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Most SMB clients want more than someone to just crunch their numbers. According to the 2023 BILL accounting firm hireability survey, 89% consider their accountant an advisor—someone who can show them how to run their business finances more efficiently.
To do that, firms need real-time access to data about their clients’ business finances. Getting access to that data means working within a technology infrastructure that supports full visibility into information and allows for quick and accurate reporting—technology like the integrated financial operations platform from BILL.
One of the first—and most important—pieces of advice you can give your client when establishing a CAS practice with them is how to update their technology stack to automate reactive tasks that normally take many hours to complete. Automating tasks such as spend and expense management or accounts payable and accounts receivable frees up time for you and your client to look at financial data and make informed, proactive decisions.
The key benefits of updating your client's tech stack include:
- Maximize cash flow: Control inflows and outflows of cash and secure access to credit and capital, so clients can run their businesses with confidence
- Payment approvals: Review any outgoing payments or set up specific parameters around what kinds of payments need approvals to ensure bills are paid correctly
- Payment scheduling: Schedule when payments are made, and know exactly when money is coming in and going out
- Auto sync: Automatically sync with your clients’ accounting software for streamlined reconciliation and end-of-month close.
BILL Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
There’s a built-in blind spot that comes up when your clients use paper checks for accounts payable and accounts receivable. With invoices in the mail and checks on vendor’s desks and your client always waiting for money to come in or go out, you can’t get an accurate picture of what funds your client actually has to work with. This makes advisory difficult, since it’s hard to give advice on a situation you don’t fully understand.
BILL automates the entire AP and AR process. Your clients can simplify invoice entry and payment through invoicing, estimates, payment tracking, and collections. You and your clients will have a live view of which invoices have been paid and which are still outstanding—meaning you can always know the exact state of their funds. These real-time insights enable you to help your client make informed decisions for their business.
BILL Spend & Expense
Many firms offer traditional expense management, but that usually involves the necessary steps for closing the books every month and doesn’t provide many opportunities for actual advisory. Conversely, spend management uses expense management data to view, control, and manage a business’s cash flow in real time. BILL Spend & Expense is an all-in-one spend and expense management solution that combines free software with corporate cards to provide your clients with real-time visibility and customizable control.*
Spend management advisory is the practice of using this data to help your clients optimize their operations, and to provide actionable insights and advise them on good business decisions.
The BILL financial operations platform
The BILL financial operations platform brings together BILL Spend & Expense and BILL Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable to gather your client’s AP, AR, and spend management data and processes into one central platform. You and your client can easily see every transaction, payment, or invoice with just one login.
This makes offering client advisory services to your clients even simpler. With all of your client’s financial activities laid out in front of you, you will be able to see a clear picture of their financial situation, and identify any trends or anomalies. You will be able to provide actionable insights and advice that your client can quickly act upon—and you and your clients will be able to see the effects of those actions as soon as they are taken.
Here are some areas of advisory services unique to the BILL financial operations platform that your firm can offer to your clients:
- Strategic budgets and enforced spending
- Eliminating reimbursements and expense reports
- Maximizing savings and rewards
- Improving account and financial security
- Automating accounts payable and accounts receivable
- Cash flow management and financial forecasting
That’s just the beginning. BILL’s financial operations platform gives you complete insight into your clients’ finances, so that you can step in and effectively help them manage their business. Plus, BILL integrates with your client’s accounting software and syncs both ways—so reconciliation and closing the books are easier than ever before.
* Card issued by Cross River Bank, member FDIC
