Tipalti vs BILL vs Stampli

Tipalti, BILL, and Stampli provide accounts payable solutions that automate and simplify complex manual processes. These solutions help businesses speed up invoice and payment processing, mitigate late payment fees, control fraud and eliminate errors, and improve supplier management.

Intelligent AP solutions are also a valuable strategic resource. They give you real-time visibility and complete control over AP processes – enabling you to identify opportunities, make informed cash management decisions, and grow your business.

In this article, we compare the three solutions to help you choose the best solution for your business. We’ll look at industry ratings, reviews, features, and customers’ likes and dislikes about each solution.

Criteria for choosing an AP solution

AP solutions automate tasks like invoice processing, automated data entry and GL coding, ERP and accounting software integrations, approval routing, and payment processing. The best solutions excel in five key areas:

• Optimized invoice processing: Automation of AP tasks like invoice capture, coding, and three-way matching is fast and accurate.
• Straightforward implementation: Setting up workflows and operating procedures is simple and requires minimal changes to existing processes.
• Easy to use: User interfaces are intuitive for all user roles, and customer support is responsive, accessible, and knowledgeable.
• Positive vendor engagement: Clear communications, easy payment processes, and no upselling of services to vendors.
• Seamless ERP integration: Supports full native ERP functionality and real-time data sync with minimal coding or rework of ERP processes.

When choosing an AP solutions provider, look for one like Stampli with a proven track record of exceeding customer expectations in these areas.

With that in mind, let’s look at industry ratings for Tipalti, BILL, and Stampli.

Industry ratings for accounts payable solutions

The G2 Satisfaction Score for AP Automation measures customer satisfaction based on reviews from existing customers. It evaluates how well AP solution providers satisfy users’ needs by measuring results in four categories:

• Implementation: How easily can you implement the solution?
• Usability: How easy is the solution to use?
• Relationship: How well does the solution provider build customer relationships?
• Results: How well does the solution deliver results?

Let’s dig into the scores.

Implementation Index

The Implementation Index measures customers’ satisfaction with implementing and beginning to use a new AP solution. It comprises three factors:

• Ease of setup
• User adoption
• Time to go live

Of the three providers, Stampli scored significantly higher in ease of setup and user adoption, indicating it is the easiest solution to implement. Stampli also scored higher than the AP automation industry average for time to go live — reinforcing its industry-leading reputation for fast deployment, implementation, and user adoption.

Usability Index

The usability index evaluates customer satisfaction with each AP solution’s user interface and functionality. It measures two factors:

• Ease of use
• Ease of admin

Stampli leads the Usability Index, scoring higher than Tipalti and BILL for ease of use and ease of admin — a strong endorsement of Stampli’s “designed for accounts payable” user interface and platform.

Relationship Index

The relationship index measures customer satisfaction by assessing how well each supplier manages the business relationship with each supplier. It consists of three factors:

• Likelihood to recommend
• Ease of doing business
• Quality of support

Stampli achieved the “Best Relationship” ranking, receiving industry-leading ratings for quality of support, ease of doing business, and likelihood to recommend, indicating a high probability that Stampli users would endorse the platform to a colleague.

Results Index

The results index evaluates the bottom-line impact of working with each supplier. The index measures two factors:

• Meets requirements
• Estimated ROI

Stampli earned one of the highest “Best Results” scores for its estimated return on investment. In the meets requirements category, Stampli scored higher than Tipalti and BILL, reflecting how well Stampli’s AP automation consistently delivers business results for customers.

By comparing each AP automation provider’s Satisfaction scores, you can quickly identify the product that provides the best customer experience based on feedback from actual users. Now, let’s dig deeper into each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses as reported by customers on G2, TrustRadius, GetApp, Capterra, and Software Advice.

Tipalti features and customer reviews

Tipalti is a payment automation platform that also offers AP automation and spend management features.

Tipalti’s services and features

Tipalti aims to meet the needs of small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses wanting to streamline financial processes. According to customers, its advantages include comprehensive payment automation, a customizable, user-friendly interface, and good customer support.

