Chaney & Associates perfects the 5-minute close with BILL

“Thanks to BILL Spend & Expense, closing the books for a client, regardless of their size, takes five minutes.”

Accounting firm Chaney & Associates describes their work as “collaborative stewardship”: empowering churches across the country to wisely steward their resources through cloud-based accounting services, so they can focus more on ministry.

Founded in 2002, the Roseville, California, firm offers a broad range of financial and tax services, including payroll, general ledger, financial reporting, and more.

The challenge: A tangled nightmare of bill and expense management 

Before Chaney & Associates adopted BILL Accounts Payable, they handled their clients’ bill pay needs by printing checks and using couriers to collect signatures. “It took up to three full days just to print the checks,” recalls Steve Chaney, Managing Partner. “We attached each one to an envelope and voucher, dropped them in totes, and sent couriers out on 75-mile routes in all four directions. It felt like a kind of insanity.” 

For their clients that used credit cards, things weren't any easier.

Until the firm adopted BILL Spend & Expense in 2019, each of their clients had their own preferred card provider and expense management system. “Before Spend & Expense, expense management was a nightmare,” says Chaney. “There were too many cards. Too many systems. Everyone had a different card and they all wanted to be reimbursed. It was impossible to grow.”

Amid the dizzying maze of cards and expense systems, closing the books was an ordeal that involved reviewing a transaction spreadsheet from each client, correctly coding each transaction, and uploading receipts and other documentation.

“Before BILL, it could take us up to 10 hours a month trying to make sense of all the expenses of one small client,” says Chaney. “Imagine doing that for over 1,300 clients—and that's just their expenses. We knew we couldn't scale that way. No one could.”

“Before BILL, it could take us up to 10 hours a month trying to make sense of all the expenses of one small client.”

The bill pay solution: BILL Accounts Payable

With BILL Accounts Payable, Chaney & Associates was able to process their clients’ bill pay at a fraction of the cost. To this day, well over a decade later, that cost difference remains a key factor in signing new clients.

“I don’t have to sell new clients on BILL. The platform sells itself,” says Chaney. “They ask me what it would cost for us to handle bill pay for them, I tell them, and they sign up on the spot. It can easily save them 30-50%.** It’s pennies on the dollar.”

“It doesn’t matter if that church is handling  $1,000 per year or $50 million. BILL works at any scale. We can send payments by ACH, international wire, or even printed checks, and it’s all automatic. It can even ship checks overnight by UPS if that’s what you want.”

Chaney attributes a lot of the firm’s success to perfecting an end-to-end tech stack for their church clients, with BILL at the heart of it. 

“We have this vertical down to a science, and we use BILL for every client. It works perfectly whether they have 5 bills a week or 1,000. Approvals, payments—it’s a click and they’re done. If a new church insists on using some old system they’re attached to, I tell them hey, no problem. You’ll be a great friend, but you can’t be a client.” 

“We have this vertical down to a science, and we use BILL for every client. It works perfectly whether they have 5 bills a week or 1,000. Approvals, payments—it’s a click and they’re done.”

The expense solution: BILL Spend & Expense

In 2019, Chaney & Associates was introduced to BILL Spend & Expense by a client. A test run quickly demonstrated that Spend & Expense was the right solution for the firm, helping them to gain more control over finances and unlock the power of continuous close.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, the anxiety around expense management before Spend & Expense was a 12. After Spend & Expense, the anxiety fell to a 1.”

The firm benefits: Managing expenses for more clients, in less time

Chaney & Associates now closes the books with their clients every week. They reconcile Spend & Expense transactions on Wednesday and Friday, bank statements on Thursday, and payables in between.

“With Spend & Expense, our staff of 23 can easily serve over 1,300 clients,” says Chaney. “We can serve more clients in less time—focusing on other high-value client services beyond expense management. Serving more clients has enabled us to experience a spike in income.”

“Thanks to BILL Spend & Expense, closing the books for a client, regardless of their size, takes five minutes. Whether you have a hundred or a million rows of transactions, Spend & Expense does it all for you.”

BILL’s customer support team also makes it easy for the firm to dispute a transaction, freeing up even more time—and giving them peace of mind. “BILL’s support, fraud protection, our account manager, all of that comes off the firm’s shoulders,” Chaney points out. “No more hours on the phone.”

The client benefits: More control over spend with real-time expense tracking

BILL Spend & Expense has been a game-changer for Chaney & Associates’ clients, too. Instead of combing through outdated, static expense reports line-by-line, they can view real-time spend from the palm of their hand, thanks to the BILL app. A single admin control panel has replaced sprawling spreadsheets. “Spend & Expense has made expense management relevant, real-time, accessible, and easy to use,” says Chaney.

Plus, the impeccable bookkeeping that results from Chaney & Associates’ weekly closes allows their clients—nonprofits, which face greater financial scrutiny—to be audit-ready at all times. “My clients love Spend & Expense” says Chaney. “They tell me, ‘Spend & Expense is the biggest game-changer you’ve added in a long time.”

“Thanks to BILL Spend & Expense, closing the books for a client regardless of their size, takes five minutes. Whether you have a hundred or a million rows of transactions, Spend & Expense does it all for you.”

With Spend & Expense, both the firm and their clients have a better spend management experience. So much so that Chaney & Associates now follows a cardinal rule. “We don’t serve clients who won't use Spend & Expense. All our clients are on it.” 

“The anxiety I used to get when people said they had 30 Visa cards outstanding. I don’t want my employees to deal with that. Instead, it’s just a quick transition. They’re up and running on Spend & Expense in no time, with as many virtual cards as they need—they can have separate budgets for each campus, separate BILL Divvy cards* for each vendor, whatever they want. It makes all the internal coding automatic.”

"Plus, we don't have an IT budget. None. We outsource our tech to BILL and Xero. So there's no start-up cost. Now, you're on equal footing with the big accounting firms. That's what BILL does. BILL did that for us."

Seamless integrations: BILL + Xero

When a new client signs up for BILL Spend & Expense, the firm also implements BILL Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable for finance automation and Xero as their accounting software. The platforms integrate seamlessly to streamline spend from payments to expenses and beyond. “All of our systems are connected now. And it’s all automated. We love that. That's why we do this so well. I see other people asking sometimes, what's the best thing out there? I'm like, hey, I'm telling you, it's BILL.”

*The BILL Divvy Card may be issued by one of Divvy Pay, LLC's bank partners. The BILL Divvy Card is not a deposit product. For your specific lender, see your Card Agreement.
**Based on internal client data as of November 2025.