Using Bill.com for Managing Property Expenses

Property managers likely agree that handling expenses efficiently is critical, yet often cumbersome.

Using Bill.com can streamline the entire expense lifecycle - from payment to reporting - enabling property managers to improve tenant experiences while optimizing financial operations.

In this post, you'll discover how Bill.com's automated workflows, integrations, and custom reporting simplify expense and vendor payments, provide visibility into financial health, and ensure compliance for your properties.

Introduction to Bill.com for Real Estate Management

Bill.com provides an online payment system that can help real estate management companies streamline their finances. This section will introduce some key capabilities of Bill.com for handling property expenses.

What is Bill.com?

Bill.com is a cloud-based software platform that automates accounts payable and receivable workflows. Key features include:

• Online bill payment with approval workflows

• Integration with accounting software

• Expense tracking and reporting

These capabilities can help real estate managers simplify payment processing and gain visibility into property finances.

Key Features for Real Estate Management

Bill.com has several features useful for property management companies:

• Expense tracking: Automatically capture information from bills and receipts to simplify expense reporting.

• Payment automation: Schedule bills to be paid on their due dates through ACH or check.

• Accounting integrations: Sync transaction data with QuickBooks, Xero, or NetSuite.

Benefits of Using Bill.com for Property Expenses

Key potential benefits of using Bill.com for real estate management include:

• Consolidated view of vendor bills: View all expenses for properties in one place.

• Improved financial auditability: Maintain documentation through the system.

• Easier expense allocation: Assign expenses to specific properties for better cost visibility.

By centralizing payments and tracking expenses in Bill.com, property managers can gain better control over their financials.

What is a P&L statement for property management?

A profit and loss (P&L) statement is a financial report that summarizes the revenues, costs, and expenses incurred during a specific period of time, usually a fiscal quarter or year.

For property management, a P&L statement provides insight into the financial health and performance of a rental property or portfolio of properties. Key elements of a rental property P&L include:

• Gross Rental Income: Total rental income collected from tenants before accounting for vacancies or unpaid rent.

• Operating Expenses: Costs involved in operating the rental property, like utilities, maintenance, insurance and taxes.

• Net Operating Income (NOI): Gross rental income minus operating expenses. This shows the profitability of the property before accounting for financing costs.

• Net Income: The final bottom line profit or loss after all revenues and expenses are accounted for.

Monitoring the P&L statement over time helps property managers and investors identify opportunities to improve profitability, such as decreasing operating expenses or raising rents when possible. Comparing to previous periods or projections enables benchmarking performance. Overall, the P&L provides the critical information needed to make sound financial decisions regarding real estate investments.

What can you use Bill com for?

Bill.com provides an online payment system that can help real estate management companies streamline their financial operations. Specifically, it offers useful features for handling property expenses:

Expense Tracking

• Upload invoices, receipts, and bills directly to Bill.com

• Automate expense approvals with customizable workflows

• Maintain transparency into all property expenses

Payment Processing

• Pay vendors and service providers electronically via Bill.com

• Set up automatic payments for recurring property expenses

• Get notified when bills are paid so you can update your books

Reporting & Analytics

• Generate expense reports showing spending across properties

• Identify expense trends to inform budgeting decisions

• Export reports to accounting software

With its user-friendly interface and robust feature set tailored for real estate, Bill.com can save property management teams significant time managing finances so they can focus on their core business.

Does QuickBooks have property management software?

QuickBooks does offer basic property management features for tracking rental income and expenses. However, it lacks many specialized tools that larger real estate management companies require.

Here are some of the key limitations of using QuickBooks for property management:

• No built-in tenant screening or rental applications

• Limited options for customizing statements and reports

• Doesn't integrate with listing sites to advertise vacancies

• Lacks automated rent collection and online tenant portals

• Not designed for tracking maintenance requests and tasks

While QuickBooks can handle basic accounting tasks for rental properties, most real estate management professionals find they quickly outgrow its capabilities. It becomes tedious and time-consuming to manually enter data or export it from other software.

That's why many switch to an end-to-end property management solution like AppFolio or Buildium. These specialized tools are designed specifically for the needs of rental property managers and real estate investors.

Key features include:

• Online applications, tenant screening, and e-signing

• Custom billing, automatic rent collection

• Detailed reporting on vacancies, income, maintenance

• Mobile apps for approving work orders on-the-go

So in summary - yes, QuickBooks offers basic accounting features for rental properties. But for most real estate management professionals, a dedicated solution like AppFolio or Buildium is far more efficient and provides the specialized tools they require.

How does BILL spend and expense work?

BILL Spend & Expense offers a credit card that helps streamline expense tracking and reporting for businesses. Here are the key features:

• Auto-population of transactions: When employees make purchases with the BILL credit card, transactions are automatically pulled into the BILL system in real-time. This eliminates the need for manual data entry.

