APP COMPARE: Cloud-based Payments Apps

by

The following are cloud based payment applications performing accounts payable, payment automation/workflow or specialized payments (including domestic or international payments). These applications also integrate with QuickBooks (and in some cases, other accounting applications). Some may only integrate with QuickBooks Online, some may connect with both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, make certain to review each App before making your final decision if you are needing connectivity to a specific accounting application.

Be aware, the applications have been listed in 'alphabetical order' without regard to any assessment of their performance. And sorry, these are not side-by-side comparisons and rankings.

Beanworks

Beanworks is an AP automation solution, with software designed to make your accounts payable simple. Beanworks eliminates data entry, provides configurable workflows that fit your needs, and brings your team together online in managing the AP process.

Beanworks features online approvals and instant invoice submission through mobile or desktop devices. If you use Purchase Orders, Beanworks has you covered with easy real-time reporting on invoices as they progress from purchase orders, through coding, to approvals, and then payment.

You will easily approve and pay invoices for one or more companies from your Beanworks solution. And Beanworks not only provides accounts payable automation but creates a seamless connection with QuickBooks to streamline your AP workflow.

In fact, it can even connect to multiple QuickBooks companies. Beanworks not only integrates with QBO, but also offers integration with QuickBooks Desktop versions. For more information see the Beanworks landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Bill.com

Bill.com is the leading business payments company helping over 2M members process $52 billion in payments annually. Bill.com saves companies over 50% of the time typically spent on financial back-office operations by automating end-to-end processes. Bill.com has also partnered with four of the top 10 largest U.S. banks.

Bill.com helps businesses connect and do business by tying together finance and accounting programs, banks, customers, vendors, accounting professionals, and documents. Bill.com fully integrates with QuickBooks to makes it easy to manage the cash flow, because the incoming and outgoing money is all tracked in one place.

But Bill.com also teamed-up with Intuit to offer QBO Online Bill Pay powered by Bill.com to provide a solution in which every action happens inside of QBO. Users never need to log into another system, they simply create and pay their Bills inside QBO, even though the behind-the-scenes magic occurs via Bill.com.

So now you have two choices, the regular Bill.com App with its enhanced functionality and Approver and Approval policy workflow options, or the ‘embedded’ Bill.com features found in QBO Online Bill Pay powered by Bill.com.

For more information see the Bill.com landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Circulus

Circulus SMB was created to provide small and medium sized businesses with the tools to harness the power of an automated online AP workflow. The goal of Circulus is to offer a solution that is affordable to any business, while not compromising on technology or features.

Circulus has developed a solution which allows users to streamline processes, enhance data quality, tighten AP controls, and consolidate bill management into a single interface. They have created a simple-to-use solution which allows customers to focus on doing what they do best – growing their business.

Circulus is a cloud-based solution allowing users to consolidate payables and supporting documentation while integrating with either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. The Circulus workflows, role-based permissions and seamless integration provide users with a complete view of their Accounts Payable and giving them the ability to pay Bills via ACH, check, QuickBooks check, or Marking them as Paid, and Circulus creates a detailed audit trail of all actions taken on each bill.

For more information see the Circulus landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

MineralTree

MineralTree provides the easiest to use accounts payable and payment automation solution, giving customers unparalleled visibility and significant cost savings in an affordable, integrated platform that is guaranteed secure. MineralTree for QuickBooks helps middle-market businesses automate AP and reduce time spent by 70%.

With MineralTree you will stop manually entering invoices, chasing approvals, waiting on authorization and tracking payments. MineralTree offers both their 'Invoice-to-Pay' for small-to-medium businesses making fewer than 500 payments per month, and offers their 'FlexPay' enterprise product for large companies making as many as 10,000 or more payments per month.

MineralTree works with QuickBooks Pro/Premier and Enterprise as well as QuickBooks Online. Invoices can be created in QuickBooks or MineralTree where they can be approved and paid. When a payment is issued by MineralTree, the payment data automatically syncs to QuickBooks, where it can be found under Expense Transactions.

For more information see the MineralTree landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Plooto

Plooto is a venture-backed financial technology company dedicated to streamlining the way businesses manage their domestic and international payments. Plooto was named a Top 20 Most Innovative Company by CIX and was shortlisted as one of C100’s 2017 cohort of “most promising startups.” 

