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Webinar Features Results from an Exclusive New Survey of CEOs and Finance Leaders
Now Using Mobile Devices For Financial Transactions

PALO ALTO, CALIF.— March 21, 2013 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash flow management solutions for businesses, today announced that it will discuss why CEOs and CFOs are increasingly running their cloud-based businesses via their tablets and smart phones in a free webinar, “Top Seven Reasons to Be a ‘Remote Control’ CEO,” on Monday, March 25th, at 1 p.m. PT. Registration is available now at http://cashflow.bill.com/MobileSurveyResults_032513.html.  

The webinar will feature Michael Hsu, CEO of DeepSky, which offers outsourced accounting services for entrepreneurs in the services industries. Hsu himself has built his entire business around his virtual, paperless team of accountants. He has never written a paper check for his business. Hsu and other “No Check” CEOs represent a new generation of leaders who are using game-changing technology to replace time-consuming paper processes with fast, efficient cloud-based systems everywhere in their businesses. These “No Check” CEOs aren’t tied to their offices, but free to manage their companies from wherever they need to be, with instant, real-time access to their business and financial data from anywhere, 24 hours a day.

Moderated by Bill.com Founder and CEO René Lacerte, the webinar will explore:

• results from an exclusive new survey of 336 CEOs and finance leaders now using mobile devices for financial transactions;
• how to “lose the paper” and make huge productivity gains;
• why the rapid shift to remote control keeps accelerating;
• how to dramatically reduce overhead and operating costs;
• how pioneering “Remote Control” CEOs and finance leaders plan to use mobile in the future; and
• what happens to businesses that don’t make the shift.

“As more and more businesses move to the ‘No Check’ CEO paradigm, having the ability to effectively manage all aspects of cash flow from anywhere at any time will be increasingly important,” said René Lacerte, Bill.com Founder and CEO. “Bill.com was created to make this movement a reality, and we look forward to helping finance leaders unchain themselves from their desks through this informative webinar.”

Bill.com delivers a complete web-based financial solution for businesses and accountants that provides the tools, information, and collaboration required to better manage their financial tasks and optimize cash flow. Bill.com's game-changing technology allows users to access online bill payments, e-invoicing, document management, and automated workflow through one easy system. In addition to seamlessly integrating with businesses' existing accounting software programs, Bill.com provides financial leaders with a comprehensive view of their cash forecast - making it the only solution that connects a user's banks, bookkeeping, and business. 

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

We’ve talked a lot lately about “No Check" CEOs. As a refresher, “No Check” CEOs are a new generation using game-changing technology to replace time-consuming paper processes with fast, efficient cloud-based systems everywhere in their businesses. These “No Check” CEOs aren’t tied to their offices, but free to manage their companies from wherever they need to be, with instant, real-time access to their business and financial data from anywhere, 24 hours a day.
Many never use paper checks, because they send electronic payments instead. Their staffs never waste time printing invoices or stuffing envelopes, or spending money on supplies and postage because they invoice and process bills electronically. And because they also get paid electronically, you never see a pile of checks sitting in an office waiting to be deposited – customer payments go straight into their accounts.

I truly believe in the No Check CEO paradigm. It’s one I try to live myself. And nowhere has the momentum for this new mindset been more apparent than our recent survey of more than 500 CFOs/finance managers about the importance of mobility.

Our survey discovered that a majority of financial professionals are moving to conducting business via the Cloud and mobile devices. 44 percent of respondents said that the ability to process mobile transactions is a business requirement. When asked what percentage of financial transactions were being conducted via their mobile devices, 30 percent of mobile users are processing more than 25 percent of their transactions on mobile devices while 11 percent are processing more than 50 percent of transactions on their mobile devices.  And in contrast to past conceptions of mobility, 70 percent of respondents felt that the reliability of mobile financial transactions is good or excellent. In addition, 83 percent found mobility to be secure.

