6 Best Accounts Payable Software Programs for 2022
Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.
Eric is a staff writer at Fit Small Business and CPA focusing on accounting content. He spends most of his time researching and studying to give the best answer to everyone.
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 accounts payable automation should also reduce data entry and streamline the A/P process. Based on these requirements, here are six accounts payable systems that can help your business process and manage payables easily:
- Bill.com: Best overall accounts payable software because of its outstanding features at a low price
- QuickBooks Online: Best accounts payable software integrated with a complete bookkeeping system
- Sunrise: Best free accounts payable software
- Zoho Books: Best accounts payable software for mobile devices
- Beanworks: Best accounts payable automation software for integration with Xero
- Tipalti: Best accounts payable automation software for small businesses with global vendors
Best Accounts Payable Systems Compared
Software | Pricing | Our Score | Record Purchase Orders | View Unpaid Bills per Vendor | Record Credit Memos From Vendors | Convert PO to Bills | Batch Processing of Bills | Make Partial Payments on Bills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Starts at $39 per month | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Match Only 1 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | $55 to $200 per month | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | Free | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
 | $0 to $70 per month | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ | |
 | Contact Sales | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Match Only 1 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | Contact Sales | ✓ | ✓ | N/A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
1 Users can only match POs with bills. There’s no option to convert a purchaser into a bill automatically. Rather, the software will ask the user to indicate the PO number when creating a bill.
Bill.com: Best Overall Accounts Payable Software
Bill.com features two business solutions in accounts payable and accounts receivable management. If you need software solely for bills, Bill.com has a separate plan for A/P. Bill.com’s accounts payable solution combines general accounts payable features and automation.
Bill.com
Overall Score: 9.34
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Affordable plans
- Can expand to include accounts receivable 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
What's Missing
- Additional transaction fees for payment services like ACH processing, check mailing, credit or debit card processing, etc.
- 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 and Pricing
Bill.com 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.
Pay Bills (A/P) or Get Paid (A/R)
- Essentials: $39 per user per month
- Team: $49 per user per month
Pay Bills and Get Paid (A/P and A/R)
- Corporate: $69 per user per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Accounts Payable Features
Accounts payable dashboard (Source: Bill.com)
Bill.com’s accounts payable solution gives you full control over the billing process. It can collect invoices sent by vendors to a dedicated Bill.com email automatically or you can enter invoices manually. Once Bill.com receives invoices from vendors, it extracts useful information to ease up on data entry and keep the billing process flowing faster. Bill.com 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.
Our Expert Opinion
Bill.com is a complete accounts payable application that can help your business stay on top of bills. It’s an ideal supplement to your accounting software, especially if you process a lot of vendor invoices from different suppliers. However, even though Bill.com also offers accounts receivable solutions, getting the A/P and A/R solutions isn’t a substitute for a full accounting system. If you’re looking for an A/P system integrated into accounting software, we recommend QuickBooks Online—it has a competitive accounts payable system that rivals Bill.com’s and is also the most popular small business accounting software in the United States.
QuickBooks Online: Best Accounts Payable Software Integrated With a Complete Accounting System
QuickBooks Online is our choice for overall best small business accounting software because of its scalability for small businesses. With QuickBooks Online, you can either pay bills by printing checks or by using the online bill pay feature directly through the software. This allows you to track payment status and remittance information. You can also generate reports that provide insight into your company’s performance, such as an A/P aging or unpaid bills by vendor report.
QuickBooks Online
Overall Score: 9.26
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- 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 payments
What's Missing
- 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 auto-capture
Plans and Pricing
QuickBooks Online has four different plans to choose from, and a free 30-day trial is available before committing to the software. However, A/P features are not present in the most basic plan, QuickBooks Simple Start:
- Essentials: $55 per month for up to three users
- Plus: $85 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 QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, so that you can pay, track, and manage bills right inside the software. Both 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 two-month trial period, 99 cents per ACH transaction thereafter—$1.99 per check—powered by Bill.com
Accounts Payable Features
QuickBooks Online bill tracking
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.
Our Expert Opinion
Using QuickBooks Online for your accounts payable needs allows you to save time on data entry because bill payments sync automatically with the software. The added convenience of using Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online makes processing payments even easier. However, transaction fees for Bill Pay are higher than Bill.com’s fees.
