A drive to organize and a passion to help others are hard-wired in Bryan Wilton’s DNA. Since childhood, he’s been an extreme organizer—with an eye for detail and a desire to make things easier for himself and others. He comes by his left-brain tendencies naturally, having inherited his grandfather’s bent toward meticulous precision.
“I was highly influenced by my grandfather’s ‘from-the-old-country’ [England] way of keeping things neat and tidy,” explained Wilton, CPA and treasurer for the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP), America's national level. “I spent a lot of time in his workshop where everything was organized in individual cigar boxes, properly labeled and pristinely stacked.”
Wilton’s organizational skills made him a perfect match for the accounting profession. In fact, when he took his first bookkeeping class in high school, he not only aced it, but chose to take it a second time “just for fun” (his exact words!). He then went on to college to earn a total of three degrees: two in accounting and one in data processing.
Rivaled only by his love of organizing is his passion to help others. Professionally, he works to guide peers and clients on the technologies that help them grow and thrive. IAMCP’s mission is to maximize the business potential of its members through peer-to-peer interaction, member advocacy, community outreach, growth and education. It’s what attracted Wilton in the first place, and what’s kept him at IAMCP for 22 years and counting.
Personally, Wilton has always been passionate about helping others. This was instilled early on by his parents. “I was raised to always give back. Regardless of how little you think you have, there are always those who have even less.”
This drive to help spilled over into his work with IAMCP.
“IAMCP is very involved with charity work. That’s something I really wanted to do when I joined the organization,” said Wilton. “We’ve contributed time and money to Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Country [housing for displaced children], and Snowdrop Foundation [scholarships for child cancer survivors]. In all, it comes to about $20,000 in cash donations and years of service building homes.”
His combined love for organizing and helping others led him to taking a leadership role within IAMCP—where he was first introduced to BILL.
Bryan Wilton knows all too well the value of BILL. In his current treasurer role, he inherited a highly streamlined and automated accounts payable function from his predecessor. But prior to BILL, things were very different.
According to Wilton, when he accepted the elected position of treasurer for his local Houston IAMCP chapter years ago: “It was a chaotic, paper-heavy and unorganized nightmare.”
Across 37 chapters, the accounts payable function was completely manual. At the national level, memberships fees and other transactions were recorded using spreadsheets, and money was dispersed to chapters as paper checks via snail mail. This led to two major issues: 1) payments to chapters were woefully delayed and; 2) financial records were not accurate.
Wilton was frustrated. “We relied heavily on receiving membership funds each month. The process was so slow that it could take six months to receive a check. This hurt the chapters; we were always strapped for cash.”
There was also the issue of slow and inaccurate financial information, explained Wilton. “If you requested data from the Americas operation, it could take weeks because the treasurer had to dig through paper and spreadsheets. When I did get financial statements, they didn’t sync with my numbers. You can’t run a successful nonprofit with inaccurate data.”
Then came BILL, and the chaos soon turned to calm. The accounts payable workflow was automated end-to-end. Paper checks and spreadsheets were eliminated. Today, with an automated AP process in place, transfer of funds is timely and financials correct.
It was a much-anticipated workflow transformation for Wilton:
“Our bill paying process is so streamlined it now only takes a few minutes each month, and chapter funds go out months faster. This opened up a whole new world of opportunity for the chapters...able to host more membership-driving events and tie in charitable work.” — Bryan Wilton, CPA and treasurer for the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP)
With a stronger cash flow, chapters planned more charity-based events aimed at both driving membership and giving back to the community. This led to more money raised and huge spikes in membership.
Bryan Wilton was clear that none of this would have happened without BILL.
“No way we would function at the level we do now without BILL. It has saved me at least 20 hours per month because AP is automated from front to back.” — Bryan Wilton, CPA and treasurer for the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP)
All of the time savings has allowed Wilton to continue to do the work of two people. He not only manages his national treasurer duties and finances for both the Kansas City and Houston chapters, he also holds down a full-time job. Wilton credits BILL’s mobile capabilities, in large part, with being able to handle all that he does—enabling review and approval of multiple transactions while on the go.
“I love my work on all fronts, and being organized and having BILL is the only way I can do it all. The Americas operation is just too large. It would be pure chaos to keep track of everything without BILL.”
Today, Wilton is able to engage in everything he holds dear. From packing (and likely organizing and pristinely stacking) food boxes for local food drives and raising money for underserved children, to supporting IAMCP chapters across the country with clear, timely, and accurate financial reports and payments.
“Only because we are fully automated with BILL can we now provide better service at the Americans level and to all the chapters, provide better reporting that helps the chapters grow, and get involved in our communities like never before.” — Bryan Wilton, CPA and treasurer for the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP)
