Bill.com delivers comprehensive automation across accounts payable, accounts receivable, and spend management. This Bill.com Automation breakdown each feature, showing exactly how the platform reduces manual work, accelerates financial processes, and strengthens financial controls for finance teams
AP Automation Features
1. AI-Powered Invoice Capture
Bill.com’s invoice capture feature uses optical character recognition and machine learning to automatically extract invoice data. Finance teams can forward invoices to a dedicated email address, upload PDFs through the web interface, or use the mobile app to snap photos of paper invoices.
The AI reads and extracts vendor name, invoice number, date, line items, amounts, and payment terms. The system learns from corrections over time, improving accuracy for recurring vendors. For invoices from vendors already in the Bill.com network, data is pre-populated with 100% accuracy because it comes directly from the vendor’s system.
Once captured, invoices automatically match to purchase orders if PO matching is enabled. The system flags discrepancies between PO and invoice amounts, preventing overpayments before they occur.
This feature eliminates manual data entry for AP teams. Instead of typing invoice details into accounting software, AP staff review extracted data, make corrections if needed, and approve invoices for payment, cutting processing time per invoice from 10-15 minutes to 2-3 minutes.
2. Automated Approval Workflows
Bill.com approval workflows route invoices based on customizable rules without manual forwarding or email chains. Finance teams configure approval chains by setting conditions such as invoice amount, department, vendor, or GL account.
For example, a workflow might route invoices under $500 to a department manager, invoices between $500 and $5,000 to a controller, and invoices above $5,000 to a CFO. Multi-level approvals happen automatically; once the first approver clicks approve, the system immediately routes to the next person in the chain.
This automation eliminates the common problem of invoices sitting in email inboxes. The system automatically escalates overdue approvals and provides visibility into bottlenecks, helping finance teams resolve approval delays quickly.
3. Multi-Method Payment Processing
Bill.com processes payments through ACH transfers, virtual cards, physical checks, and international wire transfers from a single platform. Once invoices are approved, the system queues them for payment based on due dates and selected payment methods.
ACH payments transfer funds electronically to vendor bank accounts, typically arriving within 1-2 business days. This method costs significantly less than checks and provides confirmation of receipt automatically. Bill.com handles the entire ACH file transmission to banks, eliminating the need for finance teams to manage banking portals.
Virtual card payments generate single-use credit card numbers for each transaction, providing enhanced security and earning rebate revenue for the paying company. The platform generates virtual cards automatically at payment time and sends payment details to vendors.
Physical checks print automatically through Bill.com’s print-and-mail service. The company signs checks digitally, Bill.com prints and mails them, and the system tracks delivery status. This eliminates check printing, stuffing envelopes, and trips to the post office.
International payments process through Bill.com’s global payment network, handling currency conversion and international wire transfers without requiring separate banking relationships or foreign exchange services.
4. Vendor Management & Network Access
Bill.com maintains a network of over 3 million businesses. When paying a vendor already in the network, the vendor receives payment details directly in their Bill.com account, sees the payment status in real time, and can download remittance information automatically.
For vendors not in the network, Bill.com sends payment via their preferred method: ACH to their bank account, virtual card to their email, or physical check to their address. The system securely stores complete vendor information, including W-9 forms, payment preferences, and banking details.
5. AP Fraud Protection Features
Bill.com includes multiple layers of fraud prevention for accounts payable. The system uses machine learning to detect unusual payment patterns, such as unexpected changes to vendor banking information, duplicate invoices with slightly different numbers, or invoices from new vendors that match known fraud patterns.
Positive pay integration with banks automatically verifies that checks presented for payment match checks issued through Bill.com, preventing altered or counterfeit checks from clearing.
Dual authentication requires two people to approve payments above specified amounts, preventing a single person from creating and paying fraudulent invoices. Role-based permissions control who can enter invoices, approve payments, change vendor banking details, and process payments, separating duties to prevent fraud.
AR Automation Features
1. Automated Invoice Creation & Delivery
Bill.com’s accounts receivable automation generates and sends customer invoices automatically. Finance teams create invoice templates with company branding, payment terms, and line item descriptions. The system can generate invoices on recurring schedules for subscription businesses or on-demand for project-based billing.
