AP solutions compared: Airbase vs BILL (bill.com) vs Stampli

Choosing the ideal AP automation solution can be a challenge.

You may already know that accounts payable automation software can make invoice processing more efficient by eliminating manual tasks. However, how do you choose from the many providers in the marketplace, all of whom promise cost savings, streamlined workflows, and faster processing?

We’re here to help you make your decision. In this article, we compare solutions from Airbase, BILL, and Stampli – three leading accounting automation providers. We’ll compare their capabilities, performance, and customer reviews so you can choose the one that meets your needs. 

The comparison: Airbase vs BILL vs Stampli

The leading AP automation providers have a people-first philosophy. They make complex AP processes simple and intuitive for employees and provide timely, actionable data and insights to help leaders make informed decisions. These solutions stand out from the rest by excelling at five criteria:

• Ease of use: How easy it is for employees to learn and use the solution.
• Collaboration and communications: The solution makes working together easier for employees and vendors.
• Invoice approval confidence: The solution validates invoices to ensure they are accurate and error-free before sending them for approval.
• Product performance: the solution delivers consistent, measurable results. 
• ERP integration: The solution supports native ERP functionality with no need to reconfigure your ERP.

The three solutions we’re exploring bring a lot to the table. Let’s take a quick look at each one.

Who is Stampli?

Founded in 2015, Stampli is the leading accounts payable automation solution designed exclusively for Accounts Payable. It offers an ideal solution for AP departments who want to implement AP automation without the need to rework ERP workflows or AP processes. Stampli leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to understand your company’s AP processes and patterns, automating and streamlining your workflows.

Who is Airbase?

Airbase is a spend management platform that offers credit cards, employee expense management tools, and payment processing services. Since its founding in 2017, it has historically focused on employee expense management. However, Airbase has recently expanded its offerings to include accounts payable and procurement management features.

Who is BILL?

BILL, formerly Bill.com, was established in 2006 with a mission to assist small businesses in effectively managing their cash inflows and outflows. By automating essential accounting and financial tasks such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, and cash management, BILL simplifies the financial processes for entrepreneurs.

Continue reading to discover the features of each of these solutions.

Airbase vs BILL vs Stampli: Key accounts payable features

Stampli key features

Stampli provides finance teams with complete control over every stage of the invoice lifecycle. It simplifies touchless invoice processing, GL coding, verification, approval routing, and payment processing to enhance cash flow management and transform Accounts Payable into a strategic driver.

For complete expense control, Stampli offers Stampli Direct Pay, an integrated payment automation solution that consolidates multiple payment methods (ACH, check, wire transfer, and virtual card) on a single platform.

• Seamless 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 365 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 vendor payments in USD or local currency to suppliers in over 150+ 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.
• Doesn’t contact your vendors to pressure them into accepting payment methods.

Airbase key features

Airbase combines modules for guided procurement, corporate card solutions, expense tracking, and accounts payable in three service tiers: 

• Standard (up to 200 employees): Basic functionality with limited access to special features and mobile app.
• Premium (up to 500 employees): Enhanced functionality without enterprise-level features.
• Enterprise (up to 5,000 employees): Full functionality and all features.

BILL key features

BILL offers Essentials, 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.

Team

Everything in the Essentials tier, plus:

• Automated two-way sync with QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Premier, and Xero.
• Custom user roles.

Corporate

Everything in the Team tier, plus:

• AP and AR automation.
• Automated two-way sync with QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Premier, and Xero.
• Custom approval policies.

Enterprise

Everything in the Corporate tier, plus:

• Automated sync with QuickBooks Enterprise, Oracle Netsuite, Sage Intacct, and Microsoft Dynamics.
• Multi-location & multi-entity accounting.

Pricing

When searching for the right AP automation solution for your business, pricing is a crucial factor to consider. Unfortunately, many providers either don’t publish their pricing model or only provide partial pricing info. This lack of pricing transparency makes informed purchase decisions difficult. It’s essential to have access to complete and transparent pricing information to ensure you make the best choice for your business.