Due to this increased confidence in the security and reliability of mobile computing, almost half of the respondents said that they wanted to expand the use of their mobile devices beyond approving transactions to sending reminders, adding notes to documents stored on the cloud and, most importantly, managing their cash flow. 43 percent already see managing cash flow from their mobile device as important and, as we increasingly move into an economy run by “No Check” CEOs, the comfort level and need for comprehensive financial solutions on mobile devices will become more and more critical.

As this survey has shown, the move to mobility represented by this new generation of leaders is already underway. It can be seen in financial professionals’ desire to move not just transactions but account payables, receivables and cash flow management to their mobile devices. We look forward to helping usher in this more efficient and effective way to conduct business.

René Lacerte, Founder and CEO

Bill.com Survey Finds Finance Industry Moving to the Cloud, Embracing Mobile Cash Flow Management

66 Percent of Respondents Are Processing Transactions From Mobile Devices

PALO ALTO, CALIF.— March 7, 2013 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today revealed that a recent study of financial industry leaders showed a growing trend towards mobile financial management, with more than 66 percent of respondents now processing transactions from their devices.

In January 2013, Bill.com surveyed 510 CFOs and finance managers across multiple industries who have automated their payables and receivables process in order to better understand their usage of mobile technology for business financial transactions. 46 percent of respondents were CFOs, 36 percent were controllers and 18 percent were other financial managers. The study discovered that a majority of financial professionals are moving to conducting business via the Cloud and mobile devices. While many respondents only used devices to process transactions while still clinging to manual processes for cash flow management, those who had embraced the Cloud wholeheartedly and moved to mobile financial management have found themselves to be more efficient, effective and competitive.

Read more here.

Franchise Industry Guru David Ostrowe To Explain How to Achieve Extreme Operational Efficiency

PALO ALTO, CALIF.— March 4, 2013 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced that it will reveal how franchises can achieve extreme operational efficiency through a better understanding of their P&Ls in a free webinar, “Franchise Growth Secrets Hidden in Your P&L,” on Tuesday, March 5, at 11 a.m. PT. Registration is available now at http://cashflow.bill.com/PLOptimization_030513.html.

Many business owners think of accounting as a necessary evil – something necessary to prepare taxes. But to a trained eye, P&Ls reveal critical, actionable business insights, insights which remain invisible to those focused only on the details of day-to-day operations. In this webinar, industry guru David Ostrowe, president of O&M Restaurant Group and the owner of 25 Burger King restaurants, will teach franchise owners how to recognize and act upon the growth keys hidden in their P&Ls, helping them achieve unprecedented success.
Moderated by Bill.com founder and CEO René Lacerte, the webinar will be packed with actionable data and useful insights including how franchise owners can:

• Quickly identify their greatest strengths and weaknesses;
• Zero in on opportunities they may be missing;
• Improve profits and increase cash flow; and
• Make better decisions for the future.

“We have long said that financial data, when properly used, can be a true action hero, and this webinar is proving our point perfectly,” said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. “We look forward to unlocking the power of the P&L with David, a true innovator in the franchise industry.”

Bill.com delivers a complete web-based financial solution for businesses and accountants that provides the tools, information, and collaboration required to better manage their financial tasks and optimize cash flow. Bill.com's game-changing technology digitizes a historically paper-based and time-consuming process, allowing users to access online bill payments, e-invoicing, document management, and automated workflow through one easy system. In addition to seamlessly integrating with businesses' existing accounting software programs, Bill.com provides financial leaders with a comprehensive view of their cash forecast - making it the only solution that connects a user's banks, bookkeeping, and business. 
About Bill.com
Bill.com is a cash flow command and control system that manages accounts payable and receivable for businesses of all sizes. Offering online bill pay, custom invoicing services, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access, Bill.com's services easily sync to users' accounting software programs and online bank accounts to better control company financials. Bill.com guards against errors and employs enterprise-class fraud protections that current methods cannot match. More than 100,000 users are now getting paid and paying millions of bills, worth billions of dollars, using Bill.com. Financial institutions can now offer these benefits to their business customers by integrating Bill.com with their banking platform. 

