Gain efficiency and a complete picture of client cash flow
Several years ago, I received an invoice from a vendor that was going to be doing some work for my business. I could tell the invoice came from QuickBooks, but there was no way for me to pay it online. I contacted the vendor and asked them if they could turn on QuickBooks payments so that I could pay the bill. They replied that they did not know how to do that and I could just send a check. Of course they didn’t know me very well at that point, and didn’t know that I have an intense disdain for paper checks (and in fact don’t use them at all). I shared that QuickBooks Payments would allow her to get paid faster, eliminate the need to drive to the bank to deposit a check (what a waste of her time when she could be billing me more!) and improve her cash flow. So we set it up, just for me (accountants are not the only ones who hate change, right?!). She immediately got paid and then started wondering if this might be something she should do for her other clients. Of course I highly recommended it, even helped her draft a letter to clients informing them of the change. She was sure that clients would not want to do this, that they preferred sending checks, but when she learned they could pay via ACH, Apple Pay, Venmo, PayPal or credit card, the choice was easy. She loved that QuickBooks would also automatically record the payments, batch them together, record any processing fees and even match it to the deposit when it cleared the bank. She started getting paid faster, and even made it part of her process with every new client. In fact, the use of recurring sales receipts changed her into a subscription based service business, and her cash flow greatly improved. And we gained a new client! She was thrilled to have an accounting firm that didn’t just count the numbers, but helped her with practical tips, understood technology, and really helped her save time and money.
Then along came QuickBooks Bill Pay. For many businesses they do not want to write checks, especially if they’re a client of our firm because we talk so much about the potential for fraud when writing checks; however, the other options that are on the market required separate logins, another system to learn and often reconciliations to manage to ensure the integrations worked when a payment was voided, a credit note was issued, or if there were other issues. This really became cumbersome for many of our smaller clients, and even some of our larger clients. When QuickBooks Bill Pay came out, we immediately embraced it with several of our clients that have been waiting with bated breath for this new feature right inside of QuickBooks. Clients were thrilled to quit using their online banking, which often required the client to do the payment of bills, since we do not want direct access to spending money without an approval process with the client. This immediately streamlined processes for the client and for us as their support system, or when we served in the capacity to pay their bills. We can simply send a request to a vendor asking for their direct deposit information through a secure link and then payments can be scheduled, approved and issued all in QuickBooks. Of course our larger clients are also able to set up specific workflows and have separation of duties regarding payments, including the ability for one user to enter bills, another user to approve the bills and yet a third user to actually pay the bills.
As we continue to roll this out for other clients, if they have been doing online bill pay through their bank, it’s actually a fairly simple process- quit using the bank, start using QuickBooks Bill Pay. If they are using a different system, however, it does take a little bit more coordinated effort with the client and their vendors. Often we find that the client (or the firm, if they are doing the bill pay process) needs to contact the vendor, let them know a request is coming for the deposit information for their payment, and then simply send the request via QuickBooks. We also have found that we run parallel systems for a short period of time because some vendors are easier to switch over than others. Communication is by far the most important part of that process. But when it’s done, and usually this doesn’t take long, we find that our clients are thrilled to have a much more streamlined, integrated, often less expensive solution that is inside of the system they already trust, like QuickBooks online.
The bottom line for both QuickBooks Payments and QuickBooks Bill Pay is that we have one solution for our clients that ensures they are receiving their money in a timely way and they’re paying their bills in an efficient way. No more manually recording online payments processed through the bank or logging into another system to confirm payables. And no more manually entering customer payments, batching and netting out the fees. With these two solutions, we see improved cash flow, increased transparency, and the opportunity to increase our advisory services. We can help our clients better manage their cash flow and see real value in the practical ways we work with them. I encourage you to learn more about these tools, and see how it can transform your own firm, and your clients.
This is a paid partnership with Intuit.
