Bill.com Bill.com

Note: CashView changed its name to Bill.com on Jan. 1, 2008.

Though small-business accounting apps like Intuit's extremely popular QuickBooks program automate your business bookkeeping, they don't eliminate the paper shuffling. You still need to route bills manually to authorized employees for payment approval, and then file the documents supporting the payment.

That's where Bill.com, a new electronic cash-management and document workflow service now in beta, can help. Bill.com makes it easier to manage the paper flow for payments and invoices. It keeps track of electronic documents such as bills, saving time and money and helping the business exercise better control over its cash flow. The beta version of Bill.com is free until the end of the year. Beginning in 2008, Bill.com will charge $10 per month per user, plus $1 per payment transaction processed.

You can get new documents into Bill.com in any of three ways: scan hard copies and upload the files from your PC; e-mail files to your private Bill.com account, or fax the documents to Bill.com. You'll need to set up a system for scanning paper invoices and converting them to a supported electronic format such as PDF or Microsoft Office 2007 to get them into Bill.com.

Once documents have entered the system, you can view them on the Bill.com Web site, add transaction details, and decide who should approve an individual transaction for payment. Then you can have Bill.com pay the bill for you. The company will electronically withdraw funds from your bank account, and then prepare and mail a check to pay the vendor.

Unfortunately, Bill.com can't match the vendor name on a transaction with the same name in your records, nor can it calculate the total amount of payment--so you'll have to enter that information yourself. Bill.com plans on adding a data-entry service in the future that will enter vendor and payment details.

Bill.com integrates directly with QuickBooks 2005 (and later editions) and with QuickBooks online, maintaining the details of all transactions. Bill.com retains all documents entered into it for seven years. If you use another accounting app, you can quickly enter a summarized total of the monthly transactions via a journal entry. Bill.com expects to offer better integration with other popular small-business accounting apps in a future release.

I like the upcoming payment calendar that Bill.com displays on its home page dashboard. However, the service does have limitations. Though the accounts payable service for paying your bills is fully functional, the accounts receivable service currently cannot collect money from your customers. That enhancement is planned for a future release. At present, you must enter payments yourself.

Bill.com is aimed at small to medium-size businesses of fewer than 500 employees. There's nothing quite like it in its price range; indeed, most cash-flow management apps target large enterprises. The service will deliver its greatest value to QuickBook users that currently require at least three people--such as a bookkeeper, a bill approver, and a senior manager--to participate in its bill payment process. These businesses will find that Bill.com's service amply repays its modest cost.

Richard Morochove