Shopify Bill Pay: The Most Comprehensive Guide
By Sam Nguyen
This guide will help you understand Shopify Bill Pay, its benefits, and how it works.
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What is Shopify Bill Pay?
Shopify Bill Pay is Shopify’s business payment tool that allows Shopify merchants to pay their business invoices directly from their Shopify admin.
You can choose to pay your bills with either a check or a bank transfer - whichever works best for you and your vendors. Plus, with Shopify Bill Pay, you’ll always be on top of your cash flow and save time in the process.
There are no signup or subscription fees involved. However, you need to have, of course, an eligible Shopify account to use this feature.
Who can use Shopify Bill Pay?
For now, Shopify Bill Pay is only available to US merchants using Shopify. So if your business is US-based, you can use Shopify Bill Pay to transfer money within or outside of the US.
If you’re already a US-based seller considering Shopify Bill Pay, it’s good to know that Shopify Bill Pay will be most beneficial to:
- Entrepreneurs who want to spend more time developing their businesses rather than doing administrative tasks.
- Small to large business owners who are looking for ways to save time and reduce administrative processes so that they can focus on growing their businesses.
- Ecommerce businesses that often have to deal with multiple payment methods from different vendors, such as credit cards, PayPal, and bank transfers, making the payment process even more complex.
- Retail businesses that often have to manage multiple expenses, such as rent, utilities, and inventory costs.
How can Shopify Bill Pay benefit you?
Get rid of tedious and time-consuming expense management
Dealing with invoice-related tasks is tedious for any merchant, and it can be time-consuming and stressful. That’s when Shopify Bill Pay comes in. This solution will help you streamline expense management, allowing you to put time back into your business.
Simplify the complex payment methods as businesses grow
As your business grows, you may often have to deal with multiple payment methods from different vendors, making the payment process even more complex. Shopify Bill Pay simplifies the payment process by allowing merchants to manage and pay vendors directly within the Shopify admin dashboard.
Let you choose your preferred payment methods
Sometimes, vendors may not accept your preferred payment method, leading to additional fees or complexities. Shopify Bill Pay allows you to select your preferred payment method, even if the vendor doesn’t accept it.
Track expenses and manage vendors easily
Keeping track of expenses and managing vendors can be challenging, especially as the number of vendors and expenses grows. Shopify Bill Pay provides a dedicated dashboard for filtering, sorting, and scheduling payments, making it easy for you merchants to track expenses and manage vendors.
Save time and reduce administrative processes
According to Melio, a digital payable solution that powers Shopify Bill Pay, Shopify Bill Pay saves merchants 16 hours a month on paying business bills, and is 2x faster than other B2B expense solutions. That’s a lot of time saved. By reducing the time spent on administrative processes, merchants can focus on growing their business.
Provide a holistic view of the store’s financial health
Shopify Bill Pay seamlessly integrates with Shopify Balance, a solution that works as a bank account but only for Shopify merchants, which provides you with a complete view of your store’s financial health, as well as physical and virtual business spending cards, payment up to four days earlier than a traditional bank, cashback rewards, and access to tax tool connections you need.
Shopify Bill Pay: Key Features
All-in-one Shopify admin dashboard
Shopify Bill Pay allows merchants to manage and pay vendors directly within their Shopify admin dashboard, making the payment process lean and streamlined.
Easily schedule your payment
With Shopify Bill Pay, you can easily schedule payments for your bills and expenses with just a few clicks and avoid missing any payment.
Get real-time data of your financial expenses
Real-time data of your financial expenses helps you monitor your expenses and make sure that you’re not overspending in any particular area.
Track expenses and manage vendors using filtering and sorting
With filtering and sorting options, you can manage your vendors and expenses with ease. This feature allows you to organize your expenses in a way that makes sense for your business and helps you quickly find the information you need.
Email and image-based expense uploading
In addition to traditional expense uploading, Shopify Bill Pay also supports email and image-based expense uploading. This feature makes it easier to keep track of your expenses and stay organized.
How does Shopify Bill Pay work?
The logic of how Shopify Bill Pay works is simple: you just pay your vendor, and repeat the process.
