Like all auto dealerships, Murdock Hyundai has complex accounting needs. With BILL Spend & Expense and BILL Accounts Payable, they found a way to simplify their accounts payable process by eliminating manual steps that wasted time and resources.

The challenge

Although Murdock Hyundai is family owned, their accounting needs are more complex than most small businesses because auto dealerships reconcile inventories for vehicles and parts, and also offer financing to customers.

As part of her responsibilities for Murdock’s accounting operations, Controller Julie Day oversaw a typical (and typically time-consuming) accounts payable process. Each month, after gathering, reviewing, and scanning invoices, AP Manager Tiandra Wilde spent an entire day writing checks to pay vendors. Then, to comply with the company’s dual authorization policy for payments, she sent every check to be signed by Julie and Owner Blake Murdock.

In addition to time spent writing physical checks—plus time spent by Julie and Blake to review and sign them all—Tiandra dedicated even more time to preparing envelopes and postage, which she described as “tedious.” After the checks were mailed, Tiandra entered each transaction into Murdock’s Dealertrack system and filed physical copies of checks and invoices.

According to Julie, “Dealing with all those checks every month was a long and stressful process.” Because Murdock Hyundai was already using the BILL Spend & Expense platform to streamline spend and expense management, Julie decided to try BILL Accounts Payable as a way to make their AP process more efficient and less stressful.

“Dealing with all those checks every month was a long and stressful process.”

The solution

To add BILL Accounts Payable functionality to their existing BILL account, Murdock Hyundai provided routing and account numbers for their bank so that payments, once approved, could be funded through ACH debits.

For Tiandra, the next step was creating vendor profiles with names, addresses, and account IDs, then submitting invoices to be funded through the BILL Spend & Expense platform. Now, instead of writing checks, Tiandra uploads digital copies of invoices to BILL Spend & Expense. Instead of signing checks, Julie approves the amount and timing of each payment through the BILL Spend & Expense interface, and Blake approves the authorization form for each day’s transactions.

Tiandra said the entire process goes faster with BILL Accounts Payable. “Instead of signing checks, now Julie goes click, click, click, and it’s done.”

Part of the service provided by BILL Spend & Expensey is contacting each vendor to verify their preferred remittance method, then sending payment—whether by ACH draft, check, or credit card—within four business days after the payment is approved for funding. Tiandra said some vendors who had been unwilling to accept payment by credit card have now agreed to do so after being approached by BILL Spend & Expense.

“Getting started with BILL Accounts Payable was easy. Everybody we’ve dealt with in customer support has been amazing.”

The results

“We don’t have to sign so many checks with BILL Accounts Payable,” Julie said. “We just do one authorization form for everything attached to that day’s submission. We’re not wasting paper, toner, envelopes, and postage. And we’re saving time.”

In addition to time saved on writing, signing, scanning, and mailing checks, Julie estimates Tiandra now spends half as much time scanning documents and the company is using half the filing cabinet space to store physical paperwork. And, because Murdock Hyundai employees use BILL Divvy Corporate cards for day-to-day expenses, the company can now track and control credit card and invoice spend together in the BILL Spend & Expense platform, which provides a real-time view of budgets.

Tiandra said, “BILL Accounts Payable is easier to work with and makes it faster to find an invoice. It’s so simple. I love it!”

“We’re not wasting paper, toner, envelopes, and postage. And we’re saving time.”