How Financial Tools Can Transform Your Growing Business

Post sponsored by BILL

Entrepreneurship is a journey. And just like any passage you undertake, you need the right tools to help you get to your intended destination.

Once you arrive at that destination, you should already be planning how to get to your next destination, and so on.

On an entrepreneurial journey, destinations are goals. As your business grows, some destinations will take longer to reach than others, and you’ll encounter different challenges at each stop, like leading a staff, expanding your offerings, adding new marketing channels, and managing your budget and financials.

But as long as you learn how to leverage the tools and technologies at each destination, you’ll be prepared to get to the next stop on your journey. Here are some tips to help you get there.

1. Spend & expense management saves businesses money

There are several ways to manage company expenses and budgets:

Creating a company expense policy

As businesses grow, their budgets typically do as well. One of the challenges of managing a growing company is keeping track of how much money your staff is spending and what they’re spending it on.

When you’re small, it’s easy to track spending, but the more employees you hire, the higher the risk of overspending and even fraud.

How can you prevent this? Creating a company expense policy can help. You can use these guidelines to manage company expenses. Guidelines should cover:

• Which expenses are reimbursable
• How much money employees can spend
• How to submit expense reports

The goal is to develop an expense management policy that informs employees that their expenses must be “necessary, reasonable, and in compliance with industry standards.” In addition, with an all-in-one expense management solution like BILL Spend & Expense, you can get real-time visibility and customizable control over your business finances.

Preventing expense fraud

Fraud committed by employees is a big problem for many American companies. A survey from Chrome River revealed that expense fraud costs businesses over $2.8 billion a year. Expense fraud happens when employees submit fictitious or inflated expenses to be reimbursed.

You need to be alert to the potential mishap at your business. Look for:

• Employees inflating or altering acceptable reimbursable expenses. To prevent this, require an original receipt for every expense on a spend report or limit how much you will reimburse employees for expenses without receipts.

• Fictitious expenses. Again, ask for original receipts. Employees should get prior authorization from you or their managers if the expense exceeds a certain amount.

• Claiming non-business purchases. Clearly state what expenses can be charged to the business and which cannot.

• Overcharging the company credit card. While giving employees a company card can help you manage their spending, there’s still a risk they may spend more than necessary. Set spending limits for specific activities.

• Double dipping. Employees may sometimes list the same charge for different trips. Or submit a receipt as a cash expense they charged to their company card. Put controls in place by using automated spend management software.

Chris Wadsworth, the operations manager at Cal Wadsworth Construction, says using BILL Spend & Expense “is a huge benefit for accountability.” He adds, “Being able to instantly set someone's limit on their BILL card is freaking awesome. We can give a card to anybody with $200 bucks on it, and if they go rogue, it's not a big risk.”

2. Find a technology partner that offers a variety of payment offerings

Paying bills may seem like a mundane part of running a growing business. But smart business owners know it’s really about managing cash flow. Businesses today have more demands about managing their cash flow, and according to the Federal Reserve, they want access to flexible and faster payment options. The best way to provide that is to find a technology partner that offers you several different options that make it easier to manage cash flow.

What do you want in a payment partner? Look for a company, such as BILL, that offers:

• A single platform that gives you the ability to quickly track the status of all your payments (domestic and international).
• Various options, including the ability to make same-day and next-day payments or defer payments using credit cards.
• Low- or no-cost options.
• Seamless syncing with your accounting software. This reduces the need for manual data entry, which helps eliminate human error and increases company productivity.
• Options to make secure digital payments, lowering the risks of check fraud and paper check theft.

BILL offers various options for paying bills, including:

• Paper checks. The most traditional form of payment is great for vendors that don't accept digital payments. BILL paper checks are generally safe as users’ bank information is not exposed.

• ACH payments. A low-cost, secure system for bank-to-bank transfers of digital payments that is faster and more secure than checks. ACH via BILL is more secure than paying via a bank's ACH.

• International wire transfers. The most optimal way to make payments to international vendors, typically for large amounts. BILL international payments can be sent from the U.S. to 137 countries and 106 currencies.

