BILL vs QuickBooks Online 2023 Comparison
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.
Danielle is a writer for the Finance division of Fit Small Business. She has owned a bookkeeping and payroll service that specializes in small business, for over twenty years.
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
BILL, formerly Bill.com, is an accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) software that focuses on processing vendor billings and sending customer invoices. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Online is a complete accounting software that can also process bills and vendor payments. While BILL covers two essential accounting functions, it isn’t a substitute for accounting software like QuickBooks Online. BILL has excellent A/P automation suitable for small businesses when it’s added as an integration to QuickBooks Online.
In this article, we’ll discuss the difference between BILL and QuickBooks Online. We awarded QuickBooks Online our overall best small business accounting software, in part because of its great bill management and invoicing features. However, you should consider integrating BILL and QuickBooks Online to aid your A/P processing if you process many bills per day.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online at a Glance
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
Who It’s Best For | Businesses wanting to automate their A/P process | Businesses looking for a complete accounting system |
Monthly Pricing Plans | Starts at $45 per user | Starts at $55 per user for A/P features |
Billable Clients | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Maximum Users | Unlimited (additional fee for each user) | One to 25 |
A/P | ✓ | ✓ |
A/R | Limited | ✓ |
Send Invoices & Track Collections | ✓ | ✓ |
Customize Invoice Templates | Limited | ✓ |
Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts | ✓ | ✓ |
Bank Reconciliation | ✓ | ✓ |
Create Custom User Roles & Control Feature Access | ✓ | ✓ |
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) | ✓ | ✓ |
Automatic Bill Codification | ✓ | N/A |
Built-in Payment Channels | ✓ | Bill Pay powered by Melio |
Auto-fetch Vendor Invoices Through a Dedicated Forwarding Address | ✓ | N/A |
Two-way Sync With Accounting Software and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems | ✓ | N/A |
Multiple Money Transmitter Licenses | ✓ | N/A |
Unlimited Paperless Document Storage | ✓ | ✓ |
Create Approval Workflows | ✓ | Advanced only |
Team Collaboration Tools | ✓ | ✓ |
Import/Export Data | ✓ | ✓ |
Multiple Currencies | ✓ | ✓ |
Capture & Organize Receipts | ✓ | ✓ |
Use Cases
Are you looking for something different? See our evaluation of the best QuickBooks alternatives.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Pricing
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Monthly Pricing | $45 to $79 per user | $30 to $200 |
Number of Users | 1 | 1 to 25 |
License Fee | N/A | N/A |
Free Trial | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlike QuickBooks Online, which allows a certain number of users per subscription level, BILL’s monthly charges are per user. Both solutions come with free trials.
BILL Pricing
For the Essentials and Team plans, you can select between Payables, which streamlines your A/P procedures; and Receivables, which automates invoicing functions. The Corporate and Enterprise plans include both Payables and Receivables products.
There are four plans available:
- Essentials: $45 per user, per month, for Payables or Receivables
- Team: $55 per user, per month, for Payables or Receivables with accounting software integration
- Corporate: $79 per user, per month, includes both Payables and Receivables and software integration
- Enterprise: Custom pricing, includes both Payables and Receivables plus premium support
BILL also has the Accountant Partner Program for accounting firms and professionals. This plan is priced at a flat fee of $49 per month and includes the A/P and A/R functions, plus perks for certified public accountants (CPAs) like training where they can earn continuing professional education (CPE) credits.
There are also a few additional services:
- Mail checks and invoices service: BILL will mail your checks or invoices for you. This service costs $1.49 per check or invoice.
- Automatic data entry: BILL will do your payable data entry for 49 cents per entry.
QuickBooks Online Pricing
QuickBooks offers five monthly subscription plans for different needs. However, A/P functions are available only at QuickBooks Essentials and the higher tiers.
- Self-Employed: $15 per month one user only
- Simple Start: $30 per month for one user only
- 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
Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online, powered by Melio, allows you to pay and track bills from your QuickBooks Account. You can send international and domestic payments via ACH or check, track payment status, get full remittance information, and sync payments with QuickBooks Online for more control and insights. You pay as you go with this plan, so you’ll only be charged for the transactions you make.
