In yet another example of the growing number of fintech solutions targeted at small businesses, Tipalti, a 2010 payments automation startup based in San Mateo, CA, announced an integrated solution with QuickBooks Online for its suppliers payments automation feature. The company provides automated payables and payments (B2B and B2C) with a focus on cross border scenarios, where it has payments licensing and local partners across multiple countries.
‘Tipalti’s self-service, white-labeled supplier portal relieves finance of the data entry and back-and-forth of vendor onboarding and communications, while also collecting and vetting payment and tax data to reduce payment errors and tax compliance issues. OCR, AI-enabled invoice automation, and approvals unburden the finance team of the manual processing of invoices. From there, Tipalti simplifies the process of paying hundreds or even thousands of vendors around the world at scale, with built-in payment approval workflows and offering payments in 6 different payment methods across 190 countries and 120 currencies. Tipalti’s AP Hub provides full control over the end-to-end payables workflow, from invoice approval to payment to reconciliation reports, with instant access to audit trails and payment details. QuickBooks Online customers can even enable early payment offers to their suppliers, to allow them to get paid earlier than their original net terms, without negatively impacting the customers’ working capital.’
In speaking with Chen Amit, Tipalti Co-Founder and CEO, Mercator learned that the supplier portal is multi-lingual to help simplify the onboarding process and extend the international payments reach. The platform can deliver multiple payment types in synch with local markets, so we also asked about one of the topics receiving much print over the past couple of years, real-time payments. Mr. Amit indicated that Tipalti has not yet experienced any significant demand from the client base, but is in discussions with various service providers in preparation for such an eventuality. Another Tipalti solution available is the ability for suppliers to expedite payments through an early payer feature, essentially a form of supply chain finance. Ease of usage on both buyer and supplier sides, as well as cash flow enhancement, generally tends to improve relations and strengthen supply chains.
“Tipalti’s integration with QuickBooks Online brings businesses unprecedented automation, control, and visibility of their global accounts payable operation,” says Chen Amit, Co-Founder and CEO of Tipalti. “A recent study of QuickBooks users found that almost 70% percent were looking to eliminate wasted time spent on payables. This integration does just that by enabling businesses to focus more on strategic efforts that enable the business to grow and scale and less on mundane processes.”
It took awhile but there is now a steady stream B2B fintech solutions making their way to market across multiple business sizes and segments.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
