Imagine a physical therapy session with state-of-the-art VR tech, sipping a latte at an on-site cafe, easing those tired muscles with an afternoon massage, and ending the day with a delectable dinner, courtesy of an executive chef. That’s what you can expect when visiting any one of the facilities of Ignite Medical Resorts. Headquartered in Park Ridge, Illinois, the explosive growth of the business is driven by a stellar combination—pairing advanced medical rehabilitation with luxury hospitality.
Shonna Hanscom, Assistant Controller for Ignite Medical Resorts, joined the team near the beginning of the company. “I knew what we had was special,” she says, “but I don’t think I knew on day one just how big we were going to get, or how fast. I didn’t know how much volume we were going to see—in invoices, dollars, and everything else.”
What started with two facilities now includes 23—all separate legal entities—with more added every year, plus several support entities.
During our initial explosive period from 2020 to 2022, I ran AP by myself,” Hanscom adds. “Even when we had 16 facilities. I was stretched thin, but I did it. And I only did it because BILL is that easy to use. It's that flexible.”
“Up until a year and a half ago, I ran AP by myself. Even when we had 16 facilities. I was stretched thin, but I did it. And I only did it because BILL is that easy to use. It's that flexible.”
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Hanscom joined Ignite Medical Resorts as part of an early acquisition. “My previous company, which included three facilities, was bought by Ignite in 2020. I was working remotely already, but then, of course, everything shut down in March that year. I couldn’t send documents to the office. I couldn’t send checks to be printed. I spent the first two months of the pandemic paying a friend of mine to sit and stuff envelopes with me just to get payments out the door.”
It was obvious that our existing processes would not be sustainable. “I was already dealing with three new facilities,” Hanscom remembers. “Now that I’d been brought in under the Ignite umbrella. We were in three different states. We couldn’t do it all manually. We jumped into BILL, and it was a lifesaver.”
“I was already dealing with three new facilities. We were in three different states. We couldn’t do it all manually. We jumped into BILL, and it was a lifesaver.”
Today, with 23 rehabilitation resort facilities, Ignite processes about 2,000 payments on a monthly basis. Helping to manage invoice and payment processing along with assisting with cash flow forecasting is a big part of Hanscom’s job.
Even after so much growth, Hanscom’s team consists of two additional staff which has allowed her to be more involved with other aspects of the business such as purchasing, accounting and revenue cycle management while keeping a close watch of AP activity.
“We're really keeping our headcount in control because BILL is so accessible. The workflows are available and everything we need is all there. During the last week of the month, it takes me around 30 hours to schedule all our payments given our volume but we are as efficent as possible.” she says.
In fact, one of the things Hanscom says she appreciates about BILL is how open the company is to their feedback—and how available the team is when Hanscom needs them.
“We constantly stay in contact,” Hanscom says. “We stay on all the threads we can find about new, more efficient ways to use BILL. We email our account manager, we call the help desk, we are always asking—can it do this, can it do that? Sometimes, even something small can make a huge difference.”
Hanscom shared the following example. “Being able to leave comments on a bill while it’s still in the inbox. That’s a game changer. Before, we had to enter each bill in the system and tag people with questions. If we had to remove one, it was a whole ordeal. Now, we can have those conversations in the BILL inbox and prevent any incorrect bills from entering the system in the first place. That’s pure gold.”
“Before, we had to enter each bill in the system and tag people with questions. If we had to remove one, it was a whole ordeal. Now, we can have those conversations in the BILL inbox and prevent any incorrect bills from entering the system in the first place. That’s pure gold.”
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Ignite loves to push the envelope wherever they can in finding new, innovative ways to engage employees and provide the best possible service to its customers.
“We have a program called Surprise and Delight,’” Hanscom says. “At any point, in any of our facilities, if an employee wants to do something special for another employee, a guest, or a patient, they have up to $50 they can spend freely and just send an expense report.”
Before adding BILL Spend & Expense*, the AP team had to handle those reports and receipts manually. “That’s how we were doing them all before,” Hanscom says. “We had a credit card, but it was still very manual. There wasn't an app like BILL Spend & Expense that you could upload your receipts to. I would just get a credit card statement. I had to look for everybody who charged something and ask them for those receipts.”
Today, all their employee expenses are easier on the accounting team—not just the Surprise and Delight program. “We have cafes on site and team members often run out to buy bread or fruit when deliveries are delayed. All our travel, entertainment, advertising, donations —I’d say 95% of our expenses go through BILL. It’s great how quickly we can raise a limit for emergency situations. That’s happened a lot this past year because of the weather.”
Employees use the BILL Spend & Expense app to capture receipts as they spend. Then, the accounting team checks the coding and adds any splits before the transactions flow through to Sage Intacct. “Being able to apply those splits on the front end instead of waiting to do it on the back end through accounting is so much easier for us.”
“I’d say 95% of our expenses go through BILL. It’s great how quickly we can raise a limit for emergency situations.”
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Maintaining Ignite’s 23 facilities as separate entities starts with AP—coding each transaction correctly. With BILL, those codes flow into Sage Intacct automatically.
“We push everything out through Intacct as one, but all our facilities are separate legal entities. That’s the big draw for us with BILL,” Hanscom says. “It keeps them all in their own silos.”
“We push everything out through Intacct as one, but all our facilities are separate legal entities. That’s the big draw for us with BILL. It keeps them all in their own silos.”
“We push ourselves to do more. We push BILL to do more. And we find all these little surprises here and there in the software that just make things easier. That’s a great partnership.”
*The BILL Divvy Card is issued by Cross River Bank, member FDIC, and is not a deposit product.