• Automatic categorization: The system automatically categorizes expenses based on the merchant, making it easy to see where money is being spent.

• Real-time expense tracking: With transactions auto-populating into BILL, businesses can track spending as it happens. This makes it easy to catch unauthorized purchases or budget overages early.

• Streamlined expense reports: Employees can quickly compile and submit expense reports in BILL using the automatically-categorized transactions from the credit card. This saves the hassle of collecting receipts and manual entry.

• Simple approval workflow: Managers can review and approve expense reports right within BILL, enabling efficient reimbursement.

In summary, the BILL Spend & Expense credit card removes friction from the expense tracking and reporting process through automation. The system populates and categorizes transactions in real-time, making it simple for businesses to gain visibility into spending and streamline approvals.

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Setting Up Bill.com for Property Management

This section will cover the initial configuration required to start using Bill.com for your real estate business.

Linking Bank Accounts for Online Payment Processing

To get started with Bill.com, you'll first need to connect your business bank accounts. This allows Bill.com to sync transaction data and process payments electronically. Here are the key steps:

• Navigate to the Banking section in Bill.com and click "Add account".

• Select your bank from the list of supported institutions. If your bank isn't listed, you can add an account by providing your routing and account numbers.

• Enter your online banking credentials when prompted to securely link the account.

• Repeat this process to connect additional bank accounts that you use for your properties. This keeps all your real estate finances in one place.

Once your accounts are linked, Bill.com will automatically pull in recent transactions. You'll then be able to track income and expenses, pay bills, and manage cash flow from a centralized dashboard.

Adding Properties for Expense Management

Bill.com makes it easy to organize financial data by property. Here's how to set it up:

• Click "New Property" from the home dashboard.

• Enter a name and address for the property.

• Optional: Assign property managers or other team members to control access.

• Repeat for each additional property.

Grouping transactions, bills, and payments by property allows better visibility into what's being spent where. You can run profit and loss reports by property to simplify expense management.

Configuring Users and Permissions for Financial Management

To control access within your real estate company:

• Navigate to Settings > Users & Roles

• Click "Invite User" and enter email address

• Select a role: Owner, AP Clerk, AP Manager, etc.

• Check boxes to assign property access

• Click "Create" to finish setup

Matching Bill.com roles to your organizational structure makes it easy to manage workflows. Owners can oversee all activity, while clerks handle tasks like entering bills and managers approve payments. Access is restricted on a per-property basis.

With bank accounts, properties, users, and roles configured, you'll have a streamlined system to simplify your real estate financial management. Bill.com reduces manual data entry and gives complete visibility into what's being spent to maximize profits.

Managing Property Expenses in Bill.com

This section details key workflows for handling vendor bills, tenant expenses, and other property outlays with Bill.com.

Paying and Tracking Vendor Bills with Bill.com

Bill.com offers features to simplify paying and tracking bills from vendors and service providers related to property management. Users can:

• Upload PDF bills directly to Bill.com or connect vendor accounts for automated capture of bills and invoices.

• Review bills, add categorization details, approve, and schedule payments right within Bill.com.

• Pay bills by check or electronically via ACH or card payments.

• Set up approval workflows to control spending.

• Access reporting and export transaction details for expense tracking and reconciliation.

Centralizing bill payments into Bill.com makes the process more efficient compared to traditional paper-based methods.

Handling One-off Tenant Expenses Efficiently

Bill.com enables property managers to handle reimbursements for tenants efficiently. Users can:

• Create custom invoices for tenant expenses like maintenance charges and pass-through utility bills.

• Send invoices directly to tenants and track if unpaid.

• Reimburse owners for approved out-of-pocket expenses related to the property.

This eliminates paperwork and manual processes to request, track, and reimburse one-off tenant and owner expenses.

Expense Reporting and Reconciliation in Real Estate Management

Detailed expense tracking and reporting in Bill.com simplifies accounting tasks for property management. Users can:

• Export all transaction details into QuickBooks or Excel for reconciliation.

• Generate reports on expenses by category, vendor, tenant, or custom fields.

• Compare budget vs. actual spending for better cost control monitoring.

The centralized data and reporting helps property accountants gain better visibility into financials and streamlines management of payables/receivables.

Streamlining Financial Operations in Real Estate with Bill.com

Automating Recurring Property Expenses

Setting up automatic payments for regular expenses like property taxes, insurance, HOA fees, etc. can help real estate investors and property managers ensure timely payments and maintain consistent cash flow. Bill.com makes it easy to schedule recurring payments on a custom schedule. Users can set up automatic payments for all recurring property expenses, specify payment amounts, select payment methods, and choose from a few flexible options for payment timing. This automation eliminates the need for manual payment entry each month.

