 years ago.  You’re afraid that you’re not up to it.  You’re afraid that the business won’t make it.  You’re afraid that in just one moment you lost everything that your family has worked for for generations.

Pretty scary isn’t it.  This actually happened to a friend of mine and it has affected their business in so many ways.  She has survived but it has not been without its sacrifices and challenges.  In the following 2 years, she would close one store, sell inventory below cost, and work harder than ever before.

The department of labor estimates that 60 percent of businesses hit with such a disaster close the doors within 2 years.   Think about that, when disaster hits your clients you have a 60% chance of losing them.  Not because of anything you did or they did but something out of anyone’s control.  

It doesn’t have to be that way.  You, as a trusted advisor, have the opportunity to influence decisions and actions ahead of such a disaster.  Imagine if my friend’s accountant had influenced her to have a disaster recovery plan.  It would have been a few weeks of disruption but the business would not have been at risk.  Instead of the accountant facing a 60% chance of her going out of business and losing a client, my friend would be telling all of her business friends about how her accountant saved her business by forcing her to plan for just this moment.  So instead of the stress of a disaster, the accountant would be busy managing referrals.  As a businessmen and not an accountant, this is exactly the type of advice I expect my accountant to give me. 

This issue is dedicated to giving you the tools to provide lots of ways to help you help your clients plan for that awful moment of when disaster strikes.  My objective in this column is to stress the importance of planning and the value of Software-as-a-Service when it comes to planning the disaster.

By definition “SAAS” solutions have a disaster recovery advantage.  SaaS applications leverage the Internet so that you can work from anywhere.  Everyday, this has advantages.  I do my work from the office, home, on the road, or on my phone.  When it comes to a disaster, this advantage can save your business.  It means that when a Hurricane, an Earthquake, or a Tornado strikes you can leave town like you should and resume work from the next state or town where it is safe and there is an Internet connection.  

The other primary advantage of a best in class SaaS company is that it thinks about disaster recovery and incorporates a strong plan into the DNA of its company.  It is our job and if we don’t do it clearly our business is at risk.  Core to every disaster plan is the backing up of data and documents routinely.  Most small businesses think they are doing great if they back up their files once a month.  Best in class SaaS companies have this built into their application.  We make it so the software and the data that drive the application are backed up REALTIME in different locations that are thousands of miles apart and not in the same disaster zone.  In fact we make sure they are on different Internet back bones and different power grids. That means that as long as there is Internet, you and your clients will be able to get to the tools you need to run your business.  Duplicating this capability for a small business is prohibitively expensive from a cost and time perspective. 

How do you know if the company you are looking at is “best in class”?  You should check the background of the management team for prior successes where this would have been part of their job, make sure they have strong investors that have backed successful companies where this is valued and most importantly make sure they are Sas70 certified by a reputable firm.    The SAS 70 requires that certain procedures be in place including controls and security around any of the stated operations.  The auditors have to check that the procedures are followed so that the data is backed up at the frequency stated.

As you consider adding or expanind your disaster recovery consulting, please consider SaaS.  There are SaaS applications for phone systems, accounting, document management, bill management, payroll, tax preparation, inventory management and pretty much everything you and your clients will need to run your business.

Finally, please don’t wait for the disaster to strike before you see the benefit of developing a disaster recovery plan.  You clients are depending on you to push them, to serve them and to protect them from such disasters.  I should know, I am one of them.

Rene

Small Business Accountants Make it Work

We have big news at Bill.com. For the past few weeks, we have been incredibly busy working on the launch of a strategic alliance between CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and Bill.com. Through this new agreement, CPA2Biz becomes the exclusive provider of Bill.com to accountants and their clients. This is really exciting for me for a lot of reasons. The most important are 1) my belief that accountants are the most important trusted advisor for most businesses; 2) accountants benefit greatly from our service; and, 3) accounting and accountancy is in my DNA.

Here’s the DNA part: the night I was born, my mother was sorting punch cards for payroll/general ledger job for one of my folks’ biggest accountant customers. My dad and grandfather had started a data processing business in the early 60’s focused on serving accountants. They knew I was due any day and they couldn’t afford to have any errors on this job. So picture my mom, 9 months pregnant, carrying 50 lbs. of punch cards from machine to machine. Two hours later she was in labor and I was born. Combine that with the fact that both grandmothers and one great-grandfather were accountants. As you can see, accounting is in my blood, it is part of my DNA. No wonder that my first job out of college was at PriceWaterhouse, and then I worked at Intuit for a few years.

CPA2Biz provides marketing and technology services to the AICPA for its wide array of products and services. CPA2Biz also develops and manages client-focused business solutions (like payroll and banking) that enable CPAs to build stronger relationships with their business clients or employers.

