With the International Monetary Fund predicting that core inflation won’t return to its target rate until 2025, businesses in all manner of industries are looking for smarter ways to maximize the resources they have on hand.
Time is money when it comes to business. Administrative tasks such as comprehensive treasury, accounts payable and billing workflows can be complicated processes that eat up resources without generating income. According to Pmnts.com, 49% of business invoices in the US go on to become overdue. While part of this can be attributed to post-pandemic cash flow struggles, many businesses still rely on paper payments and manual accounts payable processes which also contributes to this issue.
International payments add further complications to the accounts payable process, especially for SMEs whose resources are probably already juggling multiple roles. If this sounds familiar, have you considered increasing your operational efficiency by streamlining your international payment processes?
Imagine if your business didn’t have to manage the following:
- Devote time to managing foreign cash flows.
- Manual international payment processes that require dedicated resources.
- Entering international payment receipts into your accounting system.
- Manually processing high-volume payments.
- Understanding payment regulations in multiple jurisdictions.
If any, or all of these seem like familiar frustrations it is time to examine your processes. Why stay in a rut when your business could easily create operational efficiencies by tweaking the way you manage international payments? Here are 5 ways to streamline payments and increase your firm’s efficiency.
1. Make quick cash flow decisions
Shifting exchange rates can mean that you don’t always know how much you are paying or receiving in your own currency. Invoices can cost more than you forecast, making it difficult to manage cashflows and budgets. Where do you find the time to stay on top of exchange rates and cashflows?
Exchange rates will not stop fluctuating, but you can make life easier by managing international payments using an online platform. When you can see all incoming and outgoing payments across all currencies on a single screen, it becomes easier to make decisions about your cash flow and currency exposures. You can even receive an alert when your ideal exchange rate hits.
2. Dig your way out of admin with automated processes
When done manually, processing and reconciling payments, compiling reports, and responding to beneficiary enquiries are time consuming and error prone tasks. Streamline international payables and receivables with a powerful tool that automates reconciliation.
The most powerful tools also alert beneficiaries when a payment is released and let them track its status online, so you spend less time responding to enquiries. Tracking payments is only half the story, however. You need a tool that allows you to easily review data, identify trends and produce meaningful reports that help you run your business.
3. Integrate your way to efficiency
Manually transferring international payments data into your accounting tool is not only time consuming but open to human error. To reduce administrative burdens even further consider integrating your international payment platform with your accounting package. This is especially pertinent as more and more firms shift across to electronic invoicing.
The ability to automatically reconcile foreign payments back into your systems can help free up resources to devote time to other activities. For the best integration experience your international payment platform must be flexible enough to mirror your firm’s ERP systems including customized extended fields with drop down menus, hard coded information, validation and mapping of information.
4. Automate bulk payments
Manually processing high volume payments is a drain on resources and susceptible to errors, especially when multiple destinations and currencies are involved. The best international payment platforms provide the ability to bulk upload multiple payments via a single file upload now matter what currencies and countries are involved.
Not only does help your business process payments faster, but reducing the scope for human error also means less time spent chasing up missing payments and responding to beneficiary enquiries. Look for a payments provider that offers the flexibility to choose between leveraging their financial network via a portal or integrating with your business via an API.
5. Demystify compliance
International payments have the added complexity of country-specific regulations that must be complied with to avoid delays and disappointment. Fraud and money laundering are an unfortunate reality that you also want to avoid. A stalled or lost payment can lead to a frustrated beneficiary which could tarnish your reputation.
It’s unlikely that a key focus for your business is understanding bank regulations for multiple countries or developing fraud monitoring frameworks. Give yourself piece of mind by working with a provider that’s committed to compliance and highly versed in the best ways to get your get funds where they’re needed reliable, on time and in full.
Look and you will find efficiency
Don’t just accept the status quo. Invest a small piece of time into reviewing how you manage international payments today and find ways to save time and lower costs into the future.
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