Bright & Associates stewards financial ops for 65 churches and nonprofits with BILL

When Daniel Bright, CPA, joined his father's accounting firm seven years ago, they were serving just five churches. Today, Bright & Associates manages financial operations for over 65 religious organizations and nonprofits on a monthly, recurring basis, with another 20 clients that use their consulting services.

Despite this explosive growth—a 1,200% increase in clients—the firm maintains a lean team of 25 remote employees spread across the country. The secret to their scalability? A commitment to standardized, secure financial processes, powered by BILL.

"During the pandemic, we grew tremendously because the remote environment became something folks were open to," explains Bright, Manager at Bright & Associates. "We couldn't have done it without BILL. It would have been really difficult for a lot of organizations to financially operate because it was so difficult to get checks signed and get things out the door. But if you could do it all electronically, that was a game-changer."

Challenge: Manual processes leave churches vulnerable to fraud

Remote operations might have launched Bright & Associates’ growth, but digital systems stand at the heart of its scalability.

“When churches first come to us, they’re usually writing a lot of checks. For each one, they have to track someone down with the authority to sign it. That’s often a board treasurer who's only available certain days,” Bright says. "If a check is needed right away, they can't expedite that. It's a super manual process that has a lot of room for error and “the process has potential for fraud.”

The fraud risk isn't theoretical. Bright shares sobering examples from their experience: "I know of one check in the $60,000 to $130,000 range that was sent in the mail, whitewashed, and then fraudulently cashed. We just heard about another church in town that issued a $600,000 payment incorrectly. The money's gone—the insurance company isn't covering it. Nobody’s covering it."

For their church clients serving larger communities of 40,000 attendees across multiple campuses, these manual processes aren’t just risky. They’re unsustainable. Bright & Associates needed a solution that could scale from smaller clients with low six figures in annual revenue to over $25 million, with the highest levels of security and accountability for donor funds.

Solution: BILL Accounts Payable and Spend & Expense

Bright & Associates has been using BILL since 2017, implementing both Accounts Payable and Spend & Expense (formerly Divvy) across 90% of their client base. Each transformation begins with a simple 10-minute onboarding call, in which the client downloads the BILL app and learns the approval process.

"We have our three or four layers of internal controls built right into BILL," explains Bright. "Our team processes the bills on the front end, with BILL AI features helping to ensure proper coding and vendor info is correct saving us so much time. Then everything goes to the client for approval, and we have another team member submit the payment. Everything that gets paid is approved by someone sitting in a seat meant for accountability and oversight."

The firm particularly values the tracking in BILL for both electronic payments and checks. "The peace of mind for us is incredible," says Bright. "When a vendor claims they haven't been paid, we can show them exactly when it cleared their bank account. With mailed checks, you put stamps on and hope for the best. With BILL, we know exactly where every payment stands."

Transforming expense management with budgeted controls

BILL Spend & Expense has revolutionized the way the firm’s clients manage departmental spending. Instead of handing over a church credit card with direct access to the full line of credit, Bright & Associates sets up specific budgets for each department.

"We'll set up a monthly recurring budget—say $1,000 per month for children's ministry from their $12,000 annual budget," Bright explains. "Department leaders get a BILL Divvy Card¹ and access to their budget. If they need to spend more, they request approval through the system. Everything is documented, from receipts captured at the point of sale to approval workflows."

This granular control extends to multi-campus churches. "We have one church with eight campuses processing everything through one BILL account," notes Bright. "One approver for that church can oversee operations across all locations while maintaining separate tracking for each campus."

Results: From transactional work to strategic ministry support

With BILL, one approver can handle an account that sees over $25M in annual revenue across 8 locations. That’s a huge transformation for Bright & Associates’ clients.

"The biggest benefit we've gained from BILL is standardization across all our clients using the exact same platform," reflects Bright. "That makes us highly efficient, which translates into extreme reliability for the churches we serve. And it works fantastically in our remote environment. That standardization is what allows us to serve 65 organizations with just 25 team members."

The firm maintains that standard by making sure every new employee receives BILL certification, ensuring consistent service delivery regardless of location. "We have one system for training that anybody can plug into and get stuff done," Bright notes. “No matter where they work, they’ll provide the same level of service.”

For church boards and treasurers, BILL provides unprecedented transparency and accountability. When auditors find out that a church uses BILL, it's "music to their ears," according to Bright. Why? "Because they know payments can't go out without proper approvals. With BILL, those rules are applied automatically. That’s just one of the things that makes it so easy. If I had to describe BILL in one word, that’s it—easy."

Summary: Technology that amplifies ministry impact

For Bright & Associates, implementing BILL across their client base isn't just about efficiency—it's about stewarding donor funds with excellence so churches can focus on their calling.

“We use BILL international payments for our churches that support missions worldwide, processing payments in local currencies from Cameroon's XFA to Swiss francs. We use BILL 1099 for our vendor payments, so payments and filings happen in one system. BILL has everything we need to help our clients maintain compliance while focusing on their mission.”

Looking ahead, the firm expects to reach 100 clients within the next two to three years, all through word-of-mouth referrals. With BILL as the firm foundation of their financial operations, they're ready to scale while maintaining the high-touch, high-trust relationships that have always defined the firm.

"With BILL, we're spending less time on AP and transactional tasks and more time doing things like analysis, trending, reporting," says Bright. "BILL gives us more time to work hand-in-hand with our clients’ board members, focusing on the future and thinking proactively about what's to come for their ministries."

"The biggest benefit we've gained from BILL is standardization across all our clients using the exact same platform. That makes us highly efficient, which translates into extreme reliability for the churches we serve.

¹ The BILL Divvy Card may be issued by one of Divvy Pay, LLC’s bank partners (bill.com/bank-partners). The BILL Divvy Card is not a deposit product. For your specific lender, see your Card Agreement. Credit lines and the advertised range are not guaranteed and will be determined upon application approval.