How to manage business bills, payments, and approvals

Bluevine Business Checking puts all your finances in one easy-to-use dashboard, including payees, bills, outgoing payments, and even approval workflows.

Managing bills means more than just sending payments. You need to add payees, capture invoices, route approvals, choose the right payment method, and keep everything organized in one place. With Bluevine, you can manage that workflow from one dashboard. Add payees, upload or forward invoices, route payments for approval, and send ACH, wire, check, or international payments.

Here’s how the full workflow fits together.

Table of Contents

  1. Add and manage payees
  2. Capture and organize bills
  3. Set up payment approvals
  4. Choose a payment method
  5. Pay multiple bills at once

Where do you manage business bills with Bluevine?

Bill management is available in your Bluevine dashboard. Some features may have a better desktop experience, especially for structured workflows like approvals and invoice forwarding.

To access it:

  1. Sign in to your Bluevine dashboard
  2. Navigate to the Bill Pay tab

The Bill Pay tab includes:

  • Unpaid bills
  • Approvals
  • Scheduled and paid invoices
  • Payees

To stay organized:

  • Track due dates in one place
  • Schedule payments in advance
  • Prioritize bills based on urgency

Add and manage payees

Before sending a payment, add the vendors or individuals you plan to pay.

How to add a payee from the directory

  1. Navigate to the Bill Pay tab
  2. Click Payees
  3. Search the directory of 40,000+ pre-verified payees
  4. If not found, enter your payee's details manually

How to add a payee manually

  1. Navigate to the Bill Pay tab
  2. Click Payees
  3. Select Add Payee
  4. Enter business name and payment details
  5. Save

Required details for a new payee

  • If paying via ACH or wire: bank account information
  • If paying via check: mailing address

What payee profiles show

To give you visibility into each payee before you send a payment, the payee profile includes:

  • Unpaid bills
  • Payment history
  • Balances
  • Year-to-date totals

When should you update payee details

Update a payee when:

  • A vendor changes banks
  • Payment instructions change
  • A business relocates

Best practice: If you have additional users on your account, restrict who can create or edit payees. This helps reduce fraud risk and approval delays.

Capture and organize bills

You can upload bills to your Bluevine dashboard in multiple ways.

Snap a photo of a bill from the Bluevine mobile app and we’ll automatically capture the details.

  1. Sign in to the Bluevine mobile app
  2. Tap Move Money → Send Payment
  3. Select Add bill → Add a new bill
  4. Tap Capture or upload bill and take a photo
  5. Review and complete any missing details
  6. Select or add a payee
  7. Choose how you want to pay and confirm

  1. Navigate to the Bill Pay tab and navigate to Unpaid Bills
  2. Upload bill or drag a file from your computer
  3. Enter bill details or let the system fill in details automatically
  4. Adjust as needed before sending

This works for emailed invoices or vendor portals.

Bluevine also provides a dedicated email address that allows you to forward invoices directly into your account. Once an invoice is sent to this address, it’s automatically captured and uploaded to your dashboard, so you don’t have to manually enter or track it. This makes it easy to keep all of your bills organized in one place, especially if you’re receiving invoices from multiple vendors via email.

Here’s who can send invoices to your bills inbox:

  • Account owner or Administrator
  • Authorized users2
  • Accountants
  • Existing payees

Automation reduces bookkeeping time and improves accuracy. When you connect QuickBooks3 to Bluevine, you can sync bills automatically, sync payment data, and reduce manual reconciliation.

  1. Sign in to your Bluevine dashboard
  2. Click Bill Pay, then Unpaid Bills on the left-hand menu
    • You can also click External Accounts, then Integration
  3. Click Connect to QuickBooks Online
  4. Sign in with your Intuit login information
  5. Follow the prompts to go through Intuit’s multi-factor authentication process
  6. When you successfully sign in, please read through the access agreement and click Connect
  7. Once connected, you can view your integration under the External Accounts section in your Bluevine dashboard or under Apps in QuickBooks Online

Set up payment approvals

Payment approvals add control before money leaves your account. With Bluevine, you can assign roles and create workflows so the right people review and approve payments.

