7 Best Accounts Payable Software Programs for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
The best accounts payable software must have strong general accounts payable (A/P) features like vendor tracking, purchase order (PO) tracking, and vendor payments tracking. Good A/P automation should also reduce data entry, streamline the A/P process, and provide options for managers to review and approve bills before payment.
Based on these requirements, here are seven accounts payable systems that can help your business process and manage payables easily:
- BILL: Best overall A/P software with outstanding features at a low price
- Melio: Best free standalone A/P platform
- Ramp: Best for issuing cards and managing expenses
- QuickBooks Online: Best for comprehensive accounting features
- Wave: Best free accounting software with A/P features
- Centime: Best for comprehensive cash forecasting and analysis
- Quadient Accounts Payable by Beanworks: Best for A/P automation
Best Accounts Payable Systems Compared
Software | Monthly Price | Free Trial | Highlights | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Starts at $45 per user | 30 days |
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 | Free | ✕ |
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 | Free | ✕ |
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 | $60 to $200 | 30 days |
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 | Free | ✕ |
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 | Starts at $145 per month | ✕ |
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 | Contact Sales | ✕ |
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BILL: Best Overall A/P Software
Overall Score:
4.70 / 5
Pros
- Affordable plans
- Can expand to include A/R and invoicing customers
- Auto-capture receipts from email or document uploads
- Can pay bills using automated clearing house (ACH), credit card, check, or international wire transfer
Cons
- Additional transaction fees for payment services like ACH processing, check mailing, credit or debit card processing
- Not a substitute for accounting software
- Not ideal for businesses with few clients
- Integration with QuickBooks or Xero requires the Team or Corporate plan
Plans & Pricing
BILL offers solutions to two vital business processes. You can get either invoicing (accounts receivable or A/R) or billing (A/P) under separate plans or get both for a single price. You may also sign up for a 30-day free trial.
A/P or A/R
- Essentials: $45 per user, per month
- Team: $55 per user, per month
A/P and A/R
- Corporate: $79 per user, per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
BILL scores the highest in special A/P features. Our evaluation reveals that BILL can offer great value to customers through its premium features like faster and easier payments for vendors and suppliers within BILL. However, its ease of use score is only above average because of limited customer support options (live chat and help center only) and the need for accounting software integration. Our recommended alternative would be QuickBooks Online because it’s accounting software with integrated A/P features and better customer support, which includes phone support.
BILL is our best overall pick because of its comprehensive features in managing bills. We like the status tracking feature, which helps businesses stay on top of all bills. If your vendor also uses BILL, sending bills and requesting payments will be a breeze. However, the process for sending bills to non-BILL users is easy as well. The solution integrates with QuickBooks and Xero, making it easy for users to implement it in their small business accounting software.
BILL’s A/P solution gives you full control over the billing process. It can collect invoices sent by vendors to a dedicated BILL email automatically, or you can enter invoices manually. Once BILL receives invoices from vendors, it extracts useful information to ease up on data entry and keep the billing process flowing faster.
The software also has payment channels built into the app, so you can settle your obligations with vendors easily. It also has approval workflow schemes to ensure that all vendor billings are billed accurately and pertain to legitimate business expenses.
Accounts payable dashboard (Source: BILL)
- Integrates with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Wave
- Automatically fetch bills from email
- A/P and A/R features in one platform
- Competitive transaction fees
- Automatic bill codification that autofills fields based on similar past transactions
- Businesses processing high-volume A/P transactions
- Businesses using QuickBooks, Xero, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
- Growing businesses
Melio: Best Free Standalone A/P Platform
Overall Score:
3.60 / 5
Pros
- No subscription fee
- Unlimited number of users
- No sign-up or account needed to pay vendors
Cons
- No audit trails feature
- No Android mobile app
- No phone support
Plans & Pricing
Melio charges $0 for using the platform, but you have to pay transaction fees.
