Paymode cost, both sides of the payment
Paymode Pricing and Paymode Fees for Payers and Vendors
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Paymode does not charge payers for Premium ACH. Bottomline funds the network with a per transaction fee charged to the vendors you pay, sets that fee by volume and frequency at enrollment, and rebates part of it back to you. San Francisco's vendor guidance puts the Premium fee at 1.5% of each payment, while Basic ACH is free to vendors. If you would rather pay suppliers in full from your own bank, AutoPayables costs $49 or $149 a month with no per payment fee.
$0
What Bottomline says payers pay for Premium ACH
1.5%
Premium network fee per San Francisco's vendor guidance
635,000+
Businesses Bottomline says use the Paymode network
6 to 12 weeks
Paymode implementation time per Bottomline's FAQ
Accounting sync
What you get when you pay vendors without a network fee
AutoPayables handles the invoice side Paymode leaves to your ERP, then hands your bank a file.
AI invoice capture
Upload PDFs or photos in bulk. Header fields and line items are read for you, so nobody keys invoices before a payment run.
Line level GL coding
Each line gets a suggested GL account you confirm once, and the next invoice from that vendor comes in coded.
PO matching and duplicate checks
Two and three way matching against purchase orders and receipts, plus duplicate invoice detection before anything is paid.
Threshold approvals with a log
Bills under your dollar threshold approve automatically, larger ones wait for a person, and every decision is recorded.
NACHA ACH files for your bank
A CCD+ file with invoice numbers in the addenda, uploaded through your own bank, so vendors receive the full invoice amount.
Checks and Positive Pay
Check PDFs for your check stock and a Positive Pay file from the same run, for vendors who still want paper.
How to replace a network fee with your own bank's ACH
You can download your first payment file the day you sign up.
Upload this month's invoices
Drop in a batch of vendor bills. Capture and coding run while you set up the bank details.
Approve and match
Review coded lines, match to purchase orders where you use them, and approve anything over your threshold.
Build the payment run
Pick the approved bills, choose ACH or check per vendor, and download the NACHA and Positive Pay files.
Upload to your bank
Send the file through your bank's ACH upload screen. Vendors receive the full amount with invoice numbers attached.
When Paymode's free price costs you more
Where a vendor funded network creates work, and what changes when you pay from your bank.
On a vendor funded network
- Suppliers see a network fee deducted from every Premium payment
- Invoices still captured and approved somewhere else first
- 6 to 12 weeks of implementation before payments flow
- Vendors raise the deduction with AP, even though the fee is Bottomline's
With AutoPayables
- Suppliers receive the full invoice amount from your bank
- Capture, coding, matching and approvals in the same tool as the payment run
- Self serve signup and a first payment file the same day
- No fee conversation, because there is no fee from us
Teams that compare Paymode pricing with a flat price
The pattern is the same: the payment network was free, the invoice work was not.
Contractors paying subs
Progress payments are large and subcontractors notice a percentage coming off. Paying from your own bank keeps those conversations off your desk.
Healthcare and services payers
A handful of big, long term suppliers matter more than a rebate. Full payment protects terms you negotiated.
Bank sponsored Paymode users
Your bank switched on Paymode, payments got electronic, and the invoice inbox stayed manual. Capture and approvals close that gap.
Controllers on a fixed budget
A published $49 or $149 a month is easier to defend than a network whose cost lands on your suppliers and comes back as rebate income.
Paymode pricing in one table
Bottomline does not publish a Paymode price list. What it does publish is who pays. The table below collects the fee rules from Bottomline's own Paymode pages and its Terms of Use, plus the one public figure that names a percentage, which comes from the City and County of San Francisco's vendor guidance rather than from Bottomline.
| Paymode payment type | What the payer (your AP team) pays | What the vendor pays | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium ACH | "There's no cost for using Premium ACH." A portion of the vendor fee is rebated back to the payer | A per transaction network fee that "depends on the volume and frequency of payments through Paymode" and is shown in the enrollment flow | Bottomline Premium ACH page and Premium Benefits Guide |
| Premium membership, percentage | Not stated | "a 1.5% network fee", deducted from each payment or by monthly direct debit | City and County of San Francisco vendor guidance, not a Bottomline list price |
| Basic ACH | The payer or its service provider covers network set up and transaction fees for that vendor | No network fee. San Francisco describes Basic as free to vendors | Paymode Operating Rules, San Francisco guidance |
| Virtual card | Earns card rebates | "No additional fees. Just pay your standard interchange rate." | Bottomline Premium Benefits Guide |
So the honest answer to "what does Paymode cost" depends on which side of the payment you sit on. For the payer it is often presented as free or even revenue positive. For the vendor it is a percentage of every payment they accept on Premium terms.
Does Paymode charge a fee to vendors?
Yes, on Premium ACH. Bottomline says vendors accepting Premium ACH "pay a per transaction fee outlined during Paymode enrollment and in the Paymode Terms of Service." The vendor picks how it is collected: deducted from each payment, with the net amount arriving within two business days, or billed as a monthly direct debit while the full invoice amount lands first. Basic ACH carries no vendor network fee.
Two clauses in the Terms of Use matter to an AP team. Vendors agree "to not charge the Network Fee to the payer, whether in the form of an additional charge, a price increase, or otherwise." And a vendor "may decline a Network Fee from any Network Member by contacting Bottomline's support desk", although fees on completed payments are not refunded. In practice that means some of your vendors will call you, not Bottomline, when the deductions start showing up on their remittances.
