Global SaaS company Joiin slashes its FX bill with Airwallex

Introducing Joiin

Inter-company finances are complex, especially when entities are spread across multiple regions. As a result, group reporting can be a huge burden on finance teams’ time. Using Excel or other make-shift solutions for group reporting or complex consolidations is typically problematic, prone to errors, highly time-consuming and non-repeatable.   

That’s where Joiin comes in. Joiin’s consolidated finance reporting software saves multi-entity companies 8 hours of work a month, reducing management reporting to a 30 minute task. 

This B2B, cloud-based solution simplifies complex consolidations for VCs, and makes group reporting a breeze for CFOs and wider finance teams.  

With Join’ s highly flexible features, users can quickly produce beautiful reports and presentations. 

Joiin is trusted by over 40,000 companies across 120 countries worldwide. 

The Challenge

After launching in 2018, Joiin quickly gained widespread attention among the finance community. Before long, Joiin organically grew a global customer base, serving customers in the US, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland and South Africa. 

To meet this global demand, Joiin extended its pricing to include USD, AUD, NZD and EUR. As a result, Joiin’s currency handling needs suddenly surged and costs escalated rapidly. 

“We were receiving funds from multiple currencies into our GBP account,” explains Lucien, Co-Founder of Joiin. “We were charged fees to receive funds and charged again to convert them into GBP.”

Handling US dollars was particularly costly. Joiin was paying 2.5% on transactions to receive USD into its UK bank account, plus a conversion fee on top of that which amounted to 5% overall. 

Payouts were costly too. Joiin remits tens of thousands in US dollars each month to suppliers. “When we needed to make payouts in USD, we had to pay FX fees again to convert funds from GBP into USD, and a transaction fee as well,” says Lucien. 

Joiin was losing money in multiple ways, as Lucien explains; “Firstly we lost money by using Stripe to convert all the different currencies - including USD - back into our home currency of GBP, and then again when we paid suppliers in USD! It was a double whammy.” 

Caught in the conversion trap, Joiin searched for a more cost-effective global treasury solution and discovered Airwallex. 

Lucien Wynn

Co-founder of Joiin

“Before Airwallex, we were paying £150 in handling fees to send a single transaction. It was ludicrous.”

The Solution

Joiin chose Airwallex to reduce its FX bill, but realised a whole host of added benefits along the way. 

Optimising global treasury 

“First and foremost we wanted to receive funds in USD,” explains Lucien. With an Airwallex Global Account in USD, Joiin processes and pays out in US dollars without the expense and inconvenience of moving money between currencies. 

“Now we trade a lot through USD, and pay all our US suppliers through our Airwallex USD Global Account,” says Lucien.  

Airwallex makes it really simple for global companies to hold multiple currencies, and they can hold the balances so they don’t pay unnecessary conversion charges. Joiin bills customers in EUR, AUD, NZD and GBP in addition to USD, and Airwallex makes it easy to segregate funds by currency. 

Reducing its FX bill 

“Before, we were paying for each step of the financial transaction,” explains Lucien. He calculated that Joiin was charged approximately 5% on all its foreign transactions. Now, with Airwallex, they pay just 1.5%. “We got rid of all of those costly fees overnight!” smiles Lucien.  

Spending abroad 

Global businesses that spend abroad frequently find themselves hit by hidden conversion and transaction charges. Joiin faced a similar problem. Now, they can use Airwallex Borderless cards to make international spending easier and far more cost-effective. 

“We use our virtual Borderless Cards all the time,” explains Lucien. Set up to work with Apple Pay, Joiin employees can make purchases in multiple currencies from held balances. “Wherever we are, it’ll debit automatically from our account in that currency.”  Airwallex’s 0% foreign card transaction fees have made a huge difference to Joiin’s FX bill.  

“A real bonus of switching to Airwallex is the expense management tool,” continues Lucien, “We can easily submit our expenses on the go using the Airwallex app and it gives our finance team complete visibility across all employee expenses.”

Driving greater value with Airwallex

When asked what excites Lucien about Joiin’s future with Airwallex, he replies; “Airwallex will be a vital part of our scaling journey as we grow globally. We’re super excited about the future successes we can achieve together!” 

Lucien Wynn

Co-founder of Joiin

“Using Airwallex meant we got rid of countless transaction and conversion fees overnight. We’re saving a substantial amount by using Airwallex.”