Growing your business is an exciting endeavor, but with it comes the headache of managing more financial transactions with your supplier.
As your business expands, your accounts payable processes will become even more complex, increasing your team’s workload and the risk of human error.
This is where accounts payable automation software comes in handy. It streamlines AP activities, so your department can oversee larger volumes of invoices and transactions without breaking a sweat.
The most popular options, like Tipalti and Bill.com, include powerful features such as accounting and ERP system integration. They also have purchase order matching capability to cut out the manual work from your AP processes.
But which solution stands out as the best? In this guide to Tipalti vs. Bill.com, we compare the product capabilities of each platform and discuss which software you should choose to manage your accounts payable needs.
What Does Tipalti Do?
Tipalti provides global payables and procurement automation software that integrates all phases of the accounts payable and payment management workflow into a single cloud-based platform.
How complex can your accounts payable get?
Is there even breathing room? As a business rapidly expands, so does the workload. If your team is having difficulties juggling responsibilities, it’s high time technology gives them a break. Tipalti is a top tool for AP automation for everything from invoice processing to automated approvals and payment reconciliation. Try a free demo and see for yourself.
Tipalti Product Capabilities Overview
Tipalti’s automated solutions cover everything from purchase order management, supplier onboarding, and invoice management to tax and regulatory compliance to save your business time and money.
Powered by a multi-entity cloud architecture, Tipalti is built to support AP across your enterprise, including business units, subsidiaries, and international divisions. The platform provides granular control over payables and payment operations to protect your organization from fraud loss while augmenting internal processes.
The solution also offers various payment methods in 120 currencies in 196 countries, so you can streamline your payments to suppliers.
Tipalti integrates with any ERP and accounting system, including many popular brands, like:
- Oracle NetSuite
- QuickBooks
- Sage Intacct and Sage ERPs
- Xero
- Microsoft Dynamic ERPs
- SAP ERPs
Tipalti Pricing
Tipalti’s pricing model is designed to grow with the company. As you need to add advanced features such as W-8 tax forms, international tax IDs, or multi-entity payables, Tipalti can easily handle that for you.
Pricing starts at $149 per month for the platform fee. As your business gets more complex, you can seamlessly upgrade to Tipalti’s more advanced capabilities anytime.
What Does Bill.com Do?
Bill.com provides cloud-based financial software for small businesses to manage financial workflows and process payments.
Bill.com Product Capabilities Overview
Bill.com’s financial software platform connects businesses with their suppliers and clients to help manage cash flow.
The Bill.com network is a platform for companies to send ACH and virtual debit and credit card payments to their vendors. Features like Vendor Direct and Pay By Card make it easy to send payments quickly and securely without additional fees. You can also create custom payment approval workflows based on required approvers, dollar amounts, and more.
If you sign up for a Bill.com enterprise plan, automatic two-way sync is available for ERP systems such as:
- Oracle NetSuite
- Sage Intacct
- Microsoft Dynamics
- QuickBooks Enterprise
Bill.com Pricing
Bill.com’s Essential plan covers features like invoice data capture, unlimited storage, and standard approval policies. The Team plan offers everything that the Basic does, plus integrations.
The Corporate plan includes everything that the Team plan offers, plus invoice templates, payment status tracking, and auto-pay. There is also custom pricing available for enterprise applications.
