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Konnectedly wanted to make multi-currency payments across the world each month to consultants and partner companies.
About Konnectedly
Konnectedly support companies installing software projects and upgrading their IT systems. They employ individual consultants in multiple countries to work on these projects, as well as companies they need to engage in individual projects.
They operate, and pay into, a lot of countries, from Europe to Asia to Africa.
The Challenge
Konnectedly wanted to pay a range of consultants and companies across the world and wanted to plan and process these payments in advance on a monthly basis. A big trend in the software world is for experts to work as freelance consultants rather than individual companies and use this freedom to operate flexibility in terms of where they were based.
“The variety and location of our work means we don’t work with individual employees, but rather consultants that we can engage with and apply their expertise depending on the type of project,” said Diana Lorincz, Finance Consultant, Konnectedly. “And then we also have a lot of companies we partner with. It means we have to make payments to a lot of places across the world.”
These payments could vary in terms of currencies, from euros to Danish krone to Vietnam dong, but the most common form of payment was in USD into a wide range of countries.
“It is quite common for these consultants to move country on a fairly regular basis. They’ll inform us in advance, but it does mean we have to be flexible in terms of being able to pay into a new country quickly and without any obstacles. It’s typically USD in terms of the currency used but, again, we have to be flexible if they prefer a different currency.”
The way Konnectedly wanted to make these payments was in a structured, regular and timed way. If they were to make the payments individually, administration workload would increase, and each payment would have to be authorised individually and thereby slowing down the process.
This was exactly what was happening with their old payment system.
“We were making all the transactions one-by-one through the bank. It was a tedious process – you’d have to key in all the information each time, repeating the process again even when you’re paying the same beneficiary. With oversight procedures, these payments would have to be approved individually too. And, of course, the fees were extremely high.”
Using multiple banking platforms to make payments was also making reconciliation difficult due to disjointed information provided for each payment, and hidden fees resulting in inaccurate payments.
“It was impossible to know exactly what went out, because they had different ways of including the fees. Sometimes it's included in the amount. Sometimes it is next to it, like a separate transaction. It's difficult to reconcile. There's a lot of manual work around it - a lot of paperwork as well.”
The Solution
Konnectedly now use the TransferMate Platform to make payments to consultants and partner companies around the world. An online web-portal, they can simply log-in once a month, upload a file that details what payments are to be made, in what currency, and at what date, and then approve them all as a batch.
“It’s really, really easy to use. I’ve worked for different companies and used their tools, and I don’t like them at all. TransferMate is the most convenient and easy to use – it’s so intuitive. The first time I went into the system I said “Okay, I know what to do, no need to tell me.””
They can plan their payments in advance each month, entering all the details on the system and pre-approving them in advance. And, once they’ve added a beneficiary, they don’t have to enter all their details again like they had to in their old system.
“Once we put together our own internal process, it's just one transaction in the books and it's done. We can upload our file, and we don't have to do anything else. It works for us. I wouldn’t recommend changing from TransferMate for anything in the world.”
The Results
For Konnectedly both the costs, and particularly the time spent making payments, have been dramatically reduced.
“The costs savings have been incredible, for sure, with the savings per transaction really adding up over time. But I’d say the real savings comes from time. Before, it could take 2 days to make all our payments, now it takes 2 hours.”
The TransferMate Platform has removed much of the manual work that used to have to be done with their banking system.
“It's clear. It's friendly. It's easy to use. It's intuitive. With the cost and time savings we’re getting, it's just not worth looking into other options.”
The Final Word
“It’s clear. It’s friendly. It’s easy to use. We used to take 2 days to make our payments – now it takes 2 hours.”
- Diana Lorincz, Finance Consultant, Konnectedly
To improve how you pay, receive and store funds internationally, sign up to the TransferMate Platform here, or contact the team for a demo.
