Getting paid by customers and paying vendors are two of the most foundational tasks every business faces, and yet they are often the most frustrating and time-consuming. In nearly every new client engagement, cash flow is one of the first topics we discuss. Inefficient money movement slows growth, creates unnecessary stress, and distracts business owners from their bigger vision.
That’s why we look for solutions that streamline payment processes, reduce friction, and improve visibility. We want a system that helps clients get paid faster, empowers them to pay vendors with confidence, and keeps all of this activity inside their accounting platform for maximum efficiency. For us, QuickBooks Payments and QuickBooks Bill Pay have become game changers.
From Waiting on Checks to Accelerating Growth
QuickBooks Payments has been our go-to solution for years to help clients collect payments quickly and securely. I’ll never forget one experience where I was on the receiving end of an invoice and when I didn’t see the “Pay Now” button, it struck me as such a simple yet powerful feature for ME as the customer. When I called the vendor to ask them to enable that functionality, it led them to implement QuickBooks Payments across their business- and to become a customer.
The results were dramatic: they went 100% check-free. No more waiting days (or weeks) for payments to arrive in the mail, no more trips to the bank, no more uncomfortable calls to chase past-due balances. Their receivables nearly disappeared, and their cash flow stabilized. The shift was so transformative that it gave them the breathing room to focus on expansion. Within a short time, they opened a second business — and payments were never a barrier to growth.
This story isn’t unique. Time and again, I’ve seen how faster payments allow clients to move from “just surviving” to actually investing in the future.
Making Bill Pay a Strategic Asset
While Payments streamlines the inflow of cash, QuickBooks Bill Pay is revolutionizing the outflow. For smaller clients, the change has been especially powerful. Many of them were still handwriting checks — a practice that isn’t just inefficient but also risky. In industries like construction, check fraud is a very real concern. Others had piecemeal solutions for online bill pay that didn’t integrate with their accounting system or allow for proper approval workflows.
By moving bill payments inside QuickBooks, our clients gain a system that’s both seamless and secure. Small business owners appreciate the simplicity, while larger clients value the ability to implement separation of duties. Bills can be entered by one person, approved by another, and paid by a third — all within one connected workflow.
For us as accountants, the visibility is invaluable. We can step in at any point to advise, approve, or even process payments on their behalf (with controls in place). Clients no longer feel like they’re navigating bill pay alone — we’re right there alongside them.
Shifting the Conversation: From Processing to Advising
The most exciting impact of Bill Pay and Payments isn’t the automation itself — it’s the way they elevate our conversations with clients. Instead of talking about how to send or receive money, we’re talking about what the movement of money means for their business.
We can spot trends, identify bottlenecks, and make recommendations in real time. For example:
- A client consistently paying vendors early — we discuss whether they could renegotiate terms and preserve cash.
- A client relying too heavily on a single customer — we review their receivables aging and talk about diversification.
- Seasonal businesses — we use payment history to forecast cash shortages before they happen.
These are no longer abstract conversations. The data is right in front of us, and it gives our clients confidence to make decisions faster.
Tips for Fellow Accounting Professionals
If you’re still in the grind of manual AP and AR processes, here are a few steps I’d recommend:
- Start small. Automate one vendor’s bills or enable Payments on one invoice. Even a small win builds momentum.
- Prioritize transparency. Make sure both you and your client have visibility into workflows — it builds trust and reduces errors.
- Lean on approvals. Approvals aren’t just for large clients; even a two-person shop can benefit from checks and balances, especially when bills are larger or when cash flow is especially tight.
- Use the insights. Don’t let the data sit idle. Use it to start conversations about strategy, growth, and financial resilience.
At the end of the day, Intuit didn’t just create QuickBooks Bill Pay and QuickBooks Payments to move money. They created these tools to help businesses (and their advisors) do more. For us, that means shifting from being processors of transactions to being strategic partners in growth.
When clients no longer worry about checks getting lost in the mail or whether they’ll have enough cash to cover payroll, they’re free to focus on what truly matters — and we’re there to guide them every step of the way.
(And for anyone coming to Intuit Connect, I’ll be taking a deep dive into the actual tools in my session: Mastering the money flow in QuickBooks Online: Bill Pay and Payments. I’d love to see you there!)
This is a paid partnership with Intuit.