Bill Pay is available with QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, but is unavailable for Self-Employed and Simple Start. To use Bill Pay, users must activate it from their QuickBooks Online account. Here’s a summary of the available plans:
- Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online: 99 cents per ACH transaction; $1.99 per check for unlimited users and no monthly fee
- Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online Advanced: 20 free domestic ACH transactions per month during a two-month trial period. After the trial, fees are 99 cents per ACH transaction; $1.99 per check with unlimited users and no monthly fee.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Features
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Payment Approvals | ✓ | ✕ |
Connect Bank Accounts | ✓ | ✓ |
Categorize Spending | ✓ | ✓ |
Pay Bills | ✓ | ✓ |
Automated Workflows | ✓ | ✕ |
Invoicing | ✕ | ✓ |
Account Reconciliation | ✕ | ✓ |
P&L & Balance Sheet | ✕ | ✓ |
Payroll Integration | ✕ | ✓ |
Budgeting & Forecasting | ✕ | ✓ |
Customer Statements | ✕ | ✓ |
Payroll Integration | ✕ | ✓ |
Time Tracking | ✕ | ✓ |
Mobile App | ✓ | ✓ |
With the integrated solution of Bill Pay, QuickBooks can be used to pay bills online for very little additional cost. However, if you want a more robust bill payment solution with approvals and a streamlined workflow, then integrating BILL with QuickBooks Online might be worth the additional cost.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Accounts Payable
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Intelligent Virtual Assistant | ✓ | ✕ |
Bill Approvals | ✓ | ✕ |
Automatic Invoice Capture | ✓ | ✕ |
OCR | ✓ | ✓ |
The major advantage you can get with BILL is its automatic invoice capture. Moreover, it has a dedicated email address where vendors can send their invoices, and its Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) will automatically place it in BILL and start the bill for you. In QuickBooks Online, you must manually upload vendor invoices or scan it first using the QuickBooks receipt scanner.
On the contrary, QuickBooks Online comes at an advantage if you and your accounting team can handle billings without the need for automation. Although QuickBooks Online still needs some data entry and manual uploading of receipts, the OCR function of QuickBooks Online can reduce the data entry burden so that you can focus on specific fields like inputting the credit term or applying vendor credits. However, BILL’s OCR features are still superior to QuickBooks Online because it can read handwritten receipts.
BILL, overall, offers a convenient solution for businesses processing many billing transactions. Its automation features release staff from hours of data entry and ensures that all bills are accurate and legitimate through a series of approvals. It also has an IVA that automatically captures invoice data and supplies them into necessary fields. You can also pay within BILL via international wire transfer, credit card, debit card, check, or ACH payments.
Meanwhile, QuickBooks Online’s A/P features focus more on general accounts payable functions like recording vendor information, entering bills, managing unpaid bills, and paying bills. When creating bills, you can select an account category, credit term, and due date, and assign it to a customer, project, or class. You can also print checks in QuickBooks Online if you prefer sending checks to vendors as payment.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Accounts Receivable
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Invoice Customization | ✕ | ✓ |
Sales Tax Tracking | ✕ | ✓ |
Create and Send Invoices | ✓ | ✓ |
In QuickBooks Online, you can modify invoice design and add your company logo. There are also templates you can choose from. The most useful features of QuickBooks Online’s A/R management are its ability to view sales tax liability in detail, track sales tax collected, and pay sales taxes.
Meanwhile, BILL offers invoicing capabilities with automation features if you get the invoicing plan. However, its A/R functions aren’t as striking and impressive as other invoicing software. In terms of invoice processing, we like that invoice tracking is possible through invoice statuses. However, that would only work if the customer is also using BILL.
Another limitation is its invoice design—there’s no way to incorporate company branding like logo and colors. Lastly, adding sales taxes in BILL depends on what accounting software or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system you use. Otherwise, you’ll have to create sales taxes manually.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Ease of Use
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Overall Ease of Use | Easy | Easy |
Accessibility | Cloud | Cloud |
Online Help Section | ✓ | ✓ |
User-friendly Dashboard | ✓ | ✓ |
Both BILL and QuickBooks have intuitive user interfaces (UIs), but the latter is more complex with its features. If you’re considering one of the lower-priced levels of BILL, we recommend using it for A/P, especially if you have a large number of bills to pay and want to automate the process. This is also ideal for businesses with multiple decision-makers when it comes to approving payments. For any other accounting needs, QuickBooks is your best option.
BILL Dashboard
Below is a view of the BILL Dashboard for Corporate and Enterprise plans, which you will see when you log into the program. It shows the bills to pay, open invoices, bill approvals, payments in, and payments out. The smaller plans will show graphs pertaining to A/R or A/P.
View of BILL Dashboard
The interface of BILL is neat and organized. It’s suitable even for business owners without experience in invoicing and billing. The dashboard shows an overview of all your invoices and payables. You can also see the number of invoices awaiting approval and the person in charge of approving them.
QuickBooks Online Dashboard
The QuickBooks Online Dashboard is easy to navigate and gives you access to your account balances, income and expense totals, and graphs that illustrate your cash flow during a specific time period. The interface is intuitive, especially with the left menu bar with tabs that navigate to each section.
View of QuickBooks Online dashboard
QuickBooks Online’s dashboard shares a similar idea with BILL by using “Kanban-style” card graphs. QuickBooks Online’s dashboard is more comprehensive because it’s a complete accounting software. It shows your credit card charges and other movements in your bank accounts. You’ll also have a glance at profit and loss (P&L) data and time tracking details as well.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Integrations
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Built-in Integrations | 0 | 3 |
Third-party Integrations | 10 | 750+ |
Because of its limited integrations, BILL is better served as an integration itself as it can be connected to several accounting software packages. QuickBooks integrates with more than 750 apps and has three built-in integrations to streamline your payments, payroll, and time tracking.
BILL Integrations
BILL offers 10 integrations, and most of these will connect your BILL profile to your accounting software, including QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite. These integrations feature two-way synchronization, meaning you can enter A/P or A/R data in either program and it will automatically transfer to the other. However, not every integration is available with each plan. An application programming interface (API) is available for developers (Enterprise plan) only.
