Autobooks CEO Steve Robert and CMO Derik Sutton hosted a webinar on May 20, 2025 and shared important updates about the acquisition of Allied Payment Network. This post highlights the major themes from that conversation, with a focus on strategy, expected outcomes for customers, and what it means for our financial institution partners.
Watch the full webinar replay
In short
- The Allied Payment Network acquisition extends Autobooks from receivables into payables — the full cash flow picture, inside digital banking.
- Short term: business as usual. Medium term: integrated bill pay, categorized outgoing payments, flexible funding, and BNPL for larger expenses.
- The acquisition also improves the consumer bill pay experience — one unified platform serving both consumer and business customers.
- Implication for financial institutions: more reasons for small business customers to keep their daily financial activity inside the bank.
What's the strategy behind the Allied Payment Network acquisition?
During the session, Steve and Derik explained that this acquisition wasn’t just about expanding functionality — it was about accelerating our ability to serve the full financial lifecycle of small business customers. Historically, Autobooks has focused on helping businesses get paid. With Allied’s capabilities added to our product suite, we can now address both sides of cash flow: receivables and payables.
This move is designed to speed up our product development, not to gain market share. By bringing Allied's technology and team in-house, we’re better equipped to build tools that solve real-world challenges for business owners — and deliver them faster.
What can Autobooks customers expect in the coming months?
In the short term, it's business as usual. But over the coming months, customers can expect to see new product enhancements and expanded functionality. Financial institutions continue to look for digital banking tools that are purpose-built for businesses, and this acquisition allows us to deliver more value in that space.
Autobooks has a track record of frequent, impactful product launches. The addition of business payables lays the groundwork for future innovation, and extends the breadth of services available inside digital banking.
Payables Enhancements:
- Pay bills directly within the Autobooks interface.
- Track and categorize outgoing payments with greater accuracy.
- Offer flexible funding options: bank account, debit card, or credit card.
- Explore "buy now, pay later" functionality for large expenses.
- Support more robust administrative workflows and user entitlements.
These updates will be integrated into our platform over time, with the goal of offering a single experience that helps business owners manage payments, receivables, accounting, and cash flow — all within their financial institution’s digital channels.
How does the acquisition benefit consumer bill pay too?
We are equally excited for the opportunity to improve the consumer bill pay experience as well. Bill pay has been a neglected category for many years, and we hope to change that. Many of the functional updates planed for business payables will also apply to consumer payables: funding source selection and buy now pay later as examples.
Allied was built on a unified platform, capable of service consumers and businesses. This gives us a unique advantage to share product enhancements with all users, tailoring to their customer segment as needed.
What product suite updates are coming next?
The acquisition also supports our vision of delivering a complete small business operating system inside digital banking. Upcoming features include:
- Dashboard tiles for quicker access to financial tools.
- Enhanced accounting features and reconciliation flows.
- Improved visibility into cash flow trends and financial health.
- The launch of Autobooks Capital!
By combining receivables and payables functionality, we aim to simplify how business owners manage their finances— and keep more of those tasks within the bank.
What does this mean for financial institution partners?
For our financial institution partners, this acquisition reinforces our long-term commitment to embedded fintech. It expands the value that banks and credit unions can deliver to business customers without relying on external apps or tools.
The acquisition of Allied is an investment in the future of small business banking. It’s about giving institutions the tools they need to retain business accounts, grow deposits, and serve more of the business customer’s daily financial activity.
As we continue rolling out these updates, we’ll remain in close contact with our partners to ensure they have the resources needed to support their business customers.
This session gave us a chance to share our excitement and strategy around the Allied acquisition, and we’re looking forward to what’s next.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Autobooks acquire Allied Payment Network?
To accelerate the move from receivables-only to a full cash flow solution — receivables plus payables — inside digital banking. The acquisition brought proven bill pay infrastructure and a team with deep expertise to Autobooks.
What changes in the short term for customers?
Not much — it's business as usual. Over the coming months, customers will see integrated business bill pay, richer cash flow visibility, and new capabilities like BNPL for large expenses inside the Autobooks experience.
Does this help consumer bill pay too?
Yes. Allied was built on a unified platform capable of serving both consumer and business customers, so bill pay improvements — including flexible funding sources and BNPL — flow to consumer users as well.
What does this mean for financial institution partners?
More of the small business financial workflow stays inside the bank: invoicing, payment acceptance, bill pay, accounting, and cash flow — all in one experience, no external apps required.