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The pressure of an economic crisis wasn’t going to stop Joor, a New York City-based wholesale fashion platform from doing business in 144 countries.
“Now you are in a situation where your competitor has adopted digital,” Kristin Savilia, CEO at Joor tells Pymnts.com. “If you have not — [if] you are doing business right now on Excel and PowerPoint — you are just not going to do as well as a digital platform company.” Joor is processing USD $1.5 billion worth of international payments per month in over 100 currencies, using electronic payment methods such as ACH.
The B2B cross-border payments market is predicted to reach USD $35 trillion by 2022, which means there will be no shortage of opportunities. Businesses like Joor that are quick to adopt modern tools for international payments will benefit from this high growth. But for those still plodding along with paper, they risk becoming obsolete.
For the latter, accounts payable (AP) automation could be the key to expand engagement. The partnership between Beanworks AP automation and global payments provider, Cambridge can help companies move in that direction.
With more than 13,000 customers worldwide, Cambridge has built a unique reputation for itself. “We’re not saying to them (customers) ‘This is how our system works, this is how you must plug into us.’ We’re doing quite the opposite. We’re going out to them, we’re proactively determining what it is that they need, and then we’re figuring out how we can actually get our system plugged into theirs. We’re doing that integration work,” Mark Frey, president at Cambridge Global Payments, mentions on their website.
Companies can pay vendors across the globe in 145 currencies
Not only does the partnership allow companies to make payments in over 145 currencies, but it also integrates all AP workflows onto one platform. Purchase orders, invoices, employee expenses, and now, cross-border payments can all be managed through Beanworks. This removes one of the most frustrating problems of manually sending money to an international vendor – slow processing time.
How slow is “slow”?
About 80% of all invoices are paid by check, and one payment can take up to five days to settle, using traditional methods. On top of that, it’s expensive and you still don’t gain full visibility into the payment status and delivery. As money passes through multiple banks, fees stack up and delivery time increases. According to recent research, this cost can be as high as USD $100 per transaction.
This doesn’t help when a business wants to scale, and why 71% of SMEs say cross-border payments are problematic. Your business should be able to move money worldwide at high speed and with confidence.
The problem is solved easily with automation – payments are mostly settled the same day using Beanworks’ payments feature. Accountants can just log in to the system and check the payment status, instead of making calls to banks and vendors to confirm the transaction. The payment is released from the software that is now connected with Cambridge’s real-time foreign exchange rates.
A payment that would typically take five days to reach the vendor, can now be processed within a few hours
All transactions are completed accurately and in time with transparency. Since all AP workflows are managed through Beanworks, finance teams can reconcile purchase orders and invoices online before making the payment.
An easier way to send money
The pandemic has rapidly accelerated the adoption of technology. Now, you can hold a Zoom meeting with a vendor sitting in another country within seconds; sending them money to move your business forward shouldn’t be complicated.
Beanworks gives you the flexibility to make both domestic and international money transfers seamlessly. Managers can approve the payment and release it to the vendor immediately, regardless of where they’re working from. At the same time, they can check transactions that are completed and those still due.
“Through this partnership with Cambridge Global Payments, we offer organizations even greater control and visibility of their global AP processes from purchase to payment,” says Catherine Dahl, CEO, Beanworks.
If your business makes frequent vendor payments but is still using paper checks and manual modes of payment, Beanworks could help save you time. Find out how.