Pay (A/P)
- $0 for bank transfers and sending checks via United States Postal Service (USPS)
- 2.9% fee for credit and debit card transfers
- 1% fee for same-day bank transfers
- $20 fee for expedited check delivery and international US dollars (USD) transfers
Get Paid (A/R)
- $0 to receive bank transfers and accept credit card payments (2.9% fee to you or payer)
- 1% fee for instant payout (same-day bank transfer)
Melio offers the essentials and therefore meets our minimum expectations. Our evaluations of general and special A/P features reveal that Melio has all the essential functions, with a sprinkle of advanced features like custom workflows and OCR. Overall, the provider is above average and doesn’t have a significant weakness worth mentioning. We recommend BILL for advanced features like its vast network of BILL users that enables you to pay vendors faster as long as they’re using BILL.
We picked Melio because it is a free standalone accounts payable software. Another free option in this guide is Wave—but it’s accounting software by default. Melio has no platform fees, making it a flexible solution for small businesses. You only pay for successful transactions, which is helpful if your business only performs occasional transactions with vendors and customers.
Melio’s A/P features are not as robust as BILL, but we don’t find this as a downside, as most small businesses will benefit from Melio’s simple A/P features—especially those who pay internationally. In Melio, you get workflow approvals to reduce manual review of all bills and easy bill capture to reduce data entry. These features are often present in premium plans, but you get them for free on Melio.
Syncing QuickBooks and Melio
- Pay locally and internationally
- Generate reports showing payments to 1099 contractors
- Bill capture from either PDF or JPG files
- Approval workflows for processing bills and payments
- Startups looking for billing software without platform fees
- Businesses that don’t process many bill payments
- Businesses struggling with cash flow
- Businesses paying 1099 contractors
Ramp: Best for Issuing Cards and Managing Expenses
Overall Score:
4.20 / 5
Pros
- No subscription or platform fee
- Can issue virtual cards and track expenses
- Offers multiple payment methods for bills
Cons
- Limited customer support (support email and help center only)
- Not ideal for freelancers or self-employed individuals due to Ramp’s expense workflows
- Corporate cards are prepaid cards, not credit cards
Plans & Pricing
Ramp is free to use for expense management, card issuance, and bill payments.
Ramp’s high score in special A/P shows that it is great A/P software for batch processing of bills and creating workflows. It’s also worth mentioning that Ramp’s free pricing model is the reason why it earned a perfect score in pricing, making it a cost-effective pick for large companies. However, Ramp’s major limitation is that it doesn’t accept unregistered businesses and freelancers. We recommend choosing Melio instead since they accept sole proprietors and freelancers.
Ramp is primarily an expense management software. But with Ramp Bill Pay, you can also get bill management features to manage payments to vendors. We chose Ramp because it covers two major business areas, expenses and payables. Since these two areas overlap, Ramp can help review and approve business expenses and route reimbursable expenses as payables.
Besides that, Ramp Business Card can make business expense tracking easier since all expenses paid using the card are reported within Ramp automatically. To learn more about it, read our review of Ramp Business Card.
Ramp is a flexible software that offers expense management, corporate card issuance, and A/P management. The A/P features are included in the Ramp Bill Pay feature, which showcases automatic data capture from receipts, automatic sync with accounting software, and payment status tracking. Upon uploading receipts, Ramp automatically uses its optical character recognition (OCR) technology with 95% accuracy. Ramp also remembers category mappings when it syncs with your accounting software.
