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Maintaining efficient financial processes is crucial for business success. Accounts payable (AP) automation has emerged as a game-changer for companies looking to optimize operations, enhance efficiency, and streamline payments.
In this article, we make a quick comparison of Melio vs. BILL, including pricing, features, pros, and cons. We’ll also take a closer look at Tipalti and how it can help your business scale as it matures and changes.
What is Melio?
Melio is a payments platform that provides a simple and user-friendly solution for managing business-to-business (B2B) payments. Founded in 2018, Melio aims to streamline accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) tasks for small and medium businesses (SMBs).
The system allows companies to pay vendors and contractors using various payment methods (like ACH payments, debit cards, and credit cards). Melio also offers instant bank transfers for faster delivery times.
The Melio suite of solutions helps to improve cash flow by deferring payments for up to 45 days. By allowing credit card payments, Melio enables businesses to extend their cash flow, even if the vendor does not accept credit cards. They offer a mobile app for remote management, and the technology is embedded in popular brands like Shopify, allowing customers to make payments directly from these sites. Melio’s platform is designed to be intuitive and promotes ease of use, making it accessible for businesses with limited accounting resources.
Melio Pricing
Melio is free to use, with no setup or subscription fee. Free features include invoice management, ACH bank transfers (standard), vendor management, and recurring payments. If a business wants to expedite ACH transfers, there is a $10 per transaction fee.
There is also a 2.5% fee for using a credit card. Check payments will cost $1.50 per check, which covers printing and postage. The cost for international payments is based on the destination country and currency.
Main Features
Accounts Payable Automation
Melio enables a business to pay invoices using multiple methods, such as bank transfer, ACH, credit card, international wire, and check. You can easily schedule payments to optimize cash flow and make more timely payments. Customizable approval workflows also help ensure payments are reviewed and approved by the appropriate personnel.
Accounts Receivable Workflows
The Melio platform provides tools to create and send professional invoices and track incoming payments. A business can update the status of receivables in real time and offer a self-service portal to customers to view and pay invoices online.
Reporting and Analytics
Melio offers critical features for cash flow insights, helping a business manage finances more effectively. You can maintain a detailed history of all payments made and received, supporting better financial tracking and reporting.
Integration Capabilities
Melio integrates with popular accounting software like QuickBooks Online, ensuring total synchronization of payment data and reducing manual entry. They provide API access for custom integration and enhanced connectivity with other business systems.
Security and Compliance
The Melio payments solution ensures all financial data is encrypted and securely stored. It adheres to all relevant regulatory standards to protect businesses and their financial transactions.
Pros of Melio
- Extended payment terms enable companies to increase cash flow and take advantage of early payment discounts.
- There are no monthly fees. Businesses only pay for certain types of transactions.
- Melio offers a user-friendly interface, making it accessible to everyone, from business owners to larger companies.
Cons of Melio
- Although Melio has robust capabilities for AP and AR, no branded procurement or expense tools exist.
- While ACH transfers through Melio are typically free, they can take several business days to process.
- Compared to more comprehensive financial management platforms (like Tipalti), Melio’s feature set is somewhat limited.
What is BILL?
BILL is a cloud-based payable solution designed to help a business automate their accounts payable and accounts receivable processes. The BILL payments system streamlines invoices, transactions, and cash flow, providing a better integrated platform for companies to manage their financial portfolios.
Founded in 2006, the accounting tool provides an on-demand, seamless solution to leverage financial accuracy and enhance the overall bill-pay experience. The BILL solution offers features like invoice capture, approval workflows, payment processing, robust audit trails, and integration with popular accounting software.
BILL Pricing
BILL offers a subscription-based pricing model that provides small and medium businesses flexibility, functionality, and scalability.
The subscription plans are:
- Essentials: The basic plan for small businesses with core AP tools.
- Team: The intermediate plan with additional features for scaling companies.
- Corporate: The advanced plan with comprehensive tools for larger businesses.
There is also an Enterprise plan for large organizations with specific touchpoints and high transaction volumes.
Main Features
Accounts Payable Tools
BILL features automated invoice capture (using OCR technology) via email, mobile app, or manual upload. A business can create custom workflows to ensure invoices are properly reviewed and approved before payment. BILL supports multiple payment methods, including ACH, wire transfers, credit cards, and checks.
Accounts Receivable Automation
When comparing BILL vs. Melio, both offer highly comparable accounts receivable features. Using BILL, a company can generate and send invoices to customers and offer various payment options, including an online portal and direct debit. To reduce late payments, you can also send automated reminders for upcoming or overdue invoices.
Cash Flow Management
A business can use BILL to monitor incoming and outgoing payments in real time to maintain a clear view of cash flow. Cash flow forecasting tools will also help to plan for future financial needs and make more informed decisions.
Key Integrations
BILL integrates with popular accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage. It will automatically sync your ERP with financial data, reducing manual workload and freeing up staff to focus on more value-added tasks.
