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Dirkdaddy
October 9, 2018

Advice - Managing a remote client w/ paper bills, approvals to pay

  • October 9, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

Hello
I searched on this topic didn't see anything.

 

I have a new client who's business just sold off a big part of it, so I'm taking over the remaining bit, and they are leaving a brick & mortar location for a virtual world. 

 

Question - is there a recommended way to handling A/P for this remote company with an approval loop built in? 

 

Currently they have a A/P email account, but still get paper bills as well. The owners will be handling paper billing at this early juncture. I don't see them using scanner for all those bills. Obviously the ones we can convert to internet payment can go to the email.  The owner wants to handle manning that account and then forward payments to my email as approved. 

 

One stone age solution would be to give them USPS envelopes and they send paper bills to me on a weekly basis or something. While it would cost few bucks I'm OK with that. 

 

Recommended process for dealing with a clients A/P who is remote to your office? 

    2 replies

    lynda11_2
    lynda11_2
    October 9, 2018

    Hello @Dirkdaddy:  There are a few options.   Bill dot com is one (yes, I spelled it out).  It has a robust accounts payable system and works with both qbo and qb dt.  I have been hearing a buzz around billbeez, but I don't know anything about that one.  There is also Mineral tree.

     

    Lynda

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      Anonymous
      October 9, 2018

      @Dirkdaddy, 

       

      As they say, sometimes, the old ways are the best ways. The question you seem to be asking is, how do I get my client to follow a specific, repeatable procedure to make sure we don't double count bills and A/P.

       

      Would you prefer the client handle the data entry, or do you prefer handling everything at a single source (i.e. you)? Would you eventually want to train them to handle the process themselves? Sounds like a technological solution might be out, as per your scanner comment. What's the current and anticipated volume? And most important, what method do you think your client can actually handle that introduces the least amount of risk? The solution you presented seems to solve for most of these...  

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        DirkdaddyAuthor
        October 10, 2018

        Thanks folks. 

         

        I'm not worried about double entry on vendor invoices, between invoice numbers, cloud attached invoices for QBO and just being careful it should be OK. I am hiring an assistant to do a lot of the AP and that is a new area for me so the possibility exists but she's trained in QB so its probably not a problem.

         

        This is a new client and the main business was sold off including the building and the owners are going to attempt they say to handle  some of the AP and AR tasks for the remaining business with my leadership with all of us in different locations. I have supported a business remotely, but the invoices were all emailed to me or loaded on a cloud by a tech savvy and motivated owner & his large company team. These owners I've not worked with and they are used to an accounting staff doing everything. I'm wondering if they are really going to scan papers reliably and review A/P email invoices in a timely manner. I have input from the exiting accounting staff that they are nice and business savvy but tend to not be great on staying on top of tasks and deadlines. That part obviously is not a technical question mark but more of a operational potential issue. 

         

        I was curious if there was some best practice process anyone had success with who has done this sort of thing for years.  I have come up with two options and presented them with the caveat that we will tweak going forward.

         

        I will have to look at the QB apps mentioned and see if they might work for approvals and streamlining that operation. Unfortunately a couple things I have tried that claimed to integrate into QB were a bit of disaster IMHO and caused huge issues that took hours to repair, so I'm not jumping in without a lot of due diligence. 

         

        This forum seems quite sleepy. I appreciate your time making a response, but is there another forum that is more active anyone recommends? 

         

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        DirkdaddyAuthor
        October 10, 2018

        I found an old forum, but it seems to be mostly people hawking various related products with zero discussions.

         

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