The benefits of integrating your accounting software with Melio

In a world where time equals money, business owners are always on the lookout for ways to make their businesses more efficient and consequently save money. Accounting tasks like paying vendors, reconciling bills, and bookkeeping can take a lot of a business’s precious time, energy, and hard-earned cash. The solution? Making sure your accounting software and payment tools work together, in sync.

What’s accounting software?

As a business owner, you’re probably already using accounting software like QuickBooks, and are aware of the many benefits that come with it. The term “accounting software” describes computer programs that help record and report a business’s financial transactions. Different kinds of accounting software do different things, but most of them–like QuickBooks, automatically enter, store, and analyze financial data. This makes closing the books a much easier process.

Accounting software also offers tools like invoicing, payroll, and financial reporting. Before accounting software existed, these tasks had to be performed manually, were prone to error, and took a large chunk of a business’ resources.

Types of accounting software

Accounting software can either be online (cloud-based) or downloaded and stored on your computer. Online accounting software stores all of your information securely in the cloud. Because it’s all online, you can easily access your information from anywhere, even from your smartphone. Desktop accounting software, on the other hand, requires you to download and store the software on your computer.

Tools that sync work better together

Using accounting software is a great way to keep your books in order, but did you know that you can integrate it with a bill pay solution? Yeah, you heard that right, you can keep using the accounting software you love while integrating it with a payment solution like Melio.

Benefits of integrating your accounting software

If you’re paying bills through one system, like your bank account, and then updating the info in a different system, like QuickBooks, there’s more room for error. Let’s say you have a restaurant and need to pay your wine supplier with a check. You make the check out to them and mail it. You then need to update your accounting software with the amount of the invoice, date, and vendor information.

Thankfully, just like we don’t use fax machines and landline phones anymore, we don’t need to manually update our bill pay and accounting software separately. Nowadays, you can schedule and make a payment to your vendor using Melio. Melio will either send a check or bank transfer to your vendor on your behalf and then sync the information with your accounting software.

Using payment tools like Melio and integrating them with accounting software can eliminate human error and increase efficiency. This‌ saves you time and money, plus gives you peace of mind.

Integrate your accounting software with Melio

So what’s the right accounting software for your business? Luckily, Melio integrates with all the leading accounting software. So no matter which one you’re using, it’ll most likely integrate with Melio.

2-way sync

Melio’s integration with QuickBooks Online allows a 2-way sync for your accounts payable and receivable. Accounts payable, i.e. bills to pay, go through a two-way sync. If you own a coffee shop, for example, and are paying your coffee roaster via Melio, your QuickBooks Online account is updated with the payment details once you’ve completed a bill payment.

In other words, all of your unpaid payments and vendor details from QuickBooks Online automatically sync to Melio. And in turn, your vendor details and all of your unpaid, scheduled, and paid bills from Melio sync to QuickBooks Online. Bonus? There’s no need to enter the same bill information twice, you eliminate manual errors, and payments are automatically balanced, so you end up saving tons of time. QuickBooks Online also syncs with your accounts receivable, but more on that below.

Accounts receivable sync

When it comes to accounts receivable, i.e. incoming payments, Melio integrates with QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, and QuickBooks Online. This means that invoices that are created in the accounting software are then synced to Melio. Once they are paid in full via a payment request, they are synced back to the accounting software and marked as paid in both accounts.

So if you send a customer an invoice through QuickBooks Online, for example, it will automatically be marked as paid and synced with Melio as soon as payment is made. This really comes in handy when it’s time to reconcile your incoming payments at the end of the month or quarter.

While Melio’s payment solution helps businesses automate and manage their payment process, integrating it with accounting software can provide deeper insights.

Accounting software that integrates with Melio

Melio currently supports integration with the following accounting software:

• Xero
• QuickBooks Online
• QuickBooks Desktop

To learn more about accounting software that integrates with Melio, check out our Help Center.