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Learn moreLast week, BILL, in partnership with CPA.com, held our sixth annual Accountant Partner Council meeting in Half Moon Bay, California. This event features industry leaders from some of the most innovative and influential accounting firms from across the country.
Members from these firms participate in two days of discussions around key topics including the accounting profession, BILL’s product innovation roadmap, serving SMBs, industry trends, and more.
The goal of the gathering is to maximize the collective knowledge of the accountant partner community and the BILL team to continually improve how we serve SMB customers and to inspire fresh approaches to strengthening our partnerships together.
BILL and accountants: Partnerships for industry evolution
Accounting firms have an important pulse on the industry and the needs of SMBs, making their input, guidance, and feedback very powerful. A key part of the council is open dialogue about where the industry is headed and also priorities for BILL.
Sarah Acton, BILL’s Chief Customer Officer, opened the event by underscoring the importance of BILL’s relationship with accountants. “It’s an exciting time for our industry, as we evolve technology to serve accountants in powerful new ways. Accounting firms and BILL have a shared mission to help SMBs succeed, and we’re proud to partner with these firms and the thousands of other firms around the country to help deliver on this vision.”
Takeaways from day one sessions
The event kicked off with an informative state of the profession panel hosted by Kim Blascoe, Senior Director of CAS and Professional Services at CPA.com and featuring Sharon Berman, Principal at Rehmann, Matt Gardener, CEO and Co-founder of Hiline, and Missy Thompson, Principal at Baker Tilly.
The discussion covered everything from the future of the accounting profession and the state of CAS today to serving clients in new ways as technology expands the boundaries of client service.
Tech stacks
When discussing standardizing a tech stack, Kim Blascoe observed, “At this point, your tech strategy needs a strategy, especially in the ever-changing software landscape.” Sharon Berman put it this way, “You can’t stay stagnant, and you always have to know what’s out there. We need to continue to innovate where our clients need us to innovate, always finding the best solution for our clients’ needs.”
Onboarding and customer success
When it comes to onboarding and customer success, Matt Gardner underscored the value of looking outside the profession to find the best talent who can be additive to the business in different ways. “It’s very unrealistic to expect your accounting team to do everything, like play a true customer relationship management role. So we build in additional support around subject matter experts with customer success expertise.”
Private equity
Missy Thompson talked about how private equity can help drive innovation and expansion. She said, “They love CAS for its recurring nature and stickiness with clients. Private equity brings excitement to the space with their intensity and urgency of growth expectations. We were already an acquisitional firm but their capital and enthusiasm for outsourced accounting is a huge lift to our growth plans.”
Continuation of day one
Day one continued with sessions covering BILL’s product roadmap, a discussion from BILL’s risk team about how to combat attempted fraud, plus the annual customer experience “State of the Union.”
Rami Essaid, SVP Product Management at BILL and myself showed highlights of how new capabilities coming to the BILL platform in the next year will continue to make accountants' lives easier and empower them to grow their practices and improve client service. Rami explained, “For the year ahead, our innovation roadmap demonstrates that we continue to prioritize feedback from our accountant partners. This is very important to BILL.” He also provided a deep dive of the recently announced BILL Insights and BILL Cash Flow Forecasting as well as the ongoing opportunity for accounting firms to use BILL Spend & Expense to bring a new service line to clients.
Commenting on the roadmap, Dan Luthi, MAcc, Partner at Ignite Spot said, “There has been a lot coming from BILL over the past several months. It has been exciting to see the AP, AR, spend and expense management, and analytics products come together in a single platform. Seeing this and other improvements in the platform will bring some great enhancements for the customer experience and provide consolidated support for accounting partners.”
Monday afternoon focused on small breakout sessions where firm representatives weighed in on key areas of BILL’s product offerings, such as payments and spend management.
Day two Accountant Partner Council recap
Day two kicked off with a fireside chat between René Lacerte, CEO and Founder of BILL and Michael Cerami, Executive Vice President of Business Development, Alliances, and Communication at CPA.com. “When you're in it to win it, it takes persistence. We’re in it to win it for SMBs and accounting firms. I’m excited about what I’m seeing in the future and how accountants are a part of that,” said René.
When talking about that future and the impact of automation on the accounting profession, René continued, “We're going to continue to invest in AI to make you more of a strategic advisor and less of a bookkeeper. AI can be enabling. And that’s what we want. To enable strategic advisory services.”
René summed up by saying, “Innovation has to come from a deep passion about what your customers are doing and what they need now, and into the future. That connection with customers will be the source of the innovation we drive across the BILL platform.”
After the fireside chat, we held our first-ever BILL Accountant Partner Council Product Palooza, showcasing products and features currently in development and allowing council members to give feedback directly to product owners to help drive innovation and excellence.
Our dedication to innovation
At BILL, we are constantly driven to innovate and improve how we can serve the needs of our customers. Our accountant partners are critical to helping us achieve this goal. BILL is grateful to all the partner firms who were able to participate this year and for their continued partnership and feedback. Learn more about BILL for Accountants. See you all next year!
List of participated accountant partner firms:
Florian Allen, Senior Manager, Wiss & Co
Jessica Barnas, Partner, Wipfli LLP
Sharon Berman, Principle, Rehmann
Jing Cheng, Managing Director, BDO FMA
Nina Chmura, Partner, Withum
Deborah Defer, Director of CAS Consulting, Woodard
Coleman Edwards, Sr. Director of Technology, Countsy
Mark Ernsting, Senior Consultant, Moss Adams
Matt Gardner, CEO, Co-founder, Hiline
Gregg Genovese, Partner, Bonadio Group
Jake Grimm, Director of Technology, Summit CPA Group
Jody Grunden, Partner, Anders CPAs + Advisors
Jenni Huotari, National Practice Leader, Eide Bailly LLP
Dana Jones, Manager, CAS Technology, Marcum LLP
Elinor Litwack, Partner, Outsourced Accounting, GRF CPAs & Advisors
Sophia Loh, Partner, Family Office, Frank, Rimmerman + Co
Dan Luthi, Partner, Ignite Spot
Barbara Martin, Senior Director, Tech Consultant, RSM
Terri Mayfield, Senior Managing Consultant, Forvis Mazars US
Dixie McCurley, Partner, Digital Advisory, Cherry Bekaert
Becky Munson, Partner, EisnerAmper
Heidi Pelczar, COO, Your Part Time Controller, LLC
Victoria Pritchard, Practice Lead, RKL Virtual Management Solutions
Kristie Revering, Director, Business Accounting Svcs, Creative Planning
Ted Rose, President & CEO, Rose Financial
Michael Smith, SVP, Systems & Implementations, LMBC W Squared
Mike Smith, Partner, RSM
Cliff Sussman, Managing Partner, BDO USA
Danielle Thomas, Operations Senior Manager, Elliott Davis
Eric Thomas, Partner, Armanino LLP
Missy Thompson, Principal, Baker Tilly US
Michelle Voyer, Director, CAS, CohnReznick LLP
Wesley Wahlberg, Consultant Controller, CAAS, CLA
Ambra Wellbeloved, COO, Managed Services, Aprio
Jennifer Witts, Managing Principal, CAS, CLA
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