QuickBooks Online Integrations
QuickBooks Online integrates with more than 750 popular business apps, which can assist with other aspects of your business like customer relationship management (CRM) or ecommerce. Three built-in integrations can be accessed directly within the QuickBooks Online app, which are QuickBooks Payments, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time.
The Team and Corporate plans of BILL also integrate with QuickBooks Online. Here are some of the other integrations for QuickBooks Online:
- A/R: Freedom Merchants, ARCollect, Invoiced, and Melio
- CRM: HubSpot, Method:CRM, and Insightly CRM
- Ecommerce: PayTraQer, Stripe by Connex, and Freedom Merchants
- Expenses: Expensify, Dext Prepare, Veryfi, and Greenback
- Inventory management: SOS Inventory, Katana, Magento, and Order Time
- Payroll: Gusto, RUN Powered by ADP, Wagepoint, and Justworks
- Time tracking: Time Tracker by eBillity, Timesheets.com, and Hour Timesheet
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Mobile App
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Accessibility | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
Invoice Customers | ✓ | ✓ |
Send Estimates & Sales Receipts | ✕ | ✓ |
Reconcile Accounts | ✕ | ✓ |
Pay Bills | ✓ | ✓ |
Mileage & GPS Tracking | ✕ | ✓ |
Financial Reports | ✕ | ✓ |
Budgeting | ✕ | ✕ |
Bill/Receipt Scanning | ✓ | ✓ |
Time Tracking | ✕ | ✕ |
File Sharing | ✕ | ✕ |
Automated Workflows | ✓ | ✕ |
BILL and QuickBooks have robust mobile apps that assist with payables and receivables. Neither allows you to track time, but you can monitor expenses using location and class fields and reconcile bank transactions from connected bank accounts.
Both have the same basic features, such as the ability to create invoices and receive payments, but BILL has the added benefit of workflow functionality with A/P, like the ability to view an audit trail of bill approval and review notes from vendors and customers. You can also scan documents with your phone’s camera and process them into bills or send them to your inbox.
QuickBooks has a greater depth of features when it comes to A/R, such as the ability to not only send invoices but also estimates and sales receipts. It also provides GPS mileage tracking and access to reporting tools, two features that BILL lacks.
BILL vs QuickBooks Online: Customer Support
BILL | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
Unlimited Support | ✕ | ✓ |
Community Support | ✕ | ✓ |
Email Support | ✓ | ✓ |
Live Chat Support | ✓ | ✓ |
Phone Support | ✕ | ✓ |
Searchable Knowledge Base | ✓ | ✓ |
Online Help Resources | ✓ | ✓ |
Although QuickBooks encourages you to try other support avenues before requesting phone support, BILL doesn’t offer phone support at all and instead requires that you submit a support inquiry, which will be answered via email. However, both have other resources, such as a help center and knowledge base, which can be consulted for less urgent needs.
BILL Support
It can sometimes be a challenge to find the answers that you’re looking for with BILL. Live support is available from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time, Monday through Friday. There are also a few other resources:
- Support form: You can submit a support inquiry in the Message Center.
- Help center: There is a comprehensive help center available, with extensive how-to articles, getting started resources, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and announcements.
- BILL resources: This page is a collection of webinars, case studies, white papers, and other BILL resources.
- YouTube videos: The YouTube channel features many customer testimonials and a few how-to videos.
- BILL blog: Updated frequently, the blog has everything you need to know about payments, going paperless, new integrations, and more.
QuickBooks Support
QuickBooks has an extensive knowledge base that can be accessed from both within the program and on the website. Below is a summary of the available ways to access support:
- Telephone support: This is only available by completing a request on the website for QuickBooks to contact you.
- Email support: You can contact the support team by clicking on the “Contact us” button at the bottom of the help window.
- Messaging support: Live chat support is also available, although not 24/7.
- In-product help: Every time you open up a new feature, a step-by-step guide or video shows up, with the option to view more information.
- Searchable knowledge base: This includes how-to articles, webinars, tutorials, and FAQs
- User community: You can also post a question in the community forum, in which other users may be able to provide assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does BILL offer a free trial?
Yes, BILL offers a 30-day risk-free trial.
Does QuickBooks Online offer a mobile app?
Yes, QuickBooks Online offers a free mobile app with each subscription, which gives you access to paying bills, uploading receipts, and GPS mileage tracking.
Does BILL allow you to automate approval workflows?
Yes, BILL lets you capture your invoices all in one digital platform and automate your approval workflows and requests, and it’ll sync automatically with your accounting software.
Bottom Line
BILL’s invoicing features don’t exceed those of ]QuickBooks Online, so it doesn’t make sense to subscribe to both if you’re looking for invoicing features. You should do well with QuickBooks Online alone for invoicing.
However, BILL’s A/P features far outshine the Bill Pay feature that comes standard with QuickBooks Online. If your company has expenses that require approval before payment or a high volume of expenses that justify having an automated import system, BILL is a great addition to QuickBooks Online.
