When your business expands, the number of transactions you need to handle will grow. It’s critical to effectively manage supplier invoices from the beginning, as the volume and complexity of your accounts payable will inevitably increase over time.
AP automation solutions streamline financial workflows and enable overburdened AP departments to process a larger volume of invoices without breaking a sweat.
Tipalti and Stampli are both popular AP automation solutions, which boast features like invoice processing and approvals, payment remittance, ERP integrations, and more. Unless you know the ins and outs of each system, choosing between the two can be a challenge.
Which solution fits your business best? In this article, we’ll compare the product capabilities of both systems and discuss how each one manages your accounts payable needs.
What Does Tipalti Do?
Tipalti is an accounts payable and procurement automation platform that integrates your entire AP lifecycle and payment management workflow into a single cloud-based solution.
Tipalti Product Capabilities Overview
Tipalti is built to support accounts payable across your entire enterprise, including business entities, subsidiaries, and international divisions. The software provides granular control over payables to protect your business from fraud and loss while augmenting internal processes.
Tipalti can process payments in 6 methods across 196 countries, and in 120 currencies, making it a lot easier for a business to transact on a global scale.
The system offers end-to-end automated features including:
- Supplier onboarding and management
- Tax and regulatory compliance
- Purchase order management
- Invoice management
- Card spend management
- Global payment remittance
- FX solutions
- reconciliation & reporting
The platform is designed to save your business time and money.
Tipalti integrates with any ERP and accounting system. This includes popular systems like:
- Oracle NetSuite
- Sage Intacct and Sage ERPs
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- SAP ERPs
- Microsoft Dynamic ERPs
Tipalti Pricing
Tipalti’s pricing model scales with your company. Pricing starts at $149 per month and you can seamlessly upgrade to Tipalti’s more advanced capabilities like multi-entity payables at any time.
What Does Stampli Do?
Stampli provides AP automation software for companies to manage financial workflows and process payments.
Stampli Product Capabilities Overview
Stampli helps organizations streamline accounts payable with communications, documentation, corporate cards, and payables features delivered via a centralized dashboard. Its AP automation solution supports both PO and non-PO invoices and gives your team control and visibility over corporate spending.
The Stampli solution includes features like invoice capture and coding, approval notifications, internal controls, integrations, and IT support.
The platform integrates with a variety of common ERP systems including:
- Sage Intacct
- QuickBooks
- Microsoft Dynamics
- SAP
- Netsuite
Stampli Pricing
Stampli does not provide public pricing on its website. The company charges a monthly platform fee that includes a fixed number of user licenses and invoices. There are fees for additional users and invoice overages.
Stampli also charges a monthly fee for its payments module in addition to per-transaction fees. Stampli may also charge a monthly connector fee depending on your ERP integration. For an exact quote, you will need to contact sales.
Features of Tipalti vs. Stampli
Although Tipalti and Stampli are both great tools to automate your AP processes, each platform has varying capabilities. Take a look at some of the features and solutions each platform has to offer:
| Functionality |
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Payment Methods |
Global ACH (eCheck), US ACH, Wire, PayPal, Check, and prepaid debit card |
ACH, Checks, and card only |
|
Global Payment Coverage |
Paying to 196 countries in 120 currencies |
Limited global payment methods |
|
Touchless Invoice Processing |
OCR (Header and line level scan and capture), machine learning, managed services. 2- & 3-way PO matching with tolerance thresholds |
Header level only OCR with machine learning, no managed services. 2- & 3-way PO match, no tolerance thresholds |
|
Bill Approval |
No charge for bill approvers approve bills via email with no login required |
Invoices approvers pay a fee of $25/m, login required, cannot approve via email |
|
PO-Management |
Integrated procurement and payable solution, helping streamline company purchases, improve spend controls, and reduce AP processing time |
No PO management |
|
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 |
Supplier portal to update payment info, but no self-service onboarding and no banking and tax rules validations |
|
Multi-Entity Payables Reconciliation |
Manage multiple entities in a single instance with a consolidated view, instant reconciliation across entities and payables workflows |
Supports multi-entity roll-up view, but payment reconciliation is manual, no multi-entity branding, payment methods, tax onboarding flows, supplier communications, reconciliation, and reporting |
|
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 |
No tax compliance |
|
FX Solutions |
Currency conversions without the complications – save time and money on currency conversions. Also, advanced FX solutions – intercompany bank transfers, FX hedging, payee FX |
No FX solutions |
|
Customer Support |
24/7 Knowledge Base for self-service. US-based phone and email support with <2 hr avg response time. 98% satisfaction with customer support |
No self-service knowledge base. No phone support, only email and via form |
|
Card |
Manage and reconcile card spend, gain visibility, and receive cash-back. Focus on subscriptions & recurring spend |
Comparable solution |
Which Solution Works Best for Your Business (and Why)
Choosing the right AP automation software for your business is not as easy as it seems. You must dig through a pile of features, tools, and integrations to decide on one that best fits your business. Here, we’ve tried to create a few scenarios to help you decide between Tipalti and Stampli:
When to Choose Tipalti
You need best-in-class invoice management to reduce payable team workloads
Tipalti’s AP solutions are proven to eliminate 80% of workloads. This helps you to avoid future AP hiring and uplifts your teams out of manual tasks, enabling them to focus on higher-value strategic initiatives
Smart Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology eliminates tedious, error-prone manual data entry. Tipalti provides not only header level, but also line level data capture, which means the difference between spending just 2 minutes to verify the coding vs spending 20 minutes capturing line level data with other solutions.
