Honor Recognizes Integration, Ease-of-Use and Design

THE SLEETER ASC CONFERENCE , Anaheim, CA, Oct. 22, 2012–  Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced that it was selected as one of the 2013 Awesome Applications by The Sleeter Group, a company dedicated to researching the marketplace and finding the best accounting technology solutions to help small businesses work smarter, faster and more efficiently.

With thousands of accounting and management programs on the market for small businesses, the Awesome Applications award signifies that Bill.com is among the most productive and effective technologies, and that it meets the highest standards of design, ease-of-use, and conformance with appropriate accounting standards.

“Bill.com earned the Awesome Applications award because it provides great features and seamless integration with standard small business management systems that businesses of all sizes need,” said Doug Sleeter, founder and president of The Sleeter Group. “By enhancing business programs like QuickBooks with the addition of these capabilities, small and mid-sized companies are able to increase efficiency and productivity.”

Bill.com delivers a complete cloud-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 brings accountants the only client service solution that works with all major accounting software and every online bank. Bill.com eliminates paperwork and streamlines AP, AR and cash flow management for accountants and their clients. In addition, Bill.com’s cloud-based AP and AR systems, combined with Bill.com’s cash flow command and control system, offers the first full picture of a business’s complete cash flow system. This empowers businesses and their accountants to get paid 2 to 3 times faster and save over 50% of the time spent paying bills – all with unprecedented control, precision, and security.

“We are thrilled to be recognized by the Sleeter Group for what we do best – providing productive tools  that help businesses better manage their accounting processes, saving them valuable time and money,” said René Lacerte, Bill.com founder and CEO. “We thank the Sleeter Group and our customers for this award.”

As the largest network of small business technology consultants, The Sleeter Group has members throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. The awards were formally announced on October 22 at the 2012 Accounting Solutions Conference in Anaheim, Calif. The annual event draws hundreds of accountants, bookkeepers, consultants and IT professionals, providing them with educational opportunities presented by industry experts, thought leaders and technology developers.

When I was young, store-bought Halloween costumes were far and few between. People walked around as ghosts, with eye holes poked out of (mainly) white sheets. Girls were gypsies for years on end. A sports uniform became your go-to costume.

Now, I’m not saying that these weren’t the good old days. And I’m not saying that nowadays kids (and by which I mean, us parents) don’t spend way too much on costumes. But check out that amazing costume your son has already bought for Halloween. Maybe it’s a super hero. Maybe it’s a pirate costume with a bird on its shoulder. Maybe it’s a ghost that actually looks like a ghost. Don’t you wish you could have had something as cool as that rather than hobbling together the same old odds and ends every year? If you had known those costumes were out there, wouldn’t you have begged to get them?

Unfortunately, many of today’s CFOs are still wandering around in “hobo” costumes dug out of their parents’ old clothes. In a recent survey we conducted of 350+ CFOs, we found that when asked what system they currently use to predict future cash flow, 72.9% of respondents said they still use their old Excel spreadsheets, 8.5% use an ERP system, and 8.3% said they just do the calculations in their head. The remaining 10.3% said they don’t use any tools at all, according to the survey.

Why are they still using these relics of the past? The survey found that while CFOs are aware that other departments are moving to the cloud, few realize that similar solutions exist for the finance department.  And CFOs’ frustration with this status quo also came through loud and clear. When asked to name the top three challenges faced by CFOs today, respondents cited the inability to forecast results (51.1%) and manage cash flow (47.4%) as their most pressing concerns.

Now of course there are great solutions like Bill.com out there to simplify CFO’s lives.  And some early adopters are already making the change, with 65.2% of survey respondents saying that saving dollars and staff hours would lead them to the cloud. And beyond the savings of reducing paper (which was either very of somewhat important to more than 85 percent of respondents), Financial executives are discovering that by putting their AP process in the cloud, they can cut their work by more than half and slash the cost by 50% to 70%, a saving that amounts to tens of thousands of dollars for many organizations.

So, go for a trick not a treat this year. Move to the cloud. We promise you, it’s easy. Just like taking candy from a baby. Or, better yet, collecting some good loot this Halloween.

The typical small business owner is not getting the automated help with accounting and cash flow that he could be getting from his bank, a survey released Monday shows.

