Airbase vs BILL.

(formerly Bill.com)

Airbase spend management: Modernize accounts payable with a BILL alternative.

See for yourself.

Airbase spend management vs BILL,
a siloed legacy AP solution.

Airbase is the top-ranked spend management solution for mid-market companies. View pricing.

Module / Feature

small-icon-airbase
Bill logo
Bill logo

Corporate Cards

Virtual cards* (pre-approval and spend controls)

Physical cards for offline spend

Cash back on corporate cards

Delegation support for executives

Automated straight-line amortization for prepaids

Receipt compliance & inbox for receipt management

AP Automation

Basic bill payments (invoice ingestion, bill creation and payment)

International payments (200+ countries & 145+ currencies)

PO module

Vendor credits, PO matching, vendor context

Vendor / supplier portal for self-onboarding

Payment runs, recurring payments

Amortizations

Expense Management

OCR receipt scanning

Basic expense workflows

Mileage expenses

Custom policies and rules

Delegation support for executives

Receipt inbox for receipt management

Expense request and approval workflows on mobile app

Request / Approval Workflows

Advanced approvals – rule-based policy engine

Pre-approval workflow for virtual cards

Slack integration

Physical card approval workflows

Guided Procurement / Intake

No-code customizable intake workflows

Milestone steps for sequential or parallel department approvals

Automated, multi-step request submission process for employees

Customizable forms, approval matrices, and conditions

Integrations with IT, finance, and legal systems of record such as Jira, Ironclad, and more

Self-serve set up with no technical support required

Payment status of vendors

Vacation mode for approvers

Reporting

Team and individual reporting

Real-time reporting for all non-payroll spend

Departmental reporting

Open PO reporting for accrual workflows

Advanced Features

Mobile app for all relevant workflows (iOS / Android)

Multi-subsidiary support in one consolidated system

Advanced role-based access control

Okta and OneLogin: SSO and SCIM support

NetSuite custom segments

Automatic provisioning/deprovisioning with 27 HRIS systems

There’s a lot more.

Airbase deeply understands the needs of accountants and provides depth and breadth not found in competitors. This ensures that you never have to deal with change management as you grow with the #1 spend management solution.

