Arti Patel Martinez, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: On today's episode of In the Know, we'll be learning more about the Bill Pay feature.
Hey ProAdvisors, it's Arti, and you're watching In the Know, where you get exclusive access to demos of Intuit product enhancements by the leaders who built them.
Let's jump right in with Jorge, who will demonstrate how to use the Bill Pay feature.
Jorge, welcome.
Jorge Cardenas Willen: Hi everyone! Thanks for having me here today, I’m very excited to join everyone. I will be talking about greater efficiency and controls with Bill Pay. First, I’ll start off introducing myself. My name is Jorge Cardenas Willen, I'm a Product marketing manager for Bill Pay. I’ve been on the team for about four years, and I'm based in Seattle, Washington.
So, what we heard: Bill Pay’s been around for about two, three years at this point, and every time we speak with accountants, we get some great insights. What we’ve heard is that they are looking for more controls and also more efficiency, specifically being able to process more bills at one time.
So, what we've done is executed three new features:
- Parallel approvals for more controls
- Bulk Pay up to 50 to process more at once.
- Recurring Bill Payment/Auto-Pay, launching in a week or two.
Who can access these features? Any accountants and their clients who are subscribed to QuickBooks Online. We offer Bill Pay Elite for your own firm usage, and you can add these features either through workflows or when scheduling a bill payment. These features are live as of this month in the US.
This is about separation of duties and ensuring an audit trail. We’ve introduced two workflows: Bill Pay Approval and Bill Payment Release.
Traditionally, you selected one person as an approver. Now, you can select up to seven people for a single phase. You can choose if you need anyone in that group to approve, or a specific number of people, such as two for a nonprofit, or everyone in that group.
We also introduced Sequential Approvals. You can define up to five layers of groups. For example, once Group A approves, it automatically moves to Group B. Every person gets an email notification when it’s their turn. Everything is tracked within QuickBooks, providing a full audit trail of who approved what and when.
For Bill Pay Premium and Elite customers, we’ve expanded the bulk pay limit. Previously in Basic, you could pay up to 20. Now, you can select up to 50 different invoices at once. You can still edit each line for payment date, method—ACH or check—and speed. If multiple bills are for the same vendor, you can batch them into a single payment to save time.
This allows you to "set and forget" recurring bills. You can create templates for vendors you pay with the same frequency and amount. You set the interval at monthly, quarterly, or custom, the start/end dates, and the bank account. There is a "Recurring Bill Payment" tab where you can manage these templates and turn Auto-Pay on or off as needed.
We are offering a special promo for accountants who sign up their clients as "Client-Billed." Instead of the usual 30% off, they’ll get 90% off for 12 months for Bill Pay Premium or Elite. This brings Elite down to about $10 a month.
Arti Patel Martinez: Is Group Approval available to all customers?
Jorge Cardenas Willen: No. It is available to Bill Pay Elite subscribers or those with QuickBooks Online Advanced.
Arti Patel Martinez: Is there ProAdvisor preferred pricing?
Jorge Cardenas Willen: Yes. 30% off subscription fees and 15% off transaction fees. Note that Elite offers no-fee ACH, so with the 90% promo, you get free ACH payments for about $9–$10 a month.
Arti Patel Martinez: Can Group Approvals be used for both Bill Payment Approval and Bill Payment Release?
Jorge Cardenas Willen: Yes, it’s highly customizable. The only thing to watch is your "seat" count, which is determined by your QuickBooks Online subscription; QuickBooks Online Advanced gets 25 seats, and QuickBooks Online Plus gets five).
Arti Patel Martinez: Thanks so much for that walkthrough, Jorge!
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