In nod to payroll industry, Jamesburg firm aims to get bills out of mailbox

The biggest cost to businesses when billing customers through the mail is postage, but by modeling itself after the payroll industry — and getting large companies on board with online billing — Billtrust, in Jamesburg, has watched its influence grow.

The biggest cost to businesses when billing customers through the mail is postage, but by modeling itself after the payroll industry — and getting large companies on board with online billing — Billtrust, in Jamesburg, has watched its influence grow.

CEO and founder Flint Lane said he had payroll in mind when he started the business in 2001.

“Payroll used to be about check printing,” Flint said. “But when you buy payroll … you really don’t buy check printing, you buy automatic deposit, 401(k), workman’s comp — you’re really buying one throat to choke in payroll. We set out to be the one throat to choke in billing that would help companies navigate from paper to electronic billing.”

Postage represents roughly 70 percent of sending a bill by mail, Lane said. Billtrust’s suite of products integrates paper, fax, e-mail and online billing, while encouraging its clients’ customers to move to online billing. So far, corporations like Toshiba, Kraft Foods and Puma have transferred to electronic billing through Billtrust.

While trusting a company’s cash flow to outsiders is not an easy decision, the most common comment Lane said he receives from clients is “why didn’t we do this sooner.” Since 2007, the company has grown its revenue from $6.7 million to $25.1 million in 2010, and increased the number of employees by 39.

“We’ve grown through execution,” Lane said. “Almost all of the growth is organic by our direct sales team, but we would expect in the coming months to start doing some acquisitions to further extend our growth — so that’s what you’ll see in the future.”