You Pay Your Bills Electronically at Home but not in Your Business; Why?

I’ve asked this question to many small business owners and always get the same
response in some variation: “It’s not that simple at work”. Yes, that’s true. At home, we simply write checks. At work, we have accounting systems and business processes to contend with. However, many small business owners believe that automating bill payments is time-consuming, expensive and may be marginally beneficial. In reality, it’s very quick, inexpensive and brings tremendous value to small businesses.

“It will take too much time to set this up.”

I understand why SMB’s think this is the case. However, the SaaS applications that have been designed for the SMB market provide users with the ability to get up and running very quickly. Take a look as some of the reasons that the setup process is so easy:

• There is no software to purchase, install or manage.
• Adding users and banking information takes minutes.
• Bills are easily loaded to these systems by email or directly from a desktop.
• Bills can be received, edited and approved for payment within minutes

“If it’s that good, it must be expensive.”

SaaS based applications are designed to have a robust set of features, all while being inexpensive to own. The model calls for the user to pay a monthly subscription as opposed to purchasing the software and a service contract. In the bill payment space for SMBs, the apps are comparably inexpensive on a per user basis. This model allows companies to provide quality products at a reasonable price by adding a considerable number of users at very competitive prices.

“How much value is there in automating my bill payments?”

I’m sure people asked the same thing when bank bill payment systems first came out. This is where the irony lies in businesses not using a bill payment system…the value you get out of using a SaaS-based bill management system in your business is exponential compared to the value you get at home using your bank’s bill pay system. Imagine your business looking like this:

• You review, approve and make payments anytime, anywhere and from any device.
• Bills are visible, so you know where they are in the approval and payment process.
• You search a digital filing cabinet to look up bills anytime, anywhere from any device.
• You’re protected from fraud since the entire system is electronic and has an audit trail.
• You never receive, review and file another paper bill.
• You never print, sign or mail another check.

So, let’s go back to where we started – Why are you not automating the bill management and payment process in your office? Like most small business owners, you’re busy running your business and haven’t taken a close look at how easy, inexpensive and valuable it is to electronically manage and pay your bills. That is, until now.

About the Author

Tony Lombardo is President of Expex Inc., a SaaS software company and creator of Expex. Tony and the Expex team created Expex to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a secure, paperless & automated bill management software along with offering a purchasing system with big-company discounts.