Tipalti Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives 2023

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The supplier management module is an onboarding self-service portal where vendors, suppliers, and other payees provide payment, contact, and any other necessary information. After enrolling, they’ll have access to payment history and statuses of their invoices, which eliminates the need to research payment issues.

Example of Tipalti’s Supplier Management module (Source: Tipalti)

Tipalti assigns unique vendor IDs automatically to prevent duplicates, and it has a proprietary rules engine―driven by 26,000 global rules―that identifies any potential errors before payments are made. It supports international payments and up to 11 languages. The tax form selection wizard allows the supplier to complete the tax form and verifies that the information is accurate.

Moreover, Tipalti’s Bill Talk feature enables vendors and employees to directly message approvers via chats. It helps facilitate a conversation between the submitter and approver for a smoother reimbursement and payment process. This feature works well with Bill Docs where submitters can upload and review bill-related documents through Bill Docs and submit documents via chat.

The global payment system can support 196 countries in 120 currencies across six payment methods: PayPal, wire, prepaid debit card, US automated clearing house (ACH), global ACH, and local bank transfer. If you need to pay multiple vendors in bulk, you can do so from a single screen rather than through individual bank portals.

Example of global payments with Tipalti (Source: Tipalti)

Tipalti also handles regulatory screening before any outbound payment to prevent fraudulent payments. It also provides payment transparency to your suppliers, such as informing them if a payment fails or if a tax form hasn’t been uploaded sufficiently.

NetNow allows your business to pay your suppliers earlier in exchange for a payment discount. Presented to the supplier as an offer via the self-service portal, you can determine which suppliers to offer this option to, with the discount and payment deadline. The software will then calculate the offer based on the payment due date on the invoice. This feature also rewards you with a referral fee from Tipalti for every dollar that’s paid early.

Tipalti allows you to view all of your invoices at a glance, whether they’re uploaded via the web portal or emailed. Optical character recognition (OCR) and advanced data extraction features can be used to convert paper invoices into accessible electronic versions, eliminating data entry. You can also match POs to invoices and receipts by using machine learning (ML), which provides additional invoice data prediction.

You can set up business rules to assign multiple invoice approvers and invoice-level codings, such as departments, accounts, and payer entities. Tipalti will send automated routing emails for in-mail or online approval, and approvers can view the status of each invoice. The platform also allows you to group invoices for payment easily, regardless of vendor or type of payment method.

Tipalti’s best feature is its outstanding A/P workflow, which enables you to stay on top of vendor bills with accuracy. Here are the steps in the workflow:

1. The supplier or vendor enters the Supplier Hub where they can provide billing information, tax details, contact number, and the bill creation feature.
2. The supplier or vendor can upload their invoices to enter the bill in your system. Tipalti’s optical character recognition (OCR) feature will scan the invoice and fill in the necessary fields for you.
3. Automatically keyed bills from vendors will be forwarded to the approver for review and approval.
4. During approval, the approvers will review and approve bills, update general ledger (GL) accounts, send bills back to A/P for a different routing process, or reject bills.
5. Approved bills can be grouped for payment scheduling. Rejected or disputed bills will be returned to the A/P staff for correction.
6. After approved bills have been scheduled for payment, they’ll undergo one final review called executive approval.
7. Once executive approval has been given, Tipalti will generate an email that will be sent to the vendor. This email will inform the vendor that payment has been sent.
8. Once payment clears, Tipalti will reconcile the accounts automatically. Data is forwarded automatically to enterprise resource planning (ERP) programs, such as NetSuite, or accounting software programs, such as QuickBooks Online.

In the payment reconciliation module, you can consolidate multiple entities, locations, accounts, and payment methods into a single file that’s available as payments are processed. Its instant reconciliation feature improves cash flow visibility and reduces potential fraudulent payouts. To streamline operations, you can also auto-sync payment results with your ERP or accounting system.

Example of payment reconciliation in Tipalti (Source: Tipalti)

With the addition of Tipalti Card, subscribers can use it as an alternative or replacement to corporate card programs because it syncs transactions. Managers can issue cards to employees for spending, set limits, and reconcile faster every month-end.

The KPMG-certified tax compliance module helps businesses stay in compliance with tax and other regulatory bodies. Integrating directly with the supplier management portal, suppliers can submit the requested W-9 or W-8 forms before receiving payment. Because the tax form collection process is all automated, there’s no need for paper scanning or physical signatures.

Tipalti will calculate the 1099 and 1042-S year-end tax forms, along with the correct withholding of taxes. It also includes taxpayer identification number (TIN) matching.

Example of Tipalti’s tax compliance (Source: Tipalti)

Tipalti offers an advanced reporting system, with the ability to generate detailed payment, invoice, payee, and tax reports. The reconciliation reports can be accessed in the payment reconciliation module, and you can consolidate multiple entities, accounts, locations, or payment methods in one report. You can also drill down into transaction details and filter reports by date, account, or payment. Reports are downloadable to Excel if further analysis is desired.

Yes, Tipalti uses industry-grade encryption standards for maximum security. Since it processes payments, it uses Advanced Encryption Standard or AES to protect identifiable information.

The platform fee starts at $149 per month. Other features are custom priced.

No, it can’t, as Tipalti specializes in A/P automation. However, it integrates with major accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero to make it easy to facilitate data transfer to and from Tipalti.