Alternatives to Intuit's PayTrust service for online bill viewing and bill payment?
Ally bank has a free billpay service where you have the option of paying bills via eBills. Though I use Ally's billPay service (and I write about my experience with Ally in my blog), I haven't used eBills, but from reading your question, looks like this is what you are looking for. From Ally's site: What are eBills? An eBill is an online version of a bill or statement that can replace a traditional paper copy. Many large companies, like your electric, phone, cable and major credit card companies have the ability to send you eBills. To receive eBills at Ally, you must already receive your bill online at the biller's website. Ally will ask for the biller's website credentials to set up an eBill. Hope this helps. Paytrust seems to be the only game in town.  We've changed banks several times over the last 15 years and I can tell you that using a bank's bill pay service locks you in, big time.  I loved paytrust because I could make one change if we changed banks.  If you're using a bank directly for your bills, the ides of recreating your payee list is daunting. Something you may want to consider if you are still choosing a bill-paying service is the contingency policies of the service.   I just suffered an extended stay in a hospital and my officially (in writing) designated Power of Attorney was NOT granted access to my PAYTRUST account.  Thus they could NOT take care of my finances easily.  After my discharge, I contacted PAYTRUST and they had canceled my account and would not reactivate it.  This is after over fifteen years of loyalty.  Needless to say there was much financial chaos in my life due to their negligence.  They were staunch in their policy and said officially that if they need to acknowledge a Power of Attorney, the ONLY thing they will allow the POA to do is close the PAYTRUST account.  How's that for customer service?!  Caveat Emptor. I am now seeking another service and will be asking about their POA policies. "An old question... but the recent answer for me turned out to be Check (formerly Pageonce) https://check.me/ (NOTE: Check was recently purchased by Intuit and is now MintBills) The only thing Check doesn't do that PayTrust did was accept paper bills from payees that couldn't do eBill... but that's a rare problem anymore (for me anyways).  I went through each of my payees in PayTrust and added them into Check, it found almost all of them... I added my security info for their logins, and it was setup. The few that Check couldn't find, it asked me for the details and would contact them to try and get it setup... but in the meantime I just added them to my bank's billpay system with automatic payment rules (my mortgage company was the only one it couldn't find, and I know what my mortgage is every month so it's easy to setup a consistent rule) Check does so much more than PayTrust will ever do... Check has a MOBILE APP, and it is really the centerpiece of the whole system... you never really log into the website from your desktop (except to setup all the payees)... most of the time you just get alerts on your phone when a bill is due and you just click ""pay"" and choose a funding source, and bam you're done. It's been awesome so far... I highly recommend dumping PayTrust for it! FYI:  Check is clearly winning at this point, but some of the competition are  are http://manilla.com (not sure if you can pay your bills through them though) and DoxoPay ( https://www.doxo.com/posts/pay-your-bills-on-the-go-with-mobile-doxopay-new-android-app-and-an-updated-iphone-app/ )" (Six years later...) I've used CheckFree for over 20 years, and my uncle started using it back in the early 1980s through a 300 baud modem.  It has e-bills, EDI bills that you schedule yourself, and will also mail checks to people and small businesses. You can make your payments from an unlimited number of banks, can schedule multiple recurring payments for the same bill (I find that useful for when buying large/expensive items by CC: I create a different payment schedule for each), plus ad hoc payments.
