Home Smart 100 2010 BillsTrust (SMART 100)

BillsTrust (SMART 100)

Jun 24, 2010

The following SMART 100 profile and the information it contains is a duplication of content submitted by the applicant during the entry process. As a function of entry, applicants were required to declare that all details are factually correct, do not infringe on another’s intellectual property and are not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, obscene, or otherwise objectionable. Some profiles have been edited for reasons of space and clarity. More about the SMART 100.

This innovation initially came to life when…

One of the partners receives lots of bills and invoices (10+ a month), varying from handwritten to printed bills, and payment methods all vary. He came up with a simple proposition of a web-enabled service that took care of all your bills to get them out of your headspace by not having to remember due dates or do any data entry to physically pay them.

WHAT & HOW

The purpose of this innovation is to…

BillsTrust takes care of ALL bills. It’s for busy individuals and businesses who receive lots of bills, and frees up time by removing the headache of remembering to pay bills on time, actually paying them, and avoiding late payment fees.

It does this by…

Clients sign up online, we send out a batch of personalised QR code stickers which they attach to bills as they receive them. They simply then fax, scan and email, or snap and email from a smartphone the bill to BillsTrust. Within minutes they can view the bill queued up for payment in their online account.

PURPOSE & BENEFITS

This innovation improves on what came before because…

All current bill payment services don’t pay ANY bill, BillsTrust pays handwritten and printed bills. The service is the first to show a complete picture of all our accounts payable — clients can view categories of spending over time and see how much is due to be paid over the coming months. When bills are paid, clients receive an SMS.

Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…

At a minimum clients can let the service pay bills and send SMS notifications of payment. At a maximum they can set payment delays and control cashflow, export to accounting systems or analyse their spending and future payments.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

In the past, this problem was solved by…

Manually entering payment information into internet banking, paying by cheque, paying by bpay/post bill pay or credit card over the phone. People would have to do a combination of these things as well as having to remember when bills are due as well as double checking that the information is correct. Bpay view only partially solves the problem.

Its predecessors/competitors include…

Bpay, post bill pay, cheque, direct debit, credit card by phone or internet all require manual data entry except bpay view; however, bpay won’t pay all bills, such as the lawn mower bill or supplier invoices.

TARGET MARKET

It is made for…

Busy individuals and small or medium businesses who receive lots of bills a month which become a chore and a pain to pay by due dates. Businesses may not be able to afford an accounts payable staff member or the business owner may be doing this function. BillsTrust is a cheap alternative to fill this function. It is also ideal for people who are powers of attorney for individuals to pay their bills.

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

It is available for sale through…

The website (www.billstrust.com) or on recommendation by accountants or business coaches/advisers.

Our marketing strategy is to…

Focusing on a brand awareness campaign through online media channels; working with private banking operations; working with accountants and financial advisers to help promote the service via an affiliate program.