The Problem
Paying suppliers in the US is difficult, extremely time consuming and very expensive.
Jody, Founder of Sundays, needed a more efficient way of paying his American suppliers
The most conventional method right now for any Canadian business is to send wire transfers at
a traditional bank like RBC, TD, Scotiabank etc. These payments can take weeks to complete,
typically have a fee between $25 - $50 per payment and an inflated FX rate.
The very manual nature of sending payments this way also meant having to physically go into
the bank branch, spend hours on the phone with customer support and having no transparency
knowing when your payment will be sent or what the actual cost will be. With all the planning
and calculation needed, Jody resorted to creating an entity in the US so Sundays can operate
within the US payments system.
This came with its own nightmares, an extra layer of bureaucracy and significant tax
implications.
“We set up an entire US entity and a Chase account specifically for the purpose of facilitating payments. And we obviously don't use it anymore because we don't need to. But if you don't have that or you don't do that, and you're a Canadian business and you do business in the US.
What do you do”, asks Jody.
The Solution
A free US-domiciled bank account that enables you to bank like an American business
Jody and the Sunday team partnered with Loop to access free US business banking. With Loop,
Sunday got US banking details (account number and routing number) which enabled them to
access the local ACH network and bank just like any local American business. This means
payments can clear in minutes, wire fees are eliminated and Sundays gets an American bank
account that accepts USD revenue bypassing any unwanted currency conversion.
By providing a seamless banking platform, Loop eliminated the need for cross-border bank
accounts or expensive wire transfers, saving time, money, and headaches for Jody and his
team.
The Results
A frictionless experience that saves money, time and enables business expansion
Jody was also able to eliminate the need for a contracted agency to manage payments and
could instead keep everything lean. This meant more time and resources dedicated to actually
growing the business instead of handling banking or administrative work.
Sending payments across the border also means doing foreign exchange. With Loop, Jody is
able to get the best rates when converting CAD to USD and converting USD revenue back to
CAD. This means more cash flow back in the hands of Sundays to focus on other growth
initiatives.
“I'm able to really quickly transfer funds basically close to the spot rate. And so not having to do that through TD, I don't know how much money I'm saving every year, but it's not insignificant - we’ve been able to do a lot more, with more resources” explains Jody.
This is a brief blurb that should summarize what loop does. Maybe it will serve as a brief intro to some of the features?