The new business bill pay from Autobooks is here

Written by Autobooks | Oct 29, 2026, 1:51:07 PM

Key takeaways:

The new business bill pay from Autobooks is is available as part of Autobooks Pro, giving owners one place to control who they pay, when, and how, inside digital banking.
Pay by card works on eligible bills, even with vendors that don’t accept cards, and payments on cards the institution issues earn interchange.
Business owners pay bills in three or four places, so they can’t see where the money goes. Bringing bill pay back to digital banking gives owners one place to manage payments and their business. It also keeps that activity inside the institution’s relationship.
Business bill pay works on its own, and it also connects to receivables, accounting, cash flow forecasting, and lending in the small business operating suite.
One Autobooks Pro fee unlocks the full suite, with three ways to roll it out.

The new business bill pay from Autobooks is here, available as part of Autobooks Pro. It gives business owners one place to control who they pay, when they pay, and how they pay, right inside digital banking.

For financial institutions, it brings business bill payments back where they belong. And more bill pay upgrades are on the way.

Why does business bill pay need an upgrade?

Ask a business owner how they pay bills and the answer is usually “a few different ways.” Some go through digital banking. Some go by card on a vendor’s website. Others run on autopay straight from the account.

Most of those payments have already left the financial institution. Only 52% of small businesses prefer to make electronic payments from their financial institution’s online or mobile banking, according to Datos Insights. Datos found that owners stray for ease of use, speed, and more payment options.

What owners want most is control. PYMNTS Intelligence found that cash-flow control is the most valued payment capability across every small business segment it surveyed. In the report’s words, “Cash-flow control dominates everything.”

What’s new for business owners?

The new experience starts with what an owner needs to know before money goes out.

Pay by card. Pay from the bank account, with a debit or credit card the institution issues, or with a credit card from another provider. Pay by card works on eligible bills, even with vendors that don’t accept cards.
See what’s coming. What’s scheduled to send, what leaves in the next 7 days, and what was paid in the past 30 days.
Track every payment. Each payment has a status timeline, and mailed checks can be tracked from print to arrival through USPS scans.
Pay in one pass. Pay several vendors, or a whole vendor group, at once. Nothing is sent until the owner reviews it.
Add vendors fast. Add them by hand, by uploading a bill, or by importing a list. Group and categorize them, and pay from more than one account.
Stay in control. Payments can require approval before anything goes out, and they’re monitored for fraud as they move.
Let bills come in. Set up a biller once and pay one time or on a recurring schedule. When eligible, electronic bills bring the statement and biller details straight into bill pay.
Interchange. Every payment made with a debit or credit card the institution issues earns interchange.
Line-item visibility. The institution sees who the business pays and when, line by line, instead of one lump card payoff at month end.
A deeper relationship. That detail makes the institution more central to how the business banks, and it can help qualify owners for lending.

Pay by card gives owners a lever on timing. When cash is tight, they can put a bill on a card without leaving the relationship. And they keep the rewards card they already use.

What does the financial institution get?

Business bill payments come back to digital banking. Owners stop paying on vendor websites and outside apps, and that activity returns to the relationship.

The business owner never leaves your digital banking, and the opportunity never leaves your institution.

Is business bill pay connected to the rest of Autobooks?

Yes, and that’s the other half of the news. Business bill pay works on its own in digital banking as an upgraded business bill pay solution. It’s also part of the small business operating suite, where bill pay, receivables, accounting, cash flow forecasting, and lending connect.

Business bill pay is included in Autobooks Pro, the license a financial institution signs. One fee unlocks the full suite, including Autobooks Capital. So upgrading bill pay upgrades the whole small business banking experience.

Paying a bill starts long before the payment goes out. Money comes in from customers, gets recorded, and shapes what an owner can pay and when. When all of it lives in one connected system, every payment informs the next decision.

What does it look like when a business runs on Autobooks?

Here’s an illustrative example. Prairie Creek Heating & Air is a 12-person HVAC contractor. The owner, Dana, runs the business from her financial institution’s digital banking.

Moment	What Dana does	What Dana gets	What the institution gets
Monday morning	Opens bill pay and sees what’s scheduled to send and what leaves in the next 7 days	Every bill in one view, with no vendor websites to check	Business bill payments run through its digital banking
Paying suppliers	Pays her equipment distributor and three parts suppliers in one pass, with the distributor bill on the business credit card her institution issued	More time on her largest bill, even though the distributor doesn’t take cards	Interchange on the card payment, and each payment line by line
Getting paid	Sends invoices to homeowners after each install, and customers pay by card or bank transfer	Money lands in her account, with no separate payment app	Sees how the business earns revenue, and payment deposits stay
Keeping the books	With accounting enabled, payments and invoices are recorded as money moves	Books stay organized, with no separate tool to sync	Financial reports without asking the business for them
Planning ahead	Schedules next month’s payments, and the cash flow forecast shows a gap before a large commercial job pays out	Sees the shortfall before it hits	The Hub flags the business as a strong candidate for a product offer
Closing the gap	Accepts an eligible lending offer that appears with the forecast	Working capital for payroll and materials, without going outside her bank	Revenue on the loan through Access, or a loan on its own balance sheet through Direct

Dana pays bills, gets paid, keeps her books, sees what’s ahead, and borrows in one place. Her institution sees the whole relationship, and every part of it stays inside digital banking.

Jarrod Hutchinson, Director of Small Business Solutions at Minnwest Bank, put it this way:
“Small business owners are not asking for another checking account. They need to get paid, keep their books straight and manage the timing of receivables. Those tools now come with the account instead of being something they seek from a third-party provider.”

How can a financial institution roll out business bill pay?

Every institution signs one Autobooks Pro agreement, then chooses a path:

Replace your business bill pay. Swap your current program one-for-one. Every customer who pays bills with you today gets the upgrade where they already pay, plus access to the rest of the suite.
Offer the operating suite. Offer the suite to all business customers or a defined segment, alongside current bill pay. Under contract with another bill pay provider? Start here and switch fully when your contract allows.
Do both. Replace business bill pay and offer the suite. Bill pay activity flows between the two, so owners see the same payments wherever they pay.

See the new business bill pay

The new business bill pay from Autobooks is available as part of Autobooks Pro, and more upgrades are on the way. When owners pay bills, get paid, and keep their books with you, their deposits stay with you too.

See business bill pay in action

FAQ

Is the new business bill pay from Autobooks available now? Yes. Business bill pay is available as part of Autobooks Pro. More bill pay upgrades are on the way.

Can business owners pay a vendor that doesn’t accept cards? Yes. Pay by card works on eligible bills, even with vendors that don’t accept cards. Owners can use a debit or credit card the institution issues, or a credit card from another provider.

Can business bill pay work on its own? Yes. Business bill pay works on its own in digital banking as upgraded business bill pay. It’s also part of the small business operating suite, connected to receivables, accounting, cash flow forecasting, and lending.

How does business bill pay earn revenue for a financial institution? Every payment made with a debit or credit card the institution issues earns interchange. Because business bill pay is included in Autobooks Pro, one fee also unlocks the rest of the suite, including Autobooks Capital.

Do we have to replace our current business bill pay? No. You can replace it one-for-one, offer the operating suite to all business customers or a defined segment alongside current bill pay, or do both. Every path runs under one Autobooks Pro agreement.

Sources: Datos Insights, Five Strategies for Small Business Success, October 2023. PYMNTS Intelligence, Ready for Change: Why Nearly Half of SMBs Want to Ditch Cash and Checks, February 2026.

View full post