International Payments
A business can streamline its workflow with a straightforward process for domestic and international payments to over 130 countries. BILL automatically syncs with USD and local currency bills. It allows businesses to explore competitive payment exchange rates in most local currencies.
Pros of BILL
- Intuitive dashboard with insights into pending payments and forecasting for future cash flow.
- Advanced security measures include data encryption, secure storage, and PCI DSS and SOX compliance.
- Expense reporting with budget controls and real-time expense tracking
Cons of BILL
- Although BILL offers AP and AR features, there is no procurement solution.
- It is not designed to scale like many BILL competitors. It works best for startups, small businesses, and medium-sized companies.
- The initial setup and integration process can be complex and time-consuming, requiring dedicated resources and customer support.
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Melio vs. BILL
| Melio | BILL | Tipalti | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intake Process | No intake process. | No intake process. | With predefined custom intake forms, employees can easily submit purchase- and supplier-related requests. |
| Procurement | No procurement capabilities. | No procurement capabilities. | Integrated procurement and payables solution. Streamline purchases with user-friendly requisitions, improve spend and compliance, reduce processing time. |
| Expense Management | No expenses. | Brought in through the acquisition of Divvy and is now named BILL Spend & Expense. Focus is card-based expense management with some gaps in global reimbursements and reimbursement sync. | Automated expense policies, global reimbursements, reconciliation of transactions, reimbursements captured, categorized, and processed. Integrates with Tipalti card. |
| Accounts Receivable | Select invoice, send a request, and get paid. Customers choose how to pay and send direct to bank account. | Enter, send, and track invoices with custom, branded templates and receive payments directly to bank account. | Does not offer. |
| Purchase Orders | No PO matching or purchase order management. | 2 and 3-way PO matching with select ERPs but no PO creation. | 2- & 3-way PO matching at header & line-levels with tolerance thresholds & prepayments support. Automatically generate POs once a purchase request is approved. |
| Approval Workflows | Add team members, assign different approval terms, and gain visibility, with pay limits and terms. | Custom approval groups and policies, automated approval routing, tracking, and separation of duties. | Rule-based approvals routing that eliminates bottlenecks and inaccuracies. Integrates with 30+ ticketing systems. |
| Contracts | No contract management. | No contract management. | Contract interface to add and search contracts, set automated notifications for renewals and renegotiations. |
| Supplier Management | Database of vendor data and payment tracking, but no self-service portal. | Self-service supplier network portal to maintain records of vendor information, track payment histories, and manage vendor relationships. | Custom registration forms, self-service portal collecting financial, contact, and contract data with choice of payment method, currency, etc. |
| Supplier Invoice Management | Upload invoices can be linked to payments and tracked in system, multiple payment methods and approval workflows. | Header-level OCR technology, automated reminders, multiple payment methods, recurring invoices, invoice tracking, and sync with other accounting software. | OCR and advanced data extraction, change logic applied to future invoices, custom fields, expense accounts auto-filled based on predictive smart logic, pre-defined approval rules, and batch invoice processing. |
| Global Payments | Primarily designed for domestic payments within the United States. | Pay vendors and suppliers in over 130 countries mostly via USD and FX wires | Payments across 196 countries and 120 currencies with 50 different payment methods. Globally licensed and regulated money services business. Blue-chip bank partners Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo. |
| Taxes and Compliance | Basic manual tax handling with data storage and payment categorization. | Automated tax calculations and tax reports. W9/1099 reporting. No KPMG-approved capabilities. | KPMG-approved tax capability for IRS. Collect and validate IRS and VAT tax IDs. Maintain W-9, W-8BEN, VAT Details. 1099 and 1042-S prep reports. eFiling integrations |
| Scalability | Works best for SMBs with limited scalability. | Works best for microbusinesses, SMBs, and lower midmarket companies. | Cloud-based infrastructure designed for growth with unparalleled multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-entity capabilities. |
| ERP Integrations | QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Microsoft Dynamics 365. | QuickBooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop, NetSuite, Sage, Xero, MS Dynamics 365. | NetSuite, Xero, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, Quickbooks Online, Acumatica, and more. |
Your Primary Alternative: Tipalti
One of the top alternatives to both Melio and BILL is Tipalti. A business can reduce 80% of payables workloads and reduce payment errors by 66%. The platform automates the entire procure-to-pay process and offers an unparalleled level of global compliance, procurement management, automated invoice processing, supplier onboarding, PO-matching, multi-entity cloud architecture, and enterprise-grade financial controls.
The Tipalti brand is a regulated money services business (MSB) and has a US money transmitter license (MTL) in every required state. In addition, Tipalti is authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Electronic Money Institution.
Customers gain significant advantages from using the global payment system over non-regulated providers. Tipalti also partners with blue-chip banks like JP Morgan, Citi, and Wells Fargo and has redundancy between built-ins for fast and reliable global payment remittance.
