Reducing the amount of time spent managing spend and expenses is critical in fast-paced business environments. This is especially important for businesses with internationally based vendors or employees.

We understand the challenges that come with juggling multiple financial processes across your global business, which is why we are thrilled to introduce Airwallex Spend. It’s our integrated suite of spend management tools, that includes Borderless Cards, Expense Management and Bill Pay applications. These are designed to reduce the time and number of tools businesses need to manage their finances with an all-in-one global platform. Airwallex Spend is powered by AI-automations, and has fast and efficient financial rails to pay global suppliers built-in.

Addressing the pain points in ‌managing business spend

Managing business spend is often fraught with challenges that can hinder efficiency and financial control. We recently commissioned NewtonX to survey 500 UK-based companies about their business spend management, and found that across these businesses, they face several common pain points:

1. Fragmented systems: Many companies use disparate systems for managing expenses, corporate cards, and bill payments across the different places they operate‌. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies and a lack of cohesive financial oversight.

2. Manual processes: Traditional expense management often involves manual data entry, receipt handling, and approval workflows. These time-consuming processes are prone to errors and can significantly delay financial reporting.

3. Limited visibility and control: Without a centralised platform, gaining real-time insights into spending patterns is challenging. This lack of visibility can result in overspending and difficulty in enforcing budget compliance.

4. Inefficient bill payment systems: Managing and paying bills manually can lead to missed payments, late fees, and strained vendor relationships. Automating these processes is crucial for maintaining financial health and operational efficiency.

5. Scalability issues: As businesses grow, their financial management needs become more complex. Systems that do not scale well can become bottlenecks, hindering growth and causing financial discrepancies.

What is Airwallex Spend?

Airwallex Spend brings together our Borderless Cards, Expense Management, and Bill Pay products into a unified suite of tools to help you manage your spend. Plus, these tools are seamlessly integrated with our market-leading financial infrastructure, meaning you can execute payments at interbank rates at high speeds, from the same platform. 90% of funds arrive with the recipient in as little as a few hours or on the same day. Our Borderless Cards have no international transaction fees, boosting your business's bottom line.  

How do finance teams benefit from Airwallex Spend?

🔸 Save time with AI-powered automations

Airwallex saves your team time and money with AI-powered automation and insights at every step, from expense submission and approvals, right through to fraud detection and transaction risk management.

• Improved accuracy and efficiency: Upload, email, or import bills from your accounting software and Airwallex’s OCR technology automatically extracts relevant data, reducing manual input errors and saving time.
• Automated data syncing: Sync transactions with your accounting systems automatically, reducing manual reconciliation efforts and improving data accuracy.
• Automated expense categorisation: Import your chart of accounts, tracking categories, and tax rates from your accounting software. Airwallex will automatically categorise expenses and identify vendors from card spend.

🔸 Track spend and make payments on one platform

Airwallex offers an all-in-one solution across cards, employee expenses, and accounts payable while optimising your tech stack with the ability to manage funds, currencies, and payments on one platform.

• Transfers built-in: Easily pay approved bills directly from your multi-currency Wallet, rather than switching to your bank. Pay up to 1000 bills at the same time with Batch Transfers, with built-in error detection to prevent failed payments.
• Reimburse employees globally: Employees can submit expenses in multiple currencies and get reimbursed in as little as as a few hours to their local bank account once expenses are approved.  
• Cost-effective purchasing: Issue Borderless Cards that allow your team to pay for expenses directly from your Airwallex multi-currency Wallet.

🔸 Control spend, no matter your business size

Airwallex lets you implement card controls and spend approval flows in minutes, as well as set up customised workflows to centrally manage spend across multiple global entities, future-proofing your global growth.

• Multi-conditional approvals: Set up custom approval flows based on multiple parameters and ensure spend is approved by the right team members.
• Control card spend before it happens: Set spending limits at a card level, freeze cards instantly, and track card activity in real-time.
• Global spend controls: Create and maintain a global set of approval policies and workflows, rather than policies for each account.

🔸 Built for global businesses from day one

Airwallex lets you centrally manage spend across all entities located domestically or internationally, with real-time visibility over spending, including card spend and out-of-pocket reimbursements.

• Manage spend centrally: Reduce the need for separate tools and systems across different entities, by managing all domestic or international entities’ spend centrally with Global Entity Management
• Unified view of global finances: View aggregated account balances, payments, and reports in one place across all entities and accounts. You can review, track and approve global card expenses, reimbursements, and bills in one place.
• Global coverage: Funds can be sent in local currency to 150+ countries, with 120+ leveraging fast, local rails. Cards can be issued in 40+ markets and come with zero international transaction fees.  

By managing all your spend globally on one platform, from corporate cards to bill payments, you can maintain control over every aspect of your financial operations. With features like customisable approval workflows, real-time tracking, and seamless accounting integrations, Airwallex is designed to scale with your business, no matter where in the world you operate.

Discover Airwallex Spend

If you are new to Airwallex, sign up for an account here. If you’re an existing customer, head to the Expenses and Bills tabs of the Airwallex web app to activate.  

Want to learn more? Explore Airwallex Spend and see how it could benefit your business.