Stampli vs Airbase: AP Automation in 2027

Short answer: Stampli and Airbase are close on core accounts payable, and neither publishes a price, so the choice comes down to how much of the finance stack your firm wants in one contract. Stampli fits a firm that wants a dedicated AP and approval workflow, with coding rules and an audit trail kept around the ledger, and that processes a large, mixed invoice queue. Airbase, now sold by Paylocity as Paylocity for Finance, fits a firm that wants AP, expense, corporate cards and procurement under one agreement, and that already runs Paylocity payroll. Pick by the workflow you need to run, not by the number of features on each product page.

How we evaluated

We read each vendor's public product material, the Paylocity filing that announced its acquisition of Airbase, and third-party survey data on payments fraud and technology use at accounting firms. We did not run a trial, sit through a demo or request a quote, so nothing on this page reflects hands-on testing. The criteria were AP workflow coverage from invoice capture through payment, ERP integration, controls on changes to vendor payment details, the scope of any bundle, product ownership and roadmap risk, and the cost and risk of switching.

Pricing checked October 19, 2026: the Stampli site states no pricing, and its only commercial calls to action are "Get a demo" and "Contact sales." The Airbase page we reached that day, which now displays Paylocity content, also publishes no price. This page therefore prints no figure for either product. Ask each vendor for a written quote that separates the platform fee, per-user seats, modules, cards and migration work, and ask what drives the number: user count, number of client entities, monthly invoice volume, and whether ERP integration is priced as a separate line.

Who Stampli is for

Stampli is built around accounts payable. Its product page groups the platform into procurement, accounts payable, vendor management, payments, expense management and an intelligence layer, and the AI assistant it calls Billy sits in that intelligence layer. According to Stampli's own description, Billy captures and codes invoices, matches them to purchase orders and receipts, checks invoices at the line level and surfaces variances before approval. The same page says authorized people keep control of approvals, exception resolution, ERP posting and payment release. For a partner who has to defend the control design, that wording is the point: the software prepares the work and people release it.

Stampli fits best where the AP queue is the constraint. That means many client entities, many vendors, invoices arriving in several formats, and a controller who wants the approval history attached to each invoice. Its ERP list is long. It names NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle Fusion, SAP, QuickBooks, Acumatica and Sage 100, and the page states that "Your ERP stays the system of record." For a firm, that line matters: the ledger remains the source of truth, and Stampli sits in front of it to prepare, route and validate the invoice work.

There are two gaps to raise in a demo. The Billy page we read does not describe duplicate invoice detection, so ask for it directly rather than assume it. The page also shows an AICPA SOC badge but does not name the report type in its text, so request the current report before procurement starts. The most recent funding announcement we could find dates from 2023. That is a question about runway and ownership to put to the vendor, not a reason to rule the product out.

Who Airbase is for

Airbase no longer stands alone. Paylocity agreed to buy it in September 2024, and according to SEC, the announcement was dated September 4, 2024, with closing expected in the first or second quarter of Paylocity's fiscal 2025, subject to regulatory approval. The product is now sold as Paylocity for Finance, formerly Airbase. Launch coverage in Nasdaq lists five core modules: AP Automation, Expense Management, Corporate Cards, Guided Procurement and Headcount Planning.

Before the acquisition, Airbase described its bill pay and AP as automated invoice handling and purchase order matching, with approval routing and payment by ACH, virtual card, check or wire. The same SEC exhibit lists integrations with Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct and QuickBooks, plus a configurable approvals engine. Those three ERPs are also on Stampli's list, so on ERP coverage the two products are close.

The bundle is the argument for Airbase. A firm that wants cards, expense and AP under one agreement, and that already runs Paylocity payroll, gets a single vendor relationship spanning payroll and non-payroll spend. If neither fits, our guide to Stampli alternatives for invoice processing covers other options.

The weaker case is a firm that wants AP to be the whole decision. The AP product now sits inside a broader suite whose roadmap you must ask about. The Airbase page we fetched on October 19, 2026 is a Paylocity announcement that names no specific AP features and no price. Reviews and older comparison pages may describe the pre-acquisition product, so treat them as dated until a demo confirms what you will actually receive.

Side-by-side comparison

The table uses "Not published" wherever we could not find the item on the pages we read. That means we could not verify it, not that the feature is absent.

Sources: Stampli's product pages (checked October 19, 2026), Paylocity's September 2024 SEC filing for the Airbase acquisition, and launch coverage of Paylocity for Finance.

Read the table as a list of demo questions, not as a score. Where both columns say "Not published," the same question applies to both vendors and favors neither. Where one column has an entry and the other does not, the blank is the question to put to that vendor.

The next table gives the fraud backdrop for the vendor-change controls discussed later. These figures describe the market, not either product.

Sources: AFP 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey (521 corporate practitioners); Federal Reserve 2025 Triennial Payments Study, initial findings released July 1, 2026.

The fraud figures explain why the vendor-change controls matter. Email-based attacks dominate the reported fraud, and checks remain in use at most organizations. Migration is a period when vendor records, remittance addresses and bank details are touched in bulk, and that is when controls are most often skipped. A bank-change flag reduces that risk, but only if the firm also keeps a verification step outside the software.

The third table places the decision in the broader technology picture for accounting firms.

Sources: Wolters Kluwer's Future Ready Accountant (second edition) and 2024 U.S. Accounting Industry Report, as reported by CPA Practice Advisor.

Pros and cons

Stampli

• Pro: AP-first design that keeps approvals and payment release with named people, which fits a controller-led review.

