Customer Stories >

Blumer & Associates: “Our clients are blown away by BILL.”

Customer Stories >

Blumer & Associates: “Our clients are blown away by BILL.”

Fast facts about the firm

Blumer & Associates is a 100% virtual firm. With a strong focus on client advisory services (CAS), they coach healthy companies toward a higher level of growth.

How do you use BILL AP, AR, and Spend & Expense?

“The BILL platform is a foundational part of our entire business model, not just our tech stack. It lets us offer high-level advisory services. We couldn’t be an outsourced controller or service provider without it,” said Jason Blumer, Founder and CEO of Blumer & Associates.

“We use BILL Accounts Payable to manage AP for both our firm and our clients. BILL Accounts Receivable allows us to draft monthly client payments to the firm. With our value-based pricing, we put it in our client contract that we draft those monthly payments through BILL.

“With BILL Spend & Expense, we use it at the firm to make payments for clients and eliminate internal expense reports.” 

How have your clients responded to BILL AP?

“With BILL, our clients spend up to 80% less time on their AP. Just moving their AP from paper to digital through BILL saves 50% of that time by itself. 

“But there’s also a blindness that comes with paper-based controllership. Clients can’t see what’s going on, and they think that’s normal. Once they’re on BILL, clients are blown away. Whether they’re at the office or in a cab, they can access reporting, payments, documents—everything.”

"Once they’re on BILL, clients are blown away." - Jason Blumer, Founder and CEO of Blumer & Associates

What’s your ROI for the BILL platform?

“Our business model wouldn’t be possible without BILL. The AP services we offer our clients. The expenses we pay for them using Spend & Expense. Our own client billing. Thanks to the platform, the time we spend on monthly invoicing is zero minutes. We draft payments on the first of the month, and the money hits the bank. If I didn’t have BILL, I’d be running a brick and mortar, paper-based, local firm. We wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing—with clients all over the country.”

Blumer & Associates team

How does your team use BILL Spend & Expense?

“BILL Spend & Expense has given our team the freedom and security to do business faster. They love it." - Jason Blumer, Founder and CEO of Blumer & Associates

“Previously, we didn’t issue corporate cards to employees. We wanted to keep a close eye on spending, so our financial services manager handled all credit card payments. But we do a lot of advisory work, so we often pay for Secretary of State filings and other billable expenses. For each one, the team had to ask our financial services manager to hop on Zoom and enter the payment information. That bottleneck was painful.

“With BILL Spend & Expense, each team member can have their own corporate card. It’s decentralized, but we have just as much control, if not more. We set budgets and card limits, and our exposure is limited. If a team member leaves, we can cut the card off with just a few clicks.

“Everyone on the team benefits from that security. They don’t have to wait on anyone. They can whip out that card any time they need it.”

Have there been any surprising benefits from using BILL Spend & Expense?

“We do a lot of work on culture here. We spend an hour on it every week as a group, and we tell everybody to order lunch on the card.

“Because we use BILL Spend & Expense, we don’t have to limit the team’s meal choices to some centralized ordering system. Each person gets to do their own thing for lunch while we share that time together, and they don’t have to spend their own money. Reimbursements are a thing of the past. So, in a way, it’s been a real culture-building tool for us.”

What does the team think about the BILL Spend & Expense mobile app?

“The mobile app is such a great product. Our team members use their cards however they need to, on filing fees and the like, and it all just shows up. We don’t have to ask for anything. The app reminds them to add a photo of the receipt and prompts them to code the expense from our category list. The mobile app does a lot of that expense work for us. It’s so much faster.”

"The mobile app does a lot of that expense work for us. It’s so much faster." - Jason Blumer, Founder and CEO of Blumer & Associates

What tips would you give other firms that are just getting started with BILL?

1. Start with an internal rollout

“Roll BILL out within the firm before you start using it with clients. That way, everyone on your team will be an expert and can help clients get the most out of it.”

2. Create clear policies

“Draft your policies ahead of time. Let people know what you expect them to use the card for, and make it clear that downloading the app and setting it up is part of their job.”

3. Champion BILL to your team

“Get your team excited about the rollout. Tell them up front about the efficiencies BILL brings to the table and how it will make their jobs easier.”

4. Make training fun

“Once you roll it out, set up a quick, fun training exercise. We had the team order lunch during our weekly culture call. They each paid with their own card and we walked them through choosing a category and uploading a receipt. Simple—and they got to see the benefit right away.”

5. Put client fees on autopilot

“Use BILL Accounts Receivable to draft your client fees. If you bill any of your clients the same amount each month, ask if they’ll go on a draft. You’ll be surprised how many say yes.”

6. Get your BILL AP Certification

“Help your team get every drop of value out of the platform. BILL is incredibly robust. It’s easy to use, so you won’t realize right away just how much you can do with it—how much value you can unlock. We give our team members a bonus for completing the BILL Certification course. I highly recommend it.”

Firm

Blumer CPAs - https://blumercpas.com/

For decades, Blumer & Associates has helped creative agencies grow through consulting, coaching, business model transformation, and leadership guidance—building the financial foundations that allow for healthy sustainability. 

Industry

Design and creative agencies, controllerships for agencies

Number of employees

 15

Total number of clients

60

Headquarters

Distributed workforce

Customer since

2010

Solutions
  • BILL Accounts Payable
  • BILL Accounts Receivable
  • Bill Spend & Expense
Payment products
  • ACH
  • Pay by card
  • Balance
  • Check
BILL integrations (accounting software)

QuickBooks Online, Xero

Challenges
  • Too much time and too little transparency with paper-based AP and AR
  • Internal bottlenecks in necessary credit card payments for clients  
  • Employees were not empowered to spend on behalf of the firm
Key outcomes
  • Clients save up to 80% of their time with BILL AP
  • Monthly client payments are drafted automatically with BILL Accounts Receivable 
  • Employees have the freedom and security to do business faster with BILL Spend & Expense

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