Ramp Bill Pay (Source: Ramp)
- Track expenses charged using the Ramp-issued corporate cards
- Issue unlimited corporate cards to employees
- Get 1.5% cash back on corporate card charges
- Fetch receipts from Gmail and Outlook
- Create and assign multiple approval workflows
- More than 1,000 integrations with banks, productivity software, and accounting software
- Businesses that want to issue corporate cards to employees for expenses
- Recording bills and importing purchase orders to be converted into a bill
- Businesses with a remote workforce
QuickBooks Online: Best for Comprehensive Accounting Features
Overall Score:
4.50 / 5
Pros
- Schedule and make payments right in QuickBooks
- Ability to pay bills with a credit card, even if the vendor doesn’t accept credit cards
- Bills paid by check or direct deposit are recorded automatically in QuickBooks
- Thorough data records for vendors and customers
- More than 650 integrations
- Make partial bill payment
Cons
- Limited account users with each plan
- Not ideal for companies with existing accounting software
- Costly transaction fees when using Bill Pay
- Lacks A/P automation features like vendor invoice autocapture
Plans & Pricing
QuickBooks Online has four different plans to choose from and a free 30-day trial. However, A/P features are not present in the most basic plan, Simple Start. Below are the QuickBooks Online plans with billing features:
- Essentials: $60 per month for up to three users
- Plus: $90 per month for up to five users
- Advanced: $200 per month for up to 25 users
In addition, Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online integrates with the tiers above, so you can pay, track, and manage bills right inside the platform. Both Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online plans allow you unlimited users and no monthly fee:
- Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online: 99 cents per ACH transaction; $1.99 per check
- Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online Advanced: 20 free domestic ACH transactions per month during the two-month trial period, 99 cents per ACH transaction thereafter; $1.99 per check
QuickBooks Online gets a perfect score in general A/P features because it is accounting software. Its ease of use score is also commendable because it has multiple support channels. The platform only fell a bit short in pricing given its above-average price point and limited seats. It also doesn’t have automatic bill capture from email, which is the reason why its special A/P score dipped slightly.
Overall, QuickBooks Online is a good pick for A/P management since it’s accounting software, but we recommend BILL or Melio for dedicated A/P software. However, existing QuickBooks Online users who are dissatisfied with the A/P features can integrate the platform with BILL for better A/P management.
QuickBooks Online is an ideal fit for small businesses looking for a two-in-one solution for accounting and A/P tracking. While Wave is also accounting software, QuickBooks Online is more complete than Wave and more flexible across different industries. Since QuickBooks Online’s A/P tracking is integrated into the accounting system, you can track bills and bill payments easily through reports and the general ledger (GL).
As our best small business accounting software, the A/P feature within QuickBooks Online simplifies the bill-paying process. After you have entered your bills, you can navigate to the Pay Bills screen, which will show you a list of all bills that are still outstanding, along with their due dates. Click the checkbox to the left of the vendor name and enter a full or partial payment for each.
You can pay bills by printing checks or you can use the free QuickBooks Online Bill Pay option. The Bill Pay feature is included in your QuickBooks Online plan for free but transaction fees will apply. For more detailed information about how to pay bills in QuickBooks, check out our online tutorial.
QuickBooks Online Bill Creation Window
- Powerful Bill Pay features within a full bookkeeping system
- Access to vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors who can assist in bookkeeping and tax accounting
- Track invoices and bills by location and class
- Option to choose between bank feed or comma-separated values (CSV) file imports for bank transactions
- Reconcile bank accounts even without bank feeds
- Add an accountant without losing a seat in the number of users
- Create, manage, and track bills and A/P balances through reports and dashboards
- Businesses looking for a complete accounting system
- Businesses planning to outsource bookkeeping to professional accountants or QuickBooks ProAdvisors
- Small businesses in general
Wave: Best Free Accounting System with A/P Features
Overall Score:
3.00 / 5
Pros
- Easy to record a bill and manage unpaid bills
- Totally free for invoicing, accounting, and receipt scanning
- Easy to set up and use
- Optical character recognition in receipt scanning
Cons
- Not a good fit for large businesses
- Mobile app is limited in functionality
- Poor customer support
- Can’t set up separate income and expenses by classes or locations
Plans & Pricing
Wave is free for accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning. It offers these additional services for a reasonable cost:
- Credit card payments: 2.9% plus 60 cents per transaction or 3.4% plus 60 cents per AMEX transaction.
- Bank payments: 1% per transaction but a minimum of $1 fee
Wave scores fairly in general A/P features, knowing that it’s free accounting software, and it’s expected that it will not score well in special A/P features since these features are premium. We only recommend Wave if you’re a freelancer with very few vendors to account for in the books. Melio is a more powerful alternative if you prefer A/P-focused features.
