Developer Program

Developer Application Examples

• Integration with Accounting Systems
• Managing Clients' Billable Expenses
• Vertical Industry-Specific Applications
• Rebate Processing

Here are some examples of how your application can take advantage of the Bill.com platform to pay vendors or get paid, store documents and automate workflows.

Integration with Accounting Systems

You can add important features to accounting systems such as online document management, bill approval and payments by integrating it with Bill.com using the API. All the information already present in an accounting system such as a chart of accounts, vendors, departments and jobs can be moved to Bill.com, avoiding double entry and letting users quickly start processing and paying bills in Bill.com.

You can either use the Bill.com website to create bills in Bill.com (taking advantage of the full document and bill management system) or you can use the API to send the bills you have created in your accounting system (and supporting documents) to Bill.com.

Then, use the Bill.com website to approve and pay the bills and to view the relevant documents like the bill image, contracts and statements of work.

Finally, use the Bill.com API to get the status of the bills you uploaded, including the dates for when bills are scheduled to be paid and whether attempted payments were successful. The API allows you to sync your payables information to and from your accouting system, so you always have the most updated information in your General Ledger without any double entry.

Similar integration can be done between an accounting system and Bill.com Receivables. You can create a sync for customers, items, invoices and payments received from/to Bill.com using our API.

Note that Bill.com already offers integration with QuickBooks for Windows, QuickBooks Online, Intacct, Netsuite, and Sage 50, but there are thousands of other accounting systems that could take advantage of the Bill.com platform.

Managing Clients' Billable Expenses

If your application does expense reporting or tracks billable expenses, you can integrate with Bill.com to sync expenses as bills for payment. You can use Bill.com to route the bills/ expenses for approvals within your team, pay for these expenses, and associate the expenses with appropriate client accounts.

For example, let's say you purchase materials and hire contractors to perform a job for your customer. Once the expenses are entered into your application, you can use the Bill.com API from within your software package to create bills from the expenses for material and the contractor's statement of work, and associate the costs with the appropriate client.

Your accounts payable department can use the Bill.com application to approve and pay those bills associated with your jobs, and to view any associated documents as necessary.

Then, use the Bill.com API to get the status of the bills you upload, including the dates for when bills are scheduled to be paid and whether attempted payments were successful.

You can retrieve the expenses charged to the client account to sync up the data in your application.

Vertical Industry-Specific Applications

This scenario is similar to the Accounting scenario but you may be using proprietary accounting software customized for your industry.

You can either use the Bill.com website to create bills in Bill.com (taking advantage of the full document and bill management system) or you can use the API to send the bills you have created in your accounting system (and supporting documents) to Bill.com. You may need to move additional industry-specific data to or from Bill.com. One option for doing this is to use the "Departments" object in Bill.com as a way to code industry-specific information to each bill.

Then, use the Bill.com website to approve and pay the bills and to view the relevant documents like the bill image, contracts and statements of work.

Finally, use the Bill.com API to get the status of the bills you uploaded, including the dates for when bills are scheduled to be paid and whether attempted payments were successful. The API allows you to sync your payables information to and from your industry-specific application, so you always have the most updated information in your application without any double entry. If you are capturing any industry-specific information in the Department field, you will be able to sync that back to your application and make sure that it is captured.

Rebate Processing

In this scenario, you are responsible for sending out rebate checks to many customers, whose information resides in your application.

You can use the Bill.com API to upload the customers' information from your application to an account in Bill.com, create a bill to pay them for the rebate, and use Bill.com's bill payment system to mail each customer their rebate check or send them electronic payments.

You can also use the Bill.com API to create invoices to be sent via Bill.com and retrieve the payments received.

Developer Program FAQ & Support

FAQ

• How do I get an application key?
• What are the steps to enable a Bill.com account to be accessed via the API?
• How can I retrieve only records that have been created/updated since last time I retrieved them in the API?
• I got an Error Code (for example, BDCE001). What does it mean?

Contacting Support

If you can't find your answer in the API documentation or FAQ, please contact us.

The Answers

How do I get an application key?

You should fill out the "Join the Developer Program" form. Within 2 business days, you will be contacted by Bill.com and, if your application is approved, you will receive the application key in the email provided in the form. Make sure the contact information provided is correct otherwise your application may be rejected.

What are the steps to enable a Bill.com account to be accessed via the API?

By default, Bill.com accounts are not accessible via the API. To enable API access,a Bill.com administrator user needs to follow these steps:

• In Bill.com, in the upper right mouse over the gear icon. Then click Settings > Overview.
• On the overview page, under your Company, click Profile.
• Click Edit (upper right corner of the page).
• For Allow API Access at the bottom of the page, click Yes.
• Click Save.

How can I retrieve only records that have been created/updated since last time I retrieved them in the API?

You should store a time-stamp of the last time you have retrieved records from Bill.com. Then when you want to retrieve the new/modified records, filter the records that have the field "updatedTime" equal or greater than the date/time on your time-stamp.

I got an Error Code (for example, BDCE001). What does it mean?

Here are the Bill.com API Error Codes. Locate in the table below the code you encountered while using the Bill.com API to find out the meaning and possible solution.

Before you can use the Bill.com API with your application, you need to join the Bill.comDeveloper Program and obtain an Developer Key. You should get a response within two business days. By joining the developer program you are accepting API License Agreement and the API Naming and Advertising Restrictions.