[E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensive service for bank wire payments
Carl Oppedahl
carl at oppedahl.com
Tue Nov 21 19:29:07 EST 2023
Let me give one example of how I think the Wise system has helped me
with client billing and accounting issues.
An invoice comes in from foreign counsel in (let's say) Poland. The
invoice asks us to pay some number of Euros (€). So I go into Wise and
I click to see the last time that I paid money to that Polish firm. And
there is a button to "send again". (This means that if I somehow had
avoided screwing up the IBAN and other recipient information in the
past, then I don't need to worry about screwing it up this time.) Of
course the source of the funds is our US dollar balance with Wise. I
click around and I get to pick:
* I could pick to send some exact number of USD, in which case the
number of € that the Polish firm receives might be bigger or smaller
depending on currency exchange rates.
* I could pick that I want the Polish firm to receive some exact
number of €. In that case, the number of USD that would get
deducted from our US dollar balance might be more or less, depending
on exchange rates.
I choose the latter path because I want the Polish firm to be paid the
exact number of € that is the amount of their invoice. I go to the
invoice and copy the number of €, let's say it is €916. The Wise system
tells me that to make this happen, I will be using 987.38 USD of my USD
balance. I keep clicking and eventually it goes through.
Oh and by the way the fee charged to me for the money transfer is zero
because ... wait for it ... the Polish firm also uses Wise. And they
will not need to incur any fee to receive the money because ... our firm
and their firm are both using Wise. Oh, and they receive the money
within seconds.
Back to my main point. Our accounts-receivable department needs to bill
our client (which is located in the US) in USD. So our
accounts-receivable department wants to know just exactly, down to the
penny, how many USD were involved. The point here is I can tell them in
real time that it was 987.38 USD, not a penny more, not a penny less.
We can bill the client essentially instantly.
Second example. Suppose our client is the kind of client where we want
our (US-based) client to advance the funds to us (in USD), before we
authorize the foreign firm to carry out the work. What we would prefer
is that we ask our client for just exactly the right number of USD, not
too high, not too low. And the foreign firm already told us it will
cost (let's say) €916 to do the task.
And we know that there is a time gap. We might be authorizing the
foreign work a month from now. But we need to know right now exactly
how many USD to ask the client to advance to us. The exchange rate will
be different today than it will be for a month from now. And our
accounting department will go nuts if we ask for an advance, and a month
from now it turns out the advance was not exactly the same. A true-up
would be needed and our accounting department hates that. Plus the
money was going into and out of our escrow account and the true-up makes
it even more complicated.
So what we do is, we use Wise to convert some of our USD into the
foreign currency involved (in this case €). We have a € balance with
Wise, and we do what it takes to add €916 to our Euro balance. And we
know, right now, exactly how many USD were required to make that
happen. So we can ask the client to advance that number of USD (plus,
if needed, the fee for the wire transfer itself, which is completely
predictable down to the penny). And later when we pay the foreign
counsel, we send that exact €916 that we have been holding in our €
balance for these weeks.
No need for a true-up later because of changes in the $-and-€ exchange
rate.
And we know exactly how much money got charged for converting the $ to €.
So we never need to do true-ups.
Years ago we were constantly having to do true-ups, back when we were
using Reusch and then when we were using Travelex and then when we were
using Afex. Oh and heaven forbid for a while we were actually using our
local bricks-and-mortar bank for the foreign money transfers (Wells
Fargo). Boy that was a big mistake to use our ordinary bank. Anyway,
we were constantly having to do true-ups because invariably when we
quoted to the client how many USD the task was going to cost, to do
something in a foreign country in Euros, the exchange rate would have
later changed.
Yet another thing is that if we want, we can accept payments from our
European colleagues in Euros or pounds sterling or Polish Zlotys. We
have bank details that permit us to receive those currencies.
On 11/21/2023 4:57 PM, Scott Nielson via Patentpractice wrote:
> How does Wise help large firm accounting departments in the way you
> describe? As someone who has all those issues, especially the wire
> transfer fees, I'm interested in knowing how you avoid them.
>
> *Scott Nielson*
>
> 801-660-4400
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> on
> behalf of Orvis via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 21, 2023 4:52 PM
> *To:* For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek
> legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Cc:* Orvis <orvispc at gmail.com>; Dineen Wasylik <dineen at wasylik.net>;
> For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal
> advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Patentpractice] [E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensire
> service for bank wire payments
> Wise is also great for those at large firms who's accounting
> department says they cannot figure out how to deliver a dollar certain
> to a recipient and then tells you that you need to figure out
> conversions and wire transfer fees along the way.
>
> Nov 21, 2023 6:09:23 PM Richard Schafer via Patentpractice
> <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>:
>
> Wise has been a godsend for my solo practice. Highly recommended.
>
> Best regards,
> *Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law*
> P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
> M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com
> <mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>
>
> *From:* E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> *On
> Behalf Of *Dineen Wasylik via E-trademarks
> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 21, 2023 11:14 AM
> *To:* For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to
> seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
> *Cc:* Dineen Wasylik <dineen at wasylik.net>;
> patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com
> *Subject:* Re: [E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensire service for bank
> wire payments
>
> I agree with Carlk, though I think they now call it just "wise"
> but wise.com <http://wise.com/> is what I have based on
> recommendations from other practitioners. It is easy and much
> less expensive than bank-based wires. It handles
> currency conversion much better than my bank folks did, too.
>
> Best,
>
> Dineen
>
> On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 5:58 AM Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks
> <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com> wrote:
>
> See
> https://blog.oppedahl.com/eventually-every-patent-and-trademark-firm-will-have-a-transferwise-account/
>
> On 11/20/2023 10:53 PM, voyer--- via E-trademarks wrote:
> > A year or maybe more ago, there was elist discussion of a
> good, inexpensive service for bank wire services.
> > At least internationally, perhaps also domestic. My saved
> copy is now hiding from me.
> > Would appreciate contact info for that service, and it is
> stlil a good recommendation. Thanks,
> >
> > Daniel Kegan * 847-452-2599
> > Baron Harris Healey, Of Counsel
> > <DKegan at BHHLawFirm.com>
> > <http://www.BHHLawFirm.com <http://www.bhhlawfirm.com/>>
> > Balanced Counsel for Smart Clients®
> > 29 Kendal Dr
> > Kennett Square PA 19348-2323 USA
> --
> E-trademarks mailing list
> E-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com
> http://oppedahl-lists.com/mailman/listinfo/e-trademarks_oppedahl-lists.com
>
>
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