Discover the integration tactics being used by leading cross-border payment providers to enhance user experience and find your ideal fit.
As digital-first providers like Wise and PayPal win market share in business cross-border payments, being able to offer a seamless, digital experience is climbing in strategic priority for established FX providers. Research from SWIFT reinforces the importance of user experience when it comes to staving off competitive threats, stating that 61% of the SMBs surveyed wouldn’t return to a provider if the payment process wasn’t as effortless as expected.
Embedding the payment experience with the rest of a business’s financial processes by integrating with their accounting and ERP systems is a central pillar of creating a smooth user journey. However, it can be difficult to know where to start or what type of integration is most valuable to customers, especially for first-timers.
Here are four different types of integration that can help cross-border payment providers grow revenues by improving user experience, as well as a breakdown of which providers are leading the way.
1. Bank feed
| Description | Solution | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| As the name suggests, a bank feed is the typical integration between a bank account and an accounting platform. It replaces the need to upload a bank statement to your accounting or ERP system and contains purely transactional data, like the payment date, amount, and counterparty. | This is the table-stakes accounting integration for any cross-border payment provider offering an account for customers to spend and receive foreign currency. As bank feeds for checking accounts are now so widespread, it’s something that business customers expect, and can be a barrier to winning market share from traditional banks if not implemented. | Providers ✔️Increase competitive win rate ✔️Increase payment volumes Customers ✔️Save time on bookkeeping |
2. Bill payment (accounts payable)
| Description | Solution | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| A bill payment or accounts payable integration allows users to extract unpaid bills and supplier details from the accounting platform, and then sync payment data back into the accounting platform after payment has been made. | For B2B customers, having visibility of all unpaid bills in the FX payments portal increases the convenience of using the solution and makes them more likely to pay a higher number of their bills via that provider. Extracting supplier payment details directly from the accounting platform leads to fewer validation errors from details being entered in the wrong format, which for a smoother experience. | Providers ✔️Increase payment volumes Customers ✔️Save time on bookkeeping ✔️Fewer payment errors |
3. Expenses
| Description | Solution | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Where cross-border payment providers offer corporate expense management, an expense integration allows users to post payment receipts and information about the category of spending (travel, entertainment, etc.) directly to their accounts. This information is reconciled against the bank feed. | Since expense management revolves around recording and categorizing expenses correctly, accounting integration is integral to winning customers in this space. An expense integration is complementary to a bank feed and allows expenses to be coded directly in the FX portal, saving customers more time on bookkeeping. | Providers ✔️Increase competitive win rate Customers ✔️Save time on bookkeeping |
Invoice payment (accounts receivable)
| Description | Solution | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Some cross-border payment providers help customers accept invoice payments from customers in foreign currencies. An accounts receivable integration allows you to extract invoices due to be paid by customers and sometimes add a payment link directly to the invoice to pay through you. | Including a payment link in the invoice gives a quick and easy way for your customers to get paid, making late payments less likely and increasing payment volumes for the provider. | Providers ✔️Increase payment volumes Customers ✔️Get paid quicker |
Which providers are leading the way?
*See Corpay **See Revolut ***See Wise
How Codat helps
Codat helps providers like Nium, Currencies Direct and Fexco to level up their user experience with deep accounting connectivity. Our specialized products for accounting automation, like the Bank Feeds API and Sync for Payables, help cross-border payment providers get higher-quality integrations to market faster through a single, easy-to-use API.
Get in touch with our team of specialists with the form below to see how Codat could help you increase your competitive win rate and grow share of wallet.