Top 5 Bill Pay Software Programs for B2B Bill Management

1. Tipalti
2. Stripe 
3. Quicken
4. PayPal 
5. Plastiq

Whether you’re looking to pay on a lease, gather more inventory, or settle taxes, it’s easiest to have an online bill pay system in place. Bill pay software streamlines operations, ensures less need for data entry, helps a business meet due dates, and works to avoid late fees.

What is a Bill Pay Service?

Bill pay is a service that enables a person or business to pay anyone virtually using internet banking or a mobile bank account. Through bill payment software, you will determine who gets paid, when, and how much. An end-user also establishes which accounts the funds will be pulled from. It’s both a safe and secure way of ensuring everyone gets paid in a timely manner.

In addition to paying your bills, these service providers offer features to help a small business stay better organized and more efficient with managing monies. Additional features of a bill payment service include:

• E-bill aggregation: Have electronic copies of all your bills sent directly to the accounting software.
• Automated alerts: For every biller set up in the bill paying software system, a business can create custom alerts to inform when a bill has arrived or needs to be paid.
• Multiple Accounts: A bill pay service allows you to pay a bill from multiple bank accounts like checking, savings, or a money market deposit account.
• History: Check out all pending online payments and the history for every biller in the system.
• Automatic payments: Automate the payment process for recurring bills. 

Comparing the Top Bill Pay Software Systems

Tipalti

Tipalti takes a comprehensive approach to automating your accounts payable that streamlines the entire bill-to-pay reconciliation cycle. The end-to-end platform functions seamlessly in a cloud-based environment with built-in tax compliances. 

The solution is one of the best on the market when it comes to managing interactions between the payer and payee. It’s the number one brand to modernize financial operations while providing an effective bill payment software solution to help your business thrive.

Strengths

Tipalti is a robust program that delivers a white-label experience. They work to optimize the entire AP workflow and future-proof operations for a mass scale. 

This bill pay software system will match purchase orders to invoices and receipts, route approvals intelligently, and schedule batch invoices for payment. It gives you a 360-degree view of the entire AP process.

Weaknesses

Tipalti has few complaints. Some reviews state it can be difficult to search for payees and their data in the system. Additionally, Tipalti integrates with PayPal. If you are in a country where it is not supported, you cannot use it to pay.

Pricing

Tipalti offers affordable packages with a pricing model designed to grow with your business. As your business gets more complex, you can upgrade to more advanced capabilities at any time.

Stripe 

Stripe provides subscriptions and invoicing for companies of any size. Stripe billing is one of the fastest ways to streamline the payment process and avoid AP bottlenecks. Send or receive ongoing payments globally and support new products all within the Stripe platform.

Strengths

Stripe features recurring billing, so you can charge subscribers or send invoices automatically, every pay cycle. It also offers one-off billing to send a single invoice or charge a customer. The system automatically reconciles invoices that are paid by ACH, credit card, or wire transfer.

Weaknesses

Although Stripe boasts some subscription management tools, it’s a poor fit if you have an extensive subscription operation. In this case, you’ll need to access the open API for a custom build. If you don’t have a developer, this could be a problem.

Pricing

Stripe offers 3 account types: Standard, Express, Custom. For Express and Custom accounts, the fees are as follows:

• $2 / month per active account
• 0.25% of payout volume + $0.25 per payout sent

For all accounts, fees are as follows:

• Instant Payouts are 1% of payout volume (min is $0.50)
• Currency conversion fees of 1% for US accounts & 2% for non-US accounts
• International & country specific fees also apply 

Quicken

Quicken offers a business bill pay software that gets better results. A company can automatically track invoices and keep everything organized with customer lists, vendor directories, and more. 

Using Quicken, an organization can maximize deductions with built-in reports for profit & loss, balance sheets, cash flows, and tax schedules.

Strengths

Quicken is one of the only programs out there that will automate accounts payable and accounts receivable at the same time. It also offers tools for custom invoicing, income reports, and payment tracking.

Weaknesses

Quicken is mostly used by small businesses. Companies that have greater needs or complex systems, may find the software limiting. 

Pricing

Quicken Simplifi starts at $2/month (billed annually), and the next plan up, Quicken Classic, starts at $3.50/month. Both plans offer a web and mobile app, custom savings goals, bill tracking, reconciliation, and taxes.

PayPal

PayPal has been a giant in the online payments space and is used by more than 277 million companies worldwide, including top brands like Sephora, Michael Kors, and New Balance. 

The PayPal Subscription Payments feature helps to build customer relationships and develop new revenue streams. It lets you manage scheduled payments, so your business runs smoothly.

Strengths

Create different plans and fee structures in more than 100 currencies. Retry failed transactions and resend payment notifications when necessary. Customers can upgrade, pause, or cancel subscriptions at any time. All transactions are automatically retried, and payment notifications are sent out.

Weaknesses

PayPal transaction fees are higher than most traditional merchant accounts and other bill pay systems. The phone-based customer service is inconsistent. Additionally, accounts can become frozen with no formal notice. It’s a large brand with a lot of customer service issues.

Pricing

PayPal payouts fees vary depending on if transactions are in USD or local currency

• US FEES: 2% transaction fee, capped at $1 per payment for payments made online, $0.25 per transaction made via API. 
• INTERNATIONAL FEES: 2% transaction fee with variable fee cap based on currency.

