Hi All,
I have been tasked with finding ways of streamlining internal business banking process. We have several bank accounts, including Monzo for our everyday account, in several countries. Getting a good idea of what is going on in the company quickly for reporting, managing accounts etc, is becoming a headache - does anyone have any recommendations? ideas?
We’re currently using excel but it’s very manual intensive as you can imagine!
Thanks 
Why do you have loads of accounts with different providers? Would it not be simpler to merge as many of those as you can first?
The more you get under one roof, the easier it will be to manage.
Agreed, but, although we are UK based, we raised capital in the US (therefore have to open a US account), are also active in a few countries in Europe, so for currency exchange reasons it’s cheaper to open local bank accounts.
Has your boss just randomly dumped this task onto you or do you have expertise in this field?
If we’re talking international business account management with multiple accounts, currencies, exchange rates and so on - I imagine very few on here will have experience in this.
Wouldn’t TransferWise significantly streamline your banking processes and reduce the need of so many accounts?
I have some expertise on this which is why I can manage to sort of make it work via excel, but a faster solution would be great !
I’ve spoken to some other CFOs, head of finance etc, and this is actually a recurring issue with a few of them. 
It most probably would, but would involve switching banks entirely which at this stage in our business is probably a bigger headache I reckon.
I’ve no expertise in the field, but don’t HSBC and Barclays (to name just two) offer facilities for just this scenario?
The above was my thinking too which is why I mentioned consolidation of accounts.
I do that with my personal accounts, it’s great, but I don’t think they do for business banking? (should of probably mentioned it’s for business)
I thought it was their specialty. But, as I said, I’m no expert.
But the longer you wait, the more effort it will be
And to add to that, it’s a short term headache for a long term benefit. The efficiency will save so much time.
As others have said, your best bet would be to consolidate your accounts on a single platform like HSBC who operate in multiple counties/have foreign currency accounts.
You then have a single source for all your MI/accounts.
Depending on the size of your business etc and your requirements they will have offerings like https://www.hsbcnet.com/
I’ll look into this Thanks for taking the time to help!
Many banks let you hold UK accounts in GBP, USD and EUR, surely that would be best? HSBC, Natwest, Barclays etc etc all do this for their business clients
How do they handle being paid from international clients though?
I mentioned TransferWise earlier because they provide you with local bank details for a number of countries, which makes the process simpler and faster and cuts out on fees. I’m not sure that’s possible with any of the traditional banks, though my business banking experience is rather limited to just Barclays and only for small scale.
Exactly - we hold local bank accounts to avoid all the fees that would come with a multicurrency account in a single high street bank, like HSBC UK for example.
The likes of HSBC can open local accounts for businesses - not just multi currency accounts - and provide a common platform to control them and for reporting/MI purposes
It all depends on the requirements of a business. Some may be ok with things like TransferWise, but others will need the likes of HSBC - especially the larger or more complex their requirements are - or I imagine if they are trying to streamline internal processes/reporting/controls
Eventually, you will need to accept that there is likely to be a trade off between cost and convenience
This is the whole point, I think. Keeping business accounts in multiple currencies synchronised and easily accessible isn’t free. You will either pay in time and effort, or you will pay someone else (like an international bank) to do it for you. Each business has to make its own decision as to which works best.