"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.”

Each year The Sleeter Group reviews new and updated cloud, online and mobile solutions designed to help accountants support their small business clients, and highlights the best with the Awesome Application Award. Bill.com is proud to be nominated for this award.

If you are a fan of Bill.com, you can help us by voting for us!

Voting has already begun. All you have to do is visit the 2013 Sleeter Awesome Application Awards website and cast your vote for Bill.com.  You can vote once per day and on as many applications as you like through September 28!

Awesome Application Awards will presented at The Sleeter Group's 2012 Accounting Solutions Conference to be held in October.

Most people don’t like to think about the possibility of fraud, but it’s a reality for businesses everywhere.  The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners says the average business loses 5% of annual revenue to fraud. 49% of the victims never recover even one single cent. And the problem is growing.

Recently, Darsi Casey, CPA, joined René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com, in a free webinar detailing seven ways to protect your business from fraud.  Both business leaders have experienced the consequences of fraud firsthand and have now become proactive about preventing fraud through the implementation of some simple procedures and the use of cloud-based technology. 

  Darsi stressed that the most important thing you can do to protect against fraud is to eliminate the opportunity.  The speakers provided their insight on how changes such as going paperless and eliminating checks can dramatically reduce an organization’s exposure to fraud. 

Have you experienced fraud firsthand in your organization?  Or do you want to learn to be proactive and prevent fraud from ever happening in the first place?  Click here to replay the webinar!  Or sign up for a product demo of Bill.com today!

September 2012 Release Notes

Put a face to the name

Picture yourself … and everyone else at your company who uses Bill.com to pay bills and invoice customers: load photos into Bill.com. See who approves bills. Show your face to customers when they sign in to pay you, and when they send notes about their invoices.

Lend a friendly, human touch to your payables and receivables.

Bills you pay without using Bill.com - Keeping track

That’s OK, we understand: you don’t pay all your bills with Bill.com (yet). Until that happens, how do you keep track of those bills in Bill.com?

As you might already know, you’ve always been able to keep track of them in Bill.com. We’ve just made it a bit more obvious.

Maybe you pay a few bills by printing checks through your accounting software. Or you pay by credit card or write a check by hand, and you merely want to mark a bill as “paid”. Now it’s easier to keep track in Bill.com, because we use the same language as you.

Bills to pay, but someone doesn’t yet have permission

At times, someone other than you might need to pay the bills. If you’ve already given them permission, and they’re set up to pay from the company bank account, that’s great. If not, we’ll lead them through the necessary steps.

Recurring every two years - payables and receivables

Some things happen like clockwork, even if that clock runs very slowly. Do you have certain bills you pay only once every two years? Invoices you send to certain customers only once every two years?

You must, because many of you have asked us to help you keep track of them. We’ve listened: set up these biennial payables and receivables, and we’ll keep track of the slow hands of time.

Receivables - Email attachments with your invoices

You’ve always been able to attach documents to invoices in Bill.com. When you emailed the invoices to your customers, they could see the documents by logging in to the website where they pay you.

Now we’ve made it easier for everyone, allowing you to attach documents directly to the invoice email. Customers no longer need to log in to see the attached documents: they’re in the email. Send documents you’ve already attached to the invoice, or attach other documents (from your computer or your Bill.com Inbox).

It’s just another way we’re helping you do everything just a little bit easier, and a lot faster. You look good to your customers. And by giving your customers easy access to every little thing they need to know about their invoices, you’re likely to get paid a lot faster.

Receivables - Broadcast messages to customers

You’ve got something to say, and you need to say it to more than one customer. We hear you, and so will they:

• Small businesses - communicate billing changes to a specific group of customers
• Non-profits - solicit donations from a targeted group of prospects
• Accountants - invite select clients to cloud-based billing and explain the benefits

Craft a single message. Send it to many customers: you pick and choose. All from the comfort and convenience of your Bill.com account.

Sync your teeth (and your accounting) into Bill.com

The fastest and most productive way to get started with Bill.com is to get (sync) everything you need from your accounting software, right off the bat. All your vendors, customers, products, and details will be at your Bill.com fingertips. Syncing also sends all your Bill.com payables and receivables transactions back to your accounting software, efficiently keeping your accounting up-to-date.