In small businesses, "Cash is king. You've got to stretch out payables, pull in receivables, and you can't really do that with a lot of the processes that are out there today," says Rene Lacerte, founder and CEO of bill.com, Palo Alto, Calif., the online bill payment company that sponsored the survey.

"I'm a serial entrepreneur, this is the second company I've started; I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs," he says. At his previous startup, Paycycle (which was bought by Intuit), "The problem I faced is there's a tremendous amount of juggling, all the details need to be looked after to make sure the payments have happened." On the payables side, the small business person has to figure out the terms of contracts, sign and mail checks, track approvals and so on. On the receivables side, she has to figure out what's in the customer contract, if the customer has paid a bill, if he's even seen the bill, and if he hasn't paid the bill, why not.

Read more here.

BILL.COM CFO SURVEY FINDS THAT MOVING FINANCIAL PROCESSES  TO THE CLOUD CUTS WORKLOAD IN HALF, SLASHES COSTS UP TO 70 PERCENT

Also Uncovers That Most CFOs Are Unaware of Money Wasted On Paying Bills

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Oct. 15, 2012 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced the results of its survey of more than 350 CFOs,revealing that when financial executives adopt the cloud they quickly realize significant financial benefits to their busineses. However, despite increasing awareness of the cloud, financial professionals still lag behind other department leaders in making the move to the cloud. Full survey results are available in the free whitepaper “For Clarity, CFOs Look to the Cloud,” which can be downloaded from http://cashflow.bill.com/cfo_whitepaper.html.

The survey is one of the first to provide insight into how CFOs are thinking about cloud-based financial systems, whether they plan to implement the systems, and what they see as both the advantages and disadvantages of online tools for managing tasks like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash flow. The report finds that while CFOs are aware that other departments are moving to the cloud, few realize that similar solutions exist for the finance department. However, for early adopters, saving money and time are significant motivating factors for companies that are considering a cloud-based system, with 65.2% of survey respondents saying that saving dollars and staff hours would lead them to the cloud.

In addition, when asked how much it costs their organization to process and send an invoice, 38.7% of respondents said under $5 and 32.2% said $5 to $10. In fact, the majority of respondents are likely underestimating the cost because they’re not fully factoring in the price of labor, materials, and other inputs. According to industry standards, the average cost of processing an invoice is actually over $22. In terms of hard numbers, a small company sending an average of 100 invoices a month would cut their expenses from $2200 to $750 per month by using the cloud, according to separate research conducted by Bill.com.  

Still, many CFOs remain stuck in the past, continuing to rely on paper-based processes and Excel spreadsheets to do their work, missing the opportunity to realize time and cost savings by embracing the cloud. Indeed, when asked what system they currently use to predict future cash flow, 72.9% of respondents said they still use their old Excel spreadsheets, 8.5% use an ERP system, and 8.3% said they just do the calculations in their head. The remaining 10.3% said they don’t use any tools at all, according to the survey.

CFOs’ frustration with this status quo was clearly expressed in the Bill.com survey. When asked to name the top three challenges faced by CFOs today, respondents cited the inability to forecast results (51.1%) and manage cash flow (47.4%) as their most pressing concerns. These numbers indicate that financial executives could greatly benefit from tools that provide real-time visibility into the amount of money they’re paying out and taking in, at any given moment.

Some additional findings from the survey include:

• 16.5% of financial executives said that, as far as they know, cash flow management tools and systems are nonexistent in the market; 22% said they know the tools exist but their company doesn’t use them.
• When asked what they think are the biggest challenges in moving to a cloud environment, 64.1% of survey respondents said integration with existing systems, 54.7% said system and network security, and 43.6% said introducing a new process.
• Financial executives are discovering that by putting their AP process in the cloud, they can cut their work by more than half and slash the cost by 50% to 70%, a saving that amounts to tens of thousands of dollars for many organizations.
• Another incentive for moving to the cloud is the chance to reduce the flow of paper bills and transition to a paperless work environment. The vast majority of survey respondents (85.5%) said reducing paper was either very important or somewhat important to them. Only 14.5% said it was not important at all.

According to the survey, these results show cloud-based tools, especially those for cash flow management, are still emergent in the marketplace. For early adopting CFOs, deploying tools that are on the brink of changing the financial industry will give them a competitive advantage as they leapfrog past other companies, due to their increased efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-savings.  

