Tipalti vs. BILL 2025

When it comes to managing business finances, choosing the right software can transform your accounting operations from a daily headache into a streamlined process. BILL and Tipalti are two leading platforms that help businesses automate their financial workflows, but they serve different needs. BILL offers an accessible entry point with free expense management tools and straightforward pricing while Tipalti provides comprehensive global payment solutions for larger operations. 

In this comparative review, we’ll break down their features, pricing, and capabilities to help you decide which platform better suits your business needs.

Tipalti vs. BILL.com at a Glance

What Is Tipalti?

Tipalti provides a comprehensive AP and global payments automation platform designed to streamline financial operations for growing businesses. The platform combines multiple financial functions into one system, offering features like automated invoice processing, tax compliance management, and multi-entity support. At its core, Tipalti aims to reduce the manual workload associated with payments and supplier management through artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools and intelligent automation.

Who Is Tipalti Best For?

Tipalti is ideal for mid-market to enterprise-level companies that manage complex payment operations — particularly those dealing with international suppliers or running multi-entity operations. It’s especially well-suited for businesses that process high volumes of payments and need robust compliance features and automated workflows.

What Is BILL?

BILL offers a cloud-based financial operations platform that combines expense management, AP, and AR solutions. The platform stands out for its user-friendly approach to expense management, offering free spend and expense tracking software paired with corporate cards. BILL emphasizes accessibility and ease of use, providing features like automated receipt matching, real-time transaction tracking, and seamless integration with common accounting software.

Who Is BILL Best For?

BILL ideally suits small to medium-sized businesses looking for a flexible, scalable financial management solution with transparent pricing. It’s particularly well-suited to companies that prioritize easy employee expense management and need straightforward tools for managing corporate spending without complex international requirements.

Tipalti vs. BILL: In-Depth Features Comparison

When comparing financial management platforms, businesses need solutions that’ll meet their current needs as well as scale with their growth. We analyzed these platforms across the key areas that matter most to businesses: pricing structure, core features, automation capabilities, and global functionality.

Pricing

🏆 BILL

BILL takes the lead in pricing flexibility with a more accessible entry point. The company’s Spend & Expense management offering starts at $0 per user with corporate cards and basic expense tracking included. BILL’s full AP/AR solution ranges from $45 to $79 per user per month for standard tiers with custom pricing for enterprise needs. This transparent, user-based pricing model makes it easier for businesses to predict costs as they scale.

Tipalti’s pricing starts at $99 per month for the company’s Starter plan with custom pricing for the Premium and Elite tiers. While more expensive initially, Tipalti’s base plan includes comprehensive features like a supplier portal and tax compliance tools that would require higher-tier plans with BILL.

Expense Management

🤝 Tie

Both platforms excel in expense management, but they take different approaches. BILL offers unlimited virtual and physical cards, automated receipt matching, and real-time transaction tracking through a mobile app. The company’s platform emphasizes simplicity and user-friendly expense reporting.

Tipalti matches these capabilities through its corporate card and expense management offerings, offering similar features plus advanced approval workflows and multi-entity expense management. Both platforms provide robust mobile apps and automated receipt capture, making daily expense management equally efficient.

Customer Support

🤝Tipalti

Tipalti provides more comprehensive support options — especially for its Premium and Elite customers. The company’s customer service includes dedicated account managers for higher tiers and specialized support for global payment issues. The platform also offers extensive implementation support and training resources.

BILL provides standard customer support channels, but focuses more on self-service resources and community support for basic plans.

Business Credit

🏆 BILL

BILL stands out for its credit offerings, providing access to credit lines that range from $1,000 to $5 million for qualified businesses. The company’s corporate card program includes flexible rewards and straightforward credit terms, making it an attractive option for businesses seeking working capital solutions.

Tipalti focuses primarily on payment processing vs. extending credit, though the company does offer some working capital solutions through partnerships.

Automations

🏆 Tipalti

Tipalti edges ahead in automation capabilities with its AI-powered, Smart Scan invoice processing and advanced approval workflows. The company’s platform automates the entire payables process — from invoice capture to payment execution — with built-in tax compliance and validation. The system can handle complex approval hierarchies and multi-entity payment workflows automatically.