"Well, it's directly depositing money in your account, but Direct Deposit is something completely different: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_deposit Direct deposits are most commonly made by businesses in the payment of salaries and wages and for the payment of suppliers' accounts, but the facility can be used for payments for any purpose, such as payment of bills, taxes, and other government charges. Direct deposits are most commonly made by means of electronic funds transfers effected using online, mobile, and telephone banking systems but can also be effected by the physical deposit of money into the payee's bank account. Thus, since the purpose of DD is to eliminate checks, I'd say, ""no"", depositing cash directly into your account does not count as the requirement for one Direct Deposit within 90 days." The details of credit score calculation tend to change periodically, but the fundamentals are mostly consistent.  Pay your bills, keep your average account age high, overpay your credit card minimums, and keep your overall debt low.  And do soft pulls on your credit report to see what's happening. First, the simplest route: pay all your bills early or on time.  Automatic deduction may be useful in this regard, especially for bills with predictable amounts.  A corollary to this tip is to never leave an unpaid bill.  What often happens to young people is in the course of moving around they leave the final bill unpaid and it gets reported to collections.  Make sure you follow up online with all bills, even after canceling the service. Second, average account age and oldest account age matter.  Open an account like a credit card and never close it, so you'll have an older account (hopefully a zero-fee card).  Try to keep other accounts open rather than closing them (no need to cancel a zero-fee credit card) so your average account age stays higher.  A card that works on internal systems (like a gift card) is not going to show up on a credit report; a card that works like any VISA/MC is likely going to show up.  The rule of thumb is if they need your SSN to run a credit check for the application, then the card will appear on a credit report.  You can pull your credit report to find out if the card is listed (you may have to allow time for lag before the card appears, but I'm not sure how long that might be).   Third, a tip for extra credit score is to pay more than the minimum required on credit card bills.  You can achieve this by either using your credit card at least once a month or by leaving a small hanging balance each month so there's always something to overpay next month.  Credit card reporting will be either: unpaid, underpaid, minimum paid, or overpaid.  Minimum payment helps your score and overpayment helps more.  If you can use your credit card every month, that will give you something to overpay every month.  Otherwise, you can leave a small debt left on the card but still pay over the monthly minimum.  However, your total debt load, especially debt carried on your cards, counts against your score; aim for less than 10% of your limit. Finally, of course, is to pull your credit report periodically.  You need to know what others are seeing.  Since debt load utilization matters, make sure the reported card maximum is correct on your credit report.  Talk to your bank or account issuer if the limit is wrong.  If a collection appears, then you need to handle it.  Often you can negotiate with the collector, but be careful to negotiate how they will report the resolution.  You want them to agree to remove any negative information (either in exchange for payment or because of a mistake).  Failing that, you want them to mark it paid in full or satisfied in full; letting them notate your score that you only partially paid is what you want to avoid, since it most signals someone with cash flow problems and credit issues.  They control their reporting to credit bureaus, so if the person on the phone demurs, ask to speak to their supervisor or someone with negotiating authority.  Try to get any agreements in writing. Remember that your total debt load is a factor in your credit score.  Home loans and student loans do affect credit score.  If you take on a smaller home loan, then it will affect your credit less harshly (and leave you with smaller monthly payments). "Many people do not know that bank online bill paying services are not provided directly by the bank. Banks often ""farm out"" this task to third party providers of bill paying services. These services in turn may farm out the customer service function to agents in foreign countries. These customer service agents have access to your account number, social security number, and your balance. This means that people have your personal information in countries where you have no rights and where security is not good and where enemies of your nation can easily access that information." My basic rule of thumb is that if the the bill come from a government office of taxation, and that if you fail to pay the amount they can put a tax lien on the property it is a tax. for you the complication is in Pub530: Assessments for local benefits.    You cannot deduct amounts you pay for local benefits that tend to increase the value of your property.   Local benefits include the construction of streets, sidewalks, or   water and sewer systems. You must add these amounts to the basis of   your property.  You can, however, deduct assessments (or taxes) for   local benefits if they are for maintenance, repair, or interest   charges related to those benefits. An example is a charge to repair an   existing sidewalk and any interest included in that charge.  