• Credit cards. Most optimal for businesses that want to optimize cash flow to defer payments, earn rewards or make faster payments. Payment is quick, though typically accompanied by a transaction fee.

• Virtual cards. A one-time-use credit card token instead of a physical credit card, optimal for businesses that want a fast, secure, cost-effective payment solution.

• Real-time payments. Best for businesses that need to make urgent/time-sensitive payments and for receivers who need early access to funds. Payments can be processed 24/7, 365 days a year, including holidays and weekends.

Get a specific breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of these payment options.

Choosing BILL as its financial tech partner has positively impacted small businesses like MFABI, which provides logistics and fulfillment consulting. Sade Jennings, MFABI’s owner and operator, credits BILL for helping her business scale as a reputable, trusted brand. “Before BILL, I used to spend three to four hours at the banks in New York City just to send deposits to my vendors overseas. Since using BILL, I can cut down that time and seamlessly pay my vendors, who are mostly based in China, India, and South America. This has truly changed our business, improved the speed of our payment processes, and allowed me to manage our cash flow efficiently.”

3. Get real-time data and insights for growth

As businesses grow, it’s essential to have financial data that offers insights into future growth. Typically, only big companies can afford to hire teams of experienced professionals to handle that.

However, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) technology has democratized this process. FP&A tech gives small and midsize businesses (SMBs) access to planning, forecasting, budgeting, and analytical tools that help them more quickly make informed decisions impacting their futures and activities that support a company’s principal business decisions and overall financial health.

FP&A technology helps SMBs in several ways:

Insights for strategic financial planning

As your management team grows, it’s all too easy for them to focus on their own departments and lose sight of the big picture. FP&A tech allows all your managers to collaborate and align their individual goals to your company’s central business strategy.

Using FP&A tech, you and your management team can assess overall market trends and perform a competitive analysis to make sure you have the internal capabilities to meet market demand. This data then enables you to create long-term financial plans to fuel future growth.

Cash flow forecasting

To thrive, SMBs need the ability to create accurate cash flow forecasts so they’re never caught short. Your business can create detailed budgets using FP&A tech that accurately reflects your cash flow projections.

SMBs rarely grow in a straight line. FP&A technology rolls with you, allowing you to create rolling forecasts and adjust your budget and plans to meet the ever-evolving market conditions and what you need to tackle them.

4. Optimize integrated financial solutions for your cash flow needs

The more financial processes you can automate in your business, the more productive and efficient you can be. Plus, the more options you have, the more you can not only meet your current needs but accurately reflect what you’ll need in the future.

The BILL 2024 State of Financial Automation Report shows that SMBs are embracing automation and new AI solutions to improve efficiency and productivity. SMBs aren’t afraid of artificial intelligence (AI). The BILL report reveals that 85% of them are enthusiastic about using AI in their financial operations.

But for all this to work, your company must choose a technology partner that meets your current needs and exceeds your future expectations.

You need a tech partner who understands the power of today’s AI to positively impact your daily operations by improving internal processes, which in turn improves your customers’ experiences.

Automation and AI allow you and your team to focus on innovating and crafting strategies and tactics that fuel growth. You want the ability to use these developments to increase efficiency and empower you to redeploy staff to more strategic tasks that can foster innovation and growth. That means you need accessible, trusted, and useful technology.

But AI is still evolving, and your chosen tech partner must be growing along with it. Look for a company that is committed to embracing future iterations of AI and encourages its partners to do the same. Sarah Sanders, VP of accounting at Repurpose, is already seeing a positive impact of AI through BILL. “AI capabilities from BILL have saved our finance team two days out of every work week. BILL’s AI pulls all the information for you and makes it so much easier. You just review. It’s easier to cross-reference than to actually key everything in.”

The future is here

Technology has transformed the SMB landscape, empowering innovation and growth. The evolution of financial tech tools like spend and expense management, payment options, FP&A insights, and AI has unleashed unprecedented potential for SMBs.

These powerful tools will help you better prepare for your future as you continue your entrepreneurial journey.

About the Author

Rieva Lesonsky is the owner of SmallBusinessCurrents.com and has been covering small businesses and entrepreneurship for over 30 years. Get more insights about business trends by signing up for her free Currents newsletter.