Burkland Associates offers a unique approach for startups needing accounting, bookkeeping, and tax services. Its innovative business model and pricing give fast-growing companies access to the firm’s top-notch accounting, CFO, and tax experts and helps them choose when and how to connect. As D.J. Marini, managing director of the accounting group for Burkland, explains, “Clients understand we’re on their side.” Technology plays an important role in the firm’s success, as it drastically reduces manual labor. In this interview, Marini shares how BILL shaves AP time by up to 20% and pays for itself in the first hour for this company.

How the firm leads by example:

Every solution we recommend to our clients, we use in-house. It’s one of the ways our clients know they can trust our recommendations. For AP, we looked for new ways to improve efficiency and solutions that would sync and automate as much as possible. We tested a lot of systems, but chose BILL because we think it’s the best tool out there. We recommend it to all our clients and tell them that BILL will typically save 15-20% of the time that the firm spends on AP – maybe more. BILL pays for itself in the first hour.

BILL makes it simple to pay and get paid and already has millions of businesses set up on its network to receive payments. When we begin working with new clients, we find that many of their vendors and contractors get paper checks. Being able to deposit ACH payments directly into their bank accounts is a huge improvement for them. The international payments with BILL are important as well since more of our startup clients are working with contractors all around the world.

A solution that grows with companies:

BILL is built to grow with companies and accommodate evolving workflows. If a client goes from one person to multiple approvers or needs invoices routed differently based on vendors or amounts, BILL can do it. We don’t have to change solutions. It helps us propel growth instead of slowing it down.

On impressing investors:

Investors want to see a division of labor when it comes to payments. The automated AP workflows provided by BILL cut down on mistakes and chances of embezzlement. It offers strong checks and balances that clients and their investors appreciate.

Providing client convenience:

Clients love that they can look at a digitized invoice and click a button to pay a bill from anywhere. BILL is a significant timesaver and takes care of a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

Advice for firms looking to beat the competition:

With the sophistication of cloud-based tools, AI, and ML, optimizing where you can is highly prized. If your head isn’t wrapped around that, you’ll be left behind.

A client's perspective:

Riffyn maximizes startup resources with Burkland and BILL

Riffyn has a mission to make scientific research better. As Jean-Claude Calegari, vice president of operations and finance, explains: “We help customers and partners shorten research and development cycle times and increase operational effectiveness with a cloud-based software app and professional services.” He follows a similar view of handling financial processes, preferring Burkland’s efficient approach – helped by BILL – so that he can focus on more meaningful contributions for the growing company.

On working with Burkland:

I am a big believer in bringing in flexible resources that can dial up and down as needed – particularly in early stages when requirements are minimal.

What I love about Burkland is they live and breathe accounting and efficiency. They handle our accounting, bookkeeping, and AP. I have confidence that I’m using the right technology because they know and have tested so many solutions. I can ask them for recommendations and don’t have to hunt for software options myself.

Discovering BILL:

I’ve been using BILL with Burkland from the get-go. It’s seamless and simple. Invoices come to the company. I forward them to an email that puts them into BILL. Burkland inputs categories, and then BILL automatically sends the bills to me for approval or to kick to someone. I don’t spend a lot of time using it because it does what I need it to do.

On maximizing resources:

I’m a one-person finance department. Burkland and the technology they recommend give me confidence that nothing gets missed and that I don’t have to staff up for AP matters. BILL allows me to be much more efficient. I can focus on the things that move the needle for my business as opposed to compliance and payment.

For example, if someone contacts us regarding the status of a payment, I can log in, quickly find out what’s happening, and even share screenshots if necessary. BILL streamlines the entire AP process, and I don’t have to keep an army of bookkeepers in-house.

Automated electronic trails for audits:

I’m in the middle of an audit now. With BILL, I can show tremendous traceability of transactions. It provides a fantastic, automated trail of what happened. If an auditor asks about a transaction, I can show proof of payment, when it was submitted, who approved it, and other documentation.

The end of paper AP:

If I had to rely on paper for AP, I wouldn’t be in this line of work. Paper is a nonstarter for me. AP is electronic with BILL, and there’s no going back for me. BILL delivers precisely what I need for this job.