Tipalti’s cloud-based platform supports global payments, procurement and expenses management, and other accounting tasks. Its core features include:

• Global vendor payment processing and foreign exchange risk management.
• Automated invoice scanning and data entry, receipt and PO matching, payments, and reconciliation.
• Automated enforcement of financial controls, regulatory compliance, payment audit trail, error detection, and role-based security.

Pricing

Tipalti charges a monthly fee for access to its basic platform. It requires customers to pre-fund payment accounts and charges additional fees for added modules, features, and advanced functionality.

Tipalti advantages

Here are the reasons customers say have chosen Tipalti as a financial automation solution.

Expansion into global markets

Tipalti promotes its payment processing solution to help businesses reduce the complexity of paying overseas suppliers. It offers a centralized payment platform, processing payments to 196 countries, foreign exchange tools, and a variety of payment methods. Many users mention Tipalti’s global payments solution as one of the platform’s top strengths, commenting, “As a mid-sized business with a global supplier base, we found that Tipalti has been instrumental in streamlining our payment processes.”

However, Tipalti requires customers to pre-fund their Tipalti payment account before they can pay vendors, a policy that one customer described as “Con: Having to fund our Tipalti account to pay vendors.”

Customers who want to make payments faster without tying up their money should consider a more flexible solution like Stampli Direct Pay. One customer describes how Stampli has made vendor payments faster: “We are a Construction Company and must submit Bank draws to fund our payments. That entire process was shortened by three days in our first month just because our Approvers found [Stampli] simple to use and Reviewing invoices was no longer something they dreaded.”

Customizable and simple financial automation solution

Tipalti offers a payments and AP solution with customizable options such as a brandable supplier portal, automated vendor communications, and custom approval routing. Reviewers mention Tipalti’s “Vendor portal is easy to use and feedback from our vendors is positive,” while other customers found it easy to set up approval routing and make payments.

While many customers praised Tipalti’s ease of use, some complained of difficulty navigating its features, saying “it can take some time to understand all the functionalities and features available.” Tipalti’s steep learning curve was also “[o]ne of the things that I liked the least,” for users, with one customer saying, “it can be a bit overwhelming to get familiar with all the features and functionality of the platform.”

Customers criticized Tipalti’s limited customization and reporting capabilities. In the words of one disgruntled user, Tipalti provides “only a [handful] of standard reports.”

If user-friendliness is a high priority, consider an alternative solution. Stampli consistently leads industry ratings for making day-to-day tasks easier for AP teams. “[I] use this software daily,” says one Stampli customer, “and [its] ease of use is what I like the most.”

Effective AP management and strategic planning require accurate, actionable data and analytics. Stampli provides real-time AP reporting and analysis that is “outstanding,” according to one customer. “[It] has eliminated all our previously manual processes for AP. It also has excellent reporting and analysis tools for cost management.”

Good customer support

Many existing Tipalti customers say they like the quality of its customer support team, which one user described as “always kind and attentive.” Tipalti’s support team also has a reputation for being friendly and responsive, with one customer saying they found the team “exceptionally helpful and it was a pleasure to communicate with them. I have always received prompt responses to any inquiries.”

However, other reviewers mention frustrations with Tipalti’s support on complex issues and implementations. One frustrated customer described their support experience as “terrible,” complaining that “Onboarding was incomplete and long,” that Tipalti support “forgot to setup some prominent things like the second admin, subcompany, and ACH instructions,” and that it “takes weeks to resolve issues.”

Stampli’s support team understands the challenges of AP departments and has the expertise to help you resolve issues. Stampli’s “[c]ustomer support in this process has been outstanding,” said one customer of their implementation experience. “Each time we have reached out to customer support, they have been quick to resolve our problems.”

Tipalti: Customer-reported challenges

Here are some of the difficulties Tipalti customers have identified with the platform.

Challenges integrating Tipalti with ERPs

Many user reviews complain about difficulty integrating Tipalti with ERPs and accounting systems. One customer complained that Tipalti promised smooth integration but didn’t deliver, saying, “We had a ton of issues with our connection between Teampay/Tipalti/Netsuite. We were sold Tipalti and Teampay as a package deal, and they definitely have not lived up to the promise.”