I sought out CPA2Biz as a strategic partner because we both have the same mission with respect to accountants: we want to make the accountants life simpler and more efficient for basic accounting services like Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. We also wanted more profitable opportunities for CPAs, accountants, bookkeepers and their business clients. Bill.com offers an easy way for the two groups—small businesses and financial professionals—to work together cohesively.

For most businesses, an accountant is most important advisor the business will hire. We’ve talked about some of the other professionals who are key to a small business infrastructure . Accountants offer more than basic bookkeeping and day-to-day financial management. They prepare tax returns, offer tax advice, and help manage a consistent cash flow through budgeting and forecasting. All of this insight puts accountants in a unique position; they see more about the business than anyone else. Not just the numbers either. This is why I took my first job in accounting. The recruiting partner, Dave Sweet, said something that just made sense. He said that “accounting is the language of business and if you want to run a business you need to understand the language.” I really believe this, so make sure when you hire your accountant that you hire someone that can really advise you.

For more on the role of the accountant, click here.

So, now that we’ve established the importance of having an accountant, how do you find one? And, once you do, how do you know you’re hiring the best one for you?

Not too long ago, I advised finding a bookkeeper here. Here is a similar resource that lists and helps you find 35,000 accountants across the U.S.

In terms of finding the best accountant for you and your business, here’s an excellent article with a list of 50 questions to ask a prospective accountant.

Finally, I think it’s essential when talking about hiring an accountant, someone who will be intimately involved in the financial details of your business, to discuss the reality of fraud. There have been many horror stories about the accountant running off to the Caymans with all the money from a business—and it doesn’t only happen to Hollywood stars.

There are many ways to mitigate fraud when working with an accountant:

1. References are imperative. Use your network to find candidates, but also check as many references as you can during the interview process.
2. Keep accurate records and don’t give anyone access to your bank account until you trust them.
3. Set up procedures and processes that offer a variety of controls and separation of duties. For example, have different people handle the money that you receive and the money you pay out.

Here are more safeguards from embezzlement.

I believe that having your accountant working with you and your business using Bill.com will make your processes more efficient while providing much stronger controls and significantly less exposure to fraud.

Bill.com provides a simple way to both manage your finances and leverage your accountant—at the lowest cost with the highest impact. With Bill.com, you and your accountant will have 24/7 access to all your financial information. That means better collaboration internally and externally, better productivity and increased financial visibility. Accountants that have learned about our service have commented the following:

"Anything that makes us more efficient makes it more efficient for our clients."
“It is easier for our clients to find things.”
“It helps the client to organize.”
“It gives them procedures and process that bigger companies have.”

I think that is enough of a commercial for now but please check out www.bill.com to learn more.

I am passionate about simplifying business finances for businesses and their accountants. It’s in my blood and I have experienced the power of the accountant relationship on both sides. Good luck finding your trusted advisor and in making them more valuable.

Setting up a Small Business Infrastructure

Part III:  Tools, Benefits and Policies

Other key decisions in setting up your business infrastructure include incorporating the tools that will manage day-to-day operations and deciding what the company benefits and policies are.

Line up your tools.
Leverage technology whenever you can.  I know from experience that the Web is the best way to do business. It is the driving force of my current and former businesses and has driven many of my business decisions. All of my advisers need to connect to the Web. Most of our tools—from our phones to our financial information—are accessed online. We use Quickbooks on line, as well as, of course, bill.com and PayCycle.  For me, the web allows me to work from anywhere.  This is one of the key advantages of starting and running my own business.  As they say, “the noose is looser and the leash is longer.”  As a result of Web tools, I am able to run a 25 person business with limited infrastructure, (one day a week of outside accounting/bookkeeping help) and one day a month of IT.

For our phone system, we use Voice over Internet Protocol (or Voice Over IP). I choose VOIP for a couple of reasons but mostly because it is simpler to set up and cheaper than working with the phone company.   One Internet connection can get you as many lines as you need.  I had a hard time investing in phone lines for all employees since we will most likely move and most employees don’t use a phone to get their job done. 

Determine your Policies.
In terms of other company policies, it’s best to have a framework or, better yet, a written policy before things come up.  Figuring out policies on the fly is awkward for you and your employees.  I know this from experience.  So take a little time to decide what you want to do about maternity leave or vacation time. You and your employees will be glad to know what the policy is. 

One thing we didn’t discuss in the post about hiring employees was compensation. Something I would encourage anyone to do is to offer stock. I think it’s really important to provide stock to all employees, so that everyone is an owner. We spend most of our lives at work and all of us want to belong.  Giving stock to employees is one way of telling them that they belong.  You of course get the added benefit of employees knowing that they are an integral part of the growth and success of the company.