Approvals are considered the slowest stage in the invoice processing lifecycle. That’s why Tipalti ensures that our approval experience is streamlined from both the AP and approver’s perspective.
Our solution speeds up approval time on the AP side by using AI technology that recommends the right approval flow based on historical data. If you have an approval policy in place, our flexible approval rules engine can maintain your approval metrics based on any combination of parameters.
Approving bills is also very easy, as we provide an optimal approval experience via email by making sure approvers can see the info they need at a glance, from the vendor’s past bills to any other related documents. Approvals can be done directly from email and with no need to log in or purchase additional users.
Tipalti’s PO matching module is one of its strongest differentiators:
- We support both 2 and 3-way matching, on both the header and line level.
- Our automatic AI matching engine, together with our intuitive UI, cuts down on AP time wasted manually comparing tens of lines per invoice. It allows you to complete the matching process within seconds and you can easily view all exceptions and update the bill if needed.
- Our flexible matching tolerance engine, which allows you to define any combination of tolerance rules you want – on header level, line level, or both. You get the control you need without wasting time on redundant approvals.
You have growing domestic or global payables needs
As your payables volumes expand, workflows will become more complex due to the addition of global suppliers, multi-subsidiary operations, and mass payment processing. This will require an AP solution with built-in scalability to future-proof your payables processes.
The Tipalti Multi-Entity feature enables payers to manage a large number of entities within a single AP application. This allows for centralized controls and consolidated financial reporting. It also enhances workflows, streamlines tasks, and simplifies processes per entity.
For global corporations, Tipalti executes fast global payments to 196 countries in 120 currencies. Payments can be made using multiple international payment methods like:
- Global ACH (eCheck)
- Wire transfer
- PayPal
- Prepaid debit card.
You can also streamline your FX workflows with advanced capabilities like FX hedging, Multi-FX, and Payee FX optimization. Tipalti can be funded in 26 different currencies.
You want to automate the entire accounts payable process from supplier onboarding through to payment reconciliation
Tipalti’s white-label, self-service supplier portal guides suppliers through choosing their preferred payment method and collects banking details; which are automatically validated against 26,000 global banking rules to reduce payment errors by up to 66%.
The portal is accessible 24/7 for suppliers to check on payment status, and proactive payment communications are also distributed, reducing the time your team spends handling payment inquiries.
Tipalti also allows you to pay your suppliers earlier than their due date to capture early payment discounts and to incent the adoption of safer, more efficient, payment methods with fee-splitting capabilities.
Tipalti offers a guided digital tax form collection process that meets IRS requirements as prescribed by KPMG with over 1,000 validation rules, including TIN matching, to ensure that correct and accurate data has been provided.
Tipalti can also accommodate a wide variety of tax forms. Additionally, for non-US customers, Tipalti offers local and VAT tax ID collection in 49 countries with a built-in tax engine that validates against more than 3,000 rules to help prevent ID errors and other issues.
Lastly, Tipalti allows you to seamlessly integrate detailed, accurate transaction and reconciliation reports with your ERP system accelerating financial close by 25%. Tipalti offers API integrations with major ERPs, including NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, and Xero. Tipalti can also integrate with all other ERP solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Sage, Acumatica, and more, via pre-built connectors using a no-code, drag-and-drop interface.
