Trailside Church grows 40% year over year with BILL Spend & Expense

“It shouldn't be this easy, but it is.”

When Trailside Church held its first post-pandemic gathering, 30 people showed up.

Sean Gajda and his wife had planted the church just two years earlier. They had grown to about 80 congregation members on a Sunday—a solid start for a young church operating out of a former police station in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. Then the pandemic forced them to shut down, and when they reopened months later, they were starting over.

"We're technically eight years old, but it's really more like five and a half," says Gajda, Trailside's lead pastor. "We had to literally replant and redo everything."

Today, over 500 people call Trailside home, and the church has grown 40% year over year for three consecutive years¹. The turnaround wasn't fueled by one thing alone; it took the right team, the right leadership, and the right financial infrastructure. BILL Spend & Expense is a foundational piece.

"Our financial stewardship has grown right in line with that," Gajda says. "BILL has been a big part of that. The clarity, the communication, the professionalism. People trust it."

The challenge: Debit cards can expose church account balance to fraud risk

Before BILL, Trailside's financial toolkit was bare. The church ran entirely on debit cards, and those debit cards had already been stolen once.

With no expense management platform in place, staff who needed to make a purchase had to track down and borrow the pastor's card. There was no way to monitor spending in real time, no receipt capture, and no budgetary controls by person or ministry. For a church funded entirely by congregational giving, that lack of visibility was a huge liability.

"I'm not driven by financial acumen. That's never been my strength," Gajda admits. "But people need to trust that we're stewarding their generosity with excellence."

When Trailside partnered with Parable, an outsourced accounting, payroll, and CFO services firm specializing in churches and nonprofits, they brought structure to Trailside's budgeting and reporting. And when the conversation turned to expense management, Parable recommended BILL.

The solution: 100% of BILL rewards points reinvested in the church

Gajda had actually started down a different path. A friend at a larger church had shown him a receipt-capture app from another expense management provider, and Gajda was intrigued. He invested weeks researching the platform, presented it to his elders, and went to apply.

"They told me we needed $75,000 in assets," Gajda recalls. "We had $72,000. They said they'd check back when we qualified."

Frustrated, Gajda called Parable, which recommended BILL.

The BILL Divvy Card had no minimum asset threshold. Onboarding was smooth, and the platform clicked immediately. Trailside issued physical BILL Divvy Cards² to staff and began spinning up virtual cards for events, retreats, and one-off purchases, each with its own budget and real-time tracking built in.

"The reward system makes sense. We take that and put it right back into the church," Gajda says. "And the ability for each person on our team to have their own card, so they can put all their receipts in themselves, it just made it so worth it."

The results: Instances of fraud now at zero for Trailside Church, caught before they clear

The impact has been tangible across every level of the church.

Fraud reduction for the church. Under the old debit card setup, Trailside experienced a few card number thefts. Combined with the lack of spend visibility, the potential exposure was terrifying. After switching to BILL, Gajda has peace of mind. 

"Somebody tried to buy a guitar in the U.K. with our card," Gajda says. "I got a notification from BILL before the transaction ever had the chance to go through. The built-in security is great."

Instant virtual cards for every need. Instead of passing around a single debit card, Gajda can now issue a purpose-built virtual card in seconds. When a lay leader needed to buy books for a women's Bible study, the old process would have meant borrowing the pastor's card. Now it takes minutes.

"She asked if she could come borrow my card," Gajda says. "I said, 'How about I just…' I grab the app, tap a few buttons, and here's a virtual card for exactly that. It shouldn't be this easy, but it is."

Real-time spending visibility. Staff can now see transactions live at the point of sale, and every expense flows into QuickBooks through Parable. No more guessing, no more end-of-month scrambles, and no more surprises.

Rewards reinvested into the mission. Cash-back rewards from BILL go directly back into church operations, stretching every donated dollar further.

Looking ahead: From a rented police station to a permanent home

For Gajda, the clarity has had a ripple effect far beyond the balance sheet. Trailside's congregation can see that their giving is handled with care, and they have responded by giving more generously, fueling those three consecutive years of 40% growth.

"People know when they give to Trailside that we're stewarding it in excellence," he says. "Our elders are thrilled. Our congregation is thrilled. Our staff is thrilled."

Trailside Church still meets in the city's old city hall, complete with four jail cells in the back. But with its largest budget ever and financial systems running smoothly, the church is preparing for its biggest step yet: a building of its own.

As for the competing provider that turned Trailside away at $72,000? They've been calling back for months. The church's assets are now nearly three times that original threshold. Gajda isn't interested.

"I've had zero moments of thinking, what else is out there?" he says. "BILL makes everything a million times easier."

^{1 Based on Trailside Church's experience using BILL as of April, 2026. Results are not guaranteed and may vary by business.}

^{2The BILL Divvy Card may be issued by one of Divvy Pay, LLC's bank partners (bill.com/bank-partners). The BILL Divvy Card is not a deposit product. For your specific lender, see your Card Agreement. Credit lines and the advertised range are not guaranteed and will be determined upon application approval.}