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RenewalMD is a leading plastic and cosmetic surgery practice in the Savannah, Georgia, area. They built their reputation by helping patients renew their confidence. But as their practice grew, it became clear that the company’s financial operations were also in need of renewal.
RenewalMD did not have a good process for accounts payable (AP). In fact, their administrative assistant was the person who sorted through the mail and entered bills into QuickBooks. “It was always a nightmare,” recalls Scott Regan, Chief Operating Officer at RenewalMD. “We would find out after the fact that we had been cutting checks for things that didn't need to be paid, such as a solicitation or a packing slip.”
Unfortunately, that confusion eventually led to a serious case of fraud. Someone in another state was using their routing number and account number to write fraudulent checks. What was worse, their bank would not help them recover the money. All they could do was close the checking account.
“I didn’t want to ever write another check on our bank account,” Regan says. “Because the more checks you have in circulation, the easier it is for someone to lift your routing and account numbers. Anybody can fake a check, it’s really easy.”
Trying to reconcile credit card charges was also no picnic. “We put so much on our credit card, $30,000 a month,” Regan remembers. “The billing statement was pages and pages long.” And if they had to stop working with a vendor for whatever reason, they often had to cancel the entire credit card account to prevent recurring charges.
Regan realized that RenewalMD needed to automate their AP and expense management process, implement better controls, and gain visibility into their accounting work. To accomplish those goals, they turned to BILL.
With BILL Accounts Payable, Regan no longer had to worry about whether bills had been processed and paid correctly—or about writing checks. Now, every check is cut by BILL, and BILL is authorized in ACH positive pay to debit their account. “BILL gave us a really, really good workflow that integrates with QuickBooks,” Regan says.
“BILL gave us a really, really good workflow that integrates with QuickBooks.”
The efficiency of BILL has also saved them time. “A task that used to take several hours to complete now takes 10 minutes,” says Regan. “And AP is not just streamlined in terms of the individual tasks, but it also shortens the entire AP process. The two to three hours I was spending weekly on AP has been reduced to 10 or 15 minutes. Plus, what used to take seven to 10 days to process an invoice – from invoice entry to check signature – now takes less than 24 hours.”
“BILL significantly enhances the speed of the AP process, particularly because many of our vendors email their invoices directly to BILL, which eliminates the reliance on regular mail or having an invoice sit in someone’s inbox. BILL also makes things really convenient and easy to pay because I no longer need to wait for signatures on paper checks,” Regan says.
“BILL significantly enhances the speed of the AP process. It makes things really convenient and easy to pay because I no longer need to wait for signatures on paper checks.”
As a fractional COO, Regan appreciates the fact that BILL allows the business accounting functions to operate remotely. “I had to initiate a patient refund not long ago, and our doctor was at a conference in Austin,” Regan says. “I was able to process the refund and BILL cut the check, all without having to wait for an in-person signature.”
BILL also gives more control over payment times. “With BILL, I don't have to pay an invoice right away,” Regan says. “For example, many of our largest vendors give us 90-day payment terms. We used to stick those invoices in a drawer and hope we didn’t forget about them. Will BILL, we process the invoice, select a future payment date, and eliminate the worry of losing or overlooking the invoice.”
“Because everything's in BILL,” Regan explains, “I can see what has been paid, what is scheduled to be paid, and what invoices are waiting to be processed. BILL will even send me email notifications about invoices that have been received but not yet processed.”
Regan loves the fact that he can see all his accounts payable information in one central platform. “I'm always going into BILL to see what payments are scheduled—payments are out of sight, but not out of mind,” he explains. “I can easily see everything that is in the accounts payable queue.”
“I'm always going into BILL to see what payments are scheduled—payments are out of sight, but not out of mind.”
BILL Spend & Expense was the last piece of the puzzle for RenewalMD’s financial operations makeover. They are now using about 20 virtual cards, with each of their major vendors having a dedicated charge card. “If there is a problem with a vendor, we can just turn off that BILL virtual card and it’s solved,” Regan says.
Regan likes how their BILL Divvy Cards powered by Visa1 sync with QuickBooks and BILL auto-reconciles everything. “Previously, we were manually entering charges from the credit card billing statement into QuickBooks. This was tedious, time consuming, and prone to errors. Now, each of our vendor cards includes the associated QuickBooks GL number. Charges that are made now automatically sync to QuickBooks with the correct GL number – no more manual credit card data entry. BILL is brilliant."
Real-time reconciliation with BILL Spend & Expense makes the monthly close much easier. “Charges go into QuickBooks within 24 hours—we're not waiting until the end of the month,” Regan explains. “Our accounting firm couldn’t complete the month-end close until the credit card billing statement was reconciled – and it was taking several weeks to reconcile charges. With BILL, that problem is gone.”
“It was taking several weeks to reconcile charges. With BILL, that problem is gone.”
1 Card issued by Cross River Bank, member FDIC
BILL Accounts Payable and BILL Spend & Expense have given Regan and his team renewed confidence in their accounting practices. With both solutions in one integrated platform, a single login and task list, Regan shares: “Probably the greatest overall benefit of BILL is peace of mind that we're paying what we need to pay, who we need to pay, when we need to pay it, and it's all seamlessly integrated into QuickBooks.”