BILL offers solid automation features, particularly for basic invoice processing and approval workflows, but doesn’t match Tipalti’s depth in handling complex, multi-level automated processes.

Global Capabilities

🏆 Tipalti

Tipalti clearly leads in global payment capabilities, supporting payments in more than 120 currencies and providing built-in tax compliance for multiple countries. The company’s platform includes comprehensive international payment methods, automated tax form collection (Forms W-8 and W-9), and multicurrency management.

While BILL supports international payments, the company’s global capabilities are more limited in scope — particularly regarding tax compliance and currency options.

Integrations

🤝 Tie

Both platforms offer robust integration capabilities with major enterprise resource planning (ERP) and accounting software. BILL provides seamless connections with popular accounting platforms and business apps while Tipalti offers similar integration depth plus additional options for enterprise systems. Both platforms provide API access and developer resources for custom integrations, making them equally capable of fitting into existing tech stacks.

BILL vs. Tipalti: Customer Reviews

Looking at verified customer reviews from Trustpilot, both platforms receive mixed feedback that highlights their distinct strengths and areas for improvement. While BILL users consistently praise its intuitive interface and automated features for day-to-day operations, Tipalti reviewers emphasize its robust global payment capabilities and customer support. The reviews reveal important insights about real-world usage, helping potential customers understand what to expect beyond the marketing promises. Let’s examine what actual users have to say about their experiences with both platforms.

Here are some verified BILL reviews (from Trustpilot) by customers who used this software to help their business:

“We started using bill.com as an alternative to our banks “Bill Pay” service and it has dramatically decreased our efforts to manage paying our vendors. We love the ability to email invoices directly to our Bill.com account with the autofill feature, straight from the inbox it finds and fills invoice numbers, bill date, due date, amount due, and more. This makes it very easy to create the bill and pay it.”

“Overall a fairly good product, but way, way too much upsell. Distracting to us. Our vendors complain. New features don’t always work properly. More time should be spent working out the bugs before introducing.”

“As a freelancer, invoicing clients on bill.com has been a simple, intuitive, and streamlined process. It keeps all of my bills neatly organized without me having to maintain them myself, especially thanks to their status updates feature that lets me keep track of receivables. I would otherwise miss out on payments if I didn’t have that to look back on. Having an email paper trail has also been useful[.]”

“Bill.com remembers certain invoices and prepopulates based on history. It does a great job of identifying duplicates. Bill.com [scans] a vendor name from what it reads, so that helps me identify what’s sitting in my inbox [easier.] It however, doesn’t have an option to create folders or organize the inbox in any other way except by date or who uploaded.”

Here are some verified Tipalti reviews (from Trustpilot) by customers who used this software to help their business:

“Great platform with probably the best customer service I’ve dealt with in a B2B software company. Has plenty of integrations with other platforms which is key in today’s finance world. Does what it seeks to do, with the real clincher being that when something doesn’t work as intended (which will always be the case at some point with any solution), there is always a real person who can actually understand the problem to help.”

“Overall the system is doing the mandatory things. Capture the needed information, support workflows, and have a good connector to Netsuite. Where it lacks is the non-trivial areas like the ability to create a customs dashboard or build more complex workflows based on certain fields. Integrations to other systems (like DocuSign) ability to keep contracts etc.”

“Unfortunately, Tipalti has been an extremely difficult experience for our team since day 1. Admins cannot build custom reports (they charge you for those), and cannot add custom fields or adjust fields for an integration to NetSuite.”

“Tipalti has been an invaluable tool for automating our global payment processes. Designed to handle the complexity of international vendor payments, Tipalti offers a comprehensive platform that covers everything from onboarding and managing suppliers to ensuring compliance with global tax and regulatory requirements.”

BILL vs. Tipalti: Pricing

Understanding the pricing structure of financial management software is crucial because it directly impacts your business’s bottom line. Both BILL and Tipalti offer tiered pricing models that cater to different business sizes and needs, but their approaches differ significantly.

