Banking and payments
Paying bills
Do you need a bill payment tool, and how should paying suppliers and subcontractors work?
Six short steps. No email or account.
- Who needs it
- Businesses with regular suppliers or subcontractors, especially once someone other than the owner pays them.
- When it matters
- Once payments outgrow what you can remember, or once you need someone else to run them.
- Compare first
- Approval workflow
- Matters most when
- growing, mature
Is this the right tool for you?
Paying bills from a pile of paper and a checkbook leads to missed due dates, duplicate payments and no clear record of who approved what. A bill payment process captures each invoice, routes it for approval, pays it on schedule and records it in your books.
Signs you need it now
- You have paid a supplier bill twice or missed one entirely.
- Paying bills means writing checks or logging in to several sites.
- Nobody else can pay bills when you are away.
- You need subcontractor tax details and insurance certificates at year-end and scramble to find them.
- You cannot easily see what you owe and when it is due.
When another area fits better
- Most of your spending is staff buying materials and supplies on cards. Read the expenses and receipts guide
- You are paying independent contractors who work for you directly, with onboarding and year-end reporting. Read the paying contractors guide
Recognise two or more of these? Sort out paying bills next.
Tell us how your business runs and get a plan that puts paying bills in order with everything else: what to set up first, your must-haves and what to compare.
What matters at your size
Working alone
Bill pay from your bank or accounting software, with bills entered and scheduled, is often enough.
A small team
Invoice capture by email or photo, approval by the owner, scheduled payments and automatic sync to accounting. Collecting vendor tax forms matters.
Several teams or locations
Multi-step approvals, separation between who approves and who pays, purchase orders and payments by several methods.
How the way you work changes the choice
- Contractors paying subs and suppliers
- Payments tied to jobs, lien waivers and insurance certificates before paying, and records of what each sub was paid. Ask what year-end reporting applies.
- Shops paying stock suppliers
- Regular supplier invoices, supplier terms and early-payment discounts. Matching invoices to deliveries prevents paying for what did not arrive.
- Professional firms
- Fewer, regular bills such as rent, software and services. Scheduling and approvals matter more than volume.
What to compare
Approval workflow
The control value is in requiring a second pair of eyes before funds move.
Contractor tax forms
Collecting W-9s and issuing 1099s is the feature that saves January.
Accounting sync
Two-way sync prevents duplicate entry and reconciliation drift.
Cost and setup effort
- Pricing is usually per user, per payment or both, and some payment methods cost more than others. Estimate how many bills you pay each month.
- Setup means entering vendors and their payment details, approval rules and the accounting connection. Verify vendor bank details directly, since changed-account scams target bill payment.
Trade-offs to weigh
- Bank bill pay or dedicated tool
- Bank bill pay is free or cheap but has little approval control or accounting sync. A dedicated tool adds approvals, capture and records.
- Pay early or hold cash
- Scheduling to the due date keeps cash in the account longer. Paying early may earn discounts or goodwill with suppliers.
- Control or speed
- Approval steps prevent mistakes and fraud but slow payments. Set rules so small routine bills pass quickly and large ones get a second look.
When to sort it out
Once payments outgrow what you can remember, or once you need someone else to run them.
Your next step
Answer six short questions about how your business runs. You get an operating plan: where paying bills fits among your priorities, the must-haves to hold every option to, and what to compare when you choose.
Where this comes first
Trades and businesses that usually sort this out early.
Often decided alongside
Other parts of banking and payments.