First Crush Tastings and Palaterra automate contractor payments at scale

Overview

First Crush Tastings (FCT) is a Texas-based field marketing agency specializing in adult beverage tastings. Its technology spinout, Palaterra, is a SaaS platform powering in-store sampling nationwide. With hundreds of 1099 brand ambassadors to pay every month and growing national demand for automation, both companies leaned on BILL to solve a mission-critical challenge: streamline complex contractor payments without compromising accuracy.

The challenge

For over five years, First Crush Tastings relied on BILL to manage payments to hundreds of independent contractors running in-store tastings across Texas. Christine Hernandez, FCT’s founder, processed payments twice monthly, separating labor costs and reimbursable expenses for each contractor.

Although BILL offered reliability, the process of separating labor costs from reimbursements was still time-intensive. Each payroll cycle took up to eight hours to complete and carried a high risk of human error—especially when so many invoices mixed several different categories of payments across a large, rotating roster of brand ambassadors.

The solution: BILL API Platform and Palaterra integration

In July 2023, FCT invested in a custom integration between Palaterra, their newly built operations system (developed by Praxent), and BILL. The goal: completely automate the contractor payment process.

Thanks to the BILL API Platform, what was once an 8-hour process was reduced to just a few clicks—completed in minutes. The system now separates labor costs from expense reimbursements automatically, preparing and processing payments with accuracy and ease. What was once a stressful, manual job now runs seamlessly, allowing the team to focus on growth and quality execution.

“Before BILL, managing payments for our hundreds of contractors felt like a never-ending 8-hour grind, twice a month. Separating labor and expenses manually for each one was honestly painful.
With the BILL API Platform, now payments are done in minutes, not hours. It's like we suddenly found a whole extra day every couple of weeks. Game-changer doesn't even cover it.”

Expanding nationally with Palaterra SaaS

With Palaterra now rolling out nationally as a SaaS platform for agencies and brands, this automation isn’t just helping First Crush Tastings—it’s empowering other sampling agencies to solve the same challenge. By incorporating BILL into Palaterra’s core infrastructure, new clients across the country can now streamline their 1099 contractor payments just like FCT did, all while minimizing administrative overhead and human error. 

Hernandez says, "We rely on BILL to handle the absolute beast of paying our independent contractors. Processing payments twice a month and manually wrestling with wages and reimbursements for everyone was so stressful and prone to errors. That whole headache has vanished.” 

Looking ahead

As Palaterra continues its national expansion, BILL remains a critical partner in enabling operational excellence and financial clarity at scale. Whether paying hundreds of contractors in Texas or thousands across the country, BILL gives both First Crush Tastings and Palaterra the tools they need to grow with confidence.

“BILL API Platform makes it seamless to pay our contractors, freeing up our team to ditch the tedious admin and focus on growing our business and delivering top-notch experiences. It's about working smarter, period.”