Learn to Automate Small Business Bookkeeping with Bill.com

News Flash: Bill payment no longer has to be a time-consuming and costly accounting task for small businesses.

Due to cloud technology, the accounts payable/accounts receivable functions can now be automated and integrated in what we at GrowthForce call, a Smart Back Office.

By utilizing a cloud-based business payments network, such as our favorite , your business will receive simple online bill payment, custom invoicing services, unlimited document storage, workflow collaboration, and the ability to access your Smart Back Office via any mobile device. In addition, these services synchronize with your QuickBooks accounting system and online bank accounts.

No matter the size of your business, if you have Bill.com and QuickBooks, you can say goodbye to the manual, old-school bill payment process.

Is your business still following these traditional bill payment procedures?

Old School Bill Payment

1. Receive an invoice in the mail
2. Process and post the invoice in the general ledger
3. Obtain management’s approval for the expense
4. Generate and print a check
5. Secure an authorized signature on the check
6. Print an envelope
7. Stamp and mail the payment to the vendor
8. Reconcile the payment with the bank statement

By transitioning to an electronic business payment network, processing invoices is reduced to just four steps, saving significant time and labor costs.

New School Bill Payment

1. Vendors scan, fax, or email invoices to an inbox
2. Accounting enters and codes invoice
3. Payment system synchs with QuickBooks and routes invoice to authorized manager
4. Manager approves the bill and chooses when and how paid (mailed or electronically)

Where did the steps go?

Reducing the steps in the bill payment dance is an efficient move. When bill payment is automated, invoice data only has to be entered once into the accounting system, saving time and money.

Bill.com reports that by syncing their bill payment system with QuickBooks, businesses can cut bill payment time in half. As a result, vendors can rejoice by being paid two to three times faster electronically than with the manual method.

As for the cost savings, The Wall Street Journal estimated that the average small business spends $12 to pay a bill. By using Bill.com to pay bills electronically, the cost to pay a bill can be slashed to around $1.50.

If cost savings isn’t enough, there’s another important reason to turn on the electronic bill payment switch. The built-in controls of automated bill payments also provide protection from fraud.

Employees see only the information they need to do their part in the online bill-paying process. With less employee access and interaction in the bill payment, there’s less opportunity for internal tampering with company funds.

Why Bill.com?

At GrowthForce, we believe that Bill.com is the best bill payment solution that synchronizes with QuickBooks. We use Bill.com to manage bill payment for our clients as well as for our own in-house accounting.

As members of the Bill.com Accountant Program, we are Certified Bill.com Gurus. We keep tabs on the latest Bill.com innovations and pass along Bill.com savings to our clients.

Here are the benefits of Bill.com that make it stand out among the ever-growing crowd of bill payment solutions.

1. Fast invoice entry: Invoices can be quickly scanned and coded to automatically match purchase orders in QuickBooks.

Benefits:

• Faster processing of bills means expenses are likely to get paid in the time period they occur. In other words, you get a more accurate monthly P & L.
• Vendors want to do business with you when they get paid faster.
• If vendors question whether they’ve been paid, you can email images of the cleared checks with a few clicks of the Bill.com app.

2. Multiple payment options: Bill.com pays via Automated Clearing House (ACH), credit card, PayPal or old-fashioned paper checks.

Benefits:

• Vendors can choose a payment preference.
• E-payments through Bill.com are a third of the cost of providing paper checks. 

3. Mobile access: Business owners and managers can access Bill.com remotely via a smartphone, a laptop or IPad, as well on their desktop computer back at the office.

Benefits:

• Pay bills while out of the office – anytime, anywhere – via Bill.com app
• Eliminate burdened of carrying invoices and checks to sign while traveling
• Set up preferences to receive daily, weekly (or no) reminders of bills to waiting to be approved

4. Synchronizes with QuickBooks

Benefits:

• Less manual data entry means less chance of human entry error
• Invoice payments in Bill.com automatically reconcile with QuickBooks

5. Free Vendor Console

When you sign up for Bill.com, you can invite your vendors to use the Bill.com console for free.

Benefits:

• Vendors receive automatically-generated email notifications when they’ve been paid.
• Each vendor has a Bill.com portal to store invoices, payment history, tax payer documents, vendor agreements etc.

6. Permanent record storage

Bill.com will store record history for your Bill.com account and your participating vendors.

Benefits:

• Saves space and paper - eliminates manually filing vendor bills by the vendor in a file cabinet
• Stores actual image of each invoice, the cleared check or e-payment, and e-payment verification code proof of payment
• Provides safe and secure access to only authorized users
• Offers records transfers – If you leave Bill.com, they will provide you with a copy of your records on a CD. That goes for your vendors too!

7. Invoicing

While Bill.com is known for bill payment, it also has accounts receivable function with the ability to invoice, offering benefits beyond invoicing through QuickBooks Desktop.

Benefits:

• Can attach signed customer agreements, proposals and estimates to invoices
• Accepts customer payments electronically
• Automatically issues payment reminder emails to past-due customers
• Can use mobile devices for remote invoicing and payment via Bill.com app

This last benefit is great for service business that use QuickBooks. Contractors can log into Bill.com when they are on the job, create an invoice and immediately email it to the customer. When a business can invoice quicker, they can receive payments faster and steady cash flow into the bank account.

Bill.com Newest Features

As we mentioned, we are among the first to find out about and try out new Bill.com features.

Here are some latest Bill.com app updates that we can share with you.

1. Synchronizes with Payoneer

 is a company that assigns a foreign vendor a U.S. bank account and routing number, and then transfers the money to the vendor’s foreign account.

Benefits:

• Reduces transaction fees by as much as 71 percent
• Eliminates need to wire transfer money internationally
• Opens up business channels with international vendors and customers
• Enables payments in foreign currencies

2. Two-way Synchronizing with QuickBooks Desktop

Bill.com utilizes the Bill.com Sync Dashboard to transfer information between Bill.com and QuickBooks for Windows (also referred to as QuickBooks Desktop).

The Bill.com Sync Dashboard is available for download in each Bill.com account set to sync with QuickBooks for Windows.

3. Auto Bill Entry

Auto Bill Entry is a service that extracts bill information from documents in your Bill.com Inbox and turns it into a bill, ready for you to review, approve, and pay in 1 business day. It's a phased release, so you may not have it available right away.

Enable Your Smart Back Office

Bill.com is the fastest-growing business payments network in the nation. The app is easy to implement, and they offer a free 30-day trial.

If you don’t have a Smart Back Office bill payment system, now’s the time to get started. Contact GrowthForce today for more information about how we can serve your business through the Bill.com Accountant Program.