It's the easiest way for your business to pay vendors, collect money from clients and more. All you need is an email – your vendors don't need to share personal financial information or create an account.

Plooto is the simplest way to streamline all your payables and receivables from QuickBooks Online and Desktop in one integrated platform. Plooto takes care of all the administrative paperwork that comes along with payments, so you don’t have to.

When bills are created or updated in QuickBooks, Plooto's integration enables you to make payments quickly and easily. Simply log into Plooto and process multiple transactions in one click. Once submitted, funds are deposited directly into your payees' bank accounts and you will receive real time notifications every step of the way.

For more information see the Plooto landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Stampli

Stampli is a cloud-based invoice management software that provides a real solution to Accounts Payable process bottlenecks and integrates with QuickBooks Online where both system then sync in real time.

Once a bill is entered in Stampli, it becomes a digital landing page that centers all activity and conversation surrounding that bill on top of the bill itself. Accounts Payable can easily assign approvers and monitor the conversation from the landing page. During the approvals process, Accounts Payable can toggle back and forth between both systems via web browser extremely easily, making the invoice management process a breeze from start to finish.

Once the invoice has been approved, Stampli creates it in QuickBooks Online. After payment is completed, that information is automatically reflected in Stampli. The invoice is marked ‘Paid’ and a reference number is attached.​ Stampli also offers integration with QuickBooks Desktop.

For more information see the Stampli landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Tipalti

Tipalti streamlines the complete end-to-end accounts payable workflow and integrates directly with QuickBooks Online. Designed to cut the time you spend on-boarding and paying vendors, collecting tax IDs, processing bills, and reconciling payments, Tipalti automates the entire payables process so you can focus your time on growing your business.

Bills and payments are processed in Tipalti and the details are synced to QBO. All Vendors, GL accounts for bill coding, standard payment terms, departments, and locations are updated between Tipalti and QBO to keep everything ‘in sync.’ Tipalti’s integration with QBO provides automation, control and visibility of global accounts payable operations to any SMB. 

Tipalti will automate your end-to-end payables flow and scale as your company continues to grow by providing you with vendor on-boarding, KPMG-certified FATCA tax compliance, bill management, global payments (190 countries, 120 currencies, 6 payment methods including US and global ACH), early payments, reconciliation, AP reporting, and pre-built integration with QuickBooks Online. With these strong financial controls you will simply never outgrow Tipalti.

For more information see the Tipalti landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Veem

Veem is an inter-continental payment tool that allows companies and businesses to send, track and receive money to and from more than 60 countries. Veem simplifies international wire transfers by eliminating foreign payments middle-men and redesigning global money transfers to cut-out needless bank involvements, delays and fees so that payments get where they are going on time and at a better rate. Veem integrates with QuickBooks giving users international supplier payments with fee free money transfer to over 60 different countries.

Once Veem is fully integrated with QuickBooks your approved bills will appear on the QuickBooks tab of your Veem dashboard. You can make a quick payment to a vendor when they exist in the Veem network simply by clicking the 'pay' button.

Veem then automatically updates the status of those Bills in QuickBooks as ‘Paid.’

For more information see the Veem landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Editor's commentary:

I know that some people will wonder why some of these Apps were included this article saying that 'payment only' solutions are not the same as 'accounts payable workflow' solutions, or that 'international payment solutions' are significantly different than 'domestic only' payment solutions. While both of those arguments maybe true we see the inclusion of Apps fitting into all of those categories fundamental to the overall framework in which this 'Cloud-based Payments Apps' feature was intended to provide information to our readers. We didn't set out to 'limit' the scope of our coverage to any single 'type' of payment App but rather to paint a broad stroke on an even wider canvas of the changing market when it comes to payment Apps.

Now I am am absolutely certain that we have left some (perhaps many) other applications out of our feature. To those App vendors I would simply say I'm sorry, I can only include so many at any one time, and I can only do so much research in one sitting, so please send me an email with your contact information and a brief description of your 'payment App'. Insightful Accountant is more than likely to offer a 'round two' of this same category in upcoming editions of this feature.

As for you our readers, I would ask you to please stay tuned for more of these 'APP COMPARE' features in the future. Perhaps not one 'ever week' but certainly one or two every month over the months to come. After all, just as our 'by-line picture illustrates', there are a lot of Apps in the crop to pick over in the marketplace.