If only a   part of the assessment is for maintenance, repair, or interest   charges, you must be able to show the amount of that part to claim the   deduction. If you cannot show what part of the assessment is for   maintenance, repair, or interest charges, you cannot deduct any of it. An assessment for a local benefit may be listed as an item in your   real estate tax bill. If so, use the rules in this section to find how   much of it, if any, you can deduct. I have never seen a tax bill that said this amount is for new streets, and the rest i for things the IRS says you can deduct. The issue is that if the Center City tax bill is a separate line or a separate bill then does it count. I would go back to the first line of the quote from Pub 530: You cannot deduct amounts you pay for local benefits that tend to   increase the value of your property. Then I would look at the quote from the CCD web site: The Center City District (CCD) is a business improvement district. Our   mission is to keep Philadelphia's downtown, called Center City, clean,   safe, beautiful and fun. We provide security, cleaning and promotional   services that supplement, but do not replace, basic services provided   by the City of Philadelphia and the fundamental responsibilities of   property owners. CCD also makes physical improvements to the downtown, installing and maintaining lighting, > signs, banners, trees and landscape elements.  and later on the same page: CCD directly bills and collects mandatory payments from properties in   the district. CCD also receives voluntary contributions from the   owners of tax-exempt properties that benefit from our services. The issues is that it is a business improvement district (BID), and you aren't a business: I did find this document from the city of Philadelphia explain how to establish a BID: If the nature of the BID is such that organizers wish to include   residential properties within the district and make these properties   subject to the assessment, it may make sense to assess these   properties at a lower level than a commercial property, both because   BID services and benefits are business-focused, and because   owner-occupants often cannot treat NID assessments as tax-deductible   business expenses, like commercial owners do. Care must be taken to   ensure that the difference in commercial and residential assessment   rates is equitable, and complies with the requirements of the CEIA. from the same document: Funds for BID programs and services are generated from a special   assessment paid by the benefited property owners directly to the   organization that manages the BID’s activities. (Note: many leases   have a clause that allows property owners to pass the BID assessment   on to their tenants.) Because they are authorized by the City of   Philadelphia, the assessment levied by the BID becomes a legal   obligation of the property owner and failure to pay can result in the   filing of a lien. I have seen discussion that some BIDS can accept tax deductible donations. This means if a person itemizes they can deduct the donation. I would then feel comfortable deducting the tax because: If you can't deduct it that would mean the only people who can't deduct it are home owners.  So deduct it. (keep in mind I am not a tax professional) "As far as I can tell there are no ""out-of-the-box"" solutions for this.  Nor will Moneydance or GnuCash give you the full solution you are looking for.  I imaging people don't write a well-known, open-source, tool that will do this for fear of the negative uses it could have, and the resulting liability.  You can roll-you-own using the following obscure tools that approximate a solution: First download the bank's CSV information: http://baruch.ev-en.org/proj/gnucash.html That guy did it with a perl script that you can modify. Then convert the result to OFX for use elsewhere: http://allmybrain.com/2009/02/04/converting-financial-csv-data-to-ofx-or-qif-import-files/" neobudget.com is a website that does exactly what you are describing. It is set up for electronically using the envelope system of budgeting.   Disclosure: neobudget was founded by a former coworker of mine. Ally Bank is a good online only account.  They reimburse any ATM Fees you may occur.  I have both checking and savings, with both Ally and ING Direct.  I don't know about having 25 total accounts - seems like overkill to me.  I do something similar though - I get direct deposit into one account, then transfer the average bill amount each pay to a different account that I never touch other than for the allotted bills.  It works well, especially for Utilities that are inflated seasonally. What do you use to mange the 25 accounts?  I use Quicken, but I don't have 25 accounts...yet. "Since this is a cooperative I'm guessing your partners may want to be able to view the books so another key point you may want to consider is collaboration.  QuickBooks desktop has all of these same issues because it is meant to be used on a single desktop. We're in an age of mobile devices, and especially in a business like landscaping it would be nice if certain aspects of record keeping could be done at the point and time where they are incurred.  I'd argue you want a Software as a Service (SaaS) accounting package as opposed to ""accounting software"" which might come on a CD in the form of QuickBooks, Sage and others. Additionally, most of these will also have guides to help make sure you are properly entering your records. Most of these SaaS products also have customer success teams to help you along should you need assistance. Depending on the level of your subscription you may get more sophisticated handling of taxes, customized invoices or integrated payroll. Your goal is to keep accurate records so you can better run your business and maintain obligations like filing taxes. You're not keeping the records just to have them. Keep them in a place where they will work for you and provide the insights and functionality that will help your business grow and become successful. Accounting software will always win in this scenario over a spreadsheet. FULL DISCLAIMER: I work for Kashoo, a simple cloud accounting product designed for small businesses. But the points I mention above are true for Xero, QuickBooks Online and Wave as well as Kashoo. And if you really want expertise to go with the actual software consider service providers with a platform like: Indinero, Bench, easyrecordbooks or Liberty Accounting."