Are you buried in paperwork filled with invoices, receipts, and bills? If you're like most SMB owners, the answer is probably yes. A large part of small business ownership is learning which essential business tasks are eligible for delegation or outsourcing. One of the first areas you might look to begin delegating or streamlining activities may be your accounting or bookkeeping processes. And if you're thinking "there must be a way to add more automation to my processes", we've got good news for you.
If you're using QuickBooks to manage your bookkeeping data, you already know QuickBooks provides a good basis for your business accounting by manually inputting your invoices, receipts, bills, and other incoming and outgoing expenditures. And just maybe you've stumbled upon a possible pain point when trying to use an automated bill payment program. For example, perhaps you use a service such as Bill.com to handle your invoicing and outgoing payments, and ended up with double entries in QuickBooks when you manually input the data. Instead of banging your head against the wall when it comes time to reconcile the accounts, Bill.com offers QuickBooks integration that helps in three key areas.
1. Accounting syncing
Bill.com handles bill payment as well as incoming invoices from your clients and customers. All of your bills, bill payments, and invoices are synced automatically to QuickBooks, eliminating the need to enter paperwork manually into the program. You save time not having to double check all of your paperwork, invoices, and bills.
2. Contact updates.
The accounting information isn’t the only thing shared between QuickBooks and Bill.com. Payment contracts, terms, and contact information for vendors and clients are added into Bill.com after you create the records in QuickBooks. Bill.com looks for any changes so that the payment method, addresses, and other information for your contacts are kept up to date. You won’t end up sending checks to old mailing addresses or an incorrect PayPal email address.
3. Streamlined payments and invoicing.
Because everything is synced between Bill.com and QuickBooks, you don’t even have to open QuickBooks to access your billing, customer and vendor contacts, and other accounting services that are connected to Bill.com. This takes an extra step out of the accounting process, as well as making it easier to access bill payment through the online-based service. Additionally, this allows you to access payment options even if you aren’t at your workstation. Bill.com can also automatically pay your recurring expenses, which is a feature your vendors would certainly appreciate.
It also helps to reduce the flow of information and potential approval obstacles along the way. Instead of having to manually push an invoice or batch of invoices to reviewers, Bill.com can automate the process through a pre-determined list of reviewers and approvers. You can assign separate roles and rights to each user to mitigate risks and reduce the potential for misusue.
When you’re in the growth phase of your small business, finding solutions to work smarter instead of harder help you devote more of your energy into scaling your operations. Streamlining your payment process helps encourage quicker payments, improves your cash flow, and gives you a more realistic view of your business profit and loss.
Not sure which integrations and automations might work for your needs? Our expert bookkeepers, controllers and accounting technology specialists can help you find the right solution for your business. Request a free consultation today!