Features of Tipalti vs. Bill.com
Both Tipalti and Bill.com offer software solutions that help companies automate their accounts payable processes. But each platform offers unique features and solutions for different financial needs. Let’s take a closer look at some of the differences between Tipalti vs. Bill.com:
| Functionality |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| *Limited functionality | ||
| Payment Methods | Global ACH (eCheck), US ACH, Wire, PayPal, Check and Prepaid debit card | ACH, Limited Wire, Check, Vendor Direct (Virtual Card) |
| Global Payment Coverage | Paying to 196 countries in 120 currencies | Only available for US companies to wire to 137 countries |
| Reliable Payment Infrastructure | Regulated MSB with MTLs across US. E-Money license in UK with FCA. Blue-chip bank partners Citi, JP Morgan Chase & Wells Fargo (plus Visa & PayPal) with built-in redundancy for quick fund disbursement | US MTLs. Partnered with SVB & Chase. SVB crisis lead to delayed payments and at risk customer ($370M) and corporate ($300M) deposits. |
| Touchless invoice processing | OCR (Header and line level scan and capture), Machine Learning, managed Services | Header level only OCR and basic managed services |
| Bill Approval | No charge for bill approvers, approve bills via email with no login required | Invoices approvers pay a fee of >$45/month, login required, cannot approve via email |
| PO-Matching | Automated 2 and 3-way PO Matching | Manual 2 and 3-way PO Matching, only with NetSuite |
| Supplier Onboarding and Vetting | Effortlessly onboard vendors with a client-branded portal, preferred payment method currency, and payment thresholds. 26K+ rules validate payments, screen against OFAC/SDN lists | Limited customization, no tax and payment validation rules |
| Custom Fields | Support for Custom Fields | No support for custom Fields |
| Multi-Entity Payable Reconciliation | Manage multiple entities in a single Instance with a consolidated view; Instant reconciliation across entities and payable workflows | Multi-Instance. No tax, branding integration sync |
| Tax Compliance | KPMG approved tax engine, collect W8 & W9 tax forms, collect and validate IRS and VAT tax ID, 1099 & 1042 prep reports and withholding. Validates against 3,000+ rules | Tax is managed via a separated app; No W8 collection, withholdings, validation |
| Payee Fee-Splitting | Fee splitting allows payers to incent payees to adopt safer, more efficient payment methods | No Fee Splitting option |
Which Solution Works Best for Your Business (and Why)
Although implementing an AP automation program will streamline your financial workflows, picking the right one can be challenging. Here are a few different scenarios to help you decide:
When to Choose Tipalti
You run a hyper-growth business that is rapidly scaling
In this case, you need an AP solution with built-in scalability to future-proof your payables. As a business grows, your AP workflow will become more complex. This is due to factors like the addition of global supplier payments, mass payment processing, and multi-subsidiary business payables.
Tipalti Multi-Entity enables payers to manage a large number of entities within the same instance of our platform. This allows for centralized controls and consolidated financial reporting and helps to enhance workflows, streamline tasks, and simplify processes.
For global corporations, Tipalti can be funded in 28 currencies, compared to Bill.com, which is limited to only USD.
Tipalti executes fast global payments to 196 countries in 120 currencies. Payments can be made in multiple international payment methods—global ACH (eCheck), wire transfer, PayPal, and prepaid debit card. You can also streamline your FX conversation workflow with advanced FX capabilities such as Multi-FX, FX hedging, and Payee FX optimization.
You want to automate the entire accounts payable process, end-to-end
Accounts payable is a complex process that increases the workload of your AP team, while manual operations can slow down financial close. Tipalti eliminates 80% of the workload, so you can divert resources to high-priority activities, rather than back-office operations.
Tipalti enables a complete touchless invoice processing workflow with machine learning (ML) powered OCR technology that captures both the header and line-level details. 2-way and 3-way PO matching allow automated syncing of POs and GDRs from your ERP to Tipalti to complete the PO match flow, helping eliminate overspending and strengthen financial controls.
Tipalti offers a self-service supplier portal. This enables faster, more accurate payee data collection and verification, which streamlines the onboarding process.
The system automatically validates supplier payment data in real-time, using 26,000 global banking rules to reduce payment errors by 66%.
While Bill.com has payment limits that slow down processing for larger payments, there is no payment limit on Tipalti transactions, regardless of the volume or frequency.
You can accelerate financial close by more than 25% as payment methods, currencies, subsidiaries, and geographies are combined and reconciled in real-time for instant visibility. Detailed transaction and reconciliation reports are integrated with your ERP system to provide a consolidated view of all payable accounts.
You want to strengthen compliance and controls, while reducing risk
Proper controls and governance over accounts payable will safeguard your cash reserves, while tax compliance will protect your organization from legal and financial risk.
Tipalti’s built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning constantly adapt to identify inefficiencies and reduce errors.
The system solves the highly-manual process of collecting tax information through digital capture. Tax forms (W-9, W-8) are validated via a KPMG-prescribed tax engine.
At the end of the year, Tipalti generates 1099/1042-S tax preparation reports and calculates any necessary withholdings to ensure IRS tax compliance. The system will automate the submission of 1099’s (through integration with Zenwork for eligible payees) to the IRS using the data from Tipalti.
Tipalti is regulated as a money services business and has its US money transmitter licenses (MTLs) in every state that requires them. Tipalti is also authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Electronic Money Institution. This is an important distinction between Tipalti and other payout providers, especially amidst the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Tipalti customers gain significant benefits by using our global payments solution over other non-regulated providers. We partner with blue-chip banks Citi, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo and have redundancy between built-in for fast and reliable global payment remittance.
