How do I manage vendor payment methods?

Jul 26, 2023

In BILL, you can pay your vendors by ePayments, virtual cards or check. By default, all vendors are set up to be paid via check when you first create them.

  • To pay them via ACH, set them up for ePayment
  • If a vendor has confirmed card acceptance for virtual card payments, we'll update their payment method to virtual card

ePayments

ePayments have several benefits:

  • Save money - ePayments are much less expensive than checks
  • Keep your vendors happy - ePayments arrive really fast, directly into your vendor's bank account. They won't have to wait for a check to arrive in the mail, and then make a trip to the bank!
  • Environmentally friendly - save paper and carbon emissions by eliminating a piece of physical mail

Our network of companies accepting BILL ePayments is growing every day. When you add a new vendor, large or small, we'll automatically let you know if we think they already use BILL to accept ePayments. And for the vendors you've already entered in BILL, you have many options:

  • See if your vendor already has a BILL to accept ePayments - we'll search our network, as well as our network of verified national vendors, and display any potential matches we find. Just check their Vendor Detail page in your account.
    • Note: An account number and vendor ZIP code is always required to connect with any vendor in the verified national vendor network
  • Invite your vendors to join our network, create a subscription-free basic account and get paid online (email address required)
  • Manually enter your vendor's bank account information

Virtual Card

BILL virtual card service is the free, easy, and fast way to make payments with confidence using your BILL account. Your vendors receive a single use, 16-digit virtual card number that they can process just like a credit card. Rest easy knowing a dedicated team of BILL payment specialists oversees transactions to ensure your vendors are paid in a timely manner.

The benefits of virtual cards:

  • Free: You pay no transaction fees
  • Easy reconciliation: Rich remittance info such as invoice numbers and customer details make reconciliation easy for you and your vendors
  • Fast: Payments can be delivered faster than sending a check or via ACH, so your vendors can receive funds earlier

You’ll have payment support every step of the way

  • Vendor pre-qualification: We reach out to vendors to confirm card acceptance, while also identifying qualified vendors amongst our existing network of over 4M. We only enroll those who can accept virtual card payments.
  • Processing review: We provide monitoring services to ensure vendors are properly processing payments
  • Payment specialists: We have a dedicated team who assist with making payments and provide payment support for vendors

Invite your vendor to receive virtual card payments by filling out this page with your vendor’s information. Our payment specialists will reach out to confirm card acceptance.

If a vendor accepts virtual card payments, and you’d like to discuss other payment options for them, please reach out to customer support.


Checks

An ePayment vendor can be reverted to check payments. The steps differ depending on how their bank account was added.

Invited Vendor

If you invited the vendor to create a BILL account to accept ePayments, disconnect from the vendor:

  1. Select Vendors in the navigation menu
  2. Select the vendor name to disconnect
  3. Select More actions
  4. Select Disconnect
  5. On the confirmation popup, select Disconnect

Private Vendor

If you added the vendor's bank account information manually, inactivate the vendor's bank account, or you can invite the vendor to create a subscription-free Basic Receivables account, connect via the Network, and enter/manage the bank account from their side.

Deactivate the bank account:

  1. Select Vendors in the navigation menu
  2. Select the vendor's name
  3. Select More actions
  4. Select ePayment info
  5. Select the bank account number
  6. Select Deactivate

Invite to connect via the Network:

  1. Select Vendors in the navigation menu
  2. Select the vendor's name
  3. Select Set up ePayments
  4. Edit the invite as needed
  5. Select Send

Things to know

  • Switching an ePayment vendor back to check will inactivate any bank information that was previously entered for the vendor
  • Check arrival dates are estimated because once we send the check, we have no control over the United States Postal Service
  • If you add your vendor's bank account info manually, you can still invite them to connect through the network, and continue sending ePayments while the invite is pending
  • If at any time the vendor cancels their account or the bank account is inactivated, the vendor will default back to check payments and a new bank will need to be added either manually in the vendor record or via network connection to resume ePayments
  • Because all bank information is encrypted once entered into BILL, you can't download or export vendor bank information