By Lisa Lang, SVP Marketing

Did you know there’s a whole new generation of CEOs and CFOs who run paperless businesses and insist on electronic payments instead of paper checks? They have no patience for time-consuming, paper-based processes that drag down everyone’s productivity. They’ve been endowed by game-changing cloud-based technology with certain inalienable rights, such as:

• Freedom from their desks. “No Check” CEOs aren’t tied to their offices, but free to manage their companies from wherever they need to be, with instant, real-time access to their business and financial data from anywhere, 24 hours a day.
• Freedom from bill-payment hassles. They simply scan, fax or email bills and associated documents to a cloud-based service, manage the approval process online, and make payments electronically.
• Freedom from receivables worries. “No Check” businesses rake in their receivables 2-3 times faster, thanks to e-invoicing, automatic reminders, and online customer payments deposited directly into their bank accounts.
• Freedom from cash flow uncertainty. “No Check” CEOs and CFOs get precision control over cash flow, by projecting receivables, payables and balances up to three months out, revealing potential problems well in advance.
• Freedom from check fraud. Unlike checks, electronic payments can’t be intercepted or modified. And unlike paper documents, electronic data can be protected with enterprise-level security systems.
• Freedom from paperwork. Some “No Check” businesses don’t even have file cabinets, because everything is digitized and stored online for secure access from anywhere, any time – so no need to save and store paper receipts, purchase orders, contracts, check stock or paper invoices.
• Freedom to reduce operating costs. Eliminating paper not only reduces processing costs for payables and receivables, digital access enables better cost controls through improved visibility. Getting rid of time-consuming paper-based processes also increases productivity for everyone.

Ready to become a “No Check” CEO? It’s as simple as moving your business processes from the manual, paper-based world to the cloud, via services such as Bill.com.

“If you want success as an entrepreneur, you have to take yourself out of the equation,” says David Cohen, CEO of Cyril’s Bakery, a leading wholesaler of frozen bakery products, and CEO of Bear Acquisition, a property management company. “Delegate or outsource everything you can, and use your own time as efficiently as possible.” For David, that means going paperless. “That’s what lets me run four separate businesses with a very lean staff,” he says.

Wait a minute – four separate businesses?  That’s right.  Practicing what he preaches has given our “No Check” CEO of the Month enough extra time to launch and grow two additional businesses successfully.

Born in Paris, France and raised in Florida since he was nine, David became an entrepreneur at 17 when he took over the company that became Cyril's Bakery, which now wholesales its products through 36 distribution channels in the Southeastern U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America. He also co-founded, Servistree.com which sells services to small and medium sized businesses to modernize their operation.  And Wiser Solutions, a consulting practice focused on increasing efficiency and customer retention.

“Being paperless means I don’t have to be there physically to review bills or sign checks,” Dave says. “I can manage all my businesses from anywhere – like Paris, where I was a few weeks ago.

“I couldn’t do all this without Bill.com,” says Dave. “I could not even conceive operating without it today” Previously, vendors would email bills to Cyril’s Bakery, where staff would print them out, enter them in QuickBooks and file them. Later, they would print a payables report for David to review, print out the checks and send them by courier to wherever he was at the moment. “Now the bills and paperwork go to Bill.com, I simply review and approve everything online from wherever I am, and the checks go out when they’re supposed to.

“As an entrepreneur, your biggest enemy is the 'I can do it myself’ syndrome. You think you can do everything, so you don’t invest a little bit of time in new solutions that would save you many hours and a lot of extra steps. But I implemented Bill.com in 45 minutes flat. That’s really all the time it took.  I couldn’t believe how easy it was, and how logical.

“Take yourself out of the equation,” Dave says, “and see how much you will grow.”