Another policy to mull over before making a decision is whether you want to offer the more traditional vacation time and sick leave versus an overall Paid Time Off (PTO). PTO is like having a bank account of time for your employees to draw from for vacation time, as well as sick leave, a mental health day, or an emergency. (Find more info on this topic here.) After experiencing traditional vacation policies for the last 20 years, I switched Bill.com to PTO.  The main reason is that I wanted to give the same benefit to all employees.  My experience shows that some employees never get sick while others use all of their sick time immediately.  It just wasn’t fair to the folks that didn’t get sick.  With a PTO policy, all time off is the same.  If you are not sick you get more time for vacation.  This seems like a better message to send to employees. 

At Paycycle, our health insurance covered the employee but not the dependent. As the company grew, I saw how much people were paying for their dependents.  I wanted to do more for employees but wanted to be fair to employees without dependents.  When I started bill.com, I made a decision to go with  a Health Savings Account (HSA) High Deductible  Insurance plan. The key to the HSA is that once you offer and contribute to the HSA, the employer is required to use a high deductible health insurance plan.   The HSA is an employee account that employees and employers  can invest money into to save for future medical expenses,.  Most contributions and all earnings are tax free. Employees then use the funds in the HSA to cover medical expenses not covered by the deductible of the health insurance plan. The funds contributed by the employee and employer are vested immediately and are available to the employees to use today or in the future. I made a decision at bill.com to contribute all of the savings from the higher decutible health insurance premiums and then some more to the employee accounts. Ultimately, I increased the contributions so that I felt that employees' dependents were getting some coverage.  The HSA allows me to contribute equally to those without dependents to use at some future date. If you are interesting in learning more please check out this site. Also, here’s an easy-to-understand brochure on HSAs from the Department of the Treasury.

That's the end of the series on small business infrastructure. Next we tackle customer service.

The Pitch

Apologies
First, my apologies for the long time between posts. The reality is that a month ago, a family emergency came up and all of my free time away from running the day-to-day activities of Bill.com has gone to supporting my family on the other coast. I bring it up here because I think “flexibility” in one’s schedule is one of the great things about being your own boss. I might always be working but I can do it when and where I need to. This allows for a different type of “work/life balance” that is very powerful when used appropriately. Let’s save that topic for another post in the future. The subject this time is The Pitch.

The Pitch
It’s the most essential part of your communication arsenal. Without it, you are dead in the water; with it, you are alive and well. Case in point: the previous two sentences have either grabbed you or not. You will either read the rest of this post or skip over to the next thing on your mind.

Do not underestimate the power of the pitch and do not under prepare. You will refine and hone the pitch over and over again and each time you will not have prepared enough. I have been “pitching” my businesses for the better part of the last decade. I have worked with great PR and marketing folks refining the pitch and still there are times when I just come off flat. So you have to practice, practice, practice. And, if you’re like me, you don’t need anyone to tell you once you have pitched whether it’s good or not. You just know.

Here are some things to keep in mind when developing your pitch: clarity and conciseness, imagery, and repeatability.
1) Clarity and conciseness. This is the proverbial elevator pitch. I like to think of it as 30 seconds long. It needs to be brief and to the point. I changed the name of my current company because I thought of a tagline that went with the name that accomplished this in four words. Bill.com. Send. Receive. Pay. Don’t try to be clever and don’t try to use big words. If you write it out and the sentence is a run-on or is more than 20 words, it is too long.
2) Imagery. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. So if you don’t have time to say a thousand words, create an image that is way more powerful. BTW, it is also quite memorable. To illustrate a scene for Bill.com services, I conjure up the images of paper everywhere, lost behind desks and even the way things were done when my folks were starting their first business (punch cards). Bill.com cleans up that mess. Images you conjure up for your business will work and will be remembered.
3) Repeatability. If you don’t say the same thing every time you are at your kids’ soccer game or sitting next to someone on the airplane, then how will your target market remember it? There is a fun game, called “Telephone,” that we used to play as kids. You line up a group of kids and whisper in one ear and then have that repeated to each kid along the chain. Invariably, what you get at the end of the chain is very different than when it started. Don’t forget this when you are developing your pitch. Your message will get repeated many more times than you know and you always want the last person to hear it to be as if you were talking to them.

Now that you have it, practice! Not once or twice, but hundreds of times. When we launched at Demo last fall, I practiced my six-minute pitch more than 100 times in the final three weeks before the show. We did win a Demogod award but I still wished I had practiced more. Once thing to keep in mind is your environment when you pitch. When you are raising money from VC’s it is different than Angel Investors and it is different than being on stage. Be prepared for interruptions in the form of questions, suggestions or bright lights/flashes going off, if on stage. The more you practice by yourself with friends that play the role, or actual advisors, the better you will be.

So good luck on developing that pitch, it is an art and it is never done.

P.S.: Check out the links on the right to read some excellent articles on The Pitch.