When to Choose Stampli
You only operate within the United States
Stampli has minimal global capabilities to help support your operations outside of the US. However, if you only operate within the United States and do not plan to work anywhere else, Stampli may be an appropriate solution.
Its OCR technology doesn’t support languages other than English. That means any international invoice processing workflows will have to remain manual, increasing your finance team’s workload.
International payment options are also limited. Stampli will allow you to use a virtual card for global payments but does not enable other payment methods that global payees need, like global ACH or wire transfers.
You run a small business with a simple AP workflow
Stampli is suitable for SMBs with simple AP workflows. For invoice processing, Stampli’s OCR technology only captures the header-level information of the invoice. It does not capture line-level details.
Additionally, Stampli charges a monthly fee for each bill approver, which can quickly add up. The system requires approvers to log in to approve bills, and does not have direct email approval workflows like with Tipalti.
The Stampli solution is also missing purchase order management capabilities. Tipalti offers an integrated procurement and payable solution that helps to streamline company purchases, improve spend controls, and reduce AP processing time.
Lastly, the system doesn’t have built-in vendor tax compliance capabilities. These gaps lead to more time spent on manual processes or the need to invest in additional solutions outside of Stampli.
You have a limited number of vendors
Stampli is designed to help manage a smaller number of vendors. Vendor records will not sync bi-directionally between Stampli and your ERP system, so payee updates will need to be managed in both systems. If you have a fast-growing volume of vendors, this can prove to be a nightmare process, riddled with mistakes.
Vendor onboarding and payment validation will also have to be managed manually, as Stampli does not have features to address these tasks. In terms of taxes, Stampli does not support W-9 and W-8 tax form collection, year-end 1099 and 1042-S prep reports, or e-filing services. You will need another solution to automate those processes.
Stampli also lacks the features for built-in fee-splitting. This helps payees adopt safer, lower-cost, and more efficient payment methods and reduces check usage.
Four Signs It’s Time to Upgrade to Tipalti
Stampli is designed to help small businesses pay suppliers and perform lightweight bookkeeping. Its solution limitations begin to show once your business starts to grow.
Here are four reasons you may want to consider upgrading to Tipalti:
1. You Need to Streamline Global Supplier Payments
Stampli has limited international payment options, but Tipalti can send payments to 196 countries in 120 local currencies via global ACH, wire, PayPal, and more.
2. The Volume of Payments is Overwhelming
Are you processing hundreds of payments at a time? Then you need a flexible AP automation solution that efficiently scales with your business. Tipalti offers integrations that will automatically synchronize and reconcile ERP and accounting systems.
3. Your Business Needs Better Financial Controls
As you grow and add more people to the team, there is more of a need for financial controls. The payment lifecycle must be audited on a regular basis. Tipalti boasts enterprise-level financial controls that include built-in bill and supplier audit trails. It also automates reporting to support audit preparedness.
4. Your Reconciliation Challenges are Increasing by the Minute
Tipalti consolidates payment remittance results into custom reports for quicker and more accurate payment reconciliation and a faster financial close.
What Our Customers Say
“The amount of time that’s been saved from moving to an automation process is very significant. We’ve removed 90% of the manual elements from the process, and we’re making it super easy for everyone at each stage to understand what’s going on.”
Bradley Clifford, Assistant Controller, Stack Overflow
“We were looking for something that made the approval process better. We liked the efficiency of Tipalti’s approval flow and its simplicity was very user-friendly and integrated well with NetSuite.”
Byron Whitman, Corporate Controller, Next Insurance
“The system is flexible for dynamically processing invoices with both two-way or three-way PO matching. That process is seamless. I can do it all in Tipalti and automatically know it’s synced back in our ERP system.”
Cherith Aasen, Staff Accountant, RealWear
Save Time and Money with Accounts Payable Automation
Our in-depth survey of global AP teams found that nearly 50% of all respondents spend over five days each month processing invoices manually. That’s a lot of time wasted!
Adding accounts payable automation technology to your workflow allows teams to spend less time on manual data entry and more resources on business strategy and growth.
When comparing the benefits of Tipalti vs. Stampli, consider both the short and long-term needs of your business. If you plan to expand and work with more suppliers in the future, Tipalti’s automated AP solution is your answer. It enables a company to rapidly scale while enhancing visibility and strengthening financial controls.
Get started today with a free demo of Tipalti.
