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Smartbills vs BILL

Both products pay suppliers. Where they differ is upstream: whether the invoice has been collected, coded and approved by the time the payment run starts.

At a glance

Smartbills vs BILL, in one screen

BILL, formerly Bill.com, automates payables and receivables for small and mid-sized businesses. Invoices route for approval and are paid across its own supplier network, then sync to the major accounting ledgers.

Smartbills

Best for

Businesses whose document problem starts before the invoice exists, across receipts, card spend and bills collected from vendor portals.

Where it's stronger

  • Invoices are pulled from vendor portals as soon as they are published. Approvers see them early instead of late.
  • Receipts, cards, expenses and supplier bills all post to one ledger.
  • Capture, coding and approvals live in the same product as expenses and receipts.
  • Line-level receipt data that holds up when you claim sales tax back.

BILL

Best for

Businesses paying supplier invoices at high volume, especially when most of their suppliers are already enrolled on the BILL network.

Where it's stronger

  • A supplier payment network at real scale. Onboarding a payee is usually already done.
  • A long US track record and deep relationships through the accountant channel.
  • Established international payment coverage.
  • If your job is paying a lot of suppliers reliably, BILL is the safe answer.

Every comparison on this site names what the other product does better. If we couldn't think of anything, we didn't publish the page.

Side by side

Smartbills and BILL, feature by feature

These are structural differences, not plan checkboxes. Capabilities change, so check the vendor's own documentation before deciding on any single row.

Automating the accounts payable run

Smartbills
BILL

Reach when you pay a supplier

BILL's network is real: many suppliers are already on it.

SmartbillsBank rails and card
BILLLarge established payment network

Collecting the invoice from the vendor's portal

Smartbills
BILL—

Employee expenses and receipts

SmartbillsCore to the product
BILLThrough BILL Spend & Expense

Itemized receipts issued by the merchant

Smartbills
BILL—

Coding a supplier bill line by line

Smartbills
BILLLimited

Customer payments and cash application

Smartbills
BILL

Moving from BILL

None of this needs a big-bang cutover. Most teams run both tools for one cycle and compare capture rates before switching anyone off.

  1. Map your suppliers

    Export your supplier list with bank details and verify each one before anything is paid.

  2. Connect your accounting

    Turn on the two-way sync with your ledger and map categories and tax codes once.

  3. Turn on invoice collection

    Add the vendor portals and utility accounts to pull invoices from. Bills start arriving before they're due.

  4. Move payment runs last

    Keep paying the way you do now until capture and matching have run cleanly for a full cycle.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What people ask us before they sign up.

Yes, by bank transfer and card. Our payee reach is smaller than the BILL network, and if most of your suppliers are already enrolled there, that is a real advantage for BILL.

It means Smartbills signs in to the vendor's portal on a schedule and downloads the invoice as soon as it is published, before the due date. It matters most for utilities, telecom and fuel accounts.

Yes, and it is a common way to start. Capture, code and approve in Smartbills, keep paying through BILL, then consolidate later if it makes sense.

Keep comparing

More comparisons

The products people evaluate alongside BILL.

All BILL alternativesBest accounts payable software

The products that do the work.

Each product works on its own, and when you run two, the same record carries from the receipt to the ledger entry.

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Ready to see it against BILL?

Bring one month of your own receipts and card transactions, and we'll show you the capture rate on both sides instead of a slide deck.

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