Frustrated with Bill.com? Here are 6 signs that it’s time to switch to Liquid.
As heads of finance departments, operations, strategy in companies both small and large, we’ve used Bill.com as part of our workflow. Unfortunately, it always had us longing for more. We wanted a workflow that took us from onboarding to work orders to payments — along with integration into our accounting system — in one platform to save time and reduce errors. However, only the largest companies with their expensive, enterprise-level ERP systems had what we wanted, so we created Liquid, building in all of our favorite and essential features.
Complexities of Managing Flexible Resources (Vendors, Freelancers, Independent Contractors, and more)
The most innovative, modern companies are increasingly using non-permanent resources to get work done. Working more with vendors is cost-effective, but comes with more complexity. Every vendor relationship has different contracts, project setup, rates, payment terms, forms of payment, deals, different invoice amounts, etc. — so it can be difficult to keep track of what you agreed to.
If you find yourself often asking the following questions, it is time to find an alternative to Bill.com for your vendor management system. Having contracts/work orders in the same system as your invoices at an affordable price helps you stay efficient and in control.
1. Is This Invoice Right?
When invoices come to Accounts Payable (AP), do you find yourself digging around to see what work and rate you agreed to in the first place? The nature of vendors and their work agreements is that everyone has varying contracts, so it is difficult to keep track of what you agreed to. When an invoice is in front of you, is the work order and the history of the payments you agreed to readily available to you?
We find that overpayments or errors easily slip through the system when your work order agreements do not live in the same system as where you receive invoices and make payments. You don’t want to be blind to what you agreed to when it’s time to approve or pay an invoice. It makes more sense to have one system that allows you to save all the different data, fields, documentation, etc., in one place and deal with all the variations in a consistent way. At Liquid, we believe invoices should automatically route to the hiring manager first for approval. We also believe vendors should have admin tools available to them as well, so invoices coming to you are always in the same format with the appropriate, accurate, and necessary data and details.
2. Why Are My Vendor Expenses Going Up And Up?
When you have a system like Bill.com, where the first visibility into a vendor spend is at invoice receipt, the finance department has no visibility into what is coming. Budgets should be set, and work orders should be approved in the first place so that you always know the cash expense projections for your vendors. Also, when work has already been done, you can properly accrue for the work done without guessing at it.
CFOs often complain that vendor spending happens without their involvement or knowledge, and there are many times cash was not planned for or managed properly. At Liquid, we believe there should be approval systems built into the work orders from the first place and reports that continually give you a birds-eye view of vendor spending so you can stay in control.
3. Did My Vendor Get Paid Yet?
Even after you press “pay,” it takes multiple days for the money to be moved from your account to your vendor’s account. That time delay can vary and take up to weeks, which leads to unhappy vendors that annoy your department. Sometimes if the data is not properly connected, vendors are randomly sent checks through the mail. We believe that vendor payment turnaround time should be shortened, and vendors should have a friendly portal to get this information on their own.
Many times vendor payments are delayed due to vendor information or W-9s not being collected yet. With an all-in-one system where you cannot start working with a vendor until all the information is collected upfront, this will not be an issue.
4. Where Is This Feature?
Bill.com revamped its user interface, but it can still be pretty difficult to navigate. You find yourself digging around for features, and there are too many unnecessary options for what you need. You need a simple, easy-to-use site that is tailored to your needs.
We built Liquid to be seamless and intuitive. And as an agile startup company, we are always responsive to our users who need help. We are continually updating and adding new features and integrations based on user feedback. Finli Founder Lori Shao says she can’t imagine having a better freelancer management experience than Liquid.
5. How much did I get charged?
When you look at your monthly billing from Bill.com, you wonder how it added up to that much. The platform fee is a per-user calculation, and there are also transaction fees for your invoice payments. You want a more transparent management system that makes things simple, flexible, cost-effective, and built for you. You want to spend the appropriate amount on the features that help you with the day-to-day tasks and prepare you for audits. You need a solution to be scalable one that saves you AP headcount as you grow, and reduces manual errors in the AP cycle — a system that will basically pay for itself.
Liquid’s pricing plan is easy to understand — no per-user fees — and it’s free to use for a limited time.
6. How Do I Get Help?
As a nimble startup, we are able to more quickly provide customer service. Have a question about features? You’ll get a demo from our CEO herself. Send an email to support. You might get a personal response from our CTO. Wondering if that payment went through? Contact us and you might hear from our COO or Chief of Staff. We love talking to our customers.
It’s time to find an alternative to Bill.com. Convert to the all-in-one system that is built especially for you. You need a system that helps organize everything and make life easier. It is best to have one system that has contracts, vendor onboarding, work orders, approval process, invoice payments, and integrations, all in one so errors are prevented.
