BILL Spend & Expense is one among many enterprise credit score suppliers that helps small and midsize companies faucet money after they want it most.
It goes a step additional with highly effective spend monitoring and expense administration instruments, too. It’s a formidable instrument that each rising enterprise ought to assume critically about including.
Oh, and BILL (previously Divvy) is free for customers, making it all of the extra spectacular. I analyze enterprise financial institution accounts and small enterprise bank cards for a dwelling. Whereas I can’t say BILL is completely distinctive, the one-two-three punch of no charges, scalable enterprise credit score, and expansive cash administration instruments legitimately set it aside.
See what to anticipate from BILL and determine whether or not it’s proper in your firm.
What Is BILL Spend & Expense?
BILL presents primary monetary providers to small and midsize companies. At its core is a versatile enterprise credit score line that may scale with your small business. It additionally has enterprise budgeting and expense administration instruments that assist simplify even essentially the most complicated business funds.
BILL doesn’t cost customers any charges. It makes cash by means of card interchange charges, which come out of the online acquired by retailers you pay with BILL. You don’t pay any curiosity on the float since you entry your BILL enterprise credit score line by means of a company cost card that it’s essential to pay in full every assertion cycle.
BILL’s most notable advantages embody a customizable card rewards program with qualifying spend, a robust cellular app, and seamless integrations with exterior accounting software program.
How BILL Spend & Expense Compares
BILL isn’t the world’s solely enterprise credit score answer, after all. It competes towards a number of small-business bank cards and mortgage suppliers, every with its personal strengths and weaknesses.
One in all BILL’s better-known opponents is the Chase Ink Enterprise bank card household, which incorporates three names: Ink Enterprise Most well-liked, Ink Enterprise Money, and Ink Enterprise Limitless. See how BILL compares to Chase’s small-business bank card lineup.
| BILL | Chase Ink Enterprise Playing cards | |
| Annual Price | $0 | $0 to $95, relying on the cardboard |
| Versatile Rewards? | Sure, based mostly on the way you spend | No, flat or category-based rewards that don’t change |
| Prices Curiosity? | No | Sure, at variable charges |
| Versatile Credit score Line? | Sure, scales together with your income | Relies upon — could require a proper software for a credit score line enhance |
What Units BILL Aside?
BILL stands out for a lot of causes, however these 4 specifically stand out to me as somebody who spends hours wading by means of monetary superb print each week.
- No Curiosity. The BILL Divvy Company Card is a cost card, not a bank card. Which means it’s essential to repay your costs in full on the finish of every billing interval. Whereas this isn’t uncommon of enterprise credit score, it’s essential as a result of it means you’ll by no means pay curiosity on BILL attracts.
- No Month-to-month or Annual Charges Charges. BILL is considerably uncommon amongst enterprise credit score suppliers in its whole lack of month-to-month or annual charges to make use of the product. BILL makes cash on the again finish, by means of cuts of funds made to retailers.
- Acceptable for Companies With No Credit score Historical past. BILL presents a secured credit score line for companies that don’t qualify for unsecured strains. Usually, meaning new companies with no credit score historical past and companies with restricted or irregular income.
- Highly effective Monetary Software program Constructed Into the App. BILL has in depth budgeting and expense administration instruments that combine seamlessly with its credit score providers. It’s highly effective sufficient to exchange your present enterprise budgeting software program, for positive.
Key Options of BILL Spend & Expense
BILL has three core options:
- A business credit score line (technically, a company cost card)
- Enterprise budgeting software program
- Expense administration software program
The software program is free for BILL customers, no matter enterprise dimension, although BILL clarifies that its options are meant for companies with fewer than 500 workers. BILL makes cash by means of card interchange charges, which means it takes a small slice of each transaction you make earlier than passing the funds alongside to the service provider.
Enterprise Credit score
The BILL Divvy Company Card is the versatile credit score line on the coronary heart of the BILL ecosystem. It knits the opposite two predominant BILL options — budgeting and expense administration — collectively.