Guided Procurement
  • Simple forms lead employees to gather all requirements for all stakeholders.
  • Approval matrix establishes milestones required for various spend categories.
  • Approval rules ensure appropriate stakeholders participate in the process depending on the request.
  • Create custom forms with call-outs for factors like attachments, URLs, text, multiple choice, date, etc., to capture requirements.
  • Configure integrations with software used by stakeholders to trigger and align with existing workflows.
Corporate Cards
  • Workflow to request and approve temporary change in spend limit for virtual and physical cards.
  • Manage all GL sync rules for virtual cards in one place with bulk-edit workflows.
  • Workflow for manager approval of physical card transactions before syncing to GL.
  • Detailed audit log for all changes made for all cards: spend limits changed, card owners transferred, system-driven locks on the card per compliance policies.
  • Receipt compliance — opt cards out of reminders, lock cards if receipts are not attached within configurable number of days.
  • Proactive fraud alerts and self-serve handling by employees via mobile app / web / email.
  • Subscription management: keep records of contracts / related info when a card is created, and key contact personnel with the vendor.
AP Automation
  • View and save email thread in Airbase when invoice is forwarded.
  • Customize posting period in GL.
  • Configure amortization rules during bill creation.
  • Select NetSuite amortization schedules in Airbase.
  • Option to create a bill in the GL as soon as it’s created in Airbase or after approval.
  • Option to initiate payments as soon as all the approvals are done.
  • Allow a bill to be edited after it has been approved, and sync updates to the GL.
  • Attach files and other supporting information to each bill.
  • Exportable aging report.
  • View detailed audit trail of every bill — when it was uploaded, approved, and paid.
  • See completed and pending bill payments for vendor during bill creation to avoid duplicate payments.
  • Option to invite vendors and have them provide their payment and tax details (vendor portal).
  • Advanced approval policies allow rules that define who approves bill payments based on location, vendor, categories, departments, and more.
  • Allow vendors to upload invoices and track the status of their payments.
  • Perform 3-way matching of invoices in Airbase with purchase orders and item receipts in NetSuite.
  • Create bills in 145 currencies across all subsidiaries.
  • Make local or international payments from your subsidiary’s international bank account (NetSuite only).
  • Filter bills by vendors likely accepting virtual cards.
Expense Management
  • Advanced expense policies (time, budget, and field-based policies).
  • Automated GL coding.
  • Receipt inbox to store receipts for later processing.
  • Automatic mileage calculation based on origin and destination address or current location on mobile device.
  • Specify whether an employee is paid via Airbase or through a separate process (helps with international employees).
  • Full expense request creation and approval workflow support on mobile app.
  • Slack integration for employee updates and approval workflow.
  • Specific expense GL categories.
  • Billable expenses.
  • Multi-destination mileage expenses.
Request and Approval Workflows
  • Granular rule builder for request routing based on department, subsidiary, vendor, amount, GL category, GL tags, and many other dimensions.
  • Additional support for approval policies based on GL tags like class, location, cost center, customer / project, etc.
  • Unique departmental approval policies.
  • Approval groups — require everyone in the group to approve or one member. Sequential and parallel approvals within the group.
  • Separate request routing policies for recurring virtual cards, one-time virtual cards, bill payments, expenses, and POs.
  • Simulate employee requests to make sure your advanced approval policies are correctly defined.
  • Support for fallback approver in case no rules match.
  • Consistent approval workflow experience for requesters and approvers across all non-payroll spend (corporate cards, bill payments, POs, expenses).
  • Build policies with Observers to automatically notify users of relevant events associated with a spend request.
  • Customize your spend request forms to capture the spend information needed by internal teams. (IT, Security, Procurement, etc.)
Integrations
  • Microsoft Office 365 & Google SSO.
  • Okta, OneLogin and SAML provider SSO support.
  • Automatic provisioning/deprovisioning with 27 HRIS systems, Okta, OneLogin, SCIM.
  • Deep API integrations with QuickBooks Online & Desktop, Intacct, NetSuite, Xero GLs that sync projects, segments, custom fields, and amortization templates (as supported by the GL).
  • Manage all spend request workflows via Slack integration.
Multi-Subsidiary, Multi-Currency Support
  • One platform to manage subsidiaries with consolidated and subsidiary-specific reporting across all non-payroll spend.
  • Support for 200+ countries.
  • Support for 145+ currencies.
  • Free international payments in local currency.
  • Competitive rates for USD wires to other countries.
Accounting Policies

Customizable accounting policies that can be assigned to users provide the following benefits:

  • Set virtual card and physical card sync rules to automatically categorize transactions to the appropriate GL account, subsidiary and tag.
  • Auto-populate GL tags (class, department, location, etc.) based on employee who is spending money.
  • Customize receipt compliance rules. Remove the requirement to upload receipts for expenses under a certain dollar value.
  • Configure which GL categories and tags are shown in drop-downs to users.
  • Set aliases for GL categories at the policy level.
  • Create unlimited accounting policies.
Mobile App

Airbase offers a rich mobile app with support for the following workflows:

  • Approvals across all spend methods — corporate cards, bills, expenses.
  • Create a new expense request.
  • Add and upload receipt.
  • Review status of expense requests.
  • Receipt inbox to capture receipts for later attachment to physical card transactions and expense requests.
  • Physical card related workflows — review transactions, attach receipts and categorize transactions, submit transactions for approval, lock / unlock card.
Tax Compliance
  • Require a W-9 form before bill payment.
  • Easily collect W-9 by inviting vendor to self-onboard in vendor portal.
  • Generate report of vendors who require 1099 to be generated.
Security and Compliance
  • SOC 1 Type I & SOC 2 Type II Compliance.

Trusted by finance teams at all stages.

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G2

G2 Leader Mid-Market WInter 2024
G2 Leader Enterprise Winter 2024
G2 Momentum Leader Winter 2024

See the difference.

Ready to see first-hand how Airbase can modernize all of your non-payroll spending — not just part of it?

Information contained in this page is based on publicly available documentation about each of the software vendors reviewed as of October 5, 2021. Features may be referred to differently by different vendors which may cloud direct comparisons. Modules and features are continually being updated and we will make an effort to update the information in this document to reflect those changes. Please contact [email protected] to suggest corrections.

*Disclaimer: BILL acquired Divvy on June 1, 2021. At some point it is feasible that some level of integration between the two systems will happen, but there is no clear indication of any timeframe at this time.