You did it.
You’ve assembled an international team: a designer in Lisbon, a developer in Warsaw, and a marketing lead in Manchester. It’s flexible, international… and a logistical challenge. And you’re not alone. In the UK, over 28% of workers adopted hybrid working models in 2024 (Office for National Statistics), while current estimates suggest that about 12.3% of the EU workforce works remotely. Distributed teams are no longer a trend; they’re the new standard.
But here’s the pressing question: how do you pay them? Because building a global team is only half the battle. The other half is paying them without friction, delays, or headaches.
Let’s explore what complicates this and how to resolve it.
Six Challenges Facing Global Teams
While you’re celebrating the hiring of your new team, your CFO is silently calculating how much of that international budget will be lost to fees. The uncomfortable truth: solely in bank fees, unfavourable exchange rates, and administrative costs, your company is losing the equivalent of a senior developer’s annual salary for every million pounds transferred internationally.
Currency Volatility
Currency markets have shown no mercy to European businesses this year. The Swiss franc’s 9.5% surge, the Swedish krona’s 5% climb, and the euro’s April volatility left finance directors revising forecasts downward. These wild swings make it nearly impossible to predict costs for international teams.
Delays Due to Cross-Border Banking
Traditional international transfers can take several days and cost up to more than a domestic transfer. If you go to a portal like remittance prices on World Bank, you can see how, for example, sending £120 from the UK to China can cost from £0.0 to £14.68 depending on whether it is a digital or traditional bank.
Complex Tax Compliance
Different local regulations and tax requirements necessitate a substantial amount of time for reporting and calculations, increasing the risk of costly errors.
Inefficient Expense Tracking
Many companies still rely on spreadsheets and paper forms to process expenses, leading to slow reimbursements and a lack of control over global spending.
Difficulty Issuing Cards to External Employees
Issuing corporate cards to off-payroll collaborators or those in other countries is complicated by local banking procedures, leaving these squads without agile payment methods.
Lack of Centralised Visibility
Without a unified view, 70% of UK companies face challenges in controlling global expenses, complicating decision-making.
Features of an Elite Global Payment System
E-commerce in Europe is booming, with projections indicating it will generate €645.01 billion in revenue by 2025. With the market in motion, many companies are looking to expand globally. Therefore, choosing the right financial system is no longer a secondary decision but a strategic one. Here are the essential elements a modern international platform should have:
- Multicurrency Support That Eliminates Monetary Barriers: With the volume of British transactions increasing (over 48 billion payments in 2023), the ability to operate in multiple currencies and manage conversions transparently is crucial for maintaining competitiveness and reducing unnecessary costs. Without this support, you’re turning away money at the door.
- Fast and Flexible Card Issuance for Cross-Border Teams: No more waiting weeks for your employees in Barcelona or Singapore to receive their corporate cards. Modern systems issue virtual cards instantly, while physical ones are issued in days, not months.
- Real-Time Expense Tracking That Ends Financial Surprises: Advanced solutions offer access to cloud dashboards that provide actionable insights to better understand and grow your business. Visualise, control, and approve expenses as they occur, not when it’s too late.
- Secure and Compliant Infrastructure That Never Leaves You Exposed: Instant transactions require clearing and settlement infrastructures that can handle large volumes and facilitate real-time reconciliations, dispute resolutions, and refunds. Security and compliance are non-negotiable.
- Payroll Platforms That Eliminates Manual Work: Modern payroll systems should do more than process payments; they should integrate effortlessly with your financial tools. Look for solutions with powerful APIs that enable fast, smooth integration into your accounting software, allowing for real-time data export.
- Scalability for Growing Crews That Grows with You, Not Against You: As your team grows from 10 to 100 or 1,000 people, your system should scale without friction, without needing to migrate to another platform or face prohibitive costs.
Scenarios That Might Sound Familiar
If you work with international teams, you know it’s not just about hiring talent… it’s about operating with them without financial bottlenecks. Here are some common scenarios:
Imagine You Run an OTA (Online Travel Agency)
Your team is spread across the USA and Latin America. Customer support agents, reservation specialists, and content editors work on a project basis and require timely payment in their local currency, without delay. Managing payments with manual transfers and traditional banks consumes your time and creates friction. Ideally, you could issue virtual cards to each, assign budgets, and automate expense reports.
How Would You Manage Your Company Entering New Markets?
You’re hiring local talent, but don’t have legal entities in each country. Opening bank accounts, complying with local regulations, and controlling expenses remotely becomes a cumbersome process. A flexible payout system would allow you to onboard new employees quickly, set personalised limits, and maintain control from a single platform.
You’re Leading a Digital Marketing Agency in Europe and Asia
Now you have people working from different cities and time zones. Some need to cover software subscriptions, others to purchase media or attend events. Coordinating these expenses across different tools and cards is chaotic. Ideally, you could issue cards instantly, set permissions by role, and visualise everything in a single dashboard.
Borderless Cards: The Ultimate Solution for Global Squads
Does your developer in Berlin need a software licence? Does your designer in Italy need to make an urgent purchase? Wallester Business allows you to issue virtual cards instantly in any quantity needed, regardless of where your team is located. No more waiting or bureaucratic complications—just that immediate flexibility that keeps your business moving.
Spend Management Platform Gives Full Control Over Budgets, Limits, and Permissions
Money no longer gets lost in the corporate limbo. Monitor expenses in real-time, receive reminders to submit receipts, and set personalised limits for each department or individual. Your team can make essential purchases while you maintain total visibility—the perfect balance between autonomy and control.
Multicurrency Support and Seamless FX Handling
Forget about exchange rate nightmares. Wallester continually expands its payment options to support multiple currencies, facilitating the management of international expenses. Now you can maintain balances in different currencies and make transactions without the exorbitant margins applied by traditional banks, saving up to 3% on each international transaction.
Instant Expense Reporting with Categorised Transactions and Real-Time Updates
We’re talking about the end of monthly reconciliations. With the centralised platform, you can obtain detailed statements of all corporate expenses and export them easily in various formats. Each transaction is automatically categorised, providing a clear view of where your money is going.
Ability to Whitelist Vendors, Set Geofencing, and Automate Approvals
You gain intelligent control that simplifies purchase processing. The system allows you to establish rules that permit expenses only with specific vendors or in designated geographic locations. This way, you reduce fraud while maintaining operational agility.
Cost-Effective for Scaling Divisions
Wallester Business offers a truly cost-effective way to scale your payroll operations. As the client, you only pay a one-time €1.00 invitation fee per employee and a €1.00 monthly fee for each Payroll Cardholder, billed on the first of every month. Employees pay nothing, as long as they remain enrolled in your payroll.
Full API Access for Deeper Integrations into HR/Payroll Tools
Wallester’s REST APIs allow you to build exactly the functionality you need at the moment. This way, you can integrate transactions directly into your existing systems, from payroll to accounting. It’s the best way to eliminate manual processes and create a frictionless financial ecosystem that scales with your global vision.
The Real Cost of Waiting
While you’re reading this, your competitors are already closing deals with top freelancers in Singapore, Poland, and the UK. Talent that could be working with you—bringing your vision to life.
But it’s not just about hiring globally. It’s about removing the daily micro-frustrations that drain your team’s energy and delay progress. Because true innovation doesn’t come from doing things better—it comes from stopping what no longer serves you.
You can start by setting up your Wallester Business account. It takes less time than you’ve spent reading this article. Try out our no-registration demo, or create your account in minutes.
Make your payment system match the ambition of your team.
Global. Efficient. Limitless.