These are crucial parts of the BILL Divvy Company Card:
- Pay in Full. The BILL Divvy Company Card is a cost card, not a bank card. This implies it’s essential to pay your costs in full on the finish of the billing interval. This shouldn’t be an issue if your small business has a gentle revenue, and it’s a blessing in disguise since you’ll by no means pay curiosity.
- Versatile Credit score Line. BILL is aware of your small business is greater than a credit score rating. It considers income, progress potential, and different nontraditional elements in underwriting, which might result in a better preliminary credit score line. And your credit score line can scale as your income will increase — you may apply for a rise with only a few faucets within the app.
- As Many Digital Playing cards As You Want. BILL generates digital playing cards on demand everytime you want them. I personally love digital playing cards — they’re clutch for one-time and recurring bills the place you don’t need the seller to have entry to your actual card quantity.
- No Upfront Charges for Worker Playing cards. BILL doesn’t cost any upfront or setup charges for worker playing cards. Irrespective of how many individuals are in your workforce, you may hook every up with a person BILL Divvy Company Card.
- Enforceable Budgets and Spend Controls. In the event you’re nervous about giving newer workers a card of their very own, BILL has customizable spend controls that make it unimaginable for workers to overspend. I’d suggest setting spend limits based mostly on position and seniority.
- Common Credit score Reporting. BILL studies your credit score utilization and funds to the Small Enterprise Monetary Trade (SBFE), a nonprofit enterprise credit score reporting company. Use your card responsibly, and also you’ll construct enterprise credit score over time.
- Secured Credit score Strains If You Don’t Qualify for an Unsecured Line. The usual BILL credit score line is unsecured, similar to a daily bank card. In the event you don’t qualify on account of a restricted enterprise credit score historical past or revenue, you may pre-fund a secured BILL Divvy Company Card and nonetheless profit from the flexibleness of a credit score line.
The BILL Divvy Company Card has a versatile rewards program that earns as much as 7 factors per $1 spent (7x) on eligible purchases. It’s essential to draw a minimum of 30% of your accessible credit score to earn rewards in any given billing interval, and your precise earn charge will depend on your compensation frequency.
Right here’s how that appears:
| Repay Weekly | Repay Semi-Month-to-month | Repay Month-to-month | |
| Eating places | 7x | 4x | 2x |
| Motels | 5x | 3x | 2x |
| Recurring Software program | 2x | 1.75x | 1.5x |
| Every part Else | 1.5x | 1x | 1x |
You possibly can redeem factors for journey purchases, reward playing cards, assertion credit, or straight money again. You get essentially the most worth for journey redemptions — $0.01 per level — and about $0.005 per level for all different choices. So, in case you or your workforce often journey for enterprise, Divvy is way more rewarding.
Spend Administration (Budgeting)
BILL’s budgeting instrument makes it simple to create a tactical monetary plan for your small business.
If your organization is small and its funds comparatively easy, you may persist with a single finances that covers all the enterprise. In any other case, create a number of budgets for departments or groups, including or eradicating workers from every finances as wanted.
Your BILL budgets hyperlink to your BILL Divvy Company worker playing cards. Because the finances proprietor, you may require approval for each single worker card transaction or set preapprovals that enable small, routine transactions to undergo with out your say-so. However approval requests come straight to your BILL app, so it’s simple sufficient to approve a transaction with out interrupting what you’re doing. You possibly can delegate this accountability to workforce leaders and division heads as your group grows.
The hidden energy of BILL’s budgeting instrument is its capability to identify overspending in real-time earlier than it turns into a severe legal responsibility. And you’ll generate month-to-month studies that present a scientific, granular view of spending at a person, workforce, division, and firm stage. That makes it a lot simpler to regulate budgets on the fly.
Expense Administration
BILL’s expense administration instrument is principally your finances or budgets in motion. It automates a lot of the busy work of enterprise accounting, like categorizing bills.