What I Learned in High School, And Why It Still Matters Today

I was recently interviewed for the website of my alma mater, Kent School, which is a leading independent secondary school in Connecticut, and it made me realize how much of what I believe in today reflects back on what I learned in high school.

One of the most important attributes I think anyone should have—whether in business or in their personal life—is self-reliance. At Kent, the school creed centered on self-reliance, directness of purpose and simplicity of life. These are the values that helped shape me as a person and as an entrepreneur, and they still guide me today.

Bill.com is in essence about all three of these ideals. I created Bill.com because I wanted to find a way to simplify the lives of business owners. When I started and ran PayCycle, the nation’s top online payroll company, I was overwhelmed by the vast amount of paper and unorganized data at the heart of running a business. I simply knew there had to be a better way. So I built Bill.com, with advancements in the cloud and social networking making this solution possible.

The idea of paper invoices, bills, and payments is so twentieth-century, and we know that at a consumer level. What's held the business community back is the sheer amount of collaboration that they must do across people, systems, and documents. But now, the Internet and the cloud are enabling that collaboration anytime and anywhere. Ultimately, when you connect businesses to pay each other and to invoice each other, you have enabled collaboration in a new way. And you have used technology to make life simpler, which really should be the point, after all. When you are freed from a cluttered desk and manual, tiresome tasks, you also can have that directness of purpose to focus on making a difference in this world.

But back to self-reliance, which is at the core of all I believe in. Technology, created and used correctly, should in fact free us to be able to do what we want to do when we want to do it. It should make us self-reliant, which I believe is what we are achieving with Bill.com. Self-reliance means that I can run a business without having to ask people to find documents for me. I can access data all by myself, no matter what it might be, on my desktop or device, no matter where I am. Self-reliance means I am one of the few CEOs who doesn’t need an assistant. I’m not weighed down by minutiae, so scheduling my own meetings isn’t a hassle, it is a way I can keep charge of my own day.

One of Kent’s beloved teachers Mr. Armstrong had this quote above his desk: “Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat.” Self-reliance can mean hard work, but in the end it sure is worth it. I am proud of all we have achieved—and will achieve yet—at Bill.com. And I am thankful to have enjoyed a high school education that continues to teach me today.

 René Lacerte, Founder and CEO, Bill.com

Bill.com Adds Industry Veteran to Team, Expands Franchise Support Bill.com. Saves Franchises Hundreds of Hours and Thousands of Dollars per Month

Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today furthered its commitment to the franchise marketplace by hiring financial industry veteran William Rickman in the newly created role of director of business development for the franchise market. Bill.com is already the choice of leading franchise businesses across the nation, saving these franchises hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars per month.

Rickman has more than ten years of experience in business development in the finance industry. Prior to joining Bill.com, Rickman was Vice President, Strategic Accounts for Bank of America Merchant Services. Rickman's efforts with point-of-service vendors and third-party payment providers were used as the model for his peers in the commercial division. As a sales executive with Fifth Third Bank, he developed solutions for business banking clients, including franchises that automated the payment process, reducing fraudulent transactions and cost of acceptance. Rickman has implemented ecommerce, mobile payments, pre-paid, electronic check and fraud prevention strategies for clients ranging in size from small businesses to Fortune 500. Rickman also ran his own business, where he learned first hand the unique challenges facing small business owners on a daily basis.

"I am excited to use this experience supporting clients facing the same issues I had. Bill.com is the perfect solution for geographically dispersed businesses such as franchises, and I look forward to helping the Bill.com franchise community build more efficient and effective businesses faster than ever," William Rickman, Bill.com Director of Business Development for the Franchise Market, said.