Because sync is crucial to saving you time, we’re constantly making improvements. Here’s what we’ve done for you and your accounting software lately:

• QuickBooks for Windows: simplified first-time sync, streamlined on-going sync for fewer errors
• QuickBooks Online: simplified first-time sync, streamlined on-going sync for fewer errors
• Intacct: streamlined on-going sync for fewer errors
• Peachtree/Sage 50: we sync with the 2013 version

Work fast, stay productive, be efficient: stay in sync.

Excel at reporting

We’ve updated these reports for easier export to Excel:

• Unpaid Bills
• Funds Transfer for Bill.com Payments
• Funds Transfer for ePayments Received
• Open Invoices

Don’t call us, we’ll call you!

Prefer to speak with Customer Support by phone when you have a question? But hate having to call and leave a voicemail? We hear you.  

Click Support at the bottom of any page and tell us what’s got you stumped. Customer Support will call you back within the hour to answer your question.

Feedback - What if …?

Ever been paying bills with Bill.com and thought to yourself, “This would work better for me if …?” But you’re busy and don’t have time to contact us about every little thing.

Well, we want to know about every little thing, so we’ve put a Feedback tab on every little page. Whether it’s paying bills, invoicing customers, or tracking your cash flow, let us know how we can make things a little easier/better/faster for you.

Don’t be shy! When inspiration, frustration, or jubilation strikes, just click-and-tell. A little feedback goes a long way.

Want to learn more? 
Download theSeptember Release Powerpoint, watch the Release Webinar replay or visit answers.bill.com 

Wow!  Where to begin? Well, I’ll start by saying how fortunate I am to be working with this amazing, hard-working, and passionate team. I joined Bill.com as Director of Customer Support in May 2012.  I’m excited to use my 18 years of service experience to deliver delight to our customers (YOU!) and partner with the Product Team to continually improve the overall support experience.

I’m a firm believer in Gandhi’s customer vision – and am grateful for your favor.

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”  - Mahatma Gandhi

Aside from work and my passion to delight customers at Bill.com, I cherish every moment I spend with my 4-year-old daughter, Amara. I always looked forward to becoming a mother some day, never knowing it would be this amazingly gratifying!  I’m truly grateful for the gift I’ve received in Amara – she brings me so much joy and contentment. For me, Amara is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future.

Like my passion to serve and delight customers, throughout my life I’ve always been a believer in giving back to my community in one way or another – some big, some small.  From paying bridge tolls for random strangers in cars behind me at the toll plaza, to volunteering my time as a Big Sister (was that ever fun and rewarding!), to teaching English to non-native speakers, to raising thousands of dollars and training for/running a half marathon in support of finding a cure for cancer, to surprising a homeless family with bags full of groceries, to doing Hospice volunteer work caring for and spending time with terminally ill adults, to serving Christmas dinner to families down on their luck, to donating money to the Armenian General Benevolent Union (in honor of my beloved grandfather) - to preserve and promote the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs.  Giving back is personally a very rewarding experience for me and I’m trying to find more ways that I can continue to give back on a more frequent basis.

Now that Amara is 4-years-old and in preschool, I am looking for opportunities that will allow us to give back to our community together.  It’s important to me that Amara is enabled to experience the richness of giving back to others. I feel this will bring out her true potential and will inspire a spirit of empathy and social responsibility.  Not to mention, kids make the world a better place!

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this.  I cannot reiterate enough how personally gratifying it is to have the opportunity to serve and support you and your business – without you, there would be no Bill.com. 

Thank YOU!

Amber Aslanian

Director of Customer Support 

Companies Are Losing 5 Percent of Their Annual Revenue To Fraud, With Small Organizations Disproportionately Suffering

PALO ALTO, CALIF.— Sept. 7, 2012 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced it will explore seven easy ways to protect businesses from fraud in a free webinar on Monday, September 10^th, at 1 p.m. PT. To register for the webinar, please visit http://cashflow.bill.com/fraud.

Fraud is a concern for any business, but small organizations are disproportionately victimized, with the typical organization losing five percent of its annual revenue to fraud. This webinar featuring René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com and Bill.com customer Darsi Casey, CPA, Managing Partner of Casey, Neilon & Associates, will cover topics including:

• what to watch for in the three top categories of fraud;
• the five departments where 71 percent of fraud has been happening in 2012;
• the 11 most common fraud schemes; and
• the four places companies are most vulnerable and exposed.