• Stampli offers simple monthly or annual pricing with unlimited users, vendors, and training.
• Airbase offers three service packages. Certain features and modules are only available at higher-priced tiers, and pricing for each tier is customized according to customers’ needs.
• BILL offers four service tiers. Pricing is per month, based on what tier you purchase. BILL also charges per-transaction fees for vendor payments made on its platform.

When you’re deciding on an AP automation platform for business, ask for details about their pricing, including how the pricing is applied (per month/user/invoice), the length of the contract (monthly vs. yearly), how many users, locations, or entities are included, what services are included, and what fees they charge for additional services. 

Customer satisfaction

Based on user reviews, the G2 Satisfaction Score for AP Automation measures customer satisfaction with AP automation solutions. It evaluates how well solution providers satisfy users’ needs. The score measures customer satisfaction 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?

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 AP automation users.

Let’s dig into the scores for Airbase, BILL, and Stampli.

Implementation Index

The Implementation Index comprises three scores: Ease of Setup, User Adoption, and Time to Go Live.

Stampli scored significantly higher in Ease of Setup and User Adoption of the three competitors, 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 

Stampli is also a leader in the Usability Index, scoring higher than Airbase and BILL for Ease of Admin and higher than the industry average for Ease of Use, another indication of Stampli’s popularity among AP teams.

Relationship Index 

Stampli scored highest in Ease of Doing Business and Quality of Support, and higher than the industry average for Likelihood to Recommend, indicating that Stampli is a leader in building strong customer relationships.

Results Index 

Stampli scored above the industry average for estimated return on investment and how well it meets customer requirements, reflecting that Stampli’s AP automation consistently delivers results for customers.

When to Choose Stampli

If you need a robust and user-friendly solution for accounts payable that seamlessly integrates with your existing ERP system, then Stampli is the perfect choice for you. With its exceptional customer service, automation capabilities, industry expertise, and transparent pricing, Stampli is the leading solution for AP automation. Whether you are a small, mid-sized, or enterprise business, Stampli is designed to meet your needs. You can trust Stampli to respect your vendor relationships – it will never contact vendors to pressure them to change payment methods.

You need seamless integration with your ERP

Stampli’s unique approach to ERP integration sets it apart from competitors. Unlike its rivals, Stampli develops integrations in-house, providing comprehensive support for native functionality. This approach gives Stampli the flexibility to cater to a diverse range of businesses across various industries, including those with complex multi-entity corporate structures and those operating in dynamic sectors such as construction. Stampli can be deployed within days, eliminating the need to hire developers, modify existing processes, or reconfigure the ERP system. It also seamlessly supports customers transitioning from one ERP system to another without any disruption to their service. It integrates with ERP in three ways:

Prebuilt integration: Fast and easy no-code integration via an application programming interface (API) that’s great for cloud applications. 

File integration: Uses customized file templates (created by Stampli) to import and export files easily with any on-premise or cloud ERP or accounting system.

Process integration: Support for existing processes requiring manual data entry or other specialized workflows.

You want best-in-class customer support

Stampli consistently receives top scores for customer satisfaction in industry reports like the G2 Grid® for AP Automation software. The company has been recognized for customer service, corporate citizenship, and excellence, receiving accolades such as: 

• No. 2 in the G2 list of Best Accounting and Finance Products for 2023.
• Recognized By Forbes As One Of America’s Best Startup Employers Of 2023
• Best Accounts Payable Automation Solution, 2022 Fintech Awards.