Bill.com delivers a complete web-based financial solution for businesses and accountants, that provides the tools, information, and collaboration required to better manage their financial tasks and optimize cash flow. Bill.com's game-changing technology allows users to access online bill payments, e-invoicing, document management, and automated workflow through one easy system. In addition to seamlessly integrating with businesses' existing accounting software programs, Bill.com provides financial leaders with a comprehensive view of their cash forecast -- making it the only solution that connects a user's banks, bookkeeping, and business.

"Franchise businesses have embraced Bill.com and as a result are reaping amazing time and cost savings," said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. "We are pleased to extend our commitment to these great entrepreneurs by bringing them more resources, especially William himself. We look forward to seeing what they will accomplish now that they can focus on growing their businesses instead of managing their money."

Well, it’s February once again. Punxsutawney Phil has predicted an early spring, and I predict that, if you’re like most of us, your New Year’s resolutions have gone the way of the groundhog’s shadow. In other words, they are nowhere in sight.

Don’t feel bad. The University of Scranton’s Journal of Clinical Psychology says only 8 percent of Americans actually keep their resolutions, with 64 percent of them abandoning their resolutions after month one.

I guess it’s just human nature. But, as a businessperson, there are a few resolutions I’ve made which I think you should join me in, if you haven’t already made them yourself. They are worth sticking to because they aren’t hard and they will make your life better. So, release yourself from any guilt about not going to the gym twice a week, and try to stick to these resolutions instead:

• Get rid of paper bills: ePayments really are the future. They are easier to use, simpler to track, more secure, and they give you back needed desk real estate. Forget paper trails, electronic trails are more reliable and accessible.
• Control your cash flow instead of letting your cash flow control you: Rather than rebuilding your cash flow spreadsheet every week or trying to make decisions based on what’s happened in the past, try using our Cloud-based cash flow command and control solution to be able to project your receivables, payables and balances three months out. Taking control of your cash flow means you have a tool for building a great business rather than just another manual “to-do” on your list every week.
• Go mobile: There is still something scary to many people in transacting business over their devices. But, really, being able to pay a bill and make cash flow management choices from a phone not only means that you can do your business in real-time no matter where you are, but that you might even get some “real time” back for yourself. But beware: If you do that, you just may have to pick back up that gym resolution!

So, there you have it, three quick and easy resolutions that will make your life better in 2013. And, rest assured, here at Bill.com, we are plugging away at the resolution we make every year: to make this year the best yet for our customers by providing them with exceptional solutions.

René Lacerte, Founder and CEO, Bill.com

One of our core values at Bill.com is listening to our customers and giving them what they need. One constant request from all of our customers has been to find a way to help make the always dreaded expense report process a bit less painful. While we can’t banish expense reports forever (although wouldn’t that be great!), we are pleased to tell you that by integrating with Expensify, the leading expense management provider, we can now give our growing community an easy, efficient way to manage expense reports.

One of the key benefits of our solution is managing the process of paying bills and getting paid. Now, with this integration, that process extends to employees who can submit their expense reports in Expensify, route them for approvals and pay them in Bill.com. Expensify allows users to easily manage their expenses by importing expenses and receipts from credit cards and mobile phones. With the new integration, employees can now submit a PDF version of their expense report in Expensify, and have it go directly to their Bill.com account. It’s that easy.

This integration is possible because of the exciting new developer platform we announced in December. With this new platform, developers can directly integrate applications ranging from expense management solutions to CRM systems, in addition to accounting systems. The platform offers a complete set of open APIs allowing developers to deeply integrate and provide businesses complete workflows across their systems. As part of the platform, Bill.com offers the first sync management framework that provides developers both best practices and a toolset for dealing with systems integration and sync. This framework allows for every integration to function similarly, so businesses can fully leverage multiple integrations at the same time and in the same manner. What this means to you is that Bill.com can become your hub for your entire workflow, making every work process as easy as cash flow management has become.

This announcement with Expensify follows our initial integration with Xero, which has been well received by our community. We hope you enjoy using Expensify and please remember to watch this space for more integration news—we’re just getting started!

René Lacerte, Founder and CEO