BILL Packages

Spend & Expense Management ($0)

Notable Features:

• Unlimited virtual and physical corporate cards
• Automated receipt matching and expense tracking
• Mobile app for on-the-go expense management
• Real-time transaction monitoring
• Integration with popular accounting software

AP & AR Plans

• Essentials: $45/user/month
• Team: $55/user/month
• Corporate: $79/user/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Notable Features:

• 50% time savings on AP processes
• Two-way sync with accounting software
• Enhanced security and controls
• Multi-location accounting capabilities
• Premium support options

Tipalti Packages

Starter ($99/month)

Notable Features:

• Supplier self-onboarding portal
• Forms W-9/W-8 collection and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) validation
• AI Smart Scan invoice processing
• Flexible approval rules
• Domestic multi-entity infrastructure
• ERP integrations

Premium (Custom Pricing)

Notable Features:

• All Starter plan features
• Unlimited intake requests
• Two- and three-way purchase order (PO) matching
• Global multi-entity and multi-currency infrastructure
• Mass payment capabilities

Elite (Custom Pricing)

Notable Features:

• All Premium plan features
• Full procurement solution
• Advanced approval workflows
• Budget management tools
• Slack integration
• Customizable solutions

The Bottom Line

For most small to mid-sized businesses seeking a comprehensive expense management solution, BILL emerges as the more practical choice. The company’s free Spend & Expense platform and accessible pricing tiers for additional features provide an excellent entry point for growing companies. BILL’s straightforward approach to expense management, strong automation capabilities, and generous credit offerings make it particularly attractive for businesses prioritizing ease of use and cost-effectiveness.

While Tipalti offers more robust global payment capabilities and advanced automation features, its higher starting price point and complex feature set may be more than many businesses need. BILL strikes an ideal balance between functionality and accessibility, making it the smarter choice for companies looking to streamline their financial operations without overcomplicating their processes or overpaying for unused features. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Tipalti charge a fee?

Yes, Tipalti’s pricing starts at $99 per month for the company’s Starter plan while the Premium and Elite tiers require custom pricing based on your business needs. This base fee covers essential features like supplier onboarding and invoice processing, but additional products like corporate cards and expense management tools may incur extra costs. Tipalti also charges transaction fees for certain payment methods, but these vary based on your chosen plan and payment volumes.

Is Tipalti worth it?

Tipalti can be worth the investment for mid-sized to enterprise businesses that process high volumes of international payments or manage complex multi-entity operations. The platform’s robust automation capabilities, global payment support, and comprehensive compliance features can justify the higher cost by reducing manual work and compliance risks. However, for smaller businesses or those primarily operating domestically, the cost may outweigh the benefits when compared to more affordable alternatives.

Does Tipalti report to the IRS?

Yes, Tipalti provides comprehensive tax reporting capabilities that include IRS reporting and automatic Form 1099/Form 1042-S generation for qualifying payments. The platform includes built-in tax compliance features that automatically collect and validate tax forms (e.g., Forms W-9 and W-8) from suppliers, track payment thresholds, and generate required tax documentation. However, like all financial platforms, Tipalti serves as a tool to facilitate compliance. Businesses remain responsible for ensuring accurate reporting and should work with their tax professionals to verify they meet all requirements.

What are the disadvantages of BILL.com?

While BILL offers strong core functionality, users report several limitations that include occasional system slowdowns during high-volume periods and a relatively basic reporting interface that may require upgrades for advanced analytics. Some customers note that the platform’s upselling can be aggressive, and vendors sometimes face challenges with the payment portal. Additionally, while BILL supports international payments, its global payment capabilities aren’t as comprehensive as some competitors.

Does BILL report to the IRS?

Yes, BILL complies with IRS reporting requirements and provides Forms 1099 for qualifying vendors who receive payments through its platform. The system automatically tracks payment thresholds and helps businesses maintain compliance by collecting Form W-9 information from vendors. However, BILL primarily acts as a facilitator; the ultimate responsibility for accurate tax reporting remains with the business owner. Users can generate Forms 1099 through BILL’s platform, but they should consult with their tax professional to ensure they meet all reporting obligations.