When you pay a vendor through Shopify Bill Pay for the first time, your payment preferences will be saved for future transactions. And don’t worry, if you ever want to make changes to those preferences, you can do so anytime you want.
When paying a new vendor, you just need to enter their details once to process the payment quickly. And after that, their information will be automatically saved for any future transactions. Your vendors won’t even need to create an account!
How to make the most of Shopify Bill Pay
If you’re using Shopify Bill Pay, there are some tips you can follow to get the most out of the service:
#1. Use your credit card for rewards and cashback
If you use Shopify Bill Pay and choose credit card as your payment option, you can earn you some rewards and cashback. This is also a secure way to pay bills and can also have faster processing times than other payment methods.
#2. Schedule payments to avoid overdue payments
With Shopify Bill Pay, you can set up a payment schedule that works for you. This means you can pay your bills as close to the due date as possible, making sure your vendors get paid on time. Plus, you can avoid any early payment cash flow problems or pesky late fees. And by keeping your vendor relationships strong, you might even score better terms down the road.
#3. Easily integrate with QuickBooks Online to streamline your workflow
If you want to stay on top of your accounts and cut down on tedious admin work, consider syncing Shopify Bill Pay with your QuickBooks Online account. By doing so, all the vendor info and bills you have - whether they’re unpaid, scheduled, or paid - from Shopify Bill Pay will automatically be added to your QuickBooks Online account. This can be a real time-saver and will help avoid mistakes that often occur when manually entering data.
#4. Skip the transaction fees by using Shopify Balance to pay your bills
If you want to save some money on transaction fees, you might want to give Shopify Balance a try. It lets you pay any business directly from your Shopify admin, which can be a great way to avoid those pesky extra charges that can add up.
How to Set Up Your Account and Schedule a Payment with Shopify Bill Pay
How to install Shopify Bill Pay
First you need to add Shopify Bill Pay to your Shopify:
- Log in to your Shopify admin.
- In the left column, go to "Finances" and click on "Bill Pay".
- Click "Add Bill Pay".
- From the top right, click "Install App". Setup only takes a few seconds.
How to add a bill
Now you’re ready to pay your first bill. There are a few ways to add a bill:
#1. You can send an invoice to a dedicated email address
#2. Sync with QuickBooks
#3. Click “Add a Bill” to upload manually. Then add a bill manually > “Continue”
How to choose your payment method
- Your Shopify Balance account
- Connect your bank account and pay by ACH bank transfer for free
- Use a credit or debit card
How to select your vendor’s delivery method
- Bank transfer
- Paper check
- International wire transfer
Say you choose ACH bank transfer. Next, add your vendor’s bank details and click “Add Details”.
Choose when you want the payment deducted from your account. To see when it will be delivered to your vendor, you also have the option to expedite payments.
After checking every detail, click “Schedule Payment”. That’s it! Now it’s your turn to pay your first bill with Shopify Bill Pay.
Potential issues when using Shopify Bill Pay
While Shopify Bill Pay offers a convenient solution for Shopify businesses to pay their bills, there are potential issues that users may encounter. Here are some of the most common issues and how to address them:
The payment hasn’t arrived on time
The time it takes for the payment to reach the vendor’s account depends on the delivery method used. If your vendor hasn’t received the payment, check if it falls into one of these cases:
- Payments are only processed once a day before 11:30 am ET.
- Delivery times may be affected by federal holidays.
- There may be some extra delays the first time a merchant pays a vendor through Shopify Bill Pay while the payment is being reviewed.
- High-value payments may take longer to process as well.
The link to choose a payment is broken
If the seller lets you pick how you want to receive your payment, they’ll send you an email with a link to make your selection. But remember, the link only lasts for seven days. If it expires, your payment gets canceled. So if that happens, just ask the seller to make a new payment and send a new link.
Conclusion
That’s everything you need to know about Shopify Bill Pay. Overall, Shopify Bill Pay is really helpful when it comes to helping businesses save a lot of time to focus on what really matters to them. And also, it’s free to use. So why not giving Shopify Bill Pay a try now!
