Getting Started with Bill Pay in Relay

Relay Bill Pay makes it easy to stay on top of your accounts payable—whether you’re a solo founder, managing a growing team, or running a mature business. With tiered access and smarter automation, you can upload, approve, and pay bills all in one place—directly from your Relay account.

This article walks you through how to enable Bill Pay, who can use it, and what to expect based on your subscription tier.

What You Can Do with Relay Bill Pay

Bill Pay functionality differs slightly across Starter, Grow, and Scale plans—but all tiers include:

• Upload bills manually or forward invoices to your unique Relay Bill Pay inbox

• Track bill statuses (approved, scheduled, paid) in a central dashboard

• Pay bills via ACH, check, or wire without needing a separate bill pay platform

• Connect to your accounting software (QuickBooks Online, Xero) for seamless syncs

• Mark bills as paid when handled outside Relay

• Manage vendor records with stored remittance details and audit trails

• Include Bills as part of a business' Approval rules.

Advanced features (Grow & Scale only):

• Batched vendor payments to save time

• Partial payments for flexibility in managing cash flow (coming soon)

• Custom categorization rules to automate accounting classifications

• Bulk payments and CSV exports (Scale only, coming soon)

• Bill insights dashboard to spot trends and improve cash planning (Scale only, coming soon)

Who Can Use Bill Pay?

Bill Pay access is role-based. Here’s what each role can do:

• Administrators: Manage bills, schedule payments, and assign roles

• Approvers: Review and approve bills, but can’t pay them

• Contributors: Upload and edit bills, without approval or payment permissions

These roles help streamline your bill workflow while maintaining control and oversight.

How to Enable Bill Pay

To enable this feature follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Relay account.

2. Go to Payments and click on Bills or Pay a Bill.

3. You can now start uploading/emailing a bill or connecting your accounting integration.

What Happens Next?

Once Bill Pay is enabled, you can:

• Forward invoices to your dedicated forwarding email

• Assign contributors and approvers to support your approval workflow

• Schedule payments in advance by ACH, check, or wire transfer

• Track each bill’s lifecycle from submission to payment

• Ensure bill activity remains organized, transparent, and audit-ready

Bill Payment Statuses

When you send a bill payment in Relay, the status will now automatically update throughout the process to reflect its current state.

• Scheduled: The payment has been submitted and is scheduled to be processed.

• Processing: Relay has begun moving the funds but the transaction hasn’t yet cleared.

• Paid: The bill has been successfully paid and marked as such—no manual updates are needed.

These statuses are visible in the Bill Pay dashboard, so you can track progress in real time.

Paying Bills Directly from your Account's Payment Dashboard

You may also pay bills or invoices directly within the Payments section of your Relay account! Simply follow the below steps:

• Navigate to the Payments section of your Relay account and select your desired Payment Method (for example, ACH or Domestic Wire).

• Upload a copy of your bill/invoice under the Have a bill handy? field. Relay will automatically extract invoice details such as invoice number, line items and amounts, invoice date and invoice due date. 

• Verify invoice and payment details before finalizing your bill payment.

•  Once you have initiated the payment, the invoice payment will migrate to your account's Bills section, and ultimately to any accounting software that you have integrated to your Relay account.

Features by Subscription Tier

Learn more about tier pricing and benefits here.

Tips for a Smooth Start

• Use your Relay inbox email Every business has a unique forwarding address_._ Forward invoices here for quick intake.

• Set up your approval workflow Use custom rules to avoid delays or unauthorized payments.

• Invite vendors securely Use secure links to collect vendor payment info—no more handling sensitive data manually.

• Watch payment cutoff times ACH and wires process have timelines and cut-off times. Schedule payments ahead of deadlines to avoid delays.

Next Steps

Now that you're set-up, dive deeper with these guides:

• Creating and Sending a Bill in Relay

• Setting up Payment Approvals in Relay

• Adding and Managing Payees

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