Guide to Paperless Accounting

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Who is Ravix GroupPaper-based accountingLeverage the cloudManage the document managementPaperless approval processGain control by giving up paperSummaryQ&A

Agenda

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Welcome to our speaker

JD HigginbothamController, RavixGroup

Natasha DolginskyMarketing, Bill.com

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Who is Ravix Group?

Ravix Group provides seasoned consulting expertise to outsource the finance/accounting and human resources functions for early-stage

and middle market companies.

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Bill.com automates your accounting process

We are your platform for:– Approval workflow

– Paying bills

– Document management

– Notes & collaboration

– Two-way accounting system synchronization

– Online banking & payment system integration

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Paper-based accounting

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Financial Process is Still Paper-Based

However, businesses are faced with ever-growing mountains of paper and increased storage costs

• Paper checks

– 75% of all business payments are still made by check

• Print outs of spreadsheets

• Paper documents

– Contracts

– Back up material

– Invoices

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The Future of Business

• 85% of CFOs feel that moving to a paperless system is a top concern1

• 65% of CFOs are motivated to move to the cloud by the savings in

money and staff time1

• 92% of organizations using cloud-based planning tools have seen

improved results, demonstrating that early adopters are already winning!2

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1. Bill.com CFO Survey, August 20122. Dimensional Research study of 541 financial executives

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Leverage the cloud

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Information access

“All information in once place – don’t have to hunt in the filing cabinets.”

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Choose solutions that are cloud-based

• When you evaluate a solution for your business, make sure that it is cloud-based and paperless. What to look for:– Access to information is quick

– Access is from anywhere

– Speed of access can make a difference and benefit or harm the business

– Implementation time

– Does it integrate with your existing tools and processes?

• Storing documents online and in the cloud is affordable and cost-effective– Document retrieval costs (time and money), are reduced

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Do you homework

• Read our blog: “Seven Questions to Ask Before Purchasing An App for Your Cloud-Based Accounting System”

– Does the vendor of the accounting system endorse the app?

– Where is the app and the data it generates hosted?

– What data is being synced between the accounting system and the app, and is the sync bi-directional or uni-directional?

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Find the right tools for your business

• Dropbox, Google Docs, OneDrive – sharing files and document storage

• GoToMeeting, Skype - video and conference calls

• Docusign, Echosign – e-signatures

• Adobe FormsCentral, SurveyMonkey - forms

• Evernote – note taking, screenshots

• QBO, Intacct, Xero – accounting software

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Manage the document

management

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“Digitize” your paper

• Invest in a scanner and scan the documents to be available digitally instead of keeping paper copies– More secure– Bill.com recommends:

• Genius Scan app for iPhone and Android when scanning in your documents

• Kodak ScanMate i940 – scans in batches• Evernote Premium ($5/month) provides the OCR (optical character

recognition) search feature

• Get organized– Establish naming conventions and file structure

• Rethink your mail– Services like EarthClassMail provide a virtual mailroom and scan

your mail for you

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Scan smart

• Toss

• Scan and toss

• Scan and keep

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How Bill.com helps

• Document storage is unlimited

– Upload documents up to 20 MB each

• Data entry service

– Fax, email or upload image of each bill into Bill.com inbox, and bill details are entered for you

• Provides a unique Bill.com email and fax number to receive bills electronically

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Make your approval

process paperless

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Post Bill.com approval process

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Audit your process

• Do an audit of your AP process to see where the holes are:– Do you double pay?

– Are you spending too much time and effort getting approvals?

– Are you paying late fees?

• Create processes that ensure that the holes are plugged up– Invest in technology that helps you plug those holes up

• With better approval process, your payments are on time and vendors are happy

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Vendors relationship matter

• No late payments

• Better rates and cost efficiency

• Repeat business – switching costs

• Create trust – meeting financial obligations

• Flexibility

• Better relationships = easier to deal and interact

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Reduce paper from the process

• Whichever solution you use, make the process and therefor relationship with vendors less paper-based– Ask to email invoices, instead of sending paper copies

• If paying by check, consider moving to electronic payments– Fraud – all information a fraudster needs is on your check

– Cost of paper checks is much higher than people assume

• Start small– Some clients or customers won’t want to be billed electronically

– Some vendors will still want to communicate by snail mail

– Tax and regulatory requirements might require hard copies of past records

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Make the move to ePayments

• Put away your checkbook so you can’t access it

• Encourage your customers to pay you by electronic payments, not check

• Encourage vendors to send you electronic invoices, not physical invoices

• Set up your office to be a “No Check” business

23Bill.com Confidential

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ePayments are faster, cheaper, and more secure

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Average cost of an invoice

Process Costs$5 to $26 an invoice

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How Bill.com helps

• Visibility into the entire process and workflow

– Have a record of all approvals

– See every bill and invoice in the same place

– Know when all your bills are due and when you will get

paid by customers

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How Bill.com Helps

• Seamless and automated approval process

– Create roles with different levels of information

accessibility

• 5 prebuilt roles

• Can create customized roles

– Access is limited by role and permissions – internally and

externally

– Set up approval policies to require approvers for any bill or

vendor credit, based on the dollar amount

– Bills and invoices emailed automatically to next approver

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Gain control by giving up

paper

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More control

• Aware of what’s going on

• Communication process is easier

• Mobility

• Limit on access of information

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Less Paper = Better Security

Paper documents are subject to theft and destruction• Prevent “lost” bills, invoices and

contracts• Eliminate risk of manipulation• Reduce risk of information theft• Keep tight control over access• Automatic audit trail; you can’t

override it!

The cloud is safer than your office!

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Security is Integral to Our Business

• Bill.com uses best-in-class data security (Extended Validation (EV) SSL encryption technology)

• Firewalls prevent unauthorized electronic access to servers

• Production servers are in high-security locked facility with biometric access controls preventing unauthorized physical access to servers

• All sensitive data is encrypted at rest in our database

• Offsite continuous backup enables Bill.com to recover from a potential disaster quickly

• Bill.com undergoes an annual SSAE 16 SOC 1 Type II Audit by a leading national CPA Firm

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Summary

1. Make the decision to go paperless

2. Identify ROI– Reduction in the cost of printing, mailing, shipping,

storing, and accessing paper

3. Get consensus– Change is difficult so make sure that decision makers are

on board (ROI proof helps)

4. Do your homework– There are many tools out there, make sure the ones you

choose are right for your business

5. Start small

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Q&A

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Contact us

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Learn more at www.bill.com.

Contact 1.877.345.BILL or sales@hq.bill.com

Watch demo at: www.bill.com/demo

Ravix Group

jdhigginbothamjr@yahoo.com

408-410-0521