Use Case

From SGCN Member Wendy Swedean, Swedean Business Services LLC, Sioux Falls, SD

Besides the "touted" benefits of Bill.com (time savings, paper savings, audit trail, Web access, etc.), I have found a couple of additional benefits as well. These are my favorite tips and tricks:

1. It cannot be stressed enough how much nonprofit organizations can benefit from this set up. Often, board members need to approve expenditures, but trying to track them down to get a check signed can be almost impossible. Board members are typically the movers and shakers in a community and have extremely busy schedules. But it's easy for them to log on and approve bills in just a few seconds. Come audit time, the information is all right there for the auditors - including notes back and forth between the approvers.
2. I have a client who deals in quite a bit of lumber. Prices change often, and quality is sometimes a little dicey. We often need to negotiate with the vendors to honor the price quoted, or to give discounts on poorer quality pieces. Before, in QuickBooks, since there's no way to put an invoice on hold, I had to give the invoices goofy names to make sure that I didn't pay them before they were corrected. Now, the owner just denies the invoice and is able to put notes on it. When the vendor calls or the statement comes, I can reconcile the issues as the invoice is there. But when it comes time to pay bills, I don't accidentally pay it because it has been denied.
3. For a couple of my clients, many of their vendors have terms that are "Net 10th of the Month." I don't want to schedule these payments until I know that I have reconciled the vendor statement for the month to make sure that I get all of the invoices, and that I get the payment consolidated into one. For these vendors, I have started adding myself as an approver after everyone else has approved them. Then, I can easily exclude them from the payment screen. When the statement comes, I reconcile it and approve the appropriate invoices. Then I know that they're OK to release for payment.
4. Many vendors are trying to send out invoices electronically. I sent a brightly-colored flyer out to vendors with the new information for electronic delivery and included the fax number and the e-mail address that the client is assigned by Bill.com. More and more vendors are sending their invoices directly to Bill.com. I simply open the file, process the invoices, and send them on for approval. I don't have to clean out clients' desks anymore to find what I need!
5. Finally, a word has to be said about their customer service. I had a technical issue where duplicate invoices would import into QuickBooks. The customer service team put in long hours to get the issue straightened out as quickly as possible, eventually sending me a patch for my installation. Never once did they try to tell me that it was a hardware problem, or a QuickBooks problem, or a user problem. They took responsibility, found the problem, and got me back on track in very little time. In this day and age, this kind of service is an amazing asset to the product.