Keeping an account with a bank that can be linked to your monthly bills is extremely helpful in reducing time for payments. How to do it? Subscribe at your bank for electronic banking.
Through this service you can instruct your bank to automatically pay certain dues from your account, such as your auto loans, insurance premiums, mortgage installments and utility bills. In case you do not like the automatic feature, you can always opt for a manual confirmation of each payment, once it is due.
One useful side effect of electronic banking might be the ease of recordkeeping. Usually banks offer easy printing and also data exporting into different file formats and even transferring data to personal financial software.
Recurring bills of course could be paid also through a third party infrastructure, not the one of your bank, as faf as you can link it to one of your bank cards/accounts.
P.S. Be cautious before you pre-authorize direct withdrawals to pay sellers or companies with whom you are unfamiliar; funds from your bank account could be withdrawn fraudulently.
Do you think electronic banking works for you? Other tips?