Bold Property Restoration builds visibility and efficiency with BILL Spend & Expense

Bold Property Restoration is a 24/7 reconstruction company based in San Leandro, Calif., focused on properties that have been damaged by fire, water, mold, and other disasters. They work with commercial and residential properties, including many low-income housing developments. For Armando Ramirez, Owner and CFO of Bold Property Restoration, helping people in their time of need makes every project meaningful. 

“We’re getting people back into their homes, making them feel safe again,” Ramirez explains. “We’ve had jobs where the whole building was damaged by fire, or buildings with mold and water all over the place. We get in there fast, in and out, so our clients can get back to their lives.” 

After the company’s founding in 2020, they expanded quickly. But as a fairly young company, they were often reliant on cash to make the business run. Expense management was a good example. They were using a cash-only debit card and then manually reconciling the charges in QuickBooks Online. Instead of using a debit card for expenses like building materials, Ramirez was looking for a way to instead leverage their cash reserves to get more credit. “I just got to the point where I knew I had to stop using cash for expenses,” he says.  

“I just got to the point where I knew I had to stop using cash for expenses.”

Manual reconciliation was also time-consuming and inefficient. “We had to load up the card and then send a wire,” Ramirez recalls. “And because everyone pulled from one shared budget, that meant somebody could run through the budget and there wouldn’t be anything left for the other users.”

Ramirez needed an automated expense management system that could provide more visibility into their budgets, along with a credit line that could help them improve their cash flow and expand more quickly. To help solve this problem, his company started using BILL Spend & Expense. 

BILL Spend & Expense helps conserve cash and accelerate expansion

Bold Property Restoration started on BILL Spend & Expense with a $5,000 credit limit, which has subsequently increased as they made timely payments.

“BILL really alleviated a lot of the constraints around our cash flow,” Ramirez says. “Now I use the BILL card for operational costs, overhead expenses, and other associated expenditures.” 

BILL Spend & Expense provides visibility into budgets

BILL has helped Ramirez distinguish between overhead costs and material costs. “BILL Spend & Expense helped us a lot with administration overhead costs and making sure our technicians have gas and materials,” he says. 

“With BILL Spend & Expense, we can separate expenses by job, everyone has their own card, and it's working perfectly,” Ramirez continues. We now have separate budgets for the warehouse, central office, overhead, and meals and entertainment. 

That visibility gave Ramirez important insights into the company’s financial operations. “With BILL Spend & Expense, I got to know our overhead costs versus specific job costs or other materials for the warehouse,” he explains. “Being able to distinguish and differentiate costs is exceptional. BILL makes the process much more beautiful.”

“Being able to distinguish and differentiate costs is  exceptional. BILL makes the process much more beautiful.”

BILL delivers important efficiencies and time savings

“Before BILL, I was spending two or three hours every day managing expenses. Now, I’m spending around one hour a week,” Ramirez says. “BILL really minimizes my time spent on accounting so I can go out and do more sales or find more credit for the business. I'm working more on the books business, which helps me meet our company goals 

“Before BILL, I was spending two or three hours every day managing expenses. Now, I’m spending around one hour a week.”

“BILL gives me time to focus on my CFO fiduciary duties, like balance sheets and P&L, projections and planning for the next year,” Ramirez says. “Because of BILL, I have time to focus on the bigger picture work of the business.”

Card issued by Cross River Bank, member FDIC