BILL has announced enhancements to its financial operations platform aimed at small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and accountants, introducing new payment offerings designed to facilitate quicker and more secure transactions.
These capabilities, part of BILL’s payments engine, feature an international payment option named Local Transfer, along with improvements to existing services such as Instant Payment and Invoice Financing.
BILL executive vice president and payments and financial services general manager Mary Kay Bowman said: “SMBs are increasingly facing more complexity as they make payments to vendors, partners, and customers both locally and around the world.
“This is why BILL continues to enhance our payment experiences to give SMBs more flexibility to make the payment choices businesses need and to manage and optimise their cash flow. BILL’s sophisticated payment infrastructure gives SMBs the ability to meet unique customer and supplier payment needs, while accelerating payment speed and reducing risk.”
The Local Transfer feature allows businesses to send same-day international payments to vendors in their local currency without the involvement of intermediary banks, which often impose additional fees. By enabling transactions to be directed to local banks, the Local Transfer option allows companies to make payments as if they were local, regardless of their physical location.
Key advantages of the Local Transfer service include faster processing of international payments, which can arrive on the same day and are delivered up to four days more swiftly than foreign exchange wires and three days faster than USD wires.
Additionally, the service minimises costs by eliminating intermediary and wire fees for payments made in local currency. This feature also mitigates the risk of currency fluctuations, thereby enhancing cash flow efficiency. Businesses can streamline their international and domestic payments through one secure platform, leading to increased productivity.
BILL’s enhanced payment capabilities further expand the options available to businesses, allowing them to manage their cash flow more effectively.
The Instant Payment feature enables companies to make payments to US vendors within minutes, utilising a real-time payment network that operates 24/7, including on holidays and weekends. This immediacy allows businesses to optimise their cash flow continuously.
Furthermore, the Accounts Receivable Invoice Financing service provides businesses with access to a short-term line of credit. This service allows clients to receive advances on outstanding invoices, improving their cash flow.
The revised Invoice Financing process permits access to financing of up to $100,000 within 5 to 10 minutes after a one-time credit line approval that does not impact credit scores. This eliminates the need to wait over 30 days for payments, with no additional applications required for future financing requests.
DayOne Solutions CEO Robert Bess said: “At DayOne Solutions, the speed of international payments is one of our top priorities. We pay our contractors in the Philippines in their local currency, the peso, and it would take an average of 5 to 7 days from the invoice date for them to receive their money.
“We were thrilled to discover BILL’s international payment capability Local Transfer that has helped us speed up our payments to same-day delivery. BILL has effectively given me and my overseas team 3 to 5 days back. The process is now so straightforward and fast—I simply review and pay.”
BILL’s Local Transfer service for international payments is currently available in 15 countries, with plans to expand its availability to 40 countries in the near future.
