The challenge: triple revenue growth meets supply chain chaos
Gardyn — a designer and manufacturer of indoor hydroponic systems based in Washington, D.C. — tripled its revenue in a single year when demand for home growing kits surged during the pandemic. At almost exactly the same moment, a global microchip shortage threatened to shut down their production line.
The only path forward was to move fast: switch vendors frequently, pay new suppliers quickly — often in advance — and keep relationships intact while operating at a pace their manual, paper-based financial processes weren't built to support.
This is the problem BILL's financial operations platform solved for Gardyn.
By the numbers:
3× Revenue growth in a single year at Gardyn
80+ Employees coordinating across Finance, Marketing, and Operations
2 BILL products in use: AP and Spend & Expense
Why manual processes couldn't keep up
Before BILL, Gardyn ran vendor payments through manual, paper-based processes. For a small company in steady-state operations, that's manageable. For a company needing to onboard new vendors every few weeks and pay them on accelerated terms to secure critical parts, it was a structural bottleneck.
The problem wasn't just Finance. Departments across the company touched vendor relationships — Marketing negotiated deals with content and production partners, Operations managed component suppliers. Without a centralized payment system, no one had clear visibility into the status of payments, and vendors were left wondering.
During the pandemic, we needed a lot of vendors who made electronics. We had to pay them quickly — and in advance — so we could secure the electronics we needed. BILL gave us that ability.
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The solution: AP automation + Spend & Expense on one platform
Gardyn implemented both BILL Accounts Payable and BILL Spend & Expense, integrated with NetSuite. The value wasn't just in automating two separate workflows — it was in having both sides of their financial operation on the same system, speaking the same language.
BILL Accounts Payable gave the finance team structured control over vendor invoices: automated data capture, configurable approval routing, flexible payment options (ACH, check, card, international), and full audit trail — all synced automatically to NetSuite.
BILL Spend & Expense put purchasing power directly in the hands of department leads — with budget controls, real-time spend visibility, and receipt capture via mobile app — without creating reconciliation chaos for Finance.
For me, in Marketing, it’s a lot easier to negotiate deals when people are not wondering where their payments are. BILL really helps us build and preserve those relationships.
The result: Finance as a growth enabler, not a bottleneck
Gardyn maintained vendor relationships through one of the most disruptive supply chain periods in recent memory — and scaled through it. With automated AP handling invoice processing and payments, the finance team could focus on vendor strategy. With Spend & Expense cards in the hands of department leads, teams moved quickly without generating reconciliation backlogs.
Being a startup, it’s very important that we focus on growth, and not on non-value-added stuff like paying invoices. Dealing with the paperwork — it’s just a waste of time, not only for Finance, but all the other stakeholders that we have.
Read the <em>full Gardyn case study</em> here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does BILL help with vendor payments during rapid growth?
BILL Accounts Payable automates invoice capture, approval routing, and payment execution — including same-day ACH and international payments — so growing businesses can pay vendors quickly without manual processing delays.
What is BILL Spend & Expense and how does it work?
BILL Spend & Expense is an all-in-one spend management solution that combines corporate cards (the BILL Divvy Card, powered by Visa) with software for real-time budget controls, automated expense categorization, receipt capture, and reporting.
Can BILL AP and Spend & Expense be used together?
Yes — and this is where the platform delivers its greatest value. BILL’s AP and Spend & Expense products share a single login and sync to the same accounting software integration, giving finance teams a unified view of both vendor payables and employee spend in one place.
NetSuite
Yes. BILL integrates natively with Oracle NetSuite, with automatic two-way sync for AP, AR, and Spend & Expense transactions.