“Fraud is a real issue for businesses of all sizes, and we are pleased that our cash flow command and control system can help solve this age-old problem,” said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. “We encourage any business owner to attend our webinar to pick up some useful tips on how to protect themselves and reclaim their lost revenue.”

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 AND BARLOW RESEARCH ASSOCIATES UNCOVER MASSIVE DISCONNECT AND TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND BANKS

White Paper Explains Why Cash Flow Management is Critical for SMBs and Lucrative for Banks

PALO ALTO, CALIF. and MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.— Sept. 5, 2012 — Bill.com, the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash management solutions for businesses, today announced the availability of a whitepaper by financial services research firm Barlow Research Associates, Inc. entitled “Financial Institutions Can Win by Helping Businesses Manage Cash Flow, ” available at http://www.bill.com/for-banks. The whitepaper argues that multiple disconnects, including the lack of integration between accounting systems and banks, represent a huge hindrance and massive opportunity for SMBs and banks.  

According to the whitepaper, “managing cash flow continues to be a complex and time-consuming task. Whether using paper ledgers or accounting software, checks or online bill payment, the pain of managing cash flow still plagues businesses due to the manual and disjointed nature of the process.”

Although accounting software and Internet tools are both highly used as of today, they are not connected. For example, Internet banking has become an integral part of managing cash by giving businesses real-time access to information on their bank accounts. A 2011 study from Barlow Research indicates that 60% of small businesses ($100K-<$10MM in annual sales) and 83% of middle market companies ($10MM-<$500MM in annual sales) use Internet banking. The top rated feature for online banking users is the ability to monitor account balances and account activity, both critical inputs for managing cash flow. With advancements in technology and the increase in availability of services such as mobile banking, financial institutions are making the task of monitoring accounts more accessible than ever.

When assessing bookkeeping methods, Barlow data suggests that 49% of small businesses and 82% of middle market companies use accounting software to help them balance their books. Despite high adoption of online banking and accounting software, the two tools often operate in isolation, causing dissatisfaction among online banking users. In a 2012 Bill.com survey, 53% of respondents cited “a lack of integration between online banking and accounting software” as the reason for their dissatisfaction with their bank’s online banking offering.

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. The Bill.com system is being embraced by the banking industry, bringing banks a first-of-its-kind platform that enables them to offer business customers powerful accounts payable and accounts receivable services, develop additional revenue streams, and increase customer acquisition and retention.

“Now is the time for financial institutions to solidify their position as a central partner to businesses of all sizes,” said John Barlow, President, Barlow Research Associates. “As our report states, the future of Internet banking needs to leverage technology that fully addresses the customers’ pain while delivering financial benefit to the bank. Companies like Bill.com are leading the way in taking a burden away from SMBs while giving banks lucrative new revenue opportunities.”

According to the whitepaper, “with the high level of adoption of accounting software, it is not surprising that 96% of Bill.com customers rate accounting integration with Bill.com as ‘mission critical’ or ‘essential’ to their businesses. Bill.com syncs with five leading small and middle market accounting software packages, including QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50 (formerly Peachtree), Intacct, and NetSuite. The robust integration provided by Bill.com eliminates the manual processes of data entry between systems.”

Some additional findings from the whitepaper include:

• Financial service delivery is no longer “one size fits all.” As digital touch points expand, the challenge is to simplify usability and consistency not only within the bank, but also between the bank and customer bookkeeping systems. Integration of financial management desktop tools can be a game changer for online banking. In a 2011 Barlow Research survey of online banking users, 45% of small businesses and 39% of middle market customers indicated they would consider changing banks if offered a significantly better business Internet banking system.
• Retention of business customers is vital to financial institutions. According to Barlow Research Associates, the average net potential revenue to a financial institution for a small business customer is $5,784 and $140,433 for a middle market customer, based on nine major fee and balance contributors. With 8.4 million small businesses and 85,000 middle market businesses, the value of the market is over $60B in revenue annually. Business customers represent high value to banks, therefore securing the customer relationship can deliver considerable financial value.
• Decreasing fee income has become another pressure point for financial institutions. The FDIC Call Reports indicate fee income from institutions with >$50B assets has decreased by more than 20% from a total of $31B in 2009 to $24B in 2011. Integrating Bill.com’s services allows banks to monetize the cash flow management process to the tune of nearly $750K in gross revenue for every 1,000 customers on the system.

