Software Second Look: Bill.com

by

Now this certainly isn’t the first time I have looked at Bill.com. In fact, we have probably written about this company and their software more than almost any other (with the exception of Intuit and QuickBooks) over the entire lifetime of Insightful Accountant. It seems that Renė Lacerte, the CEO of Bill.com, and his team are always making some news-worthy changes to Bill.com features or benefits, which we try to let you know about. So, our coverage is relatively extensive.

But the problem is that our coverage is also piecemeal, from one or two actual product reviews, like our 2014 feature on Bill.com and Liz’s feature on QBO Bill Pay powered by Bill.com, to all the various articles on each of the expanded capabilities and new features we have covered. As such, I felt it was time to give you a ‘once over again’ look at Bill.com that is a more comprehensive review of their offerings.

Whether you're a brand-new small business or an established and growing mid-market company, whether you use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, Bill.com makes your bill payment processes more transparent, easier to control and less time consuming. When it comes right down to it, we are really talking about one company, but two different offerings; yet in reality they are both designed to accomplish essentially the same fundamental objective in terms of accounts payable. Yes, I know Bill.com does more than A/P (like Accounts Receivable), but that's a topic for another feature. For now, this feature will just focus on Bill.com for accounts payable.

Bill.com delivers financial process efficiency and greater control to accounting firms and their clients through streamlined and automated accounts payable management. Their smart platform reduces data entry by leveraging artificial intelligence. Bill.com automatically extracts data from invoices to create bills in real time and notifies you when action is needed. With flexible payment options like domestic ACH, international wires, and virtual cards, Bill.com makes it easier than ever to pay vendors however they want to be paid. And, the new Bill.com gets more intelligent as you use it, it’s AI is learning your processes and preferences to give you total control over every aspect of A/P management.

Because Bill.com was one of the very first companies to work hand-in-hand with Intuit to ‘internally integrate’ an App within QuickBooks Online, Intuit offers QBO users the ability to pay, track, and manage bills right inside when they subscribe to the Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online powered by Bill.com. Now you need to be aware that this isn’t the ‘full blown version’ of Bill.com, and it really isn’t intended for accountants needing to manage the payables for their clients, even if the accountant is accessing the client’s books via QuickBooks Online-Accountant.

The big advantage of this integrated version is just that, it’s directly integrated into QBO. You don’t even realize that the bill payment activities you are performing are in fact being powered by Bill.com, it is that seamless. The disadvantage is it doesn’t include the full feature functionality of Bill.com, much of which we will be discussing during the remainder of this article. Still the same, if you are a small business using QuickBooks Online for your bookkeeping (and you are managing  your own accounts payable), you really can’t afford to go without Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online powered by Bill.com, so be sure to check it out in the Intuit App Center.

Now when I think of Bill.com, I think of the stand-alone version. I guess because that was ‘my first love’ so to speak. I don’t know how many clients I linked up to Bill.com, but I can say that every one of them that used it, loved it, so it was their first love too (at least as far as an A/P solution was concerned). The stand-alone version integrates with QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online to provide users with the full set of Bill.com features.

The new Bill.com Intelligent Business Payments Platform reduces the time spent on A/P by 50% and gets clients paid 2-3 times faster. It easily scales as an accounting firm grows and allows firms to:

  • Take control of your A/P workflow and approvals. Customize role-based access and assign bill and payment approval workflows. Based on the rules you set, Bill.com manages the workflow for you.
  • Streamline busywork while staying in control. The Bill.com A/P management process takes in vendor invoices, creates bills for approval routing and journal entries for accounting, manages approval routing, pays bills in a variety of methods, and automatically syncs the accounting information to leading accounting systems.
  • Reduce data entry. The Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) captures all the important data (vendor name, invoice number, invoice date, due date, and amount due) from your invoices and starts the bill creation process in real time.
  • Streamlined review workflow you configure. Bill.com automatically takes the bill through the appropriate review workflow, alerting each reviewer at the appropriate time. Each person can review and approve (or deny) on any internet-enabled device, including laptops, tablets, or mobile phones.
  • Leave audit trails to us. See original invoices and review notes, approvals, payments, and remittance details for every transaction with transparent, time-stamped audit trails.
  • Auto-approve recurring bills. No need to approve recurring bills each month. Approve once, and Bill.com shortcuts future bills to you for review and payment.
  • Add new clients faster. Get clients transacting with Bill.com faster. AI-enabled risk assessment speeds on-boarding while protecting against fraudulent activity.
  • Catch mistakes early. Never pay the same bill twice. Bill.com monitors invoices, bills, and payments for duplicates, reducing human error and giving you more control.
  • Make life easier for approvers. When the bill review process is complete, the person authorized to pay can send or schedule payments online in a few clicks or taps. You can even group bills that need immediate review, so approvers can focus on what’s most truly important. And assign multiple approvers, so if someone isn’t around, another can take action.
  • Minimize risk. Using artificial intelligence, Bill.com performs regular risk assessments to protect your firm and clients from fraudulent activity—at the transaction level and beyond.

When accountants use Bill.com, they have a wider range of benefits. Such as the Bill.com Accounting Console, which gives accountants access to all their client accounts in one place, helping them keep current on master to-do lists and manage staff logins and every aspect of client billing. It also offers powerful filters so accountants can configure their ideal view of bills, invoices, and payments. The Accountant Console also provides the ability to manage multiple logins and roles as well as enforce the separation of duties and controls, along with a variety of ways to pay vendors.

And if you happen not to be a QuickBooks user, Bill.com also offers accounting system integrations with Xero1, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite in order to save your team members from entering payment data twice, keep your records consistent, and prevent changes with closed books periods.

So, if you are ready to explore the options of making your bill payment process more transparent, easier to control and less time consuming, then I suggest you check out the Bill.com website and consider either a free demonstration or a free trial (whether you are using QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online).

Footnote:

1 - hyperlink is to the Xero App Center landing page for the Bill.com Xero App.