Other customers report connectivity issues, such as “No VAT or GST functionality between Tipalti and Intacct. Not able to have attachment for credit memos sync from Tipalti to Intacct.” Another Tipalti client reported integration issues that hadn’t been resolved “Even after 4 years,” saying they still “run into at least one integration complication each month.”

One customer said that chronic sync issues integrating Tipalti with NetSuite are “The biggest drawback from my experience with Tipalti,” and that Tipalti “…constantly failed to sync billing PDFs with NetSuite which caused a lot of inconveniences.”

Broken integrations can cause headaches and bring your AP processes to a standstill. Unlike Tipalti, Stampli exceeds customer expectations for smooth integrations.

Users praise how Stampli “provides a single source of receiving and processing ALL of our bills into one platform and syncing with NetSuite. We no longer have ‘exceptions’ with our complicated processes that a platform cannot handle. If Stampli cannot handle it by it native features alone, there are simple workarounds that have been able to work out perfectly. No expensive customizations or bypassing of their system is required.”

Slow or difficult implementations

Several users reported slow or difficult implementations with Tipalti, saying Tipalti’s onboarding process took significant time and effort and certain requirements had to be addressed through workarounds. “We started out our implementation with one consultant who simply could not deliver,” one customer reported about a Tipalti implementation going off the rails. “Every requirement we had was a question they needed to forward to their engineering team. This caused a delay of a full month on an implementation that was going to take 5 weeks.”

You only get one chance to make a first impression; a bad implementation isn’t a great way to start a business partnership. Fortunately, Stampli is the industry leader in fast and painless implementation.

“We were up and running within weeks of signing our contract,” says one Stampli customer. “The few times we’ve had to reach out to support, we are chatting with a real person within 1 minute. We integrate with NetSuite, and that works perfectly (and our implementation specialist [at Stampli] was very [knowledgeable] and fixed a problem that no other 3rd party integration was able to).”

The bottom line: Tipalti is good for payments, ok for AP

Tipalti’s strengths make it an attractive choice for companies needing an international payment processing and financial automation solution. However, concerns about slow implementations, customer support, and glitchy ERP integration suggest there may be better choices for businesses looking for a fast and easy implementation.

If you’re searching for a flexible and easy-to-use AP solution that doesn’t require any changes to your ERP, then Stampli is the perfect choice. It offers automation capabilities, industry expertise, and proven business results.

My experience with Stampli has been excellent!” said one Stampli customer on Capterra. “They have provided answers to any questions that I have had and always give me solutions for any issues very quickly. They have superb customer service and the software is extremely user friendly!”

BILL features and customer reviews

BILL is an accounting automation platform for freelancers and small and medium-sized businesses. Formerly known as Bill.com, its mission is to simplify financial processes for business owners. It’s a simple way for entrepreneurs and businesses to automate core accounting functions, allowing them to channel their resources to operations, sales, and marketing.

BILL key features

BILL has automation features for accounts receivable, accounts payable, electronic payment processing and billing, credit cards, and expense management to help businesses manage their cash inflows and outflows more efficiently.

BILL offers a basic service tier (Essentials), with the option to upgrade to Team, Corporate, and Enterprise service tiers with different feature sets.

Essentials

Choice of accounts payable or accounts receivable services.

• Basic AP automation — invoice data capture and coding, vendor details, document management, and payment processing.
• Manual CSV integration with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Premier, and Xero.
• Standard user roles.

Pricing

BILL pricing is per month, based on what tier you purchase. BILL also charges per-transaction fees for payments made on its platform.

BILL advantages

Scalable solution for small businesses

BILL offers flexible service options to add features like accounts receivable or file-based ERP integration as their customers’ businesses grow. It provides access to advanced features like customized approval workflows, permissions, and user roles at higher tiers. This flexibility can be helpful for growing small businesses. As one BILL customer says, BILL helps “streamline our payments thru one service – making accounts receivable easier for both customers and the businesses.”  