While Bill.com also has its MTLs, it had major exposure to the SVB collapse in several ways. It used SVB as a payment processing partner resulting in delays in payments to suppliers. It also stored customer funds (~$370M) and corporate funds (~$300M) at the bank, exposing these deposits to potential loss – can your business afford that risk?
When to Choose Bill.com?
You do not operate outside of the United States
Bill.com works within the United States, but has limited global capabilities to help support your operations.
Because the system lacks multi-entity features, you cannot centralize controls. Instead, you’ll need to manually reconcile payable data for each entity.
This makes it workable for a business operating within the confines of the US, but unsustainable if you start attracting international customers.
Although Bill.com offers wire transfers for US-based companies to 137 countries, there are no lower-cost options like PayPal or global ACH (eCheck).
You run a small business and do not have significant payment volume growth
If your business has low payment volumes, you won’t need as many AP automation features. In this case, the Bill.com system is simplified and will work. However, it will not respond well to growth or complex processes.
For example, if your business changes controls and requires additional approval, Bill.com wants invoice approvers to be registered users. This carries a user fee of $45 per month. It should also be noted that there are no payment approval workflows built into the system like Tipalti (only bill approvals).
Furthermore, if your remittance becomes complex, the system may have issues with processing. Bill.com doesn’t support 3-way PO matching. The OCR technology only captures header-level details, but not line-level detail.
Bill.com also doesn’t provide built-in tax compliance or tax rules validation, so you’ll need a separate app and an additional upgrade to use it.
You tend to process smaller supplier payments
If you don’t need to regularly send large payments, a slow payment processing time won’t impact the supplier experience too much.
However, for larger payments (over $5,000 for regular ACH), it takes two additional business days to process. This is a burden on suppliers who are already subject to net 30/60/90 terms, and have their own cash flow issues to overcome.
Bill.com has to pull funds one by one from your bank accounts as an ACH pull, while your payees wait several days for funds to clear.
If you want your payment to arrive faster, you’ll need to pay an additional $9.99 per payment to use the Same-Day/Next-Day ACH option. Furthermore, there is a payment limit of $25,000. The system will not allow anything over that amount.
Four Signs It’s Time to Upgrade to Tipalti
Although Bill.com can help small businesses pay their suppliers and oversee some lightweight bookkeeping, its software becomes limited once your business expands. Below are four reasons why you should consider switching to Tipalti:
1. You Struggle to Pay Global Suppliers
Bill.com offers international payments via wire transfer, but Tipalti can send payments to 196 countries in 120 local currencies via ACH, eCheck, PayPal, and more.
2. You Are Overwhelmed by the Volume of Payments
If you find yourself manually processing over 100 payments at a time, you need an AP automation solution that scales efficiently with your business. Tipalti’s integrations automatically synchronize and reconcile your ERP and accounting systems.
3. You Need Deeper Financial Controls
When you have more people involved in the payment lifecycle, you need more controls and auditability. Tipalti’s enterprise-level financial controls include built-in bill and supplier audit trails and reporting to support audit preparedness.
4. You Have an Increasing Number of Reconciliation Challenges
With Tipalti, payment remittance results are consolidated into built-in reports for more accurate, faster payment reconciliation to speed up financial close.
What Our Customers Say
In our old system, Bill.com, it was difficult to create all of our payments. We work with a lot of international partners & suppliers, and we need to pay these people in different markets. If we can’t pay them effectively, it limits our reach. We used to spend three hours a week making payments. Now, it’s down to minutes, which has allowed us to reduce our payables workload by 95%
Leslie Pesante | Head of Finance, SkillShare
With Tipalti, payments flow smoothly. It took four to five business days for one person to take care of all the contractor payments. And now it takes me an hour.
Jessica Hardy | VP of finance, Art of Problem Solving
Our greatest exposure to an audit deficiency is in the area of accounts payable, processing, and payments. By automating the process, we almost completely eliminated the likelihood of having an audit deficiency in that area.
Jill Durkin | Controller and Fractor, ImaginAb
Save Time and Money with Accounts Payable Automation
In our recent survey of accounts payable teams around the globe, we found that nearly half of all respondents spend over five days each month processing invoices manually. By adding accounts payable automation technology to your workflow, you’ll spend less time on data entry and more time on strategy and business growth.
When comparing the benefits of Tipalti vs. Bill.com, consider the short- and long-term needs of your organization. If you plan to expand your business and work with more suppliers in the near future, Tipalti’s automated AP solution enables you to rapidly scale, while enhancing business visibility and strengthening fraud, financial, and cash controls.
Get started with a free demo of Tipalti today.
