It's an all-too-common problem for online sellers everywhere: managing your bills. Not being able to pay your suppliers, vendors, and partners on time can crush your business and limit your ability to scale the way you want.
This is where greater flexibility is crucial, and where a software platform like Melio Payments steps in in order to ease the burden. In the Melio review that follows, we'll explore how Melio can be used to your advantage as an entrepreneur or DTC operator, and help you maximize cash flow.
What is Melio Payments? 🚀
Melio Payments simplifies the billing process and makes it easier to run your day-to-day operations. It gives you more visibility into how money is flowing in and out of your business, and gives you the tools you need to streamline your payments.
Simply put, it puts you firmly in control of how and when you transfer funds, and saves you a great deal of manual effort – and hair-pulling – in the process. It serves as a command center of sorts where you can send secure checks to your vendors, make international payments, collect credit card rewards, and more.
How does Melio Payments work? 🤔
Getting started with Melio Payments begins by signing up for an account. Here, you enter your company information and contact details – such as business name, address, and phone number – so that the process of creating a profile can kick off. And if you have QuickBooks, you are able to sign in with your Intuit credentials, so that your accounting details stay perfectly in sync.
From there, you are able to log in and get up and running in minutes – literally. You can easily connect a bank account through Plaid, and schedule your first payment to a supplier or request a payment by navigating to the left hand sidebar on your dashboard.
Choosing how to send and receive funds is relatively straightforward. Say you need to pay your web designer across the country for the latest revamp of your ecom store – you can do so by sending a fast, secure, trackable direct deposit.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Melio Payments is capable of doing. Below, we take a deeper dive into some of the key features of the platform, and highlight its full potential.
Melio Payments Key Features 🧰
Pay ACH with Credit Card
As you might already know, ACH (automated clearing house) transfers are how most online bank transactions work. Melio makes it so that you can initiate a transfer using a credit card or debit card.
You simply pay a small transaction fee upfront (2.9%), and your payment is sent directly to your vendor through an ACH bank transfer to their bank account. And if your payment is sent before 2pm ET, it'll be delivered the same business day for no additional fee. This provides a fast, reliable, and flexible payment solution for online business owners everywhere while allowing you to delay payments based on your credit card provider’s payment terms.
International Transfers
You can use Melio Payments to send payments to vendors across the globe. Say you have a supplier in China that you owe payment to for your latest batch of inventory. You can pay by your choice of bank transfer or credit card (specifically Mastercard) and handle all of your domestic and international business expenses from one central location.
Batch Payments
Melio Payments lets you make multiple payments at the same time. Instead of manually going through your invoices and dispatching funds one by one, you can bulk select payments you have due in your Melio Dashboard, and execute payments in one go.
Automated Bill Uploads
You are able to expedite the process of paying bills that are sent to you manually. Simply take a photo or upload a file from your computer (PDF and JPG supported) and review, edit, or add to any of the information present. You can choose to save and pay later or schedule a payment immediately, taking the worry of remembering to pay your expenses off your plate.
Melio Payments FAQs 🙋
Can I use my credit card to make international payments?
Yes, Melio Payments allows you to use your credit card to pay vendors outside of the US.
Do my recipients need a Melio Payments account to accept payments?
No, vendors and suppliers can choose to receive their payments by check or bank transfer and don't need an account of their own to accept.
Can I add my own branding to the invoices I send out?
Indeed, you can customize your payment requests, links, and emails with your logo and company branding.
Melio Payments Pros ✅
- Lets you leverage credit cards to pay bills even where cards aren't directly accepted, so that you can defer payments and hold onto your funds for longer.
- Able to combine payments by aggregating your bills and paying them at the same time. You are also able to combine multiple bills to the same vendor into one payment, so that you cut down on the time it takes to deal with your expenses.
- They have a mobile app that lets you make and track invoices, scan bills, and check the status of payments while on-the-go, wherever you happen to be.
- You can schedule payments for a date in the future so that you never forget to send a transfer, and don't have to physically initiate a payment in real-time if you know it needs to be made ahead of time.
"Melio helps my company be more successful. Plain and simple. It's been a money saver and it's been a time saver. Melio, for me, is a company that is very much synergistic with how Thaxton & Associates does business. They really listen to the types of needs that we actually have and they start implementing."
-Michael Thaxton, Founder and President
Melio Payments Cons ❌
- To use Melio Payments for business expenses, both you and your vendor must be legally operating as a business entity, so be sure to double check your business status.
- In the app, the invoice number provided in your bill does not always populate automatically on the payment page.
- Accounting software integration limited to a handful of platforms, including QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, and Business Central.
- Mobile app is only available on iOS, not Android (though as of the time of writing, an Android app is in development and on the way).
Brands using Melio Payments 🤩
Melio isn’t public about the brands it’s works with but it is used by brands like Obvi.
What makes Melio Payments different? 🥇
Melio Payments is different from a number of other providers on the market in that it's an all-in-one solution. It doesn't just let you pay vendors online, or doesn't just let you receive payments from clients and customers. It does it all. Melio Payments covers both sides of the coin: accounts payable and accounts receivable.
It also isn't limited or constrained by time or location. You can do things like pay suppliers over a period of time, schedule payments far in advance, and even automate recurring bills, so that you never have to resolve outstanding payments in the here and now. With both domestic same-day bank transfers and support for international payments for vendors abroad, you're never boxed in by borders, either.
Melio Payments Pricing 💰
Melio Payments is unique from a pricing standpoint in that there are no subscription plans. Rather, there are a series of upfront fees associated with the service you happen to use.
For instance, there is a 1% fee for a same-day ACH transfer, and a $20 flat fee for international payments. Below you will find a full breakdown of their fees:
Final Thoughts 🕵️♀️
It isn't always easy running an online business. The responsibilities of building and growing a brand are numerous, and bills can quickly get out of hand. Melio Payments helps cut down on the clutter and streamline your operations from the get-go.
It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your finances at all times. With a suite of tools that simplify the process of paying your invoices, you can amplify your cash flow like never before. For the business owner in search of a way to better control the way they handle their expenses, Melio Payments is a rock-solid solution.
👉 Sign up for Melio Payments here.
.jpg)
