Chattanooga Christian School is one of the largest schools in Tennessee, with roughly 1,500 students across grades K through 12. Their Accounting Manager, Tara Bryant, sent both her kids through all 13 years and now jokes that she had to stay on because the school still needed a “Bryant coming into the parking lot every day.”
The school has seen plenty of changes during that time, with a recent focus on campus expansion—a golf building, a new indoor athletic complex soon to come, and a renovation of their Fine Arts Center to include more seating and all new sound equipment. Those strategic capital campaigns can take up to three years from start to finish—time the finance team doesn’t need to waste on daily drudgery in their accounts payable (AP).
“Our biggest challenge? The lack of automatic integration,” says Bryant. “Originally we used Concur and AvidXchange for our AP processing, and Microsoft Dynamics for our accounting software, but that required the information to be uploaded manually. We had to go in and manually post every check we sent. We weren’t really saving any time.”
“Originally we used Concur and AvidXchange for our AP processing, and Microsoft Dynamics for our accounting software, but that required the information to be uploaded manually. We had to go in and manually post every check we sent. We weren’t really saving any time.”
For Chattanooga Christian School, that manual work really added up with 150–200 checks per month going out the door. Their AP staffer was up to working about 32 hours per week when they moved to Concur and AvidXchange. That helped some, getting it down to about 24 hours per week. But they knew they could do better.
Meanwhile, a lot of those checks every month were reimbursements. With 200 employees, Chattanooga Christian School sees a lot of daily spend. And those uploads were manual too.
“In the past, it would take a couple of hours to upload all the reimbursements. We would have to manually download all the information from the spend account, check it, and then manipulate it so we could upload it into Microsoft Dynamics. Plus, our teachers are educators first, accountants second. Getting them to turn in their reimbursements so we can close our accounts on time isn’t always easy.”
“In the past, it would take a couple of hours to upload all the reimbursements. We would have to manually download all the information from the spend account, check it, and then manipulate it so we could upload it into Microsoft Dynamics.”
What Bryant noted first about moving to BILL Accounts Payable and Sage Intacct was the speed, efficiency, and convenience of the approval process. “The change to BILL really streamlined approvals. They’re so easy. Before, we would have to physically take the checks to be approved and signed. Now, it’s all done through an online portal, and they can do it from anywhere—even if they’re sitting on the beach.”
Bryant also likes being able to set-and-forget invoice due dates for payments. “BILL takes care of sending the e-payment or check—however the vendor wants it—so that it arrives to them by the due date. We don't have to remember to do anything. It's all taken care of for us.”
Her favorite aspect of the change might be the improved visibility of their cash flow. “BILL lets me see exactly what’s coming up,” Bryant says. “That’s especially important for our construction projects. Some of those invoices can run into six figures. I need to make sure we have the funds covered. So I really like that efficiency and being able to time our payments to match our cash flows.”
“The change to BILL really streamlined approvals. They’re so easy.”
Along with construction costs, teacher spend represents a significant portion of the school’s payments. Bryant explains: “Our teachers and coaches buy supplies for their classrooms and teams, and they pay for field trips too. Sometimes they forget and use a personal card, so we need to reimburse those. But since we started using BILL Spend & Expense*, more of those charges are going through the corporate card. We’ve given out over 100 cards—each with its own set budget."
Why does the staff like the switch? For one thing, they don’t have to wait to be reimbursed from their own pockets. “For the teachers, the coding is much easier. They all seem to really like it, especially being able to code right away. That's helped them tremendously.”
Before BILL, the Chattanooga Christian School was using another solution, but Bryant says the difference is noticeable. “What we really like about BILL Spend & Expense is as soon as you swipe the card, you can immediately code the transaction. You can immediately add your receipt. With Truist, you had to wait for your transaction to post, and then you could go in and do everything. The immediacy with BILL cuts down on people having to code later. They can buy what they need and go right out to their car, upload their receipt, code their transaction, and be done with it. That helps us a lot.”
From there, the transactions—and the receipts—sync automatically with Sage Intacct. “So again, it's back to that real-time data, as opposed to with Truist, since it was a monthly upload,” Bryant says. “The statement cycle ran from the 20th of the month. So if you made a purchase on April 21st, you might not see it on your statements until the beginning of June, when we closed that prior month. We wanted more real-time data, and that's been huge.”
And the rewards are an added benefit. “On the eighth-grade trip, they go to Washington D.C. With the travel, hotel, and food, it can end up being close to $100,000. If we can pay with the BILL Divvy Card powered by Visa,* we’re going to do it—we want the real-time data, and we want that rebate.”
“If we can pay with the BILL Divvy Card, we’re going to do it—we want the real-time data, and we want that rebate.”
“We used Dean Dorton for our support for Intacct. Our rep there raved about using BILL with Sage Intacct. That’s what sold us—we knew we had to try it.” That integration was an important factor in the school’s decision to go with BILL, a choice that Bryant says has paid off in spades.
“I love the way BILL integrates into Intacct. When I need to see our cash position, I don’t have to ask whether the team has uploaded everything. It’s all automatic. As soon as a check is approved, it’s handled. It’s all there. With BILL, we know we’re seeing real-time information instead of having to think about what might still be hanging out there. Thanks to the automation and the clearing account, it's all in there for me. So that's probably one of the biggest time savers is just having that real-time information.”
“With BILL, we know we’re seeing real-time information instead of having to think about what might still be hanging out there. Thanks to the automation and the clearing account, it's all in there for me.”
“Our biggest goal is to be efficient. The school puts education first, and we want to keep as much of our money on that mission as possible. Thanks to the efficiencies we’ve built through tools like BILL and Sage Intacct, we were able to eliminate a full-time position in our department. Instead, the school can expand one of its core programs, or fund a capital project, or hire another teacher. That was the biggest factor for us in moving to BILL—being able to allocate more of our resources toward our mission.”
“The biggest factor for us in moving to BILL was being able to allocate more of our resources toward our mission.”
*BILL Divvy Card is issued by Cross River Bank, member FDIC. This is not a deposit product.
