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Your Life & Business in the Cloud – Plooto

Your Life & Business in the Cloud – Plooto

Do you hate writing cheques? Do you work remotely? Do you hate going to the post office? Do you not own envelopes? Plooto is a simple app that allows you to pay suppliers electronically with a few clicks. No stamps, no envelopes, no problem.

Do you use QuickBooks Online or Xero? –even better. Your entire listing of bills to pay is available in Plooto and you just select the bills you want to pay. Not only does Plooto email a remittance voucher to the vendor you are paying that shows exactly which invoices your payment relates to, but it also marks the bills as paid in your accounting software and creates the payment entry as well.

Plooto is perfect for suppliers that you pay regularly that are not listed by your bank as bill payees. It’s also a great alternative to the E-transfers you do from your bank account. The fees are less, $1.00 vs. $1.50 usually and it does the entries in your accounting system which paying via E-transfer does not. Combine Plooto with Receipt Bank and you can have your suppliers email your invoices directly to Receipt Bank which get uploaded to your bills to pay in Xero or QuickBooks. Then, login to Plooto to see your bills to pay, select the bills you want to pay and in a couple of clicks you’re done.

The setup is simple, ask your suppliers for their bank account and transit number and set up their contact details in Plooto. You only have to put this in once and Plooto saves it for all future transactions. Transactions take roughly 5 business days but they do have the option for Plooto Instant. It requires that you prefund your account and enables you to make payments the next business day.

Plooto has just introduced payments to US bank accounts. The fee is a bit higher ($9.99) but given there is no monthly fee and many financial institutions charge $20-25 per wire transfer it’s a bargain. Plus it works the same as the Canadian payments.

Plooto can also be used to receive electronic payments from customers. It allows you to import your outstanding invoices. When the customer pays through Plooto the entries are automatically reconciled in Xero or QuickBooks Online.

A great option for companies that have an accounts payable department or a charity or not-for-profit that requires multiple sign offs on cheques –Plooto allows you to set up approvers. The payables can then be prepared and ready for the approver to login and finalize the payments. It’s a good way to avoid having a board member drive across town just to sign a cheque!

And the best part, no more preprinted cheques that you pay an arm and a leg for and can’t figure out how to load into the printer!

~Allison