How Withum supports unions managing $100M+ in spend

With more than 3,100 team members, including over 1,000 CPAs, and offices spanning the East Coast, the nation’s Heartland, and the West Coast, Withum is a top-tier advisory and accounting firm that serves nearly every industry imaginable. But for Jason Edwards, one industry has defined his career: labor unions.

As Leader of the Union Group within Withum's Outsourced Accounting Systems and Services (OASyS) practice, Edwards draws on more than 15 years of experience to help local unions modernize their financial operations.

"Union leaders are typically elected officers,” says Edwards. “They don’t always have a background in accounting or finance. At Withum, we partner with BILL to help them manage that responsibility, easily and securely, so they can focus on their mission and leave the accounting, finance, and compliance to us.”

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Challenge: Regulatory risks and the high cost of paper-based systems

Labor unions operate under some of the strictest financial oversight in the nonprofit world. The Department of Labor requires documentation for every expenditure, and missing receipts during an audit or investigation can lead to sanctions. For unions with small administrative teams and leaders who are constantly in the field, meeting those requirements can be a constant struggle.

"A lot of unions are still operating on paper," says Edwards. "Receipts and invoices get passed around the office from one desk to another. Checks have to be physically signed and mailed. Even when things go smoothly, it’s easy to misplace documentation.”

To manage that risk, union leaders operate under stringent procedures that must be followed every time, no matter what. Unfortunately, those processes come with their own set of problems.

"Under paper-based systems, if an urgent check needs to go out, someone has to come back to the office just to sign it," Edwards explains. "Following financial protocols is critical, but it can eat up a good part of the day. We use BILL to break that cycle, streamlining financial operations for our clients while, at the same time, improving compliance and security.”

Solution: Cutting fraud with secure workflows

Withum introduced BILL Accounts Payable and BILL Spend & Expense** to help reconcile the need for speed with the requirement for control. By moving to a digital-first platform, Withum provides union leaders with an automated audit trail that travels with them, maintaining high-level accounting standards in a user interface that feels natural and unobtrusive to clients.

"The people we work with love the user experience of BILL," says Edwards. "Providing that mobile solution is a major selling point. They get it on their phone, and they're like, 'This is amazing.'"

Beyond simple convenience, the solution provides a structural fix for the unions’ security concerns. By using BILL Accounts Payable to facilitate payments, Withum helps clients move away from circulating their routing and bank account numbers on paper checks.

"Check fraud has been a frequent issue," says Edwards. "Before BILL, union leaders had to write checks from their union’s checkbooks. If someone picks up that check, they immediately have the union’s banking details and an idea of what the signature looks like. With BILL, each check is drawn on a clearing account, so the union’s banking information isn’t exposed."

Results: Real-time audit readiness

With BILL, financial operations that once occupied hours have been condensed into a few taps on a mobile device. This efficiency helps unions scale without adding massive administrative headcount, even for larger organizations that manage over $100 million* in annual spending. 

"For some of our clients, especially when they had to travel back to the office and dig through paper, managing expenses could take a significant part of a day,” says Edwards. “With BILL, that gets flipped. Now they can do it in a matter of minutes.”

The partnership with BILL has helped Withum position itself as a modernizer in an industry that’s often paper-heavy. 

“BILL solves the traditional tension between compliance and efficiency,” Edwards explains. “Conducting your financial ops through BILL is fast, and you can use it anywhere. At the same time, you can snap a photo of an invoice or receipt and save it instantly. BILL enters the info for your review, and every action is logged automatically, so you’re always audit-ready.”

Future-proofing financial integrity for organized labor

As Withum’s OASyS continues to expand its union practice, BILL remains a cornerstone of its service model. For both long-established unions and relatively new organizations, the firm uses BILL to deliver strict financial control with operational flexibility, making sure every client has the momentum it needs to grow.

"I’m proud that we can offer our union clients an impactful solution," says Edwards. "It helps leadership push the union’s mission forward so they can grow their reach, membership, and influence."

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^{*Based on feedback from Withum clients using BILL as of April 2026. Results may vary.
**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. BILL does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Customers should consult their own tax, legal, and accounting advisors. Results may vary. Testimonials reflect individual client experiences}