Learn how QBench uses Melio to streamline payments and improve cash flow

Meet QBench

QBench provides a cloud-based system to manage laboratory information. It started in 2015 as a software platform to help manage a family-owned plant pathology lab in California and its founder began building out the product to sell to other labs. He sold his company in 2022 to a group of investors led by Trevor Ewen and Nicholas Evans, who moved to a fully remote work model and began working with contractors who took the place of salaried employees.

The challenge

“There’s an unspoken rule that when you buy a company, there’s usually some aspect of the business that has not been fully optimized,” said QBench Chief Operating Officer Trevor Ewen.

In the case of QBench, Trevor found a finance system with limited capabilities. It relied heavily on bank wire transfers and did not allow for extended payment options that could help improve cash flow, he said.

During the second year, with a growing business to manage, Trevor began looking at accounts payable and exploring ways to extend payment options. Many of the company’s payments were made through a platform that billed for a month’s expenses without providing the 30-day float beyond the statement close that is standard with credit cards.

The solution

While searching for ways to pay large expenses with a credit card, Trevor identified Melio as the ideal tool to address QBench’s financial requirements. Melio, which allows businesses to pay with a credit card even when their vendors don’t accept cards,  became instrumental in allowing the company to extend payables.

“Waiting 60 days to pay a bill is actually quite meaningful for us, given how fast our sales cycle is. We’re likely to produce more cash in the next 60 days, so it’s a form of short-term financing,” Trevor said.

QBench uses Melio for almost all payments, including international transactions, fast payments, and customer refunds. With Melio, it’s easy to pay international vendors, ranging from marketing consultants to software developers, as all they need to do is send QBench an invoice, Trevor said. This eliminates the errors made when manually inputting information needed for bank wires.

Melio simplifies the payment process by allowing vendors to input their own account information, which reduces the manual work for QBench’s finance team. The company also implemented a vendor partner program, where it pays contractors to perform work that it formerly paid salaried staff to do. Instead of having to pay employees a regular salary even before getting paid for a project, QBench can pay contractors 30 days after project delivery via Melio.

Since adopting Melio, QBench has experienced several benefits:

• Improved Cash Flow: The 60-day float has enabled proactive cash planning and more effective payment management through credit cards.
• Time Savings: Trevor estimates that Melio saves the finance team up to 16 hours per week by streamlining payment approvals and eliminating the need for constant double-checking that employees experienced when they used to wire money internationally through a bank.
• Scalability: As QBench continued to grow, their monthly bill count climbed to 40-50 payments. This is where Melio’s scalability became critical. Instead of adding administrative overhead, the process remained simple. Melio’s direct integration with QBench’s accounting software, Xero, also meant that every new payment was automatically and accurately logged, providing better metadata and tracking.

“Melio’s integration with Xero is another positive aspect of using these tools,” Trevor said. “The return we get from Melio makes the cost an easy decision. We do enough volume, and it’s helpful with vendors that Melio is a trusted brand.”