What is Tipalti?

Tipalti provides a global automated accounts payable system that offers an end-to-end system of digitizing, automating, and accelerating the handling of vendor billing. The platform removes the inefficient manual methods of payable systems by supplying a portal where vendors can bill you, allowing account managers to review and approve payments online. Tipalti uses optical character recognition to eliminate data entry by scanning and recognizing tax and vendor information when receiving paper invoices via email. The platform matches purchase orders to invoices and receipts and takes care of tax ID validation and compliance, using artificial intelligence for auto-coding.

Tipalti is a US company founded in 2010, with its headquarters in San Mateo, California, and offices in the UK, Canada, and Israel. Although touted as an accounting software company, Tipalti is primarily an accounts payable platform, launching its first product in 2011 and developing through eight different funding rounds. In early 2022 the company announced it had surpassed $36 billion in annual transactions, with a 100% growth in year-on-year payment volume. The two founders still control Tipalti as Chairman and CEO, with the company valued at $8.3 billion. In late 2021, Tipalti was added to the fourth annual Fintech 250, a prestigious list of emerging private companies working on groundbreaking financial technology.

Suppliers can self-onboard through a management portal that allows tax, billing, and contact details to be entered and updated. Once the system automatically assigns them a vendor ID number, suppliers can upload their invoices directly, with Tipalti routing the bill to the relevant account manager for review, approval, rerouting, or refusal. Once approved, the payments get sent automatically, account reconciliations occur, and the ERP system or accounting program is updated. An email is automatically sent to the supplier to advise that the remittance has occurred. In the background, the platform has a sophisticated fraud detection algorithm to protect from fraud and meet regulatory requirements, monitoring for patterns that may indicate wrongdoing.

Tipalti’s global payment system provides multiple payment methods, including BACS, SEPA, wire transfer, global ACH, Paypal, and US ACH. The software also helps clients remain tax compliant, with the system collecting tax identification across 49 countries, using artificial intelligence to collect and auto-code tax figures from the invoice. It enables payments to 196 countries in 120 currencies while providing real-time payment status to vendors. Tipalti’s platform is structured to support multiple entities, enabling accounts payable function management across subsidiaries, business units, brands and international divisions. The cloud-based architecture uses the advanced encryption standard (AEC) and is certified as best-in-class for performance and security.

What popular features do you get with Tipalti?


  • Payment batch scheduling
  • Automatic supplier data validation
  • Bank and tax-ID verification
  • Payments in 120 currencies

  • Invoice OCR and data extraction
  • Match POs to invoices/receipts
  • Global payment to 196 countries
  • Instant payment reconciliation

  • Powerful, secure supplier payments API
  • Supplier self-service and onboarding

Customer Support is available at Tipalti

US customer support is available by phone or email between 6:30 am and 6:30 pm Pacific time. Tipalti clients highly rate their customer support interactions, while the company claims a first-query response time of under two hours. If self-help is more your style, you have access to an extensive 24/7 knowledge base to assist in solving an issue or learn more about the platform’s features.

 

What kind of business is Tipalti ideal for?

While Tipalti is marketed as appropriate for small to medium-sized businesses, the monthly pricing makes it unlikely that a very small business could afford the cost or need the functionality. There are other cheaper alternatives for small operators to automate their payables. However, for a medium-sized business that either has multiple divisions or uses vendors internationally or across multiple states, Tipalti is more suitable. The assistance clients receive with tax compliance, plus the automation of invoice capture, review and payment, is compelling, as are the multi-payment methods, currencies and supported countries.

Pros and Cons

  • Purchase order matching capability
  • Vendor portal for self-management of data
  • Automatic invoice routing for multi-tier review and approval
  • Supports ACH payments
  • Comprehensive reporting system
  • Reports into third-party ERPs
  • Great customer service


  • Pricing is obscure
  • No free trial
  • No mobile app
  • Not a complete accounting system

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How much does Tipalti cost?

*based on information provided by the vendor. Actual cost may vary.

It’s impossible to give costs with any accuracy, as Tipalti doesn’t publish its prices. From what we can glean, you pay by monthly subscription only. Various figures are passed around, but we believe the lowest plan starts at $299 per month, rising to $699 monthly for the middle tier and $1,599 for the top tier. What those prices and tiers mean, in reality, is anyone’s guess, as there are no lists of inclusions for each tier. If you’re a mid-sized organization seeking a powerful and comprehensive end-to-end accounts payable system, you’ll need to ring Tipalti to understand what’s on offer.

Final thoughts...

Tipalti is a heavyweight in accounts payable automation, providing enterprise-level functionality. Emphasizing a highly secure, cloud-based platform, Tipalti uses artificial intelligence and extensive rules-based workflows to automate your processes from end to end. Managing and validating suppliers, matching purchase orders to invoices and receipts, automating tax compliance and managing multiple currencies across multiple countries, your workload for months or years-end is greatly simplified.

The platform integrates extensive fraud detection and financial controls to aid audit and regulatory compliance. The software also uses sophisticated risk tracking to determine if a payee has any relationships with other blocked or suspended payees or whether multiple addresses and contact information are used to circumvent restrictions. Finally, integrating with existing third-party platforms is eased through powerful APIs. Tipalti offers an impressive product, and if your organization has the size, national spread, or global footprint to harness its power, you could do worse than requesting a quote.