Wave is a good pick for small businesses with few bills to track. Freelancers can also use it to record recurring billings from frequent vendors like mobile data plans, software subscriptions, and internet service plans. Because of Wave’s simplicity in A/P tracking, we can’t recommend this software to established small businesses. Instead, choose QuickBooks Online for a more complete accounting solution and inventory features.
Managing unpaid bills is one of Wave’s biggest strengths, which is a crucial part of the accounting process. You can manage your A/P transactions from the Purchase menu, which has all of the features you need to record your purchases, including vendors, bills, and products and services.
Adding a bill in Wave
- Set and restrict user roles, which include Viewer, Editor, Payroll Manager, and Admin
- Decent reporting capability for free software
- Add sales tax to bills, invoices, estimates, and expense and income transactions
- Excellent invoice customization options
- Can accommodate unlimited users
- Track 1099 contractor payments
- Businesses looking for free bookkeeping software
- Small-scale property managers
- Ecommerce integration via Zapier
Centime: Best for Comprehensive Cash Forecasting and Analysis
Overall Score:
3.10 / 5
Pros
- Cash flow impact tracking for payables and receivables
- Cash flow forecasting
- KPI and financial metrics dashboard, such as cash runway and burn rate
- QuickBooks Online integration
Cons
- No detailed pricing information
- No free trial
Plans & Pricing
Base plans start at $149 per month. Users who need a comprehensive set of features can request a custom quote.
Though not a dedicated A/P software, Centime offers decent A/P features. It scores well in general and special A/P features—but not as excellent as BILL or Ramp. You probably won’t choose Centime purely for its A/P features, but if you want to get the most from your limited working capital, it is the perfect choice for A/R and A/P. Its KPIs, financial metrics, and cash management features utilize your A/R and A/P activity to generate highly accurate information.
Centime is primarily a cash management and business banking software, but it also offers A/P features. Users can process vendor invoices, route approvals, make payments, and track performance. On top of that, Centime has modules for accounts receivables, cash flow forecasting, and KPI metric tracking. Therefore, we recommend it if you want A/P features integrated with cash flow tracking.
Centime combines data visualization and A/P data in its Payables module, as shown below. The column graph on top displays an aging chart that’ll help users never skip a payment. The table below the graph is also outstanding, as it presents important A/P information such as supplier’s name, invoice date, notes, outstanding balances, payment amount, due date, payment method, payment date, and status. Overall, Centime shows its payables module in a compact yet informational manner.
Centime’s A/P Module
- A/P module for processing and paying vendor bills
- Industry-based KPI tracking for improving payables management
- Multi-tier controls for fraud control
- Multi-payment options
- Cash flow forecasting
- A/R collection streamlining and payment processing
- Businesses looking for A/P management features integrated with cash flow management
- Forecasting cash flows, especially in A/R collections and A/P payments
- Business banking solutions through Centime Checking Plus
- Integrating with QuickBooks Online and NetSuite
Quadient Accounts Payable by Beanworks: Best for A/P Automation
Overall Score:
3.70 / 5
Pros
- Vendor bill auto-capture from email
- Bill coding feature including multicurrency bills
- Integrates with QuickBooks, Sage, and Xero
- Bill approvals and routing
- Audit trail
- Set and manage spending limits
Cons
- Pricing is not transparent
- Exporting invoices from QuickBooks to Beanworks takes 2 hours before appearing
- Search functions are limited
- Not a substitute for accounting software
Plans & Pricing
Quadient Accounts Payable offers varied plans based on the users’ needs, and Beansprout is recommended for starters. Users can also choose plans for Purchase Orders, Invoices, Payments, and Expenses. There is no pricing information on its website, so we recommend contacting sales for pricing information.
Quadient AP is another competent pick for A/P management, as shown in its high score in special A/P features. Its best feature is automation since it provides users with more options to speed up bill processing. However, Quadient AP took a hit in pricing because the cost information is not readily available on the website, making a price quote another step.
We chose Quadient Accounts Payable for users wanting more control over the A/P process. It can perform a three-way match of purchase orders, invoices, and receiving reports to reduce time for manual matching. It also has controls and workflows to ensure that every transaction complies with company policy.
