Stampli Review

Accounts payable software mostly automates the same three things: capture the invoice, route it for approval, pay it. Where implementations fail is the human part, the week an invoice sits because someone needs to ask the requester what the charge was for and that question happens in email where nobody can see it.

Stampli's whole design starts from that observation. This review covers whether the communication-first approach earns its place and where the product stops.

Stampli is an AP automation platform founded in 2015 that centralises invoice capture, coding, approval and payment.

Its structure differs from rivals in one important way: each invoice has a communication hub attached, a threaded conversation where approvers, requesters and the AP team discuss that specific document, with the full history preserved on the invoice itself.

An AI layer called Billy the Bot learns your coding patterns and approver routing over time. It integrates with major ERPs including NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics.

Invoices arrive by email, upload or direct vendor submission, and OCR extracts the header and line data. Billy the Bot suggests general ledger coding and the approval path based on prior invoices, improving as it sees more of your patterns.

Approvers receive the invoice with its conversation attached and can ask questions in place. Once approved, payment executes through Stampli Direct Pay (ACH, cheque, card) or hands off to your ERP.

Crucially, Stampli sits on top of your ERP rather than replacing it, syncing rather than demanding you re-implement your general ledger, which is why deployments are measured in weeks rather than quarters.

Bill and Tipalti are the only vendors here that publish a price: Bill on per-user monthly tiers, Tipalti with Accounts Payable plans from $99 a month. Stampli, Airbase and Coupa are quote-only.

Stampli publishes no rate card or per-invoice price, and the quote is a mid-market annual contract on invoice volume, users and modules (core AP, payments, cards), plus an implementation fee. The quote moves most when you add payment execution on top of approvals, so count monthly invoice volume and decide that before the call.

Tipalti charges a platform fee plus payment costs and is more expensive than Stampli for straightforward domestic AP. Airbase quotes tiers for AP, cards and expenses, and the price scales as modules are added.

Coupa is an enterprise quote that costs substantially more than any AP-only tool, so compare written quotes from Bill, Tipalti and Airbase on the same volume.

Stampli fits mid-market companies, roughly 50 to 1,000 employees, whose AP pain is approval chasing rather than procurement policy. It is particularly strong for organisations with an ERP they are happy with and no appetite for a finance-system replacement, and for AP teams handling a few hundred to a few thousand invoices a month across many approvers.

It is a weaker fit for companies wanting full source-to-pay with purchase requisitions and sourcing (Coupa territory), for those needing heavy global mass-payout capability (Tipalti's strength), and for very small businesses where the quote-based model will feel heavy against simpler self-serve tools.