Old School Bill Paying Is A Death By 1000 Cuts

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Maybe paying your bills is supposed to be painful. If you subscribe to that way of thinking, then by all means soldier on. If you don’t subscribe, but are using a process that involves a printer, I have good news. 


The Internet is here to help you.

First, let’s recap the old school process. This isn’t exactly what you are doing (because I don’t know anyone at NSA), but it is what I/we did for 25 years. It looks like this.

• Bill arrives by snail mail or email. (2 min)
  
• Bill is credit card purchase that shows up on a statement.
  
• Bill is a standing obligation like rent or a loan payment.
  
• Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or ad hoc you address the bills. (2 min)
  
• The bills are entered into your bookkeeping system / manila folder. (5 min)
  
• A list of unpaid bills is developed. (7 min)
  
• Bills are tagged for payment. (Variable decision-making time)
  
• Bills are prepared for payment. (5 min) 
  
• Checks are loaded into the printer and printed. (5 min + $0.10 ea. - check and toner)
  
• Make note to see how many checks are left.
  
• Envelopes are loaded into the printer and printed. (5 min + $0.06 ea.)
  
• Make note to buy more envelopes the next time you order from Staples.
  
• Envelopes are stuffed with checks and copy of the bill. (5 min + $0.05 ea. - paper and toner)
  
• Add stamps to envelopes. (2 min + $0.49 ea.)
  
• Calculate when you will need more stamps.
  
• Mail bill payments. (1 min.)
  
• Put paper back into printer. (2 min.)
  

Is that about right?
My analysis is based on paying ten bills. Your mileage may vary. I estimate that it takes 41 minutes and $0.70 per bill. You don’t want this process to be ad hoc = you do it every time a bill appears. Ad hoc does have the advantage of requiring zero organization although you will seem organized. Going through the process just once a month is possible, but risky. I think that bi-weekly (twice monthly) is just about right. So each month Old School Bill Paying requires 82 minutes and $14.00 (for 20 bills). 
  
OR

• Bill arrives by snail mail or email. (2 min)
  
• Bill is credit card purchase that shows up on a statement.
  
• Bill is a standing obligation like rent or a loan payment.
  
• Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or ad hoc you address the bills. (2 min)
  
• The bill is entered into your bookkeeping system / manila folder. (5 min)
  
• A list of unpaid bills is developed. (7 min)
  
• Bills are tagged for payment. (Variable decision-making time)
  
• Open online bank ‘Bill Pay’ window (1 min)
  
• Select vendor, add amount for bills you choose to pay (2 min)
  
• Schedule dates to pay (1 min)
  
• Click submit and confirm (1 min)
  

The New School Bill Paying method requires 21 minutes and no incidental costs. Because of the scheduling capability, it is feasible to complete this process just once a month. Re-ordering stamps, envelopes, checks is not needed. So the New School method saves an hour per month.

If you are the firm’s owner, you could have had one more billable hour. At $100/hr billing rate, Old School Bill Paying costs you $114 in lost revenue and incidental costs every month. Over a year, that is $1,368.

If you delegate this chore to a staff person who is not billable, you could have achieved an extra hour of marketing effort every month - say one additional email to prospects and clients. Priceless???

If you delegate this chore to a contract bookkeeper, you could save an hour or more of their cost every month and your interaction time.

This is what it takes to go New School with your Bill Paying.

• Go to your bank’s website and see if they have online banking.
  
• If they don’t, change banks. 
  
• See what it takes to access your account online. This is a bit harder than buying something from Amazon as you would expect (and hope). But we are talking less than an hour.
  
• Find your way to their ‘Bill Pay’ area.
  
• Set up your vendors. This is picking from a list for national and regional outfits like credit card companies.
  
• Add local vendors by adding them manually, which involves typing their name, address, and your account number with them.
  
• Start paying bills.
  

It is really worth the effort to get this set up. Paying bills is just an obligation. There is no credit for extra effort or aesthetics, but there is a penalty.

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