BILL Expense Review

BILL Spend & Expense (formerly Divvy) provides small and midsize businesses the financial operations they need while also giving them tools they can use to automate budgets, expense reports, and reimbursement processing. The free software, combined with employee credit cards, creates the snapshot employers need to know how employees are spending money. They also provide another layer of fraud protection.

Small and midsize businesses in need of credit and interested in earning rewards for employee spending.

BILL Spend & Expense offers some nice perks, but is not the only company to cater to corporate expenditures, credit cards, or automated tracking. That said, here are some of the features small and midsize business owners may appreciate.

Free basic software and credit cards

BILL Spend & Expense software is free, which is a real perk. However, it costs money to integrate the software with existing software businesses may already use, like QuickBooks. There's also a charge for basics that every growing company needs, such as accounts payable and receivable. Although credit cards are also free, the rules surrounding those cards make it easy to lose access to rewards. Business owners must carefully watch to ensure they fulfill all requirements necessary to hold onto earned rewards. For example, using less than 30% of their credit limit one month means forfeiting any rewards for that month, and failing to use the card at all one month means forfeiting all accrued points.

Unlimited number of credit cards

There's no fee for each new credit card, allowing business owners to include more of their employees without worrying about how much it's going to cost them.

Spending controls

The employer gets to set the spending limit on each card. Not only can this cut down on overspending, but it makes budgeting easier.

Automated expense tracking

Spending is tracked in real time, giving the employer an immediate peak at how much their employees spend to meet specific goals.

Easy integration with BILL’s accounts payable and receivable services

If an employer decides to stick with BILL for their accounts payable and receivable tasks, the services are easily integrated into free services.

BILL Spend & Expense offers a fair number of ways to reach out to customer support, including:

• Telephone
• Email
• Live chat
• Support ticket

In addition, businesses receive a dedicated support representative and BILL provides videos and tutorials to help business owners get up and running.

According to real-life users, BILL Spend & Expense is popular among employees due to its ease of use. The software is streamlined enough to prevent a huge learning curve.

BILL Spend & Expense has many competitors, and does not appear to blow any of them out of the water. While entry into BILL Spend & Expense is free, business owners must pay for other necessary services, like accounts payable and receivable. And as this chart indicates, BILL Spend & Expense perks like unlimited virtual cards and budget controls are not unusual features in the industry.

Free software with multiple useful features

While it costs more to upgrade services, BILL Spend & Expenses free software includes many of the basic features businesses need, including:

• Expense management
• Budget management
• Virtual credit cards
• Reimbursements
• Credit limits from $500 to $5 million
• Real-time reporting

Rewards program associated with credit cards can save company money

Once employees have access to credit, anything they spend on the behalf of the business can earn rewards points. Points can be redeemed for statement credit, cash back, gift cards, or travel. The more employees use their credit cards, the faster points stack up.

Unlimited number of credit cards provided for employee expenses

There's no limit on how many cards an employer can request, meaning the company does not have to pick and choose who will have a card.

Relatively high entry threshold

Businesses must have established a good to excellent credit rating and have at least $20,000 in cash available in a bank account. While this might not be a tough ask for an established business, it may be difficult for newer enterprises to make the cut.

Earned rewards cannot be spent until business has had the card for 12 months

Once 5,000 rewards points have accumulated, the business must wait 12 months to redeem them. For a new business counting on those rewards, 12 months is a long time to wait.

It's possible to lose rewards points

Rewards points can be surprisingly easy to lose. For example, if a business does not spend at least 30% of its spending limit in any given month, no points will be earned that month. Further, if you fail to spend any money one month, all accumulated points are forfeited.

Again, BILL Spend & Expense has a number of competitors. Brex, Ramp, Concur®, and Webexpenses are just a few. Before determining which expense management software you're most interested in, compare them. Do a deep dive into cost, features, customer support, and add-ons that will end up costing you money.

BILL Spend & Expense offers a fair number of features for a free program. However, you'll either need to upgrade your plan to integrate existing programs or pay to use BILL's version of those programs. Either way, free eventually makes way for another monthly bill. You can take a closer look at BILL Spend & Expense by signing up for a 30-day free trial period to ensure it offers all you're currently looking for at a price you can afford.