• Pro: Line-level invoice checks and vendor bank-change flags, which speak directly to payment fraud.

• Pro: A long ERP list that includes NetSuite, Sage Intacct and QuickBooks, the three systems Airbase also names.

• Con: Billy's accuracy and time-saving claims come from the vendor. Ask for references from firms of your size before you rely on them.

• Con: Duplicate detection, the security report type and the scope of cards and expense need written answers.

• Con: It is a standalone vendor, so its stability depends on funding and ownership. Put those questions to the vendor in writing.

Airbase (Paylocity for Finance)

• Pro: One agreement across AP, expense, corporate cards and procurement.

• Pro: Backed by a public company that also runs payroll, which matters if you plan to connect spend data with people data.

• Pro: Named integrations with NetSuite, Sage Intacct and QuickBooks.

• Con: The product is moving from Airbase to Paylocity for Finance, so ask for the roadmap in writing before you sign.

• Con: A firm that only needs AP may pay for a suite it does not use.

• Con: The public pages we read name few AP features and no security report, so the demo has to fill those gaps.

What switching actually costs

The license is rarely the expensive part of switching. The cost sits in four places: the vendor master, open invoices, general ledger coding history and the payment runs. Each one needs an owner and a cutover date. Neither vendor's public material gives an implementation timeline, so this page does not print one. Ask each vendor for a written plan that names the migration steps, the parallel-run period and the person on each side who signs off.

The vendor master is the fraud window, and it is the step firms tend to rush. Re-keyed bank details should be verified by a call-back to a number already on file, not to a number supplied in an email from the new vendor. Our fraud figures above show why this is not optional: business email compromise is the leading avenue in the survey, and migration is when the records change most. Whichever platform you choose, the verification step belongs to your team, not the software.

Adoption is a second cost, and it is easy to miss. According to CPA Practice Advisor, 71% of cloud-based practices reported better profitability in 2023, against 55% overall, yet only 25% of respondents said they were getting at least 75% of the value from their current technology. The lesson is to pick the product your team will actually configure, and to budget configuration time alongside the license.

If the gap is the document step before AP rather than the AP platform, US Tech Automations describes a finance workflow that captures invoices and receipts, extracts and validates line items against purchase orders, matches and reconciles, then approves and posts. Its live integrations, per the page, are Stripe and Google Sheets, with QuickBooks, NetSuite and SAP listed as roadmap items. Verify the ERP posting path before you plan a migration around it.

Verdict

We do not think either product is the obvious choice for every accounting firm, and a verdict that fits every reader would not be a verdict. On core AP, the two are close. The real split is scope. Stampli is the stronger pick when the firm wants a dedicated AP and approval workflow, the controller owns the coding and approval rules, and the team needs approval history attached to each invoice. Airbase, through Paylocity for Finance, is the stronger pick when cards, expense and procurement belong to the same buying decision, and when the firm already runs Paylocity payroll.

Pick the other one if your situation is the reverse of the one above. A firm leaning toward Airbase that mostly needs a controlled AP queue with line-level checks and vendor bank-change flags should look hard at Stampli. A firm leaning toward Stampli that would replace a card and expense program at the same time should give Airbase's bundle a serious look, provided Paylocity confirms the roadmap in writing.

Routing and collections are separate problems, and neither product decides them for you. If the bottleneck is firm workflow rather than AP, our Canopy vs Karbon comparison covers the practice-management side. If your firm also tracks scope changes on client work, see our guide to project scope change tracking.

FAQs

Is Airbase still sold as a separate product?

No. Paylocity now sells the product as Paylocity for Finance, formerly Airbase, after buying the company in 2024. Ask which modules you would receive under the Paylocity contract, because the older Airbase materials may not match what is sold today.

Does either vendor publish a price for accounting firms?

Neither does, on the pages we read on October 19, 2026, so this page prints no figure for either. Ask both for written quotes that separate platform fees, seats, modules and migration work, and compare the quotes line by line.

Which ERP systems do both products connect to?

Both name NetSuite, Sage Intacct and QuickBooks. Stampli also lists Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle Fusion, SAP, Acumatica and Sage 100. A listed name does not tell you which fields post or how deep the sync goes, so test the integration with your own ledger version.

What should a demo test for fraud controls?

Ask the vendor to walk through a bank-detail change from start to finish, including who is notified, what blocks the next payment and how the change is verified. The fraud survey above shows that payment-detail attacks are common, so this flow matters more than any AI feature on the product page.

Can a small firm justify switching?

It can, but the case rests on invoice volume and on errors you can count, not on the license. Weigh the team time needed to clean vendor data against the manual work the new platform removes, and get the migration plan in writing before you sign.

Where does US Tech Automations fit in this decision?

US Tech Automations is an option for the document step before AP, not a replacement for either platform. Its described workflow covers capture, validation, matching and posting, but its live ERP list is short, so check that list before you plan around it.

Key Takeaways

• Stampli and Airbase are close on core AP, so the decision is about scope, not feature count.

• Stampli suits a dedicated AP and approval workflow in which people release payments.

• Airbase, now Paylocity for Finance, suits a firm that wants AP, expense and cards under one agreement.

• Neither vendor publishes a price on the pages we read, so ask both for written quotes.

• Treat the vendor master migration as a fraud window, and verify every bank change by call-back.

• Get the roadmap, security report and migration plan in writing before you sign anything.

When the quotes are in hand, compare them against the workflow you have mapped, and look at document-step automation if the gap sits before AP.