Melio launches expense management, testing client admin AI
Payment solutions provider Melio, which small business accounting platform Xero bought last year (
Processing Content
“You all know this story. I’m sure some of you experienced it yesterday, maybe last week. Your client goes to a business there, they have to pay, get the receipt, put it in their pocket, you never see it again. Then the chasing starts and delays month end close,” he said.
Melio Expense Management, he said, comes into action the second someone makes a payment. Generally, users link the cards that either they or their clients already use for business expenses; the moment a purchase takes place on the card, they will get an email, a text or both confirming the transaction and asking for a receipt; they then respond to the message with a picture of the receipt without any need to open an app or login to a portal; from there, the software captures and categorizes the receipt then syncs it to any ledger. He noted that, when building the solution, the company wanted to emphasize flexibility and choice.
“This is our approach. We want to enable choice for how you want to enable expense management,” he said, adding that they plan to add more capabilities in the future.
Bar also announced that Melio’s API is now open and accessible to anyone who wants to access its payment capabilities. Previously they had only worked with specific partners like Shopify or Capital One. Now anyone who wants to use Melio’s platform to pay or get paid can connect and work through its network.
The new Melio API gives developers direct access to Melio’s payment rails, including ACH, real-time payments, paper checks, domestic and international wires and virtual cards. Melio manages payment execution, compliance, risk and delivery. Businesses can also pay recipients without requiring them to onboard onto Melio. Melio will also be expanding instant payments to enable small businesses to make payments at any time, including nights, weekends and holidays. The
Casper
DIya Jolly, chief product and technology officer with Xero, during her own presentation, also discussed Casper, an AI-based client management solution for Melio that, currently, is in early development. The project was conceived in response to customer polling that revealed a demand for “something that just took care of the regular admin.”
“There is no new system to learn, no new app, no prompt to enter. Just add Casper to a client conversation on email or group chat and it will pick up from there. You can get started in minutes and Casper will take care of some of your most valuable tasks,” she said.
At launch, according to Jolly, Casper will focus on two things. One is getting missing information and two is analyzing data. So, she said, Casper might ask the client “Hey, what was this particular charge for?” or it can ask the client about an outstanding bill, and if the client does not respond it can follow up “politely, consistently, as many times as needed.” Over time, however, the plan is to have Casper handle a broader range of client management tasks such as chasing documents and payment approvals as well as talking to clients. When added to a team it will get its own email address and phone number so it can directly communicate with colleagues.
Jolly caveated that the project is only months old. In a later interview, she said Casper could be thought of as “a very early alpha” for now. She added that, at the moment, it is thought of as a separate AI than JAX, Xero’s proprietary agentic system, and will explore integrating Casper with it in the future.