“Early adopters who have switched to cloud-based financial systems told Bill.com they have greatly improved both their accounts payable and accounts receivable processes,” said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. “We are gratified to see financial professionals take advantage of all the savings and efficiencies that only the cloud can bring.”

Bill.com delivers a complete cloud-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 cash flow command and control system is the only solution that connects users’ banks, books, and businesses, enabling companies of all sizes to finally rid themselves of the cumbersome, error-prone, and highly manual spreadsheets that have plagued finance for decades. Combined with Bill.com’s cloud-based AP and AR systems, it offers the first full picture of a business’s complete cash flow system and empowers finance leaders to get paid 2 to 3 times faster and save over 50% of the time spent paying bills – all with unprecedented control, precision, and security.  

You’ve probably heard about cloud computing by now, but did you know that cloud-based financial systems can improve productivity, increase transparency and accountability and protect your organization from fraud?  Consumers have utilized cloud-based tools for years, but now there are a number of solutions available for all your business applications. 

Recently, Bill.com Founder and CEO, René Lacerte teamed up with Intacct’s Director of Product Marketing, Vijay Ramakrishnan to discuss how cloud-based financial systems are helping nonprofits and other businesses to streamline finances.  Nonprofits, in particular, have a great deal to be gained from the added transparency and accountability provided by solutions like Bill.com and Intacct. 

Cloud-based tools, as opposed to on-premise software, have the added benefits of a reduced dependence on IT, better security and a lower cost.  Not to mention, the cloud affords businesses the ability to go paperless, increasing efficiency and reducing the risk of fraud.

Learn how your business can benefit from cloud-based financial systems.  Click here to replay the webinar, or download the presentation deck. 

Learn to Eliminate the Hassles of Paying Your Bills with Bob Bickel of RunSignUp

Does processing payables eat up too much of your time?  Bob Bickel feels your pain – or rather he did feel it, but not any more!  

Bob Bickel is a 25-year software industry veteran who mentors and works closely with emerging software companies.  He is also a dedicated runner and coach of the Moorsetown High School track and cross country teams.  Bob decided to combine both of his passions and in 2009 launched RunSignUp.com to provide a better online race sign up system for race directors and runners.

Bob currently handles about 100,000 registrations a year for over 1,000 races.  As a result, he has to make as many as 100 payments a week during peak seasons, a process that took him up to 6 hours when done manually.  Now, with Bill.com, this process takes only 5 minutes a week, giving him extra hours to build his fast-growing business. 

Register today for the free webinar and learn how you, too, can eliminate the hassles of paying your bills manually.  Here are the details. 

Date: Monday, October 15, 2012

Time: 11AM PDT

Title: “How I Eliminated My Bill Payment Hassles”

Speaker: Bob Bickel, Founder, RunSignUp

Moderator: Elisabeth Lang, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Bill.com

Recognized for Leadership and Innovation in the Financial Services Market

PHILADELPHIA, PA and PALO ALTO, CA—September 25, 2012— Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses and the Business Intelligence Group, hosts of the 2012 BIGAwards, announced today that Bill.com was named Product of the Year for 2012 in the Financial Services industry. The BIG Awards specialize in recognizing top performing companies and organizations with a proprietary judging process scored by recognizable and experienced leaders and executives from across the globe.

“In an ever crowded space, Bill.com stands out as a leader focused on improving business efficiency and effectiveness,” said Russ Fordyce, managing director of the Business Intelligence Group. “Their approach to completely solving a business’ need for financial processing and performance insight makes them unique in the industry and worthy of significant recognition.”

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. Bill.com enables new users to sync all their accounting systems, connect to their bank account, set control parameters, and customize their pages and payment methods.

“Being named Product of the Year by the BIG Awards is an honor because it means that the financial services market’s leading minds recognize the value of our solution,” said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. “We work hard to give our customers easy-to-use tools that provide valuable time savings and increased accuracy. We look forward to continuing to innovate in the years to come.

There are many things that can keep you up at night. Worries about your family, concerns about your company’s bottom line, thoughts about how to anticipate—let alone pay—the next bill coming around the corner. These are all legitimate concerns that have driven all of us to late night TV or warm milk at one time or another.

