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Tipalti vs. BILL (Formerly Bill.com)


We’ve paired this article with a comprehensive guide to accounts payable. Get your copy of the Accounts Payable Survival Guide!

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:

FunctionalityTipaltiBill.com
*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

You want to automate the entire accounts payable process, end-to-end

You want to strengthen compliance and controls, while reducing risk

When to Choose Bill.com?

You do not operate outside of the United States

You run a small business and do not have significant payment volume growth

You tend to process smaller supplier payments

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.

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