Invoice data syncs from accounting systems like QuickBooks or NetSuite, automatically pulling customer information, billing rates, and services rendered. Teams review invoices before sending, or configure auto-send rules for routine invoices.
Once generated, Bill.com delivers invoices via email with a link to a customer payment portal. Invoices can also be downloaded as PDFs or printed for mailing. The system tracks delivery status, showing when customers opened emails and viewed invoices.
2. Payment Reminders & Status Tracking
Bill.com sends automated payment reminders to customers based on configurable schedules. Finance teams set reminder triggers such as 5 days before due date, on due date, 3 days after due date, and 7 days after due date. The system automatically sends reminders, eliminating the need for manual follow-up from the AR team.
Each reminder includes invoice details, amount owed, due date, and a direct link to pay online. Finance teams customize reminder messages to maintain appropriate tone—friendly for the first reminder, firmer for late payments.
3. Customer Payment Portal
Bill.com provides customers with a dedicated payment portal where they can view all outstanding invoices, make payments via ACH or credit card, schedule future payments, and download invoice copies and payment receipts.
The portal accepts ACH bank transfers at no additional cost to the customer, and credit card payments with standard processing fees. Customers can save payment methods for faster future payments or set up autopay for recurring invoices.
For customers paying multiple invoices, the portal allows bulk payments, where they select all invoices to pay and process a single payment covering the total amount. The system automatically allocates the payment across the selected invoices.
Spend & Expense Automation (Divvy)
1. Corporate Cards & Virtual Cards
Divvy, now integrated into Bill.com, provides corporate credit cards with built-in spend controls. Finance teams issue physical cards to employees for recurring expenses like travel, meals, or office supplies, and generate virtual cards for online purchases, subscriptions, or one-time vendor payments.
2. Automated Expense Reporting
Divvy automates expense reporting by requiring employees to submit receipts and explanations at the time of purchase, rather than collecting receipts for weeks and submitting bulk expense reports.
When employees make purchases with Divvy cards, the system sends immediate notifications requesting receipt uploads. Employees snap photos of receipts using the mobile app, and the system attaches receipts to the corresponding transactions automatically.
3. Budgeting & Real-Time Spend Controls
Divvy allows finance teams to create budgets by department, project, employee, or expense category. Budgets can be set for specific time periods, monthly, quarterly, or annually, and the system tracks spending against budgets in real-time.
When budget limits are reached, the system automatically declines additional card transactions or blocks new expense submissions, preventing overspending before it occurs rather than discovering overages during month-end reporting.
Platform-Wide Features
1. Two-Way Accounting Integrations
Bill.com integrates bidirectionally with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct. Two-way sync means data flows in both directions: vendor and customer information are pulled from the accounting system into Bill.com, and transaction data is pushed from Bill.com back to the accounting system.
2. Mobile App Functionality
The Bill.com mobile app provides full functionality for approvals, payments, and expense management from smartphones and tablets. Approvers receive push notifications for invoices awaiting approval and can review invoice details, attached documents, and approval history before approving or rejecting directly from their phones.
3. Document Management & Digital Audit Trails
Bill.com stores all invoices, receipts, purchase orders, and supporting documents in a searchable digital archive. Finance teams can search by vendor name, invoice number, amount, date range, or GL account to find specific documents instantly.
4. Real-Time Dashboards & Reporting
Bill.com dashboards provide instant visibility into financial operations. The AP dashboard shows invoices awaiting approval, upcoming payments, overdue invoices, and total outstanding payables. The AR dashboard displays outstanding invoices, payments received, aging reports, and collections metrics.
5. Security & Fraud Prevention
Bill.com employs bank-level security including 256-bit SSL encryption for data transmission and AES-256 encryption for data at rest. All financial data is encrypted both during transmission over the internet and when stored in Bill.com’s databases.
Multi-factor authentication requires users to verify their identity with a second factor beyond a password, typically a code sent to their mobile device or generated by an authenticator app. This prevents unauthorized access even if passwords are compromised.
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