Although BILL bills itself as a scalable solution for small businesses, some customers have experienced glitches with the platform, saying it “[f]requently goes out of sync,” and that “receivable control [was] not as integrated as payables.”

As your business grows, so will your accounting needs. To handle large numbers of invoices, you need a robust platform. “Stampli has allowed our manual AP process to be automated…which is significant considering the incredible growth we are seeing in our company,” said one fast-growing mid-market business. “It has allowed for greater control and insight into company expenditures as well as reporting features that have been useful for our CFO and CEO.”

Basic payment processing capabilities

BILL offers access to electronic payment methods like wire transfers, ACH, and virtual cards to make it easier for businesses to pay suppliers. Customers say they like BILL’s ability to handle recurring customer payments, calling it “[o]ne of the most useful tools is the automated ACH transactions that can be used for monthly service agreements with customers.”

However, some customers complain about BILL’s practice of “encouraging” customers to pay vendors by virtual card via BILL’s ePayments network. One customer called this practice one of BILL’s worst features, complaining about “‘Virtual cards’ where BILL pays your vendor with a ‘card’ that must be processed by the vendor (paying card discount fees). BILL even creates vendor listings and ‘virtual cards’ for public companies that have no relationship with BILL THAT caused us big problems when we tried to pay…With BILL, it’s ‘buyer beware’.”

There are better payment solutions for growing businesses, especially since BILL charges a per-transaction fee. Many of BILL’s advanced payment features, like customized approval policies and multi-location accounting, are available only at higher-priced tiers. Stampli is a cost-effective and flexible payment solution that won’t force you to choose payment methods.

“[A] deciding factor for our company in choosing Stampli over a competitor we looked at was that Stampli’s Direct Pay feature (ACH payments to vendors) is free to vendors without being expensive for us, either,” said one customer. “I like that Stampli understands businesses of today,” said another reviewer, who loved that Stampli has “the option to pay invoices 3 ways!! ACH, outside stampli (using credit cards or paying in portals) and checks and even expedited checks.”

Ease of use

Customers say BILL is easy to set up and implement, provides good training for employees, and helps simplify complex accounting processes. One reviewer commented that BILL was easy to use, saying, “I am using BILL on a day-to-day basis, and the user interface is so simple.”

However, other reviewers are highly critical of BILL’s ease of use. It only received a 1 out of 10 rating for ease of use on TrustRadius, where one frustrated user commented, “I feel like I am about to quit before I do an hour of work” with BILL.

Stampli customers praise the platform’s accessibility and ease of use. “I love how easy and efficient Stampli has made our A/P process,” says one happy customer.“ It has cut back 80% of our processing time and significantly improved our accuracy.”

BILL: customer-reported challenges

Here are some of the difficulties BILL customers have identified with the platform.

Unresponsive customer service

Multiple users across all review sites complained about the poor quality of BILL’s customer support, saying BILL shows “Complete disregard for their users,” and complaining, “They will change their software and processes at will which requires you to re-do your processes so the software continues to work.” 

Customer complaints include long response times, sometimes stretching into weeks, as one user reported: “Very frustrated after 2 hours and 2 diff chat sessions and now have to wait till next week to talk to someone.”

Other BILL customers describe frustration with poor communications, like one angry user who called BILL “the worst payment provider our business has ever worked with,” which “disregards everything that you say, they do not allow you to call in with any questions or concerns.”

Potentially most damning of all, one Trustradius reviewer said dealing with BILL customer support was a “(t)errible experience that has really damaged my business.”

You can’t afford poor customer support when you need to run an efficient AP department. Unlike BILL, customers recognize Stampli for its excellent customer service. “What I love about Stampli is its transformative efficiency in invoice processing,” said a Stampli user. “Since integrating, our workflow has soared with faster processing, reduced errors, and enhanced transparency for approvers. Our Customer Success Manager, and the entire Stampli support team, have been outstanding—prompt, collaborative, and attentive, even across time zones. The AI integration aka ‘Billy the Bot’, adds an innovative edge. Stampli isn’t just an AP invoice solution; it’s a game-changer with stellar support.”