“This whitepaper validates what has been our driving force since day one: the manual, disjointed, and inefficient process of managing cash flow today simply does not work,” said René Lacerte, founder and CEO of Bill.com. “By offering an automated, integrated, and comprehensive cash flow system online, banks can deliver new value to their clients and add new revenue streams. Being central to their client’s cash flow management process means that banks can capture a broader base of payment volume as alternate business payment methods emerge. We look forward to watching banking evolve as cash flow management becomes more and more important to their business.”

About Bill.com’s Banking Solution

The Bill.com cash flow command and control system is the only solution that makes banks the core of their customers’ business. By allowing banks to integrate the Bill.com solution with their own platform, Bill.com empowers banks to own the entire cash flow management process—from payables to receivables to cash flow visualization. Bill.com makes banks the focal point of all their customers’ transactions, letting banks monetize the full cash management process while solving a significant pain point for SMBs by finally automating and connecting all of their financial processes. The award-winning Bill.com platform is being embraced by banks because it creates significant new revenue streams while enhancing customer loyalty and satisfaction. For more information, please visit http://www.bill.com/for-banks.

About Barlow Research Associates

Barlow Research Associates, Inc. (BRAI) was founded in 1980 to provide research and consulting services to the financial services industry in the United States and overseas. BRAI specializes in custom research and strategic consulting, and has developed a widely used proprietary product in the Customer Relationship Audit®, a customer satisfaction research tool designed to provide actionable data at all levels of the bank. As a top research company serving many of the largest banks in the United States, BRAI continuously tracks normative data in their Small Business, Middle Market, and Business Internet Banking programs. BRAI’s experience allows the company to select the methodology that will provide clients with the most useful findings and in-depth analysis.

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.

###

For more information, please contact:

Eileen Conway

Scout PR

650-245-9015

Eileen@scoutprsf.com

Did you know that the average organization loses 5% of its annual revenue to fraud?  And these losses are projected to equal $3.5 trillion of Gross World Product.  Smaller organizations are often disproportionally victimized by fraud, as they tend to have fewer preventative tools. 

What many of these organizations fail to realize is that a few simple changes, like eliminating checks and cutting out paper, can go a long way in minimizing fraud risk.  A great way to make these changes is to implement a cloud-based financial system like Bill.com

Join us for a free webinar on Monday, September 10, with Darsi Casey, CPA and René Lacerte, Founder and CEO of Bill.com. They will discuss seven ways you can minimize fraud risk for your business. Darsi is a proud user of Bill.com for her clients and her own business, and she has been impressed with the system’s ability to reduce the instance of fraud.  Bill.com has allowed her to cut out checks, eliminating the risk of check manipulation, and creating a clear and accessible audit trail. 

Register today for the webinar and learn how you can stop being a statistic!  Here are the details.  We hope to see you there.

Date: September 10, 2012
Time: 1 pm PDT

Title:  "Seven Ways to Minimize Fraud Risk for Your Business"

Speakers: 

    Darsi Casey, CPA, Managing Partner, Casey, Neilon & Associates 

    René Lacerte, Founder and CEO, Bill.com

Moderator:   Lisa Lang, VP of Marketing, Bill.com

Register Here!

Bill.com has partnered with Accounting Today on a new, six-part video series that aims to educate accountants and tax professionals on the benefits of— and best practices for—practicing finance in the cloud.

Part 4 in the series, "Opportunities with Verticals" is now available. This section focuses on how the cloud enables verticalization and vertical-focused strategies. Check it out here!

The videos include five experts from the accounting and software industry and are moderated by Erik Asgeirsson, CEO of CPA2biz.  Panelists are: Michael Hsu, founder and CEO of DeepSky; Becky Brown, founder of Keeping Your Balance Bookkeeping & Tax Prep; our own René Lacerte, CEO and founder of Bill.com; and Douglas Sleeter, president of The Sleeter Group.