If you’ve ever wondered whether ProcurementExpress.com and Bill.com are competing platforms – or whether you need one instead of the other – you’re not alone.
At first glance, both platforms seem to offer similar functionality related to invoice approvals. But that’s only scratching the surface.
The reality? ProcurementExpress.com and Bill.com serve very different stages of the financial workflow. One helps you control spending before it happens. The other makes paying bills fast, secure, and automated after purchases are made.
Let’s break it down.
Upstream vs. Downstream: Understanding the Flow
Think of your company’s spending like a river:
- Upstream is where spending decisions are made. You’re allocating budgets, submitting purchase requests, and approving purchase orders (POs).
- Downstream is where the money actually leaves your bank account. You’re receiving invoices, processing approvals, and sending payments.
ProcurementExpress.com lives upstream. It gives finance teams and budget owners the tools to manage budgets, approve POs, and enforce purchasing policies before any money is committed.
Bill.com operates downstream. It takes over once an invoice is received and automates the process of approving and paying bills.
So while there’s some functional overlap – especially around invoice approvals—they’re solving different problems.
Let’s explore those differences in more detail.
What ProcurementExpress.com Does (That Bill.com Doesn’t)
ProcurementExpress.com is built for SMBs that need control over their purchasing process. It gives you:
✅ Real-time Budget Tracking: Link every purchase request to a budget so you never overspend.
✅ Purchase Order Management: Create, approve, and track POs in one central place. Goodbye, spreadsheets and email chains.
✅ Custom Approval Workflows: Route purchase requests through the right approvers based on amount, department, or budget ownership.
✅ Accrual Visibility: See your committed spend before invoices hit your inbox – perfect for forecasting and month-end accruals.
✅ Invoice Matching: Match invoices to approved POs to ensure you’re paying for exactly what was ordered.
In short: ProcurementExpress.com is your control panel for spend-before-it-happens.
What Bill.com Does (That ProcurementExpress.com Doesn’t)
Bill.com is purpose-built to simplify accounts payable. It shines when it’s time to handle the actual payment process. With Bill.com, you get:
✅ Smart Invoice Capture: Scan, email, or drag-and-drop invoices and let AI do the data entry.
✅ Payment Automation: Pay vendors via ACH, check, virtual card, or international wire – right from the platform.
✅ Approval Routing for Payments: Create custom rules so invoices go to the right people before money is sent.
✅ Two-Way Sync with QuickBooks & Xero: Automatically update your accounting system with bill and payment data.
✅ Vendor Payment Network: Pay vendors securely without manually managing bank details or printing checks.
Bill.com is your AP team’s best friend – cutting down manual work and improving security and accuracy in the payment process.
Why Some SMBs Use Both Together
Many of our customers use both ProcurementExpress.com and Bill.com – especially those running QuickBooks.
Here’s how a typical workflow looks:
- Step 1: A team member requests a purchase in ProcurementExpress.com and links it to the appropriate budget.
- Step 2: The request goes through an approval chain. Once approved, it becomes a PO.
- Step 3: The purchase is made. Later, the vendor sends an invoice.
- Step 4: The invoice is uploaded to ProcurementExpress.com and matched to the PO. After approval, it’s synced to QuickBooks.
- Step 5: Bill.com picks up the invoice from QuickBooks, routes it for payment approval, and executes the payment to the vendor.
This workflow keeps spending under control at the top, and eliminates friction in payments at the bottom.
The Bottom Line
If you’re only using Bill.com, you’re approving and paying invoices – but you might have no visibility into who requested the spend, whether it was budgeted, or whether it was even authorized in the first place.
If you’re only using ProcurementExpress.com, you’ve got airtight purchasing controls – but you still need to manage the actual disbursement of funds manually or through a separate system.
Together, ProcurementExpress.com and Bill.com give SMBs end-to-end visibility and control across the entire spend lifecycle – from request to reconciliation.
Want to see how ProcurementExpress.com fits into your workflow? Schedule a demo and we’ll walk you through a real-world setup.