It is best for Xero integration because Xero users can utilize all of Quadient Accounts Payable’s automation features, such as three-way matching and enhanced controls.
Quadient Accounts Payable’s payment module can be used for paying vendor bills and reimbursing employee expenses. This allows you to select the invoices and expenses that you want to pay and submit the payments for approval. As shown in the image below, each bill is color-coded to indicate what stage of the payment process it’s in. The Actions column in the far right lets you edit, view, or approve each bill.
Beanworks accounts payable (Source: Quadient AP)
- Purchase order management for merchandising and retail businesses
- Expense tracking and reporting
- Payment management and tracking
- Cloud storage to store receipts and other documents needed for processing invoices, bills, and payments
- 99% OCR accuracy for extracting information from PDF or captured receipts
- Excellent workflows in managing bills and expenses
- Speeding up A/P processing through advanced workflows and automation features
- Businesses operating remotely
- Businesses managing multiple organizations
How We Evaluated Best Accounts Payable Software
We employed specific criteria to evaluate the best accounts payable software. We considered pricing, general features, specific features, and ease of use. We assigned an equal percentage for each criterion and different weights for subcriteria.
25%
Pricing
25%
General A/P Features
25%
Special A/P Features
25%
Ease of Use
25% of Overall Score
In assessing the pricing, we considered the transparency, affordability, and flexibility of pricing plans. We also gave more credit to the software providers that can accommodate more users.
25% of Overall Score
When considering basic accounts payable functionality, we looked at features, such as creating vendors, tracking vendor transactions, viewing outstanding bills, recording vendor credits, and other minor A/P features.
25% of Overall Score
In evaluating special accounts payable features, we focused more on A/P automation. We heavily considered the ability of the software to reduce data entry time, workflow approvals, and batch processing. We also included the following:
- Automatic payments: We looked at whether the software automates the payment process for recurring bills.
- Automated alerts: For every vendor that’s set up in the system, we considered whether you can create custom alerts to inform you when a bill has arrived or is due.
- E-bill aggregation: We evaluated whether electronic copies of all your bills can be sent directly to your accounting software.
- Audit trails: An audit trail helps approvers of bills see the history of the transaction being processed. Audit trails provide transparency and establish evidence that bills have been processed according to the company’s policies.
25% of Overall Score
When considering ease of use, we assessed the difficulty of using the software. Our main focus is integration with accounting software. As much as possible, we want accounts payable software to integrate with popular accounting applications and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. We also factored user reviews into the software’s Ease of Use score.
*Percentages of overall score
When To Use A/P Automation Software vs A/P Software
Most accounting solutions include A/P features but don’t necessarily provide the functionality to handle more complex processes, such as batch payments. Depending on the size and needs of your business, the A/P features included in reputable bookkeeping software may be enough to do the job. Otherwise, automation software is helpful for processing a large volume of bills and simplifying complex A/P activities.
When deciding, you have to consider qualitative and quantitative factors in A/P automation. It’s a decision of whether to insource, such as hire A/P professionals, or outsource, such as when getting an A/P automation service. As far as the quantitative aspect, consider the relevant costs of insourcing, such as salaries of A/P professionals, and relevant outsourcing expenses, like the monthly cost of the A/P automation software.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Automating A/P starts with shifting from manual to automated A/P processing. You should get A/P software that’s either included in your bookkeeping system or a separate tool that integrates with your accounting platform. The solution must include features that reduce data entry and speed up bill processing.
A/P software manages, automates, and records A/P transactions in an efficient manner. These systems should reduce data entry time, streamline processing and review, and facilitate a channel to make payments to vendors.
An A/P automation tool often uses advanced technology like artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce manual work. A/P automation features include automatic classification of transactions, optical character recognition, and workflow rules.
Bottom Line
Accounts payable software helps you track which bills are due and when they’re due, which is a key component of managing your business successfully. Some A/P solutions take it a step further by automating the process, allowing for more complex features like approval workflows and global payments. The right fit for your business is the software that suits both your current needs and is also scalable for the future.
