Item: Tipalti
Rating: 8
Author: Kent Tull

Overall Satisfaction with Tipalti

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Tipalti as a third party payment processer. We have been using it for about 6 months now. It has gone very well so far and their customer service and Support teams have been responsive and helped us quickly resolve our issues. One of the things that attracted us to Tipalti is that they have processes that ensure we are in compliance with the upkeep of tax forms. These forms (w8 and W9) are stored within the Tipalti portal. Their system does not allow us to make a payment until these forms have been completed and verified with the IRS. Tipalti does the IRS validation for us.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Process payments
Compliance assurance
Prompt response from Support teams

Cons

They have shut down payments on key vendors who had attempted to update their address. I would rather they notify us so we can resolve with the vendor without delaying payments.
Many of the notifications we get do not include the vendor number. This leads us to have to get in touch with the vendor just to obtain a vendor ID before taking the notice any further.
There can be delays up to half hour from the time we wire funds to our Tipalti account and when they become available to use. They have an early deadline, 11 PST that requires some accommodation to get payments out on time.

Return on Investment

Tipalti saves us hours of processing time to onboard vendors.
Payments are automated reducing hours of manual payment entry each month.
Tipalti is a very reasonably priced product

Usability

They do in fact integrate with a third party payment platform. We initiate the payments from there and they integrate over to Tipalti automatically. Tipalti also sends an update to our payment partner showing that the invoice(s) are marked 'paid'.

Efficiency

Tipalti saves us hours of processing time as well as onboarding time. This has freed up a lot of time to focus on other aspects of the business. They have also streamlined our tax compliance process.

Key Insights

Do you think Tipalti delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Tipalti's feature set?

Yes

Did Tipalti live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Tipalti go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Tipalti again?

Yes

Other Software Used

CAKE Affiliate Marketing Software

Likelihood to Recommend

Tipalti integrates with a major third party network that provides information on marketing traffic. This adds great value to our Tiplati experience as we can initialize the payments directly from this platform and have them processed with Tipalti.

I am a bit disappointed that Tipalti was unable to set up an integration with our accounting software. I think we were given a choice between integration with the third party or with our accounting system. I wish Tipalti would make it possible to set up multiple integration platforms.

Tipalti Feature Ratings

Using Tipalti

Users and Roles

3 - Chief Financial Officer, Controller, Senior Accountant

Support Headcount Required

4 - Accounting professionals

Business Processes Supported

Vendor Onboarding
Payment Processing
Tax Compliance

Innovative Uses

Integration with a global third party processor

Future Planned Uses

We have not evaluated it at this time

Likelihood to Renew

Tipalti developed a workflow us that has improved our efficiency in onboarding vendors and processing payments. They also ensure that we have all the required tax forms from the vendor before a payment goes out.

Evaluating Tipalti and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability

We like the vendor onboarding process. Tipalti also requires all of the required tax forms before making a payment. Tipalti also does a verification check with the IRS.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I think we did well overall. We didn't learn until late that Tipalti was unable to produce both an integration with a third party provider and our accounting software. We had to choose one. I wish we had gotten better clarification on this point during the evaluation process.

Tipalti Implementation

Implementation Rating

It went well overall and we received good training from the implementation specialist.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Integration with our accounting software
Some of the compliance requirements were difficult at first.

Tipalti Training

Training Types Used

Online Training

In-Person Training

Online Training

Tipalti assigned an implementation specialist who conducted our training. It went very well.

Tipalti Support

Support Rating

Tipalti support responds quicky and typically has our issue resolved in less than 24 hours.

Tipalti Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Using Tipalti

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Payment processing
Vendor onboarding
Reporting

Difficult Tasks

We have had payments delayed because a vendor attempted to change their address.
Cutoff time of 11am PST can be difficult to meet some days.
Delay of funds availability after wiring a payment. Sometimes up to an hour.

Integrating Tipalti

Ease of Integration

Tipalti actively worked our third party and completed a successful integration

Systems Integrated With

Cake

It was a successful integration with Cake however we have been advised that Tipalti cannot do a second integration that would have been with our accounting software.