You Have The Right to Remain Paperless: The “No Check” CEO Bill of Rights

By René Lacerte, Founder and CEO of Bill.com

Did you know there’s a whole new generation of CEOs and CFOs who run paperless businesses and insist on electronic payments instead of paper checks? They have no patience for time-consuming, paper-based processes that drag down everyone’s productivity. They’ve been endowed by game-changing cloud-based technology with certain inalienable rights.

Freedom from their desks. “No Check” CEOs aren’t tied to their offices, but free to manage their companies from wherever they need to be, with instant, real-time access to their business and financial data from anywhere, 24 hours a day.

Freedom from bill-payment hassles. They simply scan, fax or email bills and associated documents to a cloud-based service, manage the approval process online, and make payments electronically.

Freedom from receivables worries. “No Check” businesses rake in their receivables 2-3 times faster, thanks to e-invoicing, automatic reminders, and online customer payments deposited directly into their bank accounts.

Freedom from cash flow uncertainty. “No Check” CEOs and CFOs get precision control over cash flow, by projecting receivables, payables and balances up to three months out, revealing potential problems well in advance.

Freedom from check fraud. Unlike checks, electronic payments can’t be intercepted or modified. And unlike paper documents, electronic data can be protected with enterprise-level security systems.

Freedom from paperwork. Some “No Check” businesses don’t even have file cabinets, because everything is digitized and stored online for secure access from anywhere, any time – so no need to save and store paper receipts, purchase orders, contracts, check stock or paper invoices.

Freedom to reduce operating costs. Eliminating paper not only reduces processing costs for payables and receivables, digital access enables better cost controls through improved visibility. Getting rid of time-consuming paper-based processes also increases productivity for everyone.

Ready to become a “No Check” CEO? It’s as simple as moving your business processes from the manual, paper-based world to the cloud, via services such as Bill.com. 

To learn more about Bill.com, Lacerte’s history in ePayments and the future of his company, Market Platform Dynamics spoke with Lacerte at length about his experiences in the industry. How has Bill.com shifted ePayments newcomers to 40 percent electronic payments since signing up, and what does Lacerte view as the fastest growing segment of the space in which he operates? Webster asked these questions and more, and you can hear them all in the podcast below.

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Bill.com is not only the leader in integrated bill payment, invoicing and cash flow management solutions for businesses, it is also the home of the fastest-growing business payment network today, enabling more than 175,000 businesses to pay and get paid. Bill.com manages more than five million bills per year, worth close to $10 billion, by automating payables and receivables through collaboration across people, systems and documents. By offering this unique solution and powerful network, Bill.com has become a catalyst for a new generation of business leaders, the “No Check CEOs”.

René Lacerte

CEO of Bill.com

René founded Bill.com in April 2006, bringing with him more than 20 years experience in the finance, software and payments industries. Built from a legacy of four generations of entrepreneurs, René developed the concept for Bill.com based on personal experience growing new businesses. He recognized the need to improve the lives of business owners by simplifying, consolidating and automating all the critical data and transaction capability into a personalized mobile command and control center that works for all businesses.

René and his Bill.com team have taken the traditional Excel spreadsheet used to track cash flow and turned it into an Action Hero. Imagine that each line item is now web-enabled to take action backed up with the insight needed to instantly make the right decision for your business. They have built this mobile cloud-based system over the last five years creating a new category of service that spans numerous industries including, on-line bill pay, invoicing services, unlimited document storage, relationship management tools, mobile services and connects it to on-line banking and syncs it with all major accounting software. As a result his happy customers are benefiting from the cost and time savings and confidence that comes from using Bill.com.

Prior to Bill.com, René co-founded America’s #1 online payroll service PayCycle in 1999, which was acquired by Intuit in 2009. PayCycle received numerous 5-star awards from PC Magazine and accounting trade publications. At PayCycle, René developed an industry leading customer service organization that provided an unparalleled customer experience.

René spent five years at Intuit, creating and managing the company’s bill presentment team and growing its bill payment and credit card businesses 30% in one year. He also launched Intuit’s first connected payroll product, growing the team from two employees to 300 in 18 months.

René received a Masters of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Quantitative Economics from Stanford University.

In his spare time Rene likes to throw his two boys in the air, play ultimate Frisbee, run, bike and bake. What excites Rene most about Bill.com is the idea of replacing the static Excel spreadsheet allowing businesses to streamline the way they make decisions and take action.