Although the reporting features can be limited, you have access to A/P reports that will provide a snapshot of your cash flow. You also have the ease of knowing that you can manage all of your financial data on one platform, with real-time dashboards.
We don’t recommend QuickBooks Online for accounts payable if you have existing accounting software like Xero. If your current accounting software’s A/P features aren’t sufficient, consider supplementing your existing software with Bill.com.
Sunrise: Best Free Accounts Payable Software
Sunrise, which is also our choice for best free accounting software, has an excellent accounts payable module. You can create and track vendor bills and connect to your bank to import transactions, and it also includes a mobile app. This is ideal for budget-minded businesses without the need to track and bill time.
Sunrise
Overall Score: 6.48
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Most of Sunrise’s features are available for one user at no charge
- Mobile app to manage transactions
- Easy-to-use interface and dashboard
- Professional bookkeeping services also available for a fee
- Paid plan supports unlimited users and companies
What's Missing
- Not able to perform bank reconciliations
- Limited reports
- Expenses paid can’t be assigned and billed to customers
- Limited A/P automation features
Plans and Pricing
Sunrise has two plans available: a free self-service plan and Sunrise Plus, which allows for multiple users and payment integrations with Stripe, Square, and PayPal:
- Free Self-Service: $0 for one user
- Sunrise Plus: $19.99 per month for multiple users
Accounts Payable Features
Sunrise accounts payable
In Sunrise, bills are recorded as expenses. You can enter them by clicking on the Record Expenses tab on the left navigation bar. This will take you to a page that lists all bills that are due, with amounts and due dates. To add a new bill, click on the green Create Expense button at the upper right, and enter the necessary information. You can then enter the payment information and mark it as paid.
Our Expert Opinion
Sunrise is an excellent choice if you’re looking for free and easy-to-use accounting software, especially in accounts payable. Since Sunrise is free software, we can’t expect it to have robust and advanced accounts payable features. Despite that limitation, Sunrise has competitive general accounts payable features that are more than enough for businesses with few vendors and bills.
Zoho Books: Best Accounts Payable Software for Mobile Devices
Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software suite that’s well suited to small and mid-sized businesses. We found that its robust mobile app is ideal for monitoring expenses and bills, and you can gain instant insights into how well your business is performing through a key performance indicator (KPI) dashboard. You can also enter bills and bill payments efficiently from within the app.
Zoho Books
Overall Score: 9.01
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Affordable price
- Ability to track
- Excellent user interface
- Automated workflows
- Generate recurring bills for your purchases
- Allow transaction approvals
- Vendor portal that allows suppliers to view their transactions
- Detailed contact records
What's Missing
- Not able to set up multiple companies in the same account
- Limited integration options as compared to competitors
- No billing features in the Free and Standard plans
- Revenue cap of $50,000 for the fre
Plans and Pricing
Zoho has four pricing plans available, including a free option:
- Free: $0 for one user and one accountant (only for companies with less than $50,000 in annual revenue)
- Standard: $20 per month for up to three users
- Professional: $50 per month for up to five users
- Premium: $70 per month for up to 10 users
If you want accounts payable features with Zoho Books, you need to choose Professional or Premium.
Accounts Payable Features
Zoho Books accounts payable
Zoho Books allows you to create, send, and manage bills online. Purchases that occur at regular intervals can be managed with recurring billing, and you can also associate customers with billable items. As shown above, a list of unpaid bills is available for review, and you can record the form of payment as well as send bills for approval.
Our Expert Opinion
Zoho Books is a comprehensive accounting program that allows you to stay on top of your payables. Some of its most useful features include the ability to set up recurring payments and an approval feature that increases security by only performing a transaction when it’s approved by the right person.
Its mobile app is as powerful as the browser-based version, and detailed contact records allow you to view contact information and the receivables/payables balance easily. Unfortunately, Zoho Books can’t batch process bills, which is a major downside for businesses with voluminous billing transactions. If batch processing is important to you, we recommend Quickbooks Online or Bill.com.
Beanworks: Best A/P Automation Software Integration for Xero
Beanworks is a cloud-based accounts payable automation application designed for businesses of all sizes. The company advertises itself as “built by accountants for accountants,” and this is evident in its productivity tools.
Beanworks provides real-time cash flow management, approval management, and bill management tools and also integrates seamlessly with many accounting programs (including Xero) to automate the accounts payable process from POs to payments. Beanworks’ streamlined workflow allows vendor payments to be approved and released in a smooth fashion when users opt for the automatic option for approving POs, invoices, and payments.
