Taking payments in multiple currencies

Summary

The ability to accept payments in non-US currencies is an add-on feature for Payments & Collections. With this feature enabled, you are able to bill clients in Canadian or British Pounds and then accept payments in those respective currencies, avoiding costly international currency conversion fees.

Included in this article:

• Feature overview
  • Payout timeline
  • Fees
• Prerequisites
  • Stripe business verification requirements
• Setup and implementation
• Testing

Feature overview

Specific invoices, or all invoices of a client, assigned to a different currency in both your practice management system and Aiwyn appear to clients in much the same way as US invoices.

The differences are slight, and involve:

• Currency symbol displayed for the invoice amount
• Bank transfer payment method label display name

When viewing invoice balances in the Client and Firm Portal, the invoice's currency symbol is displayed:

• US invoices - $
• Canadian invoices - CA$
• British invoices - £

Unless otherwise noted, your default payment currency is the US and all non-invoice payments are made in US currency (including payments made with a Quick Payment Link). As a specific invoice is selected, the associated bank transfer payment method for the currency of the invoice is presented as one of the payment method options. 

Similarly, with a non-US currency invoice selected, the credit card processing fee rate may change from your firm's US default. The processing fee rate added to the payment summary changes based on the currency of the invoice being paid.

Only invoices from the same currency may be paid at one time.

Payout timeline

While all US bank transfer payments are paid out within one (1) business day, the payout timeline for non-US currencies is different.

• Canadian bank transfer: Five (5) business days after date of transaction
• UK bank transfer: Four (4) business days after date of transaction
• All credit cards (US and non-US): Two (2) business days after date of transaction

Fees

Prerequisites

This is an add-on feature for the standard Payments & Collections module. 

This feature requires your practice management system to host and list invoices in multiple currencies. The currency data must come from the invoice data documented and housed in your practice management system.

This feature also requires your firm to have a legitimate business operating in the non-US country (Canada and/or Great Britain) as well as a bank account in the non-US country.

Stripe business verification requirements

In order to accept payments from Canada and/or Great Britain, the non-US bank accounts must be connected through Stripe. This requires a responsible person from your firm to submit these, and this responsible person should be a resident of the non-US country and have access to the required documents outlined below.

Aiwyn will provide your firm representative with a secure link to upload these documents directly to Stripe and we recommend having a smart phone available during the Stripe verification process.

Stripe will ask for the following types of documents in order to verify you, your business, and your business's bank account.

United Kingdom

1. Identity documents (choose one): Passport, Driver licence, Citizen Card, or Electoral ID
2. Required identity information (all are required): Full legal name, date of birth, and photo of responsible person submitting documents
3. Personal address documents (choose one): Utility Bill, Statement from a financial institution, Government issued letter, Solicitors letter, Council or housing association documentation, Benefits Agency documentation, Electoral Register entry, NHS Medical Card, GP letter of registration with the surgery
4. Required personal address information (all are required): Full legal name, personal address matching submitted documents
5. Business documents (choose one): VAT Registration, Certificate of Incorporation, Companies House Document, HM Revenue and Customs: VAT Certificate, HM Revenue and Customs: Account Statement, Charity Commission Document, OSCR Scottish Charity Regulator, or Ofsted School Inspection Report
6. Required business information (all are required): Full company legal entity name, tax ID from the local tax authority, company address matching submitted documents

Canada

1. Identity documents (choose one): Passport, Driver’s licence, Citizenship card, Work Permit, Study Permit, Permanent Resident card, Provincial or territorial issued photo identity cards (Except Health ID cards) - scans of front and back are required, or Certificate of Indian Status card
2. Required identity information (all are required): Full legal name, date of birth, and photo of responsible person submitting documents
3. Personal address documents (choose one): Driver’s licence, Work Permit, Study Permit, Provincial or territorial issued photo identity cards (Except Health ID cards) - scans of front and back are required, Insurance document, Investment account statement, Property tax statement, Bank statement, Utility bill - dated within 12 months
4. Required personal address information (all are required): Full legal name, personal address matching submitted documents
5. Business documents (choose one): Valid government-issued document, Corporate profile report, Notice of Assessment issued by the Canadian Revenue Agency - dated within 12 months, Articles of Incorporation or Association, Notice of Articles, Company Summary, Results from a Quebec registry search, Business license, or Partnership agreement or registration.
6. Required business information (all are required): Full company legal entity name, company address matching submitted documents, and list of all directors
7. Directorship verification: Stripe is required to confirm your company’s beneficial ownership and persons with significant control structures against the national registry of business in the country your account is set up in
8. Directorship documents (choose one): A current and valid municipal, provincial, territorial or federal government issued document that contains the entity name and directors, Corporate profile report, Articles of Incorporation or Association, Notice of Articles, Notice of Change of Directors (eg. Form 6, Form 4006, Form 3006), Board meeting minutes - dated within 12 months, or Signed company resolution confirming your current company Directors - dated within 12 months
9. Directorship information (all are required): Full company legal entity name, and all director, shareholder, and beneficial owner names and positions

Setup and implementation

The following items are to be completed by your firm and Aiwyn.

Firm setup

• Obtain bank account in the currency and country (Canada, UK)
• Meet all legal business requirements for operating in the country
• Must be able to pass Stripe bank account connection verification
• Practice management system has functional method for classifying currency of invoice (or client) and payments applied to said invoice
• Create test client (one for each currency/bank account) and corresponding test invoices in production version of practice management system
• Able to make real small value payment using bank transfer method in currency of non-US invoice
• Requires test payment with a real (personal) bank account in the currency/country being tested
• Able to conduct test payment to a small value amount invoice (is refunded once test payment deposit is confirmed)

Aiwyn setup

• Provides Stripe bank account connection link to firm's responsible person
• Gather the test client and invoice information from firm
• Confirms per currency fees for bank transfers and credit cards with firm based on Aiwyn contract
• Identifies logic to assign currencies correctly to invoices or clients
• Identifies firm's preferences for payment method labels displayed, per currency
• Conducts payment testing with firm responsible staff

Testing

Once the bank account(s) connected to Stripe are verified, and the multi currency logic has been deployed to your Aiwyn system, we require a brief testing session in order to ensure payments to non-US currencies functions as expected. This testing session will require the use of a personal bank account in the currency being tested. Once processed and deposited, the test payments will be refunded.

1. Firm lead share screen showing Client Portal
2. Create/log into portal user account
3. Connect portal user account to all relevant testing clients
4. TEST RESULT: Confirm test invoice(s) appear in the correct currency (Canada, UK)
5. Choose bank transfer payment method in the respective currency
6. Complete the bank account information as directed (stop sharing screen during entry)
7. TEST RESULT: Payment should process with no error
8. After the session, it will take a few days for the payments to process
9. Once test payments deposit to the respective bank accounts successfully, they may be refunded through the Aiwyn Firm Portal