BILL is an online service for SMBs which provides a central dashboard for managing Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and cash flow management. It syncs with all major accounting systems like QuickBooks, Sage, Intaact, and NetSuite.
$45
per month
Melio
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Melio is a small business-oriented Accounts Payable tool, presented as a service that helps small businesses keep up with business. A B2B payments experience and payment workflow designed to be simple, and to enable businesses to pay domestic and international vendors, expedite payments, or pay by card.
Bill.com is more expensive and more difficult to use than Melio. While it has a greater range of functionality and apparently has better integration into QuickBooks, we didn't need the greater functionality and I had just as much trouble integrating into Bill.com as I have with …
It is pretty good, but clients call frustrated with it when they have to fix things. I cannot offer it to advanced clients, since the system is too simple.
BILL and Melio serve as automated payment solutions, although they are employed by a varied spectrum of businesses and organizations with distinct financial management needs. BILL has notably been utilized across different sectors ranging from non-profits to large corporations, simplifying tasks like accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R). Users have praised BILL for its integration with common accounting systems like QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Xero which facilitates a seamless approval and payment process. This complements businesses that have a high volume of invoices and require a methodical system for approval, often highlighted by users across multiple industries who seek robust document management and expense tracking.
Conversely, Melio focuses largely on simplifying payments to vendors by streamlining the process of adding new vendors and ensuring timely handling of transactions, particularly ACH payments. Melio’s direct and timely management of vendor payments is crucial for businesses that rely on a stable supply chain and timely vendor services to maintain their operations smoothly.
While BILL offers a comprehensive solution affecting both the accounts payable and receivable processes, Melio tends to be more focused on vendor payments and less so on the integration with broader accounting functions. This delineates their use-cases: BILL as a more inclusive financial management tool within larger and technology-integrated frameworks, versus Melio which offers specific solutions for vendor-focused payment issues, making it ideal for smaller teams or those in immediate need of transitioning to electronic payment solutions.
Features
BILL
Melio
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
BILL
7.8
8 Ratings
5% above category average
Melio
9.1
14 Ratings
20% above category average
Customizable Approval Policies
8.16 Ratings
8.311 Ratings
Financial Document Management
7.68 Ratings
8.810 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking
8.18 Ratings
9.714 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail
8.28 Ratings
9.511 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection
8.46 Ratings
9.310 Ratings
Advanced OCR
7.24 Ratings
9.19 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer
7.27 Ratings
9.012 Ratings
Accounts Payable
Comparison of Accounts Payable features of Product A and Product B
It depends, Bill.com certainly has a strong reputation and I agree it can be a great solution in the right scenario but I think the implementation and initial setup are critical and need to be well thought out based on the setup of the organization you are a part of.
In my personal experiences, I would recommend Melio to a friend or colleague but would tell them the pros and the con. Melio has really made payments seem seamless and easy. The fact that one can plan his/her payment schedule in advance and at the same time track it, is a very big relief. In as much as Melio has a lot of good features but it still needs upgrade or update, like the notifications of failed payments and delays.
The simplicity it adds to business payments is a great deal. One feature we really value it the ability to pay vendors by check. Melio prints and mails checks for us which saves time and hassle.
Payment scheduling tool is another thing we enjoy. This tool lets us plan ahead and manage cash flow more effectively by setting payment dates in advance.
Another thing Melio does well is the tracking of payment.
There was a time a vendor claimed that they hadn't been paid, but with just a few clicks we could see the check has already been delivered.
This kind of transparency gives us confident and keep things professional.
The integration with other platform or accounts like QuickBooks is an experience I did love to keep.
Currently, our company uses a different platform to submit expenses, we only use bill.com to receive them. So perhaps this isn't actually a place where bill.com could improve, but the expense submission process may not have been robust enough for our company.
The bill.com platform wasn't the most beautiful or pleasing to use, but this is a minor fault.
I'd love a way to set up recurring payments (e.g., my phone bill is reimbursed each month).
There should be an automatic link between vendors added with their Melio link and the same vendors that already exist in QuickBooks. As it is now, a new vendor is created when you do that and is not linked with the one that already is in QuickBooks.
While our firm does not use Bill.com internally, we know many customers that use Bill.com and are very happy with it. Based on the feedback from current users, I would say that the product should have a strong renewal forecast. Once customers move their AP to the cloud, they would be unlikely to move it back given a choice.
Bill.com continues to raise the bar with new features and improved interface. The Fast Pay option is another innovation that reduces administrative time when you have to get an overnight check out. The new Chat Support interface, powered by Zopim, which is world-class, adds to the responsiveness of Bill.com's support team and makes getting real-time answers that much easier.
Melio has been a very important tool in the advancement of our business. With great features, it has made payments to vendors seamless and hassle free. In terms of vendor management, account/data tracking, and scheduling of payments in advance. This has formed the base that we are still with Melio till today.
The only time Bill.com was ever "unavailable" was then the Sync to Quickbooks function failed. That happened a time or two but was usually quickly remedied. I'm not sure if that's an issue with newer online versions of Quickbooks Enterprise -- at the time we were using a remotely hosted Quickbooks instance accessed via terminal server (vs a cloud offering like Bill.com is)
I could not explain to them how I was trying to remove an old email account from my company page while granting the new email account access to the bank account that the first email account had added. The "set a bank account as inactive" button is labeled delete, but they don't seem to recognize that. I requested my Bill.com account be deleted on Wednesday so I could start all over with a fresh account; this seemed to be completed Wednesday night, but when I tried to create a new Bill.com account from the same email, it took me to my old bill.com account.
The online training provided by Bill.com is concise and since the firm consistently improves the platform functionality, users are able to select the training for the modules they specifically need.
1. Automation & Workflow Efficiency.2. Integration Capabilities with other softwaresWe needed a centralized, automated, and scalable solution for managing both payables and receivables. The strong integration with our existing accounting software was a key factor.The platform gave us better visibility and control over cash flow and approval processes.
Melio is 100% free if you just use ACH, and that by itself would be reason enough for me to stick with the platform, it boats a ton of other useful features that add to the experience.
After receiving an offer to 'finance' outstanding invoices, I was enticed by the promise of a 3% total cost for a 60-day period, with the possibility of extending the financing for an additional 10 months (for an additional fee). Eager to access funds, I decided to finance an invoice worth $17,160.00. Within 24 hours, BILL deposited $16,645.20 (97% of the invoice amount) into my account.
However, when the customer paid their $17,160 invoice four days later, instead of the funds being deposited into my checking account as I expected, BILL chose to retire the loan and retain my $514.80 fee for the 4 day advance period. This unexpected turn of events resulted in an effective interest rate of a staggering 273.75%. It was clear that this arrangement was far from what I had initially understood, and the financial impact was outrageously high.
Frustratingly, my attempts to resolve this issue through customer service were in vain, as I spoke with three agents who provided no satisfactory solutions. To anyone contemplating using BILL's services, I strongly urge you to carefully scrutinize the fine print and consider opting for a more reputable finance company."
I have been able to save hours every week now that I am only using Melio as my payment processor
I can easily add invoice details which I use to create in another platform and upload to Melio, this saves me time with projects I want to be quicker with
The ease of use for my clients is fantastic, and makes for a seamless workflow
