Transforming enterprise spending: How to unify global financial operations

While technology has revolutionised most aspects of business, enterprise finance teams remain trapped in a labyrinth of disconnected systems, manual processes, and costly currency conversions. Here's how forward-thinking companies are breaking free.

Speak to any multinational company's finance team, and you'll hear similar complaints. They're not just managing money but also battling fragmented systems, data silos, and inefficient processes that drain resources and obscure visibility.

These functions have been stuck in time. The spend management space hasn't changed for decades, especially in enterprise. Key players like SAP Concur and Tipalti are sitting on several layers of enterprise resource planning programmes (ERPs) and accounting software, all needing to connect to bank accounts.

For global operations, this complexity compounds daily. Finance teams often operate with disconnected tools across different regions – one system for invoicing, another for expenses, and yet more for payments – creating inconsistencies that require manual reconciliation.

The result? Finance professionals waste days processing invoices when they could be driving strategic value. Meanwhile, CEOs and CFOs – both firmly focused on the bottom line – lament the squandered opportunity to improve efficiencies and cut costs, due to being hampered by the revenue generated from these outdated processes. Thankfully, there is a solution.

Breaking the status quo

Most enterprise leaders don't realise their approach has a fundamental issue: They're building modern finance functions on prehistoric foundations. Or perhaps they do realise but don’t want to break the status quo, because it’s the “way things have always been done”.

Traditional banking infrastructure sits beneath spend software. Enterprises need to understand there's a better way, where Airwallex provides modern banking and the software layer that transforms how they operate.

This has prompted a revolution in the SME and mid-market spaces, where numerous platforms have emerged to take advantage of the relatively simple and low-risk integrations in smaller organisations, pairing financial infrastructure with software. Yet the enterprise space has lagged behind – until now.

The conventional approach of adding more software layers atop existing banking infrastructure creates complexity rather than solving it. We often explain how Airwallex connects with existing banking systems: "We don't have to do that – we replace your bank. We're not just another layer."

McLaren Racing recently embraced this approach by implementing Airwallex to modernise its cross-border financial operations. Operating under F1's cost-cap regulations, McLaren Racing needs to maximise every pound spent. Their finance team has transformed from an administrative function into a strategic partner for engineering and operations.

McLaren Racing now uses Airwallex to automate international financial operations throughout the Grand Prix season. Their team initiates, approves, and sends cross-border payments with minimal input. All from an intuitive web and mobile app.

The onboarding process was completed within just 14 days. Their previous process required making approximately 30 international payments one at a time. With Airwallex, they now execute batch payouts in under an hour.

"Airwallex has saved us half a day a month, which is huge," explains Tori McIntyre, Director of Financial Control & Analysis at McLaren Racing. The company also saves an estimated £4,000 on overseas transactions – more than marginal gains for a team where every pound saved is diverted to improve on-track performance.

Three critical enterprise pain points

Based on conversations with large multinational organisations, here are the three universal pain points that Airwallex’s Spend product was designed to solve.

1. Global coverage limitations

Enterprises with global operations face constant complexity in managing multi-currency invoices, foreign exchange (FX) rates, and cross-border payments. Traditional banking transfers lead to unnecessary costs and slow settlements.

Very few companies have the global coverage that Airwallex has. The real unsung heroes are our licensing team, enabling us to operate almost everywhere in the world.

For multinationals with operations across continents, this fragmentation creates significant challenges. Each region typically operates with different systems, creating a patchwork approach to financial management.

The parent company might control it, but how often does that translate into what the European subsidiary wants, for instance? We need financial fluency across operations.

2. Fragmented systems and data silos

Many enterprises use separate platforms for invoicing, expenses, and payments across different regions, creating data inconsistencies that require hours of manual reconciliation.

We've spoken with companies where it takes finance teams days of work. The CEO is impatient because they're not optimising revenue opportunities, while the CFO is frustrated by manual tasks they shouldn't be doing.

This fragmentation means finance teams can't gain a holistic view of cash flow and spending patterns, making it nearly impossible to track budgets, forecast accurately, or prevent overspending.

For example, a leading recruitment customer revealed that its finance team spends, on average, one day per week just consolidating expense information from different entities. Their sales team spends too much time manually inputting expenses, creating a reluctance to spend, ultimately impacting revenue.

3. Inefficient manual processes

High invoice volumes coupled with manual processing significantly slow operations. Multiple enterprises reported losing about a day per week dealing with invoice processing.

The role of human error is surprising. There are overpaid, underpaid issues, late penalties, and missed early payment discounts – all because finance teams are overwhelmed with manual tasks.

These inefficiencies damage supplier relationships. Trust is compromised when payments are missed due to human error.

The traditional approach of net 30, 60, or 90 payment terms has become accepted, but it creates cash flow issues for smaller partners. By optimising invoice payments, enterprises can improve relationships and help small partners maintain healthy cash flow.

The unified solution

Addressing these challenges requires more than just another software layer – it demands a fundamental reimagining of enterprise finance.

Airwallex combines global financial infrastructure with spend software to create a deliberately unified platform that transforms how enterprises manage finances:

• Seamless global operations: Make payments using local rails in 150+ countries, eliminating unnecessary FX costs. For cross-border payments, 90% arrive within hours and 65% are instant – a dramatic improvement over the 2-5 business days with traditional SWIFT transfers.

• Centralised control with decentralised execution: Parent companies maintain oversight while regional entities retain flexibility. This enables global consistency without sacrificing local agility.

• Automated processes: AI-powered tools categorise expenses, match receipts, and streamline approvals, dramatically reducing human error.

• Real-time visibility: Finance teams gain instant insight into global spending patterns, enabling better forecasting and decision-making.

The added value of modern spend management goes beyond efficiency. It transforms finance teams from administrative functions into strategic business partners.

Finance teams become business partners helping marketing understand spending patterns by territory, geography, and time period. This enables better analysis of which activities deliver the best return on investment (ROI).

This strategic shift excites CEOs and board members – not just improved efficiency, but better decisions based on comprehensive financial intelligence.

When finance teams are freed from manual processes, they focus on business-critical activities driving growth. They become enablers rather than bottlenecks, helping each department optimise spend and improve performance.

How we help customers manage global spend across entities

The future of enterprise spend

As enterprises operate in increasingly complex environments, unified financial infrastructure with intelligent software will become the new standard. Companies clinging to fragmented legacy systems will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

It has a real trickle-down effect. When you improve trust, relationships, and help your business partners by optimising payments, you've got something golden.

For forward-thinking enterprises, the opportunity is clear: Consolidate global financial operations onto a single platform that provides the control, visibility, and efficiency needed to thrive. The technology is here, as evidenced by Airwallex’s Spend product, co-created with customers. It's time for enterprise finance to embrace the future.