Integrating BILL with ERPs can be hard

Many BILL customers complain about difficulty integrating BILL with ERPs and accounting software. One BILL customer review reported “constant issues while integrating large amounts of data through other AP software,” joining the chorus of customers experiencing chronic issues with BILL’s integrations.

Common customer complaints include chronic synchronization errors with QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and NetSuite. In a review called “Horrible Experience,” one user described their struggles to integrate BILL and QuickBooks: “We have decided to trial the full suite of services to use Bill.com to manage AR and AP transactions, hoping that the integration with QuickBooks would make it seamless. However it has unfortunately not been the case. Sync issues have messed up our historical client data in QuickBooks.”

Other users complain about how frustrating experiences implementing BILL integrations are made worse by BILL’s poor customer service. “[G]etting in touch with bill.com (they advertise the support of this migration) has been nearly impossible,” said a user trying to migrate to Dynamics Business Central. “We’ve reached out over 5 times, in which we’re sent from one representative to the next without any solution at hand. It has been 2 months now and we cannot fully migrate until this is done. The only response we’ve got is that ‘as soon as they can’ someone will contact me; when would that be? It seems very vague and unprofessional to not provide a customer with a timeframe in which they can expect an answer.”

The bottom line: BILL is scalable but comes with big headaches

BILL provides a comprehensive service that helps businesses streamline their accounts receivable and payable functions. However, negative user reviews suggest BILL may not be ideal for businesses requiring responsive customer support, seamless integration with ERPs and accounting software, or low-cost international payment processing.

Stampli is the leading accounts payable solution designed for Accounts Payable. It leverages artificial intelligence to automate and optimize AP workflows without changing existing processes or reworking ERP configurations.

Strengths like exceptional customer service, flexible automation capabilities, seamless ERP integration, and a reputation for delivering results make Stampli a perfect fit for small, mid-sized, and enterprise businesses. Stampli won’t get in the middle of your vendor relationships — no one will call your vendors, telling them to accept specific payment methods.

“You can tell that Stampli has been designed and improved by AP professionals,” says one Stampli customer. “Every time you think ‘it would be really nice if…’ Stampli probably addresses that.”

Stampli: The smart choice for accounts payable

Stampli is an excellent choice for a powerful and user-friendly accounts payable automation platform that doesn’t require any rework of your ERP.

Stampli key features

Stampli helps accounting teams control the AP process through touchless invoice processing, data entry and GL coding, three-way matching, approval routing, and payment management. By automating core AP processes, it improves working capital management by improving cash flow and giving finance leaders visibility into spending.

• Prebuilt integration with more than 70 ERPs and accounting systems, including Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, SAP S4/HANA, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics GP,  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, and Microsoft Dynamics Business Central.
• Stampli Insights gives real-time AP performance and financial data visibility through prebuilt reports and dashboards.
• Learns and manages complex invoice approval workflows (multi-approver, multi-location, multi-category, and multi-subsidiary) with the option to use custom approval flows.
• International payments in USD or local currency to suppliers in over 100+ countries with integrated FX management tools.
• Advanced Vendor Management: Simplified vendor onboarding, management, and collection and maintenance of vendor information such as payment methods, bank account details, and address.
• Prevents errors and fraud with automated 3-way matching, duplicate invoice detection, and audit trail creation.
• Customized user roles with automated enforcement of internal controls and segregation of duties.
• Won’t contact your vendors to pressure them into accepting payment methods.

How Stampli solves your AP challenges

Customers prefer Stampli’s flexibility and excellent customer service to other providers. The right provider brings the best combination of flexibility, quality, and support, according to this customer:  “In the procurement of any software, before price and features is the adaptability of the product to meet our company needs. In consideration of Stampli, Tipalti, and Bill.com I felt that Stampli was the most adaptable and had a customer success team that was willing to help our team make the implementation and customizations at the pace we needed.”

Let’s look at some challenges that Stampli solves for customers.

Challenge: Glitchy and slow ERP integrations

BILL and Tipalti customers complain about ERP integrations gone wrong, resulting in delays, lost data, and late payments.