Numerous case studies from happy customers and independent user reviews recognize Stampli for excellence in areas such as:

• Easy to use, intuitive interface
• Fast implementation and onboarding
• Good AI/OCR for extracting paper invoice data
• Integration with accounting software like NetSuite and QuickBooks
• Streamlined workflow automation 
• Audit trail providing transparency
• Reporting capabilities
• Live setup assistance and 24/7 customer support from AP and ERP experts
• Cash management

You want simplified, centralized invoice management

Stampli’s AI assistant, Billy the Bot™, learns your AP processes and reduces tedious manual tasks to assist across the entire invoice lifecycle, including invoice capture, coding, matching, approvals, and fraud detection. Stampli centralizes all communications, documents, and tasks on top of the invoice for more control over AP processes. Customers can also use Stampli’s iOS or Android mobile app to upload invoices and documents.

Stampli centralizes AP tasks, documents, and communications on top of the invoice for complete visibility and control – no more wild goose chases for lost documents. Stampli also offers integrated services that add advanced functionality to its core AP automation solution, corporate card solutions (Stampli Card), domestic and international payment solutions (Stampli Direct Pay), and employee expense tracking (Stampli Expenses). 

When to choose Airbase

Airbase’s automated expense management and financial automation software enables business owners to effectively manage spending, mitigate risks, and streamline accounting processes.

Certain advanced spend management features, such as purchase orders, multi-subsidiary support, or customizable approval workflows, are only accessible at higher pricing tiers.

You need an employee expense management platform

Airbase provides an effective expense management platform, including automated receipt scanning and approval workflows, invoice scanning and expense reporting via mobile app, expense policy enforcement, and spend analytics. However, if you want to manage employee and accounts payable expenses on a unified platform, consider a solution that features dedicated AP processing and payment management capabilities.

You need integrations with human resources systems

Airbase integrates with Human Resource Information System (HRIS) platforms like Okta, Workday, and Rippling to provide employee expense management services. It also provides credit card integration with American Express and Silicon Valley Bank and integrates with communication platforms (such as Slack), and procurement and travel management solutions. Airbase offers accounting integrations with ERPs and accounting software, including QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct. However, if you need native ERP functionality or more integration options, consider platforms that offer deeper integrations. For example, Stampli supports full functionality for over 70 ERPs, finance platforms, and account software solutions.

When to choose BILL

BILL’s mission is to make paper-based accounting processes obsolete, automate payment processes, and change how small businesses handle cash inflows and outflows. Its simple portfolio of financial tools helps businesses automate core accounting functions and focus their time on building their business.

Your small business is growing

BILL offers a range of service packages to automate accounts receivable, accounts payable, payments, and other accounting functions. As your business grows, you can add higher-tier service packages to access features such as custom approval workflows, API integration, and user roles. 

The flexibility to add features can be an asset when your business is in the early stages of growth. However, your accounting automation needs may evolve so that you need deeper functionality. For example, if you plan to handle large invoice volumes or expenses for a large workforce, you may prefer a more robust, purpose-built accounts payable and spend management solution.

You need basic payment processing functionality

BILL offers access to wire transfers, ACH payments, corporate credit cards, and other electronic payment methods so you can pay suppliers and make online payments. However, BILL charges a per-transaction fee, which means this may be an expensive solution if you’re paying many vendors. Many of BILL’s advanced payment features, like customized approval policies and multi-location accounting, are only available at higher-priced tiers. As your business grows, consider AP and payment automation solutions that offer more cost-effective payment management.

Stampli: The #1 choice for AP automation

Transform your AP workflows and maximize ROI with Stampli’s scalable and flexible AP automation solution. With a proven track record in customer satisfaction and easy implementation that takes weeks, not months, Stampli is your Accounts Payable Automation partner.

The industry leader in AP automation

With Stampli, you’ll immediately see the impact of AP automation on your bottom line. You don’t have to change your AP workflows. All AP-related tasks are centralized in one user-friendly interface, simplifying communication, documentation, and workflows to help companies like Avid Acceptance manage economic volatility through AP automation.

Want to learn more about how Stampli can help your invoice and payment management workflow? Contact us today for a free demo and see why Stampli is the best choice for AP automation.