When speaking with my clients and other business owners, I often hear similar short and long-term goals for their businesses.

-        “I plan to sell my business and want to maximize the value”

-        “I want to work less hours”

-        “I want to scale my business and grow it”

When the conversation moves to technology and their financial processes, I often find there is work to be done, especially in accounts payable and bill pay. 

To be brutally honest, most businesses pay their bills similarly to my parents who are in their 80’s.

They see “tech forward” as putting all of their expenses on a credit card

They are still writing manual checks

They have little to no internal controls or approval processes

Bills are coming from everywhere, mail, e-mails, even text

They are keeping paper receipts or no receipts at all because it’s too time consuming

There is no accounting system integration.  Or, if there is, they are still coding bills manually into their system

There is a solution that addresses all of these issues and it’s through bill pay technology that integrates with your accounting system.  The good news is that it also helps accomplish the owner’s goals of maximizing value, working less and scaling the business.

What is bill pay technology?

Bill pay technology refers to software and systems that automate and streamline the process of paying bills — especially for businesses. These systems are designed to replace manual processes like writing checks, mailing payments, or manually entering invoices into spreadsheets or accounting software.

🔍 Key Features of Bill Pay Technology:

• Automated payments (scheduled or recurring)

• Electronic invoice processing

• Approval workflows (for teams or managers)

• Integration with accounting systems (e.g., QuickBooks, NetSuite)

• Digital payment methods (ACH, wire transfers, virtual cards, etc.)

• Payment tracking and audit trails

At our firm, we work with a software called Bill and implement the software for our clients.  I think sometimes companies believe they are too small to implement the technology.  However, what you find is more the processes you can automate, the more time you have to focus on business growth.

How Bill helps our clients

1. Manual Accounts Payable Chaos

Many businesses still rely on paper checks, spreadsheets, and email-based approval chains — a cumbersome, error-prone, and time-consuming approach. BILL replaces these manual processes with a centralized, digital workflow that supports paperless invoices, automated approval routing, and secure electronic payments.

Problem Solved: Disconnected, slow, and manual AP processes.
Solution: Automated bill capture, smart workflows, and streamlined payments.

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2. Lack of Spend Visibility and Control

Without real-time visibility into who’s spending what and why, companies often face budget overruns, duplicate payments, and weak internal controls.

Problem Solved: Unchecked or unclear employee and department spending.
Solution: BILL Spend & Expense offers pre-approved cards, customizable spend limits, and real-time tracking of every dollar spent.

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3. Delayed and Inaccurate Financial Data

When accounting teams wait for physical receipts, manually code expenses, or reconcile transactions after the fact, financial reporting is delayed and prone to error.

Problem Solved: Inefficient, end-of-month reconciliations and delayed insights.
Solution: Real-time syncing with accounting systems (like QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite), automated categorization, and audit-ready records.

 

So how does bill pay technology and services align with business owner goals?

-        “I plan to sell my business and want to maximize the value” 

Businesses are worth more when they are scalable (i.e. when the owner and a few key employees are doing all of the work).  When our firm participates in business mergers and acquisitions, the additions of technology and processes are often the first steps to implement in the business that is purchased.  By having scalability around your accounting processes, you are increasing your profitability and scalability resulting in more value and a bigger sales price when you are ready to sell.

 -        “I want to work less hours”

By using bill pay technology, no more paying bills after hours.  Bills are automated and imported into your accounting system and centralized (one inbox for all of your bills).  One-click approval generates payment.

-        “I want to scale my business and grow it”

The time savings gained by using bill pay technology leaves you more times to focus on other non-administrative tasks to achieve growth.  With the technology, you can have digital approval processes to have managers and submanagers approve the bill.

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Divvy (Bill) credit card

What’s even cooler (I love technology that actually makes our lives easier) is that Bill has a credit card that integrates with both your bill pay and accounting system. 

🔍 Key Features

• No annual fee

  • No fees for employee cards or virtual cards.

• Budget control & spend tracking

  • Issue unlimited physical and virtual cards. Set real-time spending limits per vendor, project, or employee.

• Real-time dashboard & integrations

  • Transactions sync immediately with Divvy’s dashboard, making approvals and reconciliations seamless. Integrates with popular accounting tools like QuickBooks.

• Rewards program tied to payment frequency

  • Rewards vary depending on how often you pay:

    • Weekly payoff: up to 7× points on restaurants, 5× on hotels, 2× on software, 1.5× on others

    • Monthly payoff: 2× restaurants/hotels, 1.5× software, 1× all else

 

How can Stopp and VanHoy CPAs help?

Talk to us about our bill pay service where we manage and processes bills on your behalf. This includes receiving invoices, organizing approvals, scheduling payments, and ensuring all bills are paid accurately and on time —using Bill to integrate with your accounting system.

You can also talk to us about implementing Bill for your accounts payable department where you can receive discounted pricing on Bill versus buying it directly.