Plastiq

If you need to pay bills using a credit card, Plastiq makes for a great fit. They offer bill payment with benefits that will free up cash flow, take advantage of early-pay discounts, and drive higher revenue. The financial management software will help a business pay for things like:

• Commercial leases
• Utilities
• Business taxes
• Equipment purchases
• Legal or accountant fees
• And more…

Strengths

It’s easy to sign up for a free account, add who you are paying, and enter your credit card information. All purchases are processed fast and securely. Send/track invoices and gain access to early payment discounts.

Weaknesses

Using a credit card to pay large bills can incur debt fast and will affect your credit score. Credit card interest rates can wipe out the benefits of any tool like Plastiq if you tend to carry a balance on your credit cards. The cost-benefit analysis of using the system might not work in your favor. It may serve best as personal finance software.

Pricing

The Plastiq Fee is 2.9%. Payments may incur additional fees based on the country the card was issued or the delivery method. The bill payment software will provide a breakdown of these fees on the payment review screen prior to the submission of your payment.

Honorable Mentions

Braintree

Drive higher conversion with the Braintree online payment solution. They offer a wide range of payment methods and are a great choice for a business of any size. The solution also connects with third-party payment gateways through an open API.

Pros

• Open API with third-party gateway
• Accept all payment types
• Cross-border support

Cons

• Weak reporting and analytics features
• Can be costly to grow

Pricing

Pricing is transactional. It’s 2.59% + 49 cents per transaction for credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets. It’s 3.49% + 49 cents for Venmo (U.S. only).

Square

Save time with powerful reporting tools, auto-billing, and securely stored data. The Square Invoices application allows you to track in real-time which invoices are paid/unpaid and schedule them for deliveries.

Pros

• Create, send, and pay invoices
• Mobile functionality
• Add discounts at any time

Cons

• Not a good solution for big brands
• Account stability issues
• Not for high-risk industries

Pricing

Send an unlimited number of invoices for a fee of 2.9% + 30 cents. If you are using a card on file, the fee is slightly higher at 3.5% + 15 cents. 

Chargify

A subscription-based bill payment software program that focuses on complex billing processes that change frequently.

Pros

• User-friendly with a simple dashboard
• No costly setup or transaction fees
• Test out different pricing structures for subscriptions

Cons

• Must work with a third-party payment gateway
• Need merchant account to process payments
• Built for brands with an existing infrastructure

Pricing

The pricing is tiered. It’s a base monthly price plus a percentage of your revenue.

How Bill Payment Software Helps Your Budget

There are a multitude of reasons why a bill pay service can pad your cash flow and help with budgeting. There can be a lot of time and stress involved in the monthly bill-paying process, and if you own a busy company, this is something that needs to be automated. Here are a few of the reasons why it can help you draw revenue today:

Automated Budget

Many accounts (like revolving credit card accounts) will set a minimum payment but allow you to pay the whole balance. A common mistake people make, however, is to wait until the day you pay to decide the amount.

Too little payment can incur fees, but something impulsively generous will also mess up the monthly cash flow. It’s hard to carefully plan a budget when these things are up in the air. It can cause a problem later on if emergency funds are required, like for car repairs or healthcare.

Automating recurring payments with a bill pay service for business, that align with a monthly budget, ensures there are never any surprises. You can pay more than the minimum to get ahead, just set the monthly amount in advance and stick to it.

Using bill pay software puts a check on making snap decisions that could hurt your business and budget down the road. The best strategy is to establish a spending plan. Then, think about where funds are allocated before you have cash in hand to spend. It’s simply smart planning.

Tax Time

Bill paying software platforms ease the heavy load of paperwork, especially during tax time. Instead of rooting through files and desks, all of your records sit in a central repository. There’s no need to spend hours digging up receipts for deductions, like medical and education.

Everything you need is in the system. The bill pay software will add up and categorize your payments for an entire year. If you integrate text preparation software, all numbers will link automatically.

Forget About Fees

One of the greatest benefits to your budget when using an online bill pay system is that the fees are low, and many services are simply free. Additionally, you no longer have to worry about a check getting lost in the mail or late fees tacked on.

When you automate bill payments, you set the date and amount well ahead of time. Some bill pay systems will enable you to set payments up to a year in advance. Many software platforms will guarantee on-time payment, so you never need to worry about extra fees again.

Autopilot

Money management becomes much easier when you can put a lot of it on autopilot. Finance is about numbers, so there is not much creativity or analytics needed here.

Bill pay software platforms are simple systems designed to respond to certain events. An e-bill comes in, and processing begins. The invoice is not sitting, buried in someone’s desk. Automation removes most human error and creates a streamlined system of virtual checks and balances.

How to Get Started Using Online Bill Pay

Once you are ready to start paying bills online, check first to see if your financial institution or credit union offers it. If not, you may want to consider switching to a high-yield FDIC-insured checking account that comes with free online bill pay (and subsequently charges no fees). 

Once you’ve created an online banking account, most sites will then allow you to register for the bill pay service.

You can then start populating your database with contacts and vendors who you will need to transact with. To set them up, it requires data like:

• Name
• Mailing address
• Company name
• Account number

There is no need to set up all payees at once. Just enter each bill (or e-bill) as you get them. Once the data is saved in the program, all you have to do is input the date and amount of payment going forward.

Online bill payment software is a back-office tool that streamlines AP workflows, creates a greater level of efficiency, strengthens supplier relationships, and saves a business on costs. Not only will it ensure you are paying everything on time, it tightens controls and creates a more consistent flow of cash. 

Are you ready to optimize bill payments? Get started with Tipalti today.