Global event organisers have earned a reputation for connecting the world’s most recognisable brands with their audiences via live, engaging and experiential activations. The lure of this industry often means agencies find themselves traveling far and wide to fulfil their clients’ brief, in many instances, traveling overseas. Whilst activating a brand campaign in a foreign country is difficult enough with logistical, staffing, language and cultural challenges, there’s one challenge that is often ignored: overseas payments.
Ensuring you manage overseas payments properly when settling foreign invoices could make a significant difference to the overall profit margin of your projects. Do you currently get the most from your foreign exchange transactions, or are you like many agencies, and still in the dark?
Here are few tips to consider, which could help maximise your cross-border payments:
Understanding procedures
Whether you plan events on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis, keeping your foreign exchange partner in the loop will help you make more informed payment decisions. If your partner understands when you’re most likely to settle an overseas payment, they can advise on the rates nearer to that time. This is important during periods of market fluctuations as the rates may move significantly, which will affect the cost of your settlement.
Build relationships
It’s important to introduce operations managers to your currency partner, so they can understand timelines and plans for upcoming events. The partner can then better advise on the rates and markets, which will certainly benefit your profits in the long-run.
Consider annual plans
Discussing your annual plans with a foreign exchange partner allows for better considerations on events and economic decisions, which could ultimately affect your currency rate. Furthermore, you may wish to consider booking a forward transaction, in which a bulk of currency is purchased at a given point - when you deem the rate favourable or non-risk - and you can drill down into that transaction when an overseas invoice needs settling.
Audit historical transactions
The foreign exchange industry is unregulated and understanding the true cost of overseas payments can be difficult. Currency providers often boast ‘0% transfer fees’, and whilst it may appear there is no charge, the provider’s profit will be hidden within their rate. WhitesPay has its own Currency Review software in which we reveal how much your previous transactions cost. We recommend all our clients conduct a currency review on historical transactions, so you can gauge the differences in cost when using WhitesPay as your overseas currency provider.
If you’re currently using the bank or a broker to manage your cross-border payments, it’s important to discuss any future events you may have planned. By doing so, your provider will be able to help better mitigate any possible currency rate movement as well as offer insights into factors, which may ultimately move the rate. We’d also recommend introducing any team member involved with operations, so they can liaise with your currency partner.
If you’d like to discuss any of the above, please contact me direct: sam.wood@whitespay.com
What our event agency clients say about us
"From day one, WhitesPay have been a joy to deal with, alleviating all our obstacles that have come with foreign currency payments. Our Account Manager, Sam, understands the currencies we require, and not only provides market insights, he also works magic to get us the best rate. Their payments and internal processes are seamless - we use WhitesPay for all our overseas payments."
Clive Agency - Anandy Sureswaran
Written by: Sam Wood
Sam is a key member of WhitesPay’s Account Management team. He joined the business 2013 and has a proven track-record for assisting our events agency clients and their cross-border payments.
