Blog

By René Lacerte, Founder and CEO

We’ve all seen (or been) that guy. The one who comes to meetings with piles of papers. The one who pulls out an old notebook to dig up a fact from a conversation held months ago. The one who has piles of receipts tucked away in the corner of his office, big piles of paper that even the cleaning staff avoids out of fear of anything falling out of place. This is a person armed with paper power. Any fact, any tidbit, any bill, they are all within his reach.

So why does he look so worried all the time?

Let’s face it, being the keeper of so many pieces of paper is extremely stressful. How often in a day do you have to think about misplacing a bill or throwing out something that perhaps you needed to keep, just in case an audit might happen sometime down the road? If you are the guy with the stack of paper in the meeting, do you really feel confident? Or are you actually petrified that you might leave something behind?

I’ve been traveling a great deal lately and so I have really had to put my paperless pledge into action. And I have to say, it feels better to be the guy with no back-up needed than the guy with all the answers in tow. Because the fact is that even though I left my binders at home, I can get every piece of data I need at my fingertips, no matter where I am, via Bill.com and the cloud. It’s liberating to actually attend a meeting with no files, no notebooks, no documents in hand.

So, although Earth Day may have come and gone, it’s still a great time to take the paperless pledge, not just for the state of the earth but for the state of your mind.

Try it. Go to a meeting with nothing but your ideas and your smart phone. You will be amazed at all you can accomplish, no back-up needed.

Bill.com Offers Free Webinar on How to Liberate Yourself and Your Business from Paper in Less Than Seven Days. Webinar Demonstrates How You Can Focus on Strategic and Personal Priorities Instead of Minutiae By Clearing Your Desk of Paper

Bill.com announced that it will offer a free webinar on how to set you and your business paper-free in less than seven days, on Wednesday, May 22, at 1:00 p.m. PT. Registration is available now at http://cashflow.bill.com/PaperFree052213.html?medium=pr.

Eliminating papers liberates you from time-consuming processes that drain your brain and keep you stuck at your desk, giving you more time and energy to focus on strategic and personal priorities. The webinar will feature Barry Yarkoni, CEO of Vinomis Laboratories, which is growing rapidly and has been managed by paper-free offices on both coasts from day one, as well as Joel Andren, Executive Director of Paperless 2013, the paper-free initiative backed by more than 30 innovative tech companies including Bill.com.

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By Lisa Lang, SVP Marketing

Whenever you can’t find something, it’s always in the last place you look. So why not just look there first? We’re serious, by the way. When a business isn’t growing in spite of your best efforts, it’s often because of something you don’t see yet. Often that something is hiding in plain sight. Take filing cabinets for example.

If you’re searching for the reason a business hasn’t grown the way it should, filing cabinets are probably the last thing you’d peg as the culprit. But they’re not as innocent as they appear. The presence of filing cabinets is often one of the main indications that a behind-the-times business is still letting manual, paper-based processes slow everything down.
Meanwhile, a new generation of tech-savvy founders, owners, finance leaders and executives has been using game-changing technology to replace time-consuming paper processes with fast, efficient cloud-based systems everywhere in their businesses.

These “No Check” CEOs have freed themselves and their traveling employees 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 on a desk waiting to be deposited – customer payments go straight into their accounts.

Some “No Check” CEOs don’t even have any filing cabinets at all in their businesses. They’ve found it’s much simpler and more efficient to scan all documents to a cloud-based system and shred the paper.
And because eliminating the paper also eliminates the need to be near the filing cabinets, they’re no longer tied down for long hours at their desks. They never have to come in during a long holiday weekend to search for a missing contract. Any document they need is always instantly accessible from anywhere they need to be, via laptop, tablet or smart phone.

Replacing paper with cloud-based technologies frees their time, makes all their employees more productive, speeds their responsiveness to competition, improves their customer service, drives down their costs, and provides them with unprecedented visibility into business performance.

All of which will change the way you look at filing cabinets forever, don’t you agree? All filing cabinets do is take up a lot of room, mostly to store old papers no one will ever need again. And they’re heavy. Even without the paper inside them, they’re heavy. Like massive anchors, chaining you to your office – and perhaps even preventing your business from taking flight.

Interested in becoming a “No Check” CEO yourself? It’s as simple as moving your manual, paper-based business processes out of the filing cabinets and into the cloud, via services such as Bill.com.

By René Lacerte, Founder & CEO

As I’ve said many times, the reason I started Bill.com was to solve my biggest challenge managing the back office at my first company.  As a CEO and entrepreneur there was simply too much paperwork moving through too many people’s hands to ever have an easy way to manage payables and receivables.  As a result it was pretty hard to have any kind of grasp on cash flow. At Bill.com, we’ve finally solved this age-old problem through our powerful, Cloud-based solution. And now we’re teaming up with like-minded companies to help bring the paperless revolution beyond our rapidly-growing network and out to every consumer in the nation. We have taken the Paperless Pledge and joined the Paperless 2013 movement.

Paperless 2013 is a coalition of companies that are helping consumers and businesses go paperless. Member companies include HelloFax, Google Drive, Fujitsu Scansnap, Expensify, Manilla, HelloSign, Xero, Eventbrite, Lemon, Nitro, Shoeboxed and, of course, Bill.com. The coalition notes that according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average U.S. office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. In 2010, the amount of paper recovered for recycling averaged 334 pounds for each person living in the US, according to the American Forest & Paper Association. Pretty amazing numbers. And it’s even more amazing that by making some simple changes we can not only make the earth a better place, but we can make our businesses more successful.

Because being paperless is not just about saving trees. It is about increasing efficiency, enhancing collaboration, and bringing visibility where it never was before. It is about empowering that new generation of CEOs and finance leaders, the “No Check” CEOs we often talk about, to throw off the shackles of paperwork and replace time-consuming paper processes with fast, efficient cloud-based systems everywhere in their businesses.  Goodbye file cabinets, hello data at your fingertips.
There are a million good reasons to join this movement-- and not a single reason to wait. Please join us and take the paperless pledge at http://www.Paperless2013.org. Once you do, you will receive an email with links to a set of web services that, used together, can remove the need for ‘paper’ from paperwork.  For more information, you can also follow the paperless 2013 campaign on Twitter using #Paperless2013.

But don’t delay. Help us save trees, better our earth and better our businesses by finally freeing ourselves from all that paper. I’ve done it and it feels great. Join me and let’s make our world a better place.

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

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.  

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.

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.