Are you still managing accounts payable through email chains, spreadsheets, and last-minute approvals? Did you know there’s a more efficient way to handle it?
Let us tell you about BILL (formerly Bill.com), a tool we have used and loved for years, both internally and with our clients. It has become one of our go-to solutions for simplifying financial operations, improving visibility, and reducing manual work. With the recent addition of procurement capabilities, the platform has taken another step forward.
Here’s why we continue to recommend BILL to our clients and why this newest feature is worth a closer look.
Modernizing Your Accounts Payable Process with BILL
At its foundation, BILL provides a centralized way to manage accounts payable and receivable within a single, cloud-based platform. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, email approvals, and manual data entry, everything flows through one system.
Invoices can be captured digitally, routed for approval, and paid without ever leaving the platform. Approval workflows ensure the right people are involved at the right time, while integrations with systems like QuickBooks Online keep financial data accurate and up to date without duplication.
What this ultimately creates is clarity. Businesses gain real-time visibility into what’s been approved, what’s pending, and what cash is going out the door. For many of our clients, that visibility alone is a significant step forward in improving financial decision-making.
How BILL Procurement Works and Why It Matters
One of the most notable recent enhancements to BILL is the introduction of procurement functionality, which extends the platform into the full “procure-to-pay” lifecycle.
Traditionally, many organizations only gain visibility after an invoice arrives. Procurement shifts that visibility earlier, starting at the moment a purchase is requested. Within BILL, users can submit purchase requests that are routed through approval workflows before becoming purchase orders. This allows businesses to evaluate and approve spending before commitments are made, rather than reacting afterward.
As those purchases move forward, invoices can be matched back to purchase orders, and payments are processed within the same system. This creates a more connected process from start to finish, reducing the risk of errors, duplicate payments, or unauthorized spending. It also establishes a clear audit trail, which is increasingly important as organizations grow and require stronger internal controls.
Why Better Financial Processes Matter for Growing Businesses
Procurement is often one of the last processes to be modernized, and it’s common to see it managed through email threads or informal approvals. That approach can work for a while, but it tends to break down as organizations scale.
By bringing procurement into the same platform as payables, BILL helps close a gap that many businesses don’t realize they have. Instead of tracking commitments in one place and payments in another, everything is connected. This improves budget oversight, strengthens approval processes, and provides a more complete picture of cash flow — not just what has been spent, but what has been committed.
We’ve already seen the impact this can have in practice. For clients with multiple departments or layers of approval, having a structured purchasing process reduces confusion and creates accountability. For leadership teams, it provides better insight into upcoming obligations, which supports more proactive planning.
Ready to Improve Your Financial Processes? Let’s Connect
BILL continues to evolve in ways that align with how modern finance teams operate, and the addition of procurement is a strong example of that progress. It goes beyond paying bills more efficiently, helping businesses manage the full lifecycle of spending with greater control and visibility.
If you’re evaluating your current processes or wondering whether a solution like BILL could improve your operations, our Finance, Accounting, Strategy, and Technology (F.A.S.T.) team is here to help. We work alongside clients to assess workflows, implement the right tools, and build systems that support long-term growth.
Want to learn more? Let’s connect. We are here to make the complex simple.
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