With Bill.com, users can also attach supporting documents like invoices to these automated payments for better record keeping. The platform will store all past payments and documentation related to the property for easy reporting and auditing needs. Overall, automating recurring payments is a simple way for real estate businesses to reduce administrative tasks while improving financial consistency.

Advanced Reporting for Real Estate Financial Management

Bill.com offers robust reporting features that provide real-time insight into cash flow, expenses, and other financial metrics for investment properties. Users can generate on-demand reports filtered by property, expense category, date range, or other custom parameters.

The platform analysis tools also detect spending anomalies and changes in financial patterns. For example, the software can flag unusually high utility bills that may indicate issues like a water leak. Users can also compare performance across properties to identify underperformers.

These reporting capabilities give real estate investors better visibility into property finances in order to optimize their portfolio. The data can also help demonstrate property financials to potential buyers or lenders during a sale or refinancing process.

Ensuring Compliance and Security in Property Expense Handling

As a cloud-based platform that stores sensitive financial information, Bill.com offers enterprise-grade security and compliance measures. This includes SOC 2 Type II and PCI DSS Level 1 certifications, end-to-end encryption, role-based access controls and robust authentication protocols.

For real estate investors and property management companies, these safeguards help mitigate risk when managing finances and payments for multiple properties. Bill.com also allows for easy auditing of historical property expenses, payments, supporting documents and user actions. This provides an accountable system of record that meets compliance needs for financial reporting.

By leveraging Bill.com's security protections and compliance tools, real estate businesses can ensure they safely and responsibly handle all property finances, expenses, payments and documentation. This allows them to focus on their core real estate operations rather than financial management overhead.

Integrating Bill.com with Other Real Estate Management Tools

Bill.com integrates with many popular property management and accounting software tools to provide a streamlined financial management experience for real estate professionals.

Linking with Property Management Software

Bill.com offers integrations with property management systems like AppFolio, Buildium, and RealPage. These integrations allow real estate managers to easily:

• Sync tenant and property data between systems

• Automatically import rent payments from property management software into Bill.com

• Send approved payments back to the property management platform to update tenant ledgers

By linking property management software with Bill.com, real estate managers can achieve a centralized view of financial data in one place for efficient accounting and reporting.

Enhancing Financial Management with Accounting Software Integration

In addition to property management tools, Bill.com also integrates with popular accounting software platforms like QuickBooks Online and Xero.

Key benefits of connecting Bill.com with accounting tools include:

• Automatic syncing of chart of accounts, customers, vendors etc.

• Seamless transfer of approved bills and invoices into accounting software

• Comprehensive reporting with up-to-date financial data

With accounting integrations, real estate managers can handle payables, receivables, and reporting all within their accounting system, powered by the payment automation in Bill.com.

Streamlining Tenant Communications with Bill.com

Bill.com makes it simple for property managers to keep tenants informed about charges and payments. Useful features include:

• Customized email and payment reminders to tenants

• Automatic tenant notifications when payments are made

• Detailed tenant portals and ledgers reflecting up-to-date financial transactions

By leveraging Bill.com's built-in tenant communication tools, real estate businesses can improve tenant relations and simplify rent collection.

Best Practices for Using Bill.com in Real Estate Management

This concluding section will summarize key tips for an effective setup and best practices for using Bill.com as a real estate manager.

Optimizing Workflows for Handling Property Expenses

To optimize workflows for handling property expenses in Bill.com:

• Set up approval chains to route invoices to the right people for efficient review and sign-off. For example, route maintenance invoices to property managers first before sending to accounting.

• Configure automation rules to expedite recurring expenses like monthly utility bills. This avoids manual approval every month.

• Enable notifications so approvers are alerted to invoices awaiting their review. This prevents delays.

Integrations for Deeper Data Insights in Property Management

Integrating Bill.com with property management software and accounting systems enables:

• Automatic syncing of tenant charges from property management software into Bill.com invoices.

• Seamless transfer of approved Bill.com invoices into accounting software.

• Consolidated reporting and analytics across platforms.

This gives complete visibility over property financials.

Adoption Guidance for Property Management Teams

To drive adoption of Bill.com across property management:

• Provide hands-on training resources and documentation.

• Highlight specific use cases and workflows relevant to each user's role.

• Offer ongoing support channels to answer platform questions.

• Gather regular feedback to refine processes.

Regular Audits and Reviews for Financial Health

Conducting periodic audits and reviews of Bill.com workflows and integrations helps:

• Ensure accuracy of financial data flows across systems.

• Verify proper controls and approval chains are in place.

• Identify opportunities for efficiency improvements.

This maintains transparency and tight financial governance over property operations.

Related posts

• Tracking Expenses in Bill.com Made Easy
• Using Xero for Real Estate Property Management
• Using Xero for Real Estate Accounting
• Using Bill.com for Easy Expense Approvals