BILL integrates with third-party accounting software program. So in case you use one other program to trace enterprise bills for tax or budgeting functions, you may arrange your Divvy account to reflect what you will have there. That eliminates time-consuming duplicate entries and ensures your exterior accounting workforce works off the identical info because the in-house of us answerable for your organization budgets.
In the event you don’t use your BILL credit score line for each enterprise expense — and also you in all probability gained’t, a minimum of not at first — you should utilize BILL to trace what it calls “off-card” bills, too. That is actually essential in case your workers use private bank cards to pay for journey, meals, and different incidental bills — merely enter the reimbursement in Divvy to make sure it’s tracked together with every thing else.
Benefits of BILL Spend & Expense
BILL is a complete enterprise credit score and cash administration instrument. The truth that it’s completely free to make use of grabs headlines, however there’s much more for enterprise homeowners to love about it.
- No Charges or Curiosity on BILL Credit score Strains. BILL Card credit score strains don’t cost charges or curiosity. This can be a large benefit over pay-over-time enterprise bank cards that may cost curiosity at 20% APR or greater and sometimes cost annual charges north of $100.
- Limitless Digital Playing cards. There’s no restrict on the variety of digital playing cards you may generate with BILL. Use them for recurring subscriptions, one-off funds, and another scenario the place you’d choose to maintain your actual card quantity protected.
- Seamless Integration With BILL Instruments and Exterior Accounting Platforms. Your BILL Divvy Company Card account integrates seamlessly with BILL’s budgeting and expense administration instruments. In the event you use an exterior accounting platform, you may hook it as much as BILL too. This can be a large consider why customers surveyed by BILL stated it saved them 12 hours monthly on common.
- Versatile Spend Limits on Worker Playing cards. You’ve gotten the ultimate say over how a lot your workers spend (or don’t) on their worker playing cards. And you’ll approve or decline transactions with just a few faucets. If overspending is the norm for your small business, possibly BILL is the reply.
- Versatile Rewards Program (As much as 7x Again). BILL has an unusually beneficiant rewards program that incentivizes you to repay purchases quicker. Repay weekly, and also you’ll earn as much as 7x on eligible purchases. That’s a 7% charge of return, which is best than most enterprise credit score suppliers.
Disadvantages of Invoice Spend & Expense
BILL isn’t excellent, although I feel it’s significantly better than the typical enterprise credit score supplier (and positively higher than the typical enterprise bank card). Right here’s the place it falls a bit quick.
- Can’t Carry a Stability From Month to Month. If your small business money circulate can’t help repaying your BILL costs in full a minimum of month-to-month, BILL isn’t for you. The downside, after all, is that conventional enterprise bank cards cost curiosity at eye-watering charges.
- No Enterprise Financial institution Account. BILL doesn’t have a built-in checking account, only a versatile credit score line. You’ll have to maintain your working capital elsewhere.
Is BILL Legit?
Sure, BILL is official. It received its begin as a budgeting and expense administration instrument for small and midsize companies, then expanded into enterprise credit score strains. In the present day, it’s a robust enterprise finance bundle for firms that need to get a deal with on their budgets and bills — and faucet a versatile credit score line as wanted.
Based on a survey, BILL has the potential to avoid wasting enterprise customers severe cash: over $10,000 monthly. BILL saves time, too, on the order of 12 hours monthly for energetic customers. And the overwhelming majority of BILL customers would suggest it to others.
Closing Phrase
BILL presents a versatile credit score line with worker subaccounts (the BILL Divvy Company Card), plus highly effective budgeting and expense administration instruments. It integrates with third-party accounting software program. It delivers excellent rewards on eligible spend.
And it’s completely free for enterprise customers.
BILL feels like deal, and in my educated opinion, it’s. It actually shines for small however rising firms with comparatively regular revenues, hawklike consideration to the underside line, and an aversion to paperwork and busy work. If that feels like your small business, you’d be hard-pressed to discover a higher enterprise credit score accomplice.