There is, however, one thing that should never keep us up at night, and that is technology. And that’s why we are so gratified to have received K2 Enterprises’ 2012 Quality Award for Ease of Use. The K2 Quality Awards are determined by end user feedback and experience from consulting and extensive teaching. The awards are designed to acknowledge leadership in technology.

Technology was, after all, created to be our friend. It should help us do our job better, communicate easier and sleep better at night. Here at Bill.com, we’ve used technology to digitize a historically paper-based and time-consuming process, allowing financial professionals to access online bill payments, e-invoicing, document management, and automated workflow through one easy system. Our goal has been to wipe away a major source of worry and simplify life for our customers. 

Our Cash Flow Command and Control System ™ can be set up in less than an hour, enabling new users to synch all their accounting systems, connect to their bank account, set control parameters, and customize their pages and payment methods in that short amount of time. And then, once they are up and running, our users can connect to Bill.com from any device, any place, any time. This is the Cloud working for us—a prime example of how technology can make our lives easier. And since we offer the highest level of encrypted security—which, let’s face it, has to be better than having all your files in a cabinet at the office—another major concern has been wiped away as well.

So, dream big, worry less, and build great businesses!

René Lacerte, CEO and Founder, Bill.com

"How to Streamline Finances and Prevent Fraud in Your Nonprofit with Cloud Computing"

Sponsored by The NonProfit Times, Bill.com & Intacct

Are you struggling with financial reporting and analysis? Are Excel driven, manual processes draining your accounting team's productivity? Learn how nonprofit organizations like yours are streamlining their finances and preventing fraud by migrating to cloud-based solutions.

Date & time:  Friday, October 5 – 10:00AM PDT /12:00PM CDT/1:00PM EDT

Learn how cloud-based financial systems will:
•Reduce overhead in your finance and IT departments  
•Increase transparency and accountability
•Protect your organization from fraud

Plus, learn how you can evaluate the risks, benefits and ROI of cloud computing.

Register today!

About the presenters

René Lacerte, Founder and CEO, Bill.com
René Lacerte developed the concept for Bill.com in 2006,based on personal experience growing new businesses. Today, Bill.com has already helped over 100,000 businesses and non-profits pay and get paid for millions of bills worth billions of dollars.

Vijay Ramakrishnan, Director of Product Marketing, Intacct
Vijay Ramakrishnan is Intacct’s Director of Product Marketing, where he helps organizations understand how they can tap into the power of the cloud to streamline financial management processes and gain new insights to drive business strategies.

Leading Financial Command and Control System Can Be Set Up in Less Than an Hour, With Access Anywhere, Anytime

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Sept. 20, 2012 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced that they have won K2 Enterprises’ 2012 Quality Award for Ease of Use for its Cash Flow Command and Control System™, which can be set up in less than an hour and can be accessed anywhere, anytime from a multitude of devices.

K2 Enterprises provides continuing professional education services to the accounting profession as well as marketing consulting services to technology providers in the accounting market. K2 Enterprises delivers approximately 1,000 educational programs to more than 50,000 professional accountants on an annual basis throughout the United States and Canada. The K2 Quality Awards are determined by end user feedback and experience from consulting and extensive teaching. The awards are designed to acknowledge leadership in technology, with a resulting focus in cloud and mobile solutions this year.

”K2 has been acknowledging the best of the best for technology quality for the past 11 years and we know breakthrough technology when we—and our end users—see it,” said Val Steed, CEO, K2 Enterprises. “Bill.com earns top honors for ease of use this year and they couldn’t be more deserving. Not only does Bill.com make it incredibly easy for companies and finance professionals to finally have a clear view of and command over their cash flow, but they do so through a solution that is accessible from anywhere a user might be.”

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 business' 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. Bill.com enables new users to synch all their accounting systems, connect to their bank account, set control parameters, and customize their pages and payment methods.

“We are honored to be named a winner in the prestigious K2 Quality Awards, especially in the  ease of use category,” said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. “Our goal is to give our customers all the data they need to make timely business decisions. By making Bill.com so easy to use and by bringing mission-critical information to users’ fingertips no matter where they might be, we are letting SMB owners and finance professionals  turn away from managing yesterday’s data, helping them instead look forward to what they can achieve next.”