SMB accounting software provider Xero has rolled out an online bill payments feature that combines the Xero platform with Melio’s payment processing capabilities.
According to Andrew Kanzer, managing director of North America for Xero, the online bill payments feature was designed to help small businesses turn bill payments from a constant headache into a more predictable, manageable part of running the business.
“Over half of U.S. small businesses spend more than four hours every month managing accounts payable—and many say not being able to manage and pay bills all in one place is a major source of frustration. By embedding bill payments directly into the Xero experience, the all-in-one platform removes the need for separate banking portals or third-party tools, allowing small businesses to manage bills, approvals, payments, and reconciliation in a single workflow,” he wrote in a Feb. 19 blog post.
With online bill payments, U.S. small businesses can:
- Make paying bills simple by managing everything directly from Xero.
- Save time every month as bills are automatically marked as paid and reconciled by JAX, Xero’s AI assistant.
- Pay bills their way by funding payments from a bank account or credit card, paying one or many bills at once, and scheduling or expediting payments to better align with cash flow.
- Always know where they stand with real-time visibility into what’s due, what’s been paid, and overall spending.
“Across Xero customers, small businesses using Xero say they save around five hours a week on bill management when bill management, payments, and reconciliation are handled together in Xero rather than across multiple tools,” Kanzer wrote.
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With bills, payments, and reconciliation in one place, Kanzer said advisors can:
- Help clients manage bills, process payments, and reconcile transactions directly in Xero, reducing manual work and errors across the workflow.
- Get clients started in less than five minutes from within Xero—there’s no separate Melio subscription required, and bill payments is available on all U.S. Xero business plans.
- Maintain accurate, up‑to‑date records without needing direct access to client bank accounts because payment status and reconciliation live in Xero.
Approval workflows and the ability to delegate payments requests will also be launching in 2026.
“For firms, that means fewer one‑off workarounds to move money or clean up mismatched records, and more time to focus on higher‑value advisory services instead of routine accounts payable tasks,” he wrote.
Online bill payments is now available on all U.S. Xero business plans, with no extra subscription or per-user fees. Users will only pay transaction fees when they choose to make online payments in Xero.
More information about online bill payments can be found here.
Photo credit: Xero
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Tags: online bill payments, payments, Small Business, Technology, xero
