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When it doesn’t add up: Avoid this common error when receiving international payments

1st May 2020
Brought to you by
AccountsIQ logo

Award-winning cloud accounting software for multi-company businesses.

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Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

A challenging aspect of international expansion can be receiving money from customers in numerous countries and currencies. Often companies receiving payments get a big surprise when the amount they receive into their bank account is less than the amount they invoiced the customer.

Receiving a payment from clients abroad often means a change in currencies, but banks don’t do that for free. The three types of international payment charges that can often surprise those transferring money across borders are:

  1. FX charges, e.g.  changing Australian Dollars to Pounds.
  2. Wire transfer fees as the funds make their way through intermediary banks.
  3. Receiving fees charged by many banks for processing the incoming money.

Reconciling payments can cost businesses significant admin time 

When payment amounts received do not match up to the amount sent, it can cause significant hassle and time wasted for both companies. The receiving company’s accounts receivables team now has to enquire with the paying company to check what amount they sent in order to reconcile the invoice. The paying company’s accounts payable team has to investigate what amount was actually sent and confirm that what they did on their end was accurate. If the paying company did their part to send the right amount, it is often up to the receiving company to recoup the receiving fee in some way.

Not only do businesses have to deal with these visible fees and charges, the other significant cost is the admin time spent trying to reconcile payments due to missing information and mismatching reference numbers on payments.

A far more cost-effective and fast solution

Thankfully there is a faster and more effective way to receive payments, reconcile invoices and ensure that the amount sent equals the amount received. AccountsIQ has integrated with TransferMate’s international payments technology into its award-winning accounting platform, allowing customers to manage invoices and make payments all in one location with one login.

Companies can reduce the time it takes to receive a payment and also save time on reconciling payment amounts that don’t match upwith this service. Once the payment is requested, the paying customer simply sends their payment to TransferMate in their local currency and TransferMate transfers the funds to the billing company in their local currency in their country. Often the payment is received same day or next day.

Cost and time-savings benefits explained

TransferMate’s unique global payments footprint of local bank accounts eliminates wire fees and other bank fees, like the receiving fees that often are a surprise to many businesses. With the AccountsIQ and TransferMate integration, customers using AccountsIQ can manage all invoices in one location and manage multiple payments, including making multiple payments in multiple currencies at once and requesting multiple payments in different currencies.

With receivables through TransferMate and AccountsIQ, companies can save on average nine minutes of administration time for each payment received by eliminating reconciliation. For a company receiving 100 payments a month, that translates to 25 admin days per year.

By making an international payment through AccountsIQ with TransferMate, companies are able to take the hassle out of payment reconciliation and avoid unexpected receiving fees, all while keeping track of their payments in one easy-to-use accounting platform.

Book an online demo today or discover how easy making international payments is from within AccountsIQ's cloud accounting software by signing up to see a demo webinar of our TransferMate International Payments solution.

When: 18th June 2020, 11am BST

Sign up here