Beanworks
Overall Score: 7.89
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Vendor bill auto-capture from email
- Bill coding feature including multi-currency bills
- Integrates with QuickBooks, Sage, and Xero
- Bill approvals and routing
- Audit trail
- Set and manage spending limits
What's Missing
- Pricing is not transparent
- Exporting invoices from QuickBooks to Beanworks takes two hours before appearing
- Search functions are limited
- Not a substitute for accounting software
Plans and Pricing
Beanworks currently has four plans available that all allow unlimited users and receipts for a flat monthly fee: Starter, Pro, Premium, and Enterprise.
Fees are based on a combination of your monthly invoice volume, number of legal entities, purchase order and payment requirements, and service levels.
Unfortunately, the pricing for each plan is quote-based, so you must contact Beanworks online for more information.
Accounts Payable Features
Beanworks accounts payable (Source: Beanworks)
The Beanworks 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 above, each bill is color-coded to indicate what stage of the payment process it’s in. The Actions column at the far right lets you edit, view, or approve each bill.
Our Expert Opinion
Beanworks is a software package that’s targeted specifically toward business owners who need to take a more efficient approach to accounts payable tasks. Since its A/P feature set is more robust than general accounting software with capabilities, such as approval management, you may wish to use Beanworks for your A/P and integrate it with QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage for your general bookkeeping.
Tipalti: Best A/P Automation Software for Small Businesses With Global Vendors
Tipalti automates your A/P by streamlining the entire bill-to-pay reconciliation cycle, making it ideal for larger small businesses. The platform functions seamlessly in a cloud-based environment with built-in tax compliance. It will match POs to invoices and receipts and schedule batch invoices for payment.
Tipalti also offers many advanced features, such as automated approval workflows and self-service supplier onboarding, for efficient management of accounts payable. It provides for global mass vendor payments by providing businesses with multiple methods of payment in 120 currencies, making it an ideal tool for businesses dealing with international suppliers and vendors.
Tipalti
Overall Score: 6.44
OUT OF 5
What We Like
- Ability to view invoice and payment history
- Suppliers can update banking details on their own
- Self-service portal with 24/7 access
- Choice of six payment methods and 120 currencies
- Can require that payments reach a certain level before paying
- Allows for fee splitting so that you can pay referral fees
- Ensure complete tax and regulatory compliance
What's Missing
- Pricing isn’t transparent
- No free trial
- No mobile app
- Vendors must input their own information
Plans and Pricing
Tipalti’s pricing model is designed to grow with your company based on the features that you may require, such as multi-entity payables. Pricing starts at $149 per month for the platform fee. Any upgrades beyond that are quote-based.
Accounts Payable Features
Tipalti accounts payable (Source: Tipalti)
Tipalti’s automation process emphasizes self-service and minimizes manual effort. Vendors can input their own bills once they’re registered on your Supplier Hub by providing their contact information, billing details, and tax identification number. They can then upload their invoices or email them to your payables address. Machine learning (ML) will fill in as much of the accounting and approval routing data as possible, based on past bills. Once the bill has been entered, you and other approvers in your workflow can review it and then schedule the invoice for payment.
Our Expert Opinion
Tipalti is an end-to-end payment solution that’s ideal for larger small businesses that foresee expansive growth. It distinguishes itself from other similar A/P automation software by providing a cloud-based solution to automate accounts payable. In addition to giving you a 360-degree view of the entire A/P process, it supports multiple payment methods for global payments and offers a self-service supplier portal that allows for efficient management of your accounts payable.
However, Tipalti charges a platform fee on top of the plan. That means that you’ll have to pay $149 plus the quoted monthly price. If you think that’s too expensive for your needs, we recommend choosing either QuickBooks Online for a full accounting solution or Bill.com for a standalone A/P system that can also integrate with major accounting software.
When To Use Accounts Payable Automation Software vs Accounts Payable Software
Most accounting solutions include accounts payable 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 accounts payable features that are included in good 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, you have to 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.
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 Accounts Payable Features
25%
Accounts Payable Automation
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 specific 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.
25% of Overall Score
When considering ease of use, we assessed the difficulty of using the software. Our main focus was 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.
*Percentages of overall score
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.
