Entreflow Consulting Group's use of Plooto

Plooto has certainly helped us from a workflow perspective, it's pulling your payables from your Quickbooks or Xero account into Plooto so you can see all the payables that you need to deal with and when they're due. And there's a whole bunch of approval processes you can put in place for internal controls perspective so make things a lot more bulletproof than just manually writing checks and doing e-transfers.

Pros

So you can currently do pre-authorized debit, pre-authorized credit receivables in U.S. dollars and Canadian dollars which is super kick-ass. It's also made some of our clients lives a lot easier if they've got clients in different countries, and it gives their clients flexibility to pay in debit or credit. Also, as far as the amount of time it takes for that cash to clear your bank account; it's faster than Stripe, and on top of that the integration with Quickbooks makes it a lot easier to manage the fees, unlike Stripe.

Cons

We'd love to see more international payments to more countries just for some of our clients that have people they're paying in lots of different places around the world. As well, with the international payments, if a client has a lot of companies that they're paying in the U.S. for instance if you get really costly really quickly. So I'd like to see some bulk discounts for high volume payments to the U.S.

Our EFT provider of choice

Our objective was to automate payables, and Plooto has been great for that purpose.

Pros

We're a Quickbooks shop, and we *love* the integration. Virtually all of our clients are using Plooto for payables, and some for receivables. In terms of pricing, the package is advantageous for most of our clients. Some of the tiny ones would spend less on regular bank fees -- but the convenience still makes Plooto a good option. The interface is clean and user-friendly. Our clients love the signing authority "tiers." We're working with nonprofits, so there's always a board of directors to consider -- and therefore multiple signers. It's not uncommon for orgs to specify who needs to approve organizations over certain limits, and Plooto gets us there with no fuss.

Cons

We still have issues with some vendors not being serviced by Plooto, e.g. credit card companies. The ability to send payments internationally through Plooto is great, but we sometimes experience issues with foreign banks. On the signing authority front, it's possible to do an "end run" around banking agreements by authorizing people on Plooto that aren't authorized on the bank account. We need to do our due diligence on that, to ensure payments are authorized only by signing authorities.

Plooto review

None of my clients use cheques and rarely any other mode of payment. Plooto could improve the approval process, however.

Pros

Plooto synchronizes with QBO pulling in all unpaid bills. Paying suppliers is done simply by ticking the unpaid items particularly if you have set up the supplier in Plooto with their banking information. If not available an e-transfer can be made or Plooto will solicit this detail from the supplier for you. Collecting outstanding receivables in QBO also works very nicely although some clients are suspicious of the solicitation. USD payments and rapid payments are also available if Plooto is prefunded, otherwise a fee is applied.

Cons

The payment interface with QBO was not well thought out. The first step initiates a payment and a designated approver will then have to approve the payment. Plooto immediately marks the bill as paid in QBO. The approver often delays in approving payment due to cash flows or disagreement. Running a balance sheet or payables listing in QBO is misleading since items have been removed as 'paid'. Putting the bills back into QBO as unpaid means deleting the initiated payment in Plooto and manually deleting the payment if QBO. This often leads to mistakes if there are large volumes and a busy schedule, sometimes resulting in double payments . In spite of the claims by Plooto the balance showing in QBO often become irreconcilable resulting in a write off. Plooto does not import credit amounts resulting in overpayments. The resolution to this by Plooto to this issue is extremely simple. Do not mark 'initiated' payments as 'paid' only 'approved' payments.

It appears to have it all until you use it.

Not Good. Really ambitious to make it work I like the concept but they make it very hard to be a client.

Pros

I like that it can process both bank or credit card payments for receivables. It can provide automation too but unfortunately it didn't work for me. I like the price. And I like that it linked into xero. It appears to have it all until you use it.

Cons

1) Its not easy to use, no introduction. 2) the automation component never worked for me I know I had to get PAD on but I wanted it on for some clients off for others and this was not an easy thing to set. It also doesn't allow me to store the credit card something like Quickbooks online I had in mind but this is a complete oversight to the program. I guess if automation actually worked then this could solve this issue. 3) Ya I was very confused but when my clients couldn't figure it out either, some ended up with duplicate payments pulled from their accounts etc. No help to fix very embarrassing. 4) their live chat is not live. You ask a question and wait. Fine to get started but even in the middle of conversation to deal with issues they just disappear. The conversation is not live. Sometimes they don't even read my questions which makes me think not a real person is helping me. 5) Money holding ridiculous! If a client due date on invoice was 30 days and they paid me next day I had to wait until what my invoice said for due date on payment. Plus when money drops into my account there is no PLOOTO ID on the deposit. Very confusing for trying to reconcile. 6) Plooto reconciled in Xero in its own little account but doesn't reconcile with the bank account. Weird and confusing.

Plooto - easy, enjoyable - pay and get paid!

I have not much used the back end of this product - but as a front end user it's been fantastic.

Pros

Love how easy it was to set up to receive a payment. It only took a couple of minutes, and I appreciate the confirmation deposit that is made to make sure the funds are going to the right account!

Cons

I'm not sure of the downside to Plooto. There's a small hassle of getting it set up with your bank account, so it's a little more work than an electronic funds transfer, but it's a small price to pay to make sure everything is going to the right place.