For accountants and bookkeepers, adding additional services can be a double-edged sword. Often, the more services you provide (in an efficient and accurate manner, of course), the more value you add to your client’s business, and the more trust you gain as an advisor. However, as you increase your service offerings, your resources may become strained.
Thankfully, introducing bill payment as a service can be relatively straightforward. With the right technology, providing bill pay is easy and can be a great way to bolster revenue while improving client relationships.
Creating bill pay efficiency with the right technology
In a manual, paper-based bill pay workflow, you’ll typically receive hard copies of bills, which could force you to spend time going back and forth with clients on tedious aspects of the process, such as payment details, approvals, and so on.
Thankfully, there are tools that can streamline this entire process. One such tool is Bill.com (available in the USA), which expedites payment processing through automated approvals and payments. Better yet, Bill.com integrates directly with Hubdoc, and can help you implement a seamless bill pay process, particularly when both softwares are connected to your general ledger.
Connecting Hubdoc to Bill.com
If you’re using Hubdoc and Bill.com separately, connecting the two programs is quick, easy, and will expedite the entire bill pay process, from bill collection through reconciliation.
Follow these steps to connect Hubdoc to Bill.com:
1. Log in to your Bill.com account.
2. View your client's Bill.com account.
3. Click the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen.
4. Select 'App Center'.
5. Select Hubdoc from the apps menu.
6. Click 'Connect'.
7. Log in to your Hubdoc account.
8. Select your client's Hubdoc account from the drop-down menu.
9. Click 'Connect'.
The benefits of connecting
In a typical Bill.com payment workflow, an accountant or bookkeeper will receive bills in their Bill.com inbox, code them appropriately with the right amount, payee, account, etc., then click “OK” so that the transaction goes to the approval stage. Connecting to Hubdoc allows the advisor to skip this step and go straight to approval via document collection and data entry automation.
A financial source document is created each time a transaction occurs. When Hubdoc and Bill.com are integrated, the document is either automatically fetched by Hubdoc, or your client can upload directly to Hubdoc from their desktop, mobile app, email, or scanner.
Hubdoc then extracts the data from that document automatically and codes a transaction. Then, you can publish to Bill.com where the transaction is pre-approved and accurately coded, with the source document attached. All of these capabilities can help you save time, eliminate paper, increase transparency, and improve relationships with clients.
Building your workflow
The first time you receive a bill in Hubdoc, you will need to manually code the transaction for Bill.com, which simply means choosing the right supplier, chart of accounts, location, department, etc. for the bill. Hubdoc will pull all this information from Bill.com when integrated, making this process seamless because you can choose from the same information you have in Bill.com.
Once coded, a detailed transaction is created, and will be ready for approval once published to Bill.com. Hubdoc automatically saves the way you code a bill, so every subsequent bill you get from a supplier will be automatically coded and ready to send to Bill.com.
As noted, when you send a bill from Hubdoc to Bill.com, it will skip the inbox stage, and head straight to approvals, with the source document attached. You or your client can simply log in, review for accuracy, and pay the bill with one click, and the transaction will then flow through to your general ledger for reconciliation!
For predictable, recurring bills, you can automate one step further – with Hubdoc’s Autosync feature, Hubdoc will not only code the bill transaction, but will also automatically push the transaction to Bill.com, ready for payment (without you having to review at all).
It’s important to keep in mind that the best bill payment workflow is whatever works best for your firm, and might take some trial and error. Some advisors pay on behalf of their clients, while many, such as Hubdoc Top 50 honoree Octavia Conner of Say Yes to Profits, engage their clients to ensure transparency:
"At Say Yes To Profits, our bill pay process starts with Hubdoc as the client's entry point. We train our clients and their team to scan, upload, or forward all bills to Hubdoc. Once the bill is received in Hubdoc, the client's assigned bookkeeper will either code the bill or double-check to ensure Hubdoc has coded the bill correctly. After reviewing each bill, the bookkeeper then publishes the bill to QuickBooks Online and Bill.com. The client then logs into Bill.com to approve all bills for the period. After the approval process has been completed, the client's designated bookkeeper then processes the bills for that period."
Use Hubdoc → Bill.com → cloud accounting software for fast bill payment
In addition to increasing efficiency in the bill pay process, including Hubdoc in your Bill.com workflow can also increase transparency and collaboration.
Fewer client touches and a more straightforward, streamlined process will help to ensure that client interactions are focused on more meaningful aspects of their business (instead of gathering manual approvals for checks and payments). With the right tools, it’s never been easier to increase the value you provide to your clients!
Learn how to streamline your bill pay process with Hubdoc and Bill.com – watch our on-demand webinar!
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