Stampli streamlines AP for your ERP to save your business time and money. It’s pre-built ERP integrations support all native ERP functionality but in an automated and more efficient way. With Stampli, there’s no need to hire consultants to develop the integration, adjust existing processes, or reconfigure your ERP. That means you get a trouble-free, fast implementation with “Minimal back and forth,” according to one Stampli customer, “and all the potential issues and solutions [presented] to us from the start.”

Stampli’s deep ERP integrations mean that anything done in Stampli is automatically updated in your ERP in real time and vice versa. Its single-screen approach means no more navigating across ERP menus to process the various types of spend. Moreover, Stampli is flexible to your organization’s unique needs.

For example, say you have multiple company accounts for your ERP and have to have multiple screens to process AP across the accounts – a frustrating experience. With Stampli you’re in luck. It can process AP in a single account that automatically maps back to your multiple account instance in your ERP. You can establish a one-to-one relationship between Stampli and your ERP accounts by having the same number of Stampli accounts as you have in your ERP.

Many Stampli customers can be set up in days, not weeks: “Stampli integration was efficiently completed within a day,” reported another customer, “and we were able to implement the new processes within less than a week.”

Challenge: Inefficient and error-prone AP automation

Not all AP solutions are created the same. BILL and Tipalti customers mention shortfalls like inadequate reporting, inflexible processes, and slow implementations.

Billy the Bot™, Stampli’s smart and friendly AI assistant, brings efficiencies to AP processes and mitigates errors by automating time-consuming manual tasks. With Billy on the job, you’ll reduce errors, realize cost savings, and pay suppliers on time.

“Stampli has been a game-changer for our finance operations,” says one happy customer,“ It has significantly streamlined our Accounts Payable process, making it more efficient and error-free. The automation features have saved us countless hours of manual work, allowing our team to focus on other important tasks. After a very quick and simple integration, our employees adopted it very quickly and have been loving it ever since.”

Stampli helps you save time and money as soon as you start using it. One of our many happy customers describes “how easy and efficient Stampli has made our A/P process,” reporting that implementing Stampli has cut back 80% of our processing time and significantly improved our accuracy.”

Challenge: Poor or inexperienced customer service

Good customer support is critical. AP processing is complex, and even with the best AP automation in the industry, things can go wrong. Customers say BILL and Tipalti both come up short on support. Tipalti users say its customer support teams struggle with complex technical issues, and BILL users say its customer support is unresponsive and slow.

Numerous independent user reviews and case studies from happy customers recognize Stampli for its excellence in customer service. Stampli’s entire support team consists of AP experts with first-hand accounts payable experience. This gives them deep insight into each customer’s unique challenges and the expertise to solve them quickly and effectively. It also helps guide Stampli’s product evolution. As the support team works with customers to solve their challenges, they also gain important feedback and insights into how things can be done better. Stampli uses these insights to refine its services and develop new features.

Stampli’s experienced support team, deep understanding of AP challenges, focus on its customers’ needs, and culture of innovation have delivered bottom-line results for customers—like Purple eliminating paying duplicate invoices.

Challenge: Unclear pricing models

Providers like BILL and Tipalti don’t publish their pricing models or only offer partial pricing information and often charge hidden fees, making it hard to make the best choice for your business.

Stampli keeps pricing clear and simple with monthly or annual pricing, unlimited users, vendors, and training, and transparent pricing policies. “Our implementation was quick and easy, says one Stampli client. The functionality is great, and the pricing structure is even better. All users have mentioned how easy it is to use.”

Customers love Stampli

As the leading AP automation solution, Stampli can revolutionize your AP department. “Stampli Has Brought Great Structure to My Team!” raves a Stampli customer. “ Before using Stampli, the invoice management process lacked collaboration between all parties involved in reviewing and approving just 1 invoice.

In my company, we have tens of invoices that come through a day, so it is extremely important to have a system in place that works for all levels from field staff all the way up to CFO. Stampli has provided structure, ease & teamwork since day 1!”

Want to see how Stampli can help your invoice and payment management workflow? Talk to one of our AP experts today!