A bill payment platform is software that shows you a bill online and collects the payment for it. It is used for electricity, water, gas, mobile, broadband and insurance bills, and for property tax. In the industry, this is also called bill presentment and payment. Presentment means showing the bill to the customer.
In India, most bills are paid through the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), now called Bharat Connect. It is run by NPCI, the organisation that also runs UPI. Thousands of billers, such as electricity companies, are connected to it. Take, for example, your monthly electricity bill. You open your UPI app and choose your electricity company. You enter your consumer number. The app fetches your bill from the electricity company: ₹1,840, due on 10 November. You pay with UPI, and the app gives you a receipt. Your electricity company receives the payment and marks your bill as paid.
Many people do not want to pay every month by hand. So they set up AutoPay. AutoPay means you approve once, and the amount is then debited automatically every month. In India, this is usually done with UPI AutoPay or a standing instruction on a card. You get a message before each debit, and you can cancel it at any time.
Some apps let you pay bills and rent with a credit card. You pay the app by card, and the app pays the biller. People do this to earn card rewards or to get a few more weeks to pay.
Fintech companies connect to BBPS through banking APIs, instead of connecting to each biller separately. Behind the bank, the payment travels through the bank's payment hub.
In the United States, the same idea works differently. For instance, a city council or a power company buys bill payment software that shows each customer their bill online. Customers often pay by card on AutoPay. On the biller's side, the payment is recorded in its accounts receivable software, which tracks who has paid and who has not. Councils connect it to their government ERP.