Seamless Payments to Vendors and Contractors via Melio

Over the years, payments to vendors and contractors have shifted. The major shift occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when online payments became the norm. This is the period we saw purchasing via the internet becoming a popular trend as people sort to reduce in-person transactions. Businesses of all levels, including startups, now rely on this kind of payment infrastructure to keep running. As a consultant, I find it easier to make online payments and have the business running. Not only does this save time, but it is also a secure way of making payments.

With a platform like Melio, I do not have to go to the bank or other external third–party sites when I want to make payments. The bill-pay option can integrate smoothly to monday.com and QuickBooks online to provide an easy and user-friendly way of making payments. Their customer service personnel are always available in case you encounter any issues, and you can make payments on any day of the month. When you are paying for marketing, service providers, or manufacturing products, Melio makes the process easier and straightforward.

Simple Way to Pay Contractors and Vendors

Melio is one of the simplest ways to pay your contractors and vendors in time. The platform allows you to pay any invoice using a bank transfer for free. You can also use your credit card to defer payments at a cost of 2.9% fee. The platform allows vendors to receive a bank deposit or a check. According to their official website, Melio allows you to pay business bills with your credit card, even if cards are not accepted. You can even defer payments or hold onto cash for a longer period.

Melio provides a platform for small and medium businesses (SMBs) to pay other companies electronically. The platform seeks to connect traditional means of payment with digital ones. You can use credit or debit cards, bank transfers, or cut paper checks for your recipients. By providing a more modern and efficient solution, Melio has replaced snail mail, paper invoices, and bank transfers. SMBs no longer have to wait for days before payments clear as Melio ensures the transaction is complete within a shorter period.

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How Melio Works

Using Melio for payment is pretty much straightforward. The platform has identified both the duty and opportunity to help small businesses manage their finance remotely. With so many businesses going digital, they need a platform they can trust in making payments to vendors. In only three steps, Melio allows you to send an invoice to your vendors or contractors. You get to specify the receiving party, the amount to be paid, and the payment instructions. Click here to set up an account with Melio.

1. Add bill details – The first step is to add your bill details to your Melio account. You can do this by taking a photo, uploading the file, connecting to QuickBooks online, or manually entering the details.

2. Select Payment Methods – Melio offers two main payment methods that you can choose from. You can either use a bank transfer or card for your payment. The good thing is that you can still use Melio even when cards are not accepted.

3. Choose Payment Delivery – once you have selected your preferred payment method, you need to choose your payment delivery. This is where Melio will send a bank transfer or check. Fortunately, the recipient does not need to have a Melio account, which makes the entire process easier.

Benefits of Using Melio

Melio is a free bill or vendor payment tool that minimizes the busy work of payment while maximizing cash flow. With Melio, you can pay any vendor using a debit card or bank transfer for free if the receiving party accepts checks. If they do not accept cards, you can use your credit card to make the payment while Melio completes the payment on your behalf. This way, you get to hold on to your cash and get a chance to earn card rewards. In other words, Melio represents accounts payables reinvented. Among the key benefits of using Melio to make payments include:

1. Melio Maximizes Your Cash Flow – It is designed to ensure your payments and cash flow do not stop. The platform enables you to pay business bills with credit cards, defer payments, and hold onto cash for longer. You do not have to worry whether the vendor or contractor accepts card payments.

2. Payment Approval Workflows – You can invite your accountant and other users to Melio. Then, set up their roles and permissions within minutes to get the work flowing. It also gives you the authority to control approval of every transaction while staying on top of your business cash flow.

3. Pay Multiple Bills at Once – Saves you time when making payments. Instead of scheduling to pay each bill individually, you can select multiple bills, customize them, and make the payment all at once.

4. Seamless Sync with QuickBooks – Synchronizes seamlessly with QuickBooks, allowing you to do more with your payments. Simply log in to your Intuit account and connect to QuickBooks. This provides 2-way sync between your bill payments and your accounting. Once synced, Melio will do a bank transfer or mail a check on your behalf to vendors to ensure they receive it the way they want.

5. No Subscription Fee – Melio is designed to provide an efficient yet affordable way for small and medium-sized businesses to make payments to their vendors, All the basic debit card payments and bank transfers are completely free.

Will Melio Work with Your Type of Business?

Melio is an ideal payment option for almost every type of business. They offer payment services to small and medium-sized businesses in the US, including sole proprietorships. However, Melio will not work if you are an agent selling on behalf of multi-level marketing firms. Businesses selling these products are also not served by Melio:

The sale of tobacco, pharma, marijuana, or nutraceuticals
Internet gambling
Weapons, gunpowder, munitions, fireworks, and other types of explosives
Pornography, sexually related products, obscene materials, and adult services
Flammable, toxic, and radioactive materials

Since the focus of the Melio platform is to connect payments between businesses and their vendors, you can utilize their services whenever remitting the payments. Currently, Melio supports several credit card providers including American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and Diners. This means that you can make the payment using your credit card and Melio will do a bank transfer or mail a check to your vendor on your behalf.

One of the concerns that businesses tend to have when using payment services is their subscription fees. Fortunately, Melio does not charge any subscription fees like other players in this space. The platform only charges per transaction, which means you will not incur any charges if you haven’t made any payments. This form of transparency and simplicity in their pricing structure makes Melio one of the best payment platforms for you.

Since Melio allows you to pay even vendors who do not accept credit cards, it can serve across almost all industries. After you have made the card payment via Melio, you specify how the vendor will get paid and Melio does the rest. You can also schedule to make payments ahead of the bill due date and state when you would like the payment to be processed. This gives you the kind of automation that you need to focus on the core activities of your business, knowing that payments have already been taken care of.

Types of Payments Not Processed via Melio

A lot comes with remote work or completing transactions online. I often find myself doing almost everything in the comfort of my home with my laptop or phone. While that has become the norm, not everything can be done this way. Similarly, Melio limits its services only to business improvement. In fact, the following kinds of payments are not covered under Melio:

Personal payments
Payroll transactions, excluding contracted or freelance employees
Cash advance transactions such as credit card to own account
Any form of a balance transfer, including a credit card to another credit card or credit card to a line of credit
Visa cards paying a mortgage

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Integrating Melio to Monday.com

The major challenge of using multiple tools in project management or team management is keeping track of every tool. You will have your billing tool on one side and the accounting tool on the other. Ensuring that booth tools are in sync and giving you value is not easy. You may end up overusing one at the expense of the other or overlooking the value of one over the others.

When working on projects, I usually keep all my tools under one platform. Using monday.com as the collaboration tool helps in streamlining workflow by consolidating all the platforms that I use to manage the project. By integrating Melio to monday.com, I can easily monitor my payables and even the flow of supplies. This is what I did in one of my projects for a manufacturing company. Since they would need to order supplies from third-party suppliers, it’s in monday.com that the client can monitor their supply inventory. When there’s a need to order additional materials, it’s facilitated within monday.com with the help of Integromat. Once invoices are ready for payment, the client can pay within monday.com using Melio without leaving the platform.

The process mentioned is an excellent way of bringing all your tools in one place, and keeping the business operation in a seamless manner.