The Tipalti family is honored to be on the “Spend Matters 50 Providers to Know” list for the fourth consecutive year. The business is recognized as an industry leader that consistently pioneers innovative procurement technologies and services.
When comparing Tipalti vs. BILL and Melio, here are some key differences:
Intuitive Procurement and Expense Management
Out of the three platforms, Tipalti is the only system that offers an end-to-end, holistic solution with branded expense management automation and intelligent procurement. Using Tipalti, a business can manage contract details and gain unparalleled visibility into renewal alerts and statuses within purchase requests. They can do everything from automatically generating purchase orders to guiding employees on the best stuff to buy. A company will enhance control over spending with simple intake management, advanced PO approval workflows, a supplier portal, a contract repository, real-time analytics, and more.
In comparison, BILL subcontracts expense management to a third party and offers no procurement. The same goes for Melio. Although it offers robust AP features, it does not provide assistance for employees when making purchases or tools for the beginning of the payment lifecycle.
Continuous Scalability
Tipalti offers an entire suite of solutions specifically designed to scale with your business. The cloud-based infrastructure is built for growth and has unlimited integrations at your fingertips. This is especially helpful when integrating automated accounts payable software for a small business.
In comparison, BILL typically cannot scale past SMBs, and Melio offers limited global payments with no MTL. Scaling with Melio and BILL can also become costly, as some payment types are associated with high hidden costs. Tipalti is the partner you can trust to scale with your business as it matures and changes appropriately.
Complete End-to-End Solution
Tipalti offers an unparalleled end-to-end payment solution. From guided intake and smart procurement to mobile expense management, OCR invoice processing, AI-driven approval workflows, automated reconciliation, and in-depth reporting, the system can handle a wide range of tasks.
In contrast, BILL typically handles AP and AR, while outsourcing expenses. For Melio, it only covers AP and AR, with no procurement or expense management offering.
Next-Level Security and Tax Compliance
Melio and BILL do not offer built-in tax features, validation, or regulatory compliance controls. However, Tipalti has tax features that meet IRS requirements (as prescribed by KPMG). The integrated supplier onboarding workflow includes collecting and validating W-9/W-8 tax form data. It will generate 1099/1042-S tax prep files with auto-calculated withholdings for in-depth reporting.
The system also collects and validates non-US countries’ local/VAT tax IDs. BILL has a separate app for tax with no W8, withholdings, or rules validation. Melio offers limited manual tax capabilities with no KPMG-approved digital tax form capture.
Proactive Sanctions Screening
In addition, Melio and BILL do not offer proactive OFAC or sanctions screening. This will put an organization at risk of paying bad entities on a government blacklist, resulting in frozen accounts. Tipalti goes the extra mile and actively screens all payees prior to any transaction processed, which greatly helps with regulatory compliance.
Smart Supplier Management
Although both Melio and BILL offer supplier management features, Tipalti provides an extensive, branded supplier portal (available 24/7).
Suppliers can use the portal to update their contact and bank account information, with 26,000+ global payment validation rules to verify data in real-time. The white-label service also allows suppliers to perform a variety of tasks like:
- View histories
- Receive branded notifications
- Choose payment method
- Select currency
- Set payment thresholds
Most supplier portals have limited payment options compared to Tipalti. Melio does not offer a supplier portal and BILL offers limited customization with no vetting.
Top Integrations
Although BILL and Melio both offer top integration capabilities, nothing compares to Tipalti’s connections. The system has strong API integrations with QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero, Sage Intacct, and Microsoft Dynamics. The system offers seamless ERP integrations via pre-built connectors (using a drag-and-drop interface), with no code is required.
Global Payment Capabilities
When it comes to international transactions, Tipalti streamlines the entire process. Unlike Melio and BILL, Tipalti’s global payment system allows businesses to send money to 196 countries in 120 currencies using 50 different payment methods. Tipalti also gives a company advanced payment configuration options like fee-splitting and thresholds.
Summing It Up
One of the most important aspects of successful business growth is possessing the right tools. As businesses grow and evolve, the need for scalable, efficient, and comprehensive financial management solutions becomes increasingly critical. The two solutions presented here, Melio and BILL, are incredible systems for managing accounts payable and receivable when starting out. But what if your business hits a growth spurt? Will the systems you choose be ready to meet that volume head-on?
This is where Tipalti stands out. In a crowded AP automation market, they offer an end-to-end solution that simplifies accounts payable and expense management, while ensuring global compliance, seamless integrations, and robust supplier management.
Unlike competitors such as BILL and Melio, Tipalti provides a more complete and scalable solution, making it an ideal choice for businesses preparing for future growth. To experience the benefits of Tipalti firsthand, book a demo today and discover how it can instantly transform financial processes and drive business forward.