How approvals work

  1. A user creates a payment
  2. If approval is required, the payment is routed based on your workflow
  3. An authorized approver reviews and releases the payment
  4. The payment is sent

Who can approve payments

  • Administrator
  • Authorized User with payment-admin permissions
  • Accountant or Clerk with limited, approval-based access

Administrators and payment-admin users can send payments without approval. Accountants and Clerks cannot be upgraded to payment-admin roles. For more details, see our article on how to add and manage additional users.

How to add users for approvals

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Select User Management
  3. Click Invite User
  4. Assign permissions

Invitations expire after 14 days if not accepted. Assign roles based on responsibility, such as bill entry, review, or full payment control.

Choose a payment method

Bluevine supports multiple ways to pay vendors, depending on how quickly funds need to arrive and where they’re going.

ACH payments for speed and cost efficiency

Standard ACH is typically the most cost-effective option.

  • Timing: 1–3 business days
  • Best for: Routine vendor payments

Same-day ACH is another great option when you need to send money quickly before the daily cutoff time.

  • Timing: Same day if submitted by 2:00pm ET
  • Best for: Time-sensitive vendor payments

Wire transfers for urgent payments

  • Faster settlement than standard ACH
  • Best for: High-value or time-sensitive payments
  • Note: Typically, wire transfers are not reversible

Check payments for traditional vendors

If you work with a vendor that prefers to be paid via paper check, you can send out the payment through your Bluevine dashboard. We’ll print and mail the check for you—no manual handling required on your end.

International payments for global vendors

With Bluevine, you can send money to 32 countries in 15 currencies in as fast as 24 hours.

Pay multiple bills at once

If you need to send out multiple bill payments and want to save time, you can use bulk bill pay.

How to pay multiple bills at once

  1. Navigate to Bill Pay, then Unpaid Bills
  2. Select the checkbox next to the bills you'd like to pay
  3. Select Pay bills once you've selected all the bills you'd like to pay
  4. Select which account you'd like to use as the funding source on the Pay from dropdown menu

Which payment method should you use?

Use this guide to help decide which method to use for a bill payment:

If you need…Use this:Because…
Budget allocationInternal transferSpeed, funds stay within Bluevine
Instant internal movementBluevine PayImmediate between Bluevine accounts or sub-accounts
Non-urgent vendor paymentStandard ACHCost-effective
Urgent large paymentWire or same-day ACH1Faster settlement
Global vendor paymentInternational payment1Cross-border capability
Recurring internal movementAutomatic transfer rulesHands-off automation
Recurring vendor paymentScheduled standard ACHPredictable movement on a cadence you set, cost-effective

Best practices for managing business bills and approvals

  • Separate operational funds using sub-accounts
  • Automate predictable transfers
  • Restrict payee creation permissions
  • Verify recipient details before large wires or international payments
  • Review transfer limits before initiating large payments

Frequently Asked Questions

To manage bills with Bluevine, use the desktop dashboard under Bill Pay. You can add payees, upload or forward invoices, route payments for approval, and track status in one place.

To add and manage your payees, select Add Payee under Bill Pay. Search the directory or enter details manually. Each payee profile displays balances and payment history.

Payments created by non-admin users can be routed to an Administrator or payment-admin for review before release.

Yes, you and other approved senders can forward bills to your dedicated Bluevine email address.

With Bluevine, you can accept credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and ACH direct debit through payment links or Tap to Pay, in addition to standard ACH transfers, checks, and domestic and international wires.

Yes, Bluevine supports ACH payments. Standard ACH transfers typically take 1–3 business days and are commonly used for domestic vendor payments.

Yes. Wires are typically used for urgent or high-value domestic payments.

Yes, Bluevine can print and mail checks directly from your dashboard.1

Use bulk bill pay to select and send multiple payments together from your Bluevine dashboard.

Administrators and authorized payment-admin users can approve and send payments.

Accountants have limited permissions and cannot be upgraded to payment-admin authority.

Some features may require desktop access for full functionality.

Plus and Premier plans may include expanded features, payment fee discounts, and payment flexibility.

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