PALO ALTO, CA — Bill.com, the leader in online bill management and bill payment for small and midsized businesses and CPA firms, today announced that it's been recognized with a 2010 Monarch Innovation Award from Barlow Research Associates, receiving an Honorable Mention in the Industry Partner category. The award was presented to Bill.com founder and CEO Rene Lacerte at Barlow Research's 2010 Client Conference on March 19.
Bill.com was one of only six companies to receive a prestigious 2010 Monarch Innovation Award, given annually to financial institutions and industry partners that provide the most innovative products to business banking customers. Other 2010 award winners were industry heavyweights Bank of America, SunTrust, Wells Fargo, Union Bank and Intuit. View a video of the award-winning Bill.com solution.
"One of the things that intrigued me about Bill.com was its ability to push payment processes and information into the 'cloud'," said John Barlow, president of Barlow Research Associates. "Users can access the system any time, any where, and get multi-user workflow that makes their entire accounts payable process—not just bill payment—more efficient. This leads to cost savings and business productivity. I was very impressed with the product and believe it's truly innovative among online financial applications."
Monarch Innovation Awards are unique and coveted. Nominated organizations are judged by an independent jury of industry experts who quantitatively score each submission based on uniqueness, stickiness, dependability, ease of use and value. The 2010 Monarch Innovation Award winners were rigorously judged by a panel of four jurists: Eric Cook, WSI Internet Consulting; Jack Hubbard, St. Meyer & Hubbard; John O'Connor, Praxis Advisors, LLC; and Robert Seiwert, American Bankers Association Center for Commercial Lending and Business Banking. Only seven awards are given each year.
"We are honored to be recognized for our innovation with so many other leaders of the banking industry," said Lacerte. "We've worked very hard over the past three years to create a service that doesn't just allow businesses to pay bills, but allows them to dramatically improve the entire accounts payable process on the web. Moving businesses to online bill payment is more complex than moving consumers because their needs are very different. Businesses require multi-user controls, document management, workflow, automation, flexible payment approaches, and integration with their accounting software. Systems focused only on payment transactions alone cannot deliver this. We are thrilled to be a winner of a Monarch Innovation Award because it recognizes the value that our customers have received through online accounts payable and bill payment specifically designed for businesses."
Barlow Research Associates was founded in 1980 to provide research and consulting services to the banking industry in the U.S. and overseas. The company specializes in custom research, strategic consulting and syndicated research programs in small business, middle market and Internet banking. All three syndicated programs provide a continuous flow of market knowledge and competitive intelligence to member institutions.
About Bill.com
Bill.com is an on-demand accounts payable application for CPAs and small and midsized businesses. Bill.com users can receive, route and pay invoices electronically — they never have to touch a paper bill again — resulting in time and cost savings to finance personnel of over 50% versus manual accounts payable and check writing processes. Invoices are emailed, scanned or faxed into the Bill.com service. Digital images of invoices are then routed electronically for approval, ensuring a complete audit trail and eliminating lost or mishandled paper. Users can access digitized supporting documents such as current and past bill images, cleared check images and contracts, at every step in the process, from anywhere, at any time, over the Internet. Bill.com handles check printing and mailing as well as electronic payments, and uses enterprise-class fraud protections that are impractical for small and midsized businesses to implement on their own. Bill.com integrates with popular desktop and on-demand accounting packages, ensuring consistency of financial data and streamlined financial planning, reporting and audit activities. Bill.com has received numerous awards including a 2009 Innovation Award from CPA Technology Advisor, a 4-star rating from PC Magazine and was named to the Red Herring Global 100.