What a 1.5% network fee means at real payment volumes
If San Francisco's 1.5% figure applied to your vendors, here is what they would carry on Premium ACH. These are illustrations of the published percentage, not a Bottomline quote, and your vendors' actual rate is set during their enrollment.
| Monthly vendor payments through Premium ACH | Vendor network fees per month at 1.5% | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $3,750 | $45,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $15,000 | $180,000 |
| $5,000,000 | $75,000 | $900,000 |
A single $20,000 invoice from a subcontractor would arrive as $19,700. That is the trade behind a payer side price of zero: your suppliers fund the network, and you receive part of it back as a rebate. Some AP teams are comfortable with that. Others, especially those with small or strategic suppliers, find that vendor relations cost more than the rebate is worth.
What Paymode does and does not do
Paymode is a payments network. Bottomline describes more than 635,000 businesses exchanging over $570 billion a year on it, with remittance data in CTX and other formats so suppliers can reconcile what they were paid. Its FAQ says your ERP "will remain the system of record", with dedicated connectors for some ERPs and file based integrations for the rest, and puts implementation at 6 to 12 weeks. Premium ACH alone "generally take[s] just over six weeks to get up and running."
What it is not is an invoice processing tool. Invoices still have to be captured, coded, matched to purchase orders and approved before anything reaches Paymode, either in your ERP or in a separate AP automation product. That gap is where most of an AP team's hours actually go.
Paymode vs paying vendors from your own bank
| Paymode Premium ACH | AutoPayables with a NACHA file from your bank | |
|---|---|---|
| Software price to the payer | No cost for Premium ACH | $49 a month for 200 invoices, $149 for unlimited, first 20 invoices as a one time trial |
| Fee to your vendors | Per transaction network fee on Premium terms | None from us. Your bank's normal ACH origination pricing applies to you |
| Rebates | Yes, a share of vendor fees and card interchange | No |
| Invoice capture, GL coding, approvals | Not part of Paymode | AI capture, line level GL coding, threshold approvals with an audit log |
| PO matching and duplicate checks | Not part of Paymode | Two and three way PO matching and duplicate invoice detection |
| Remittance | CTX and other formats | CCD+ with invoice numbers in the addenda |
| Checks | Not part of Premium ACH | Check PDFs for your check stock plus a Positive Pay file |
| Time to first payment | 6 to 12 weeks per Bottomline's FAQ | Self serve signup, first payment run the same day your bank accepts the file |
| Vendor enrollment | Bottomline runs outreach to enroll your vendors | You collect vendor bank details yourself |
Paymode wins if rebate revenue is a goal, if your vendors already sit on the network, or if you want Bottomline to handle vendor enrollment. Paying from your own bank wins if you want your suppliers to receive 100 cents on the dollar and you need the invoice side automated too. Plenty of teams run both: capture and approve in AutoPayables, then decide payment method vendor by vendor.
Who should look past Paymode pricing
- Construction and property teams paying subcontractors who notice every deduction on a progress payment.
- Healthcare and professional services payers with a few large, long term suppliers who would rather keep the relationship than earn a rebate on it.
- Teams moved onto Paymode by their bank who now realize the invoice backlog is still manual.
If invoice volume is the real problem, compare published options on our AP automation pricing comparison, or see how the file itself works on the NACHA file software for accounts payable page.
Bottomline's fee rules and network figures were checked on its Premium ACH page, Premium Benefits Guide, Paymode FAQ and Terms of Use. Network fee rates are set per vendor at enrollment, so confirm current terms with Bottomline before you change how you pay suppliers.
Frequently asked questions
Paymode charges vendors, not payers, on Premium ACH. Bottomline says there is no cost to the payer for Premium ACH and that vendors pay a small per transaction network fee, part of which is rebated to the payer. Basic ACH has no vendor network fee, and virtual card payments carry only the vendor's normal interchange.
Bottomline does not publish a rate. It says the Premium ACH fee depends on the volume and frequency of payments and is shown to the vendor during enrollment. The City and County of San Francisco tells its vendors the Premium membership fee is 1.5% of each payment, deducted per payment or by monthly direct debit.
For Premium ACH, yes. Bottomline states there is no cost to the payer and that payers receive a portion of the vendor fee as a rebate. Under Basic ACH the rules flip: the payer or its service provider covers network set up and transaction fees so the vendor pays nothing.
Yes. Paymode's Terms of Use let a vendor decline the network fee from any payer by contacting Bottomline's support desk, although fees on payments already completed are not refunded. Vendors also agree not to pass the fee back to the payer as a surcharge or price increase.
No. Paymode is a payments network that sends ACH and card payments with remittance data. Its FAQ says your ERP remains the system of record. Invoice capture, GL coding, PO matching and approvals still happen in your ERP or a separate AP automation tool before payment.
Bottomline's FAQ says implementation generally takes 6 to 12 weeks, depending on your team's involvement and how complex the ERP integration is. Its Premium ACH page says that payment type generally takes just over six weeks to get running.
If the goal is for vendors to receive the full amount, pay them by ACH from your own bank. AutoPayables builds the NACHA file from approved bills for $49 a month (200 invoices) or $149 (unlimited) with no per payment fee, and your bank charges its usual ACH origination price.
Yes. Paymode-X was the earlier name of Bottomline's business payments network. Bottomline now calls it Paymode, and many city and university vendor pages still use the Paymode-X name.
Pay vendors in full and automate the invoices first
Upload real bills, code and approve them, then download a NACHA file for your bank. Your first 20 invoices are a one time trial, then $49 or $149 a month.