Armenian IT companies billing US clients: collecting dollars in full

A Yerevan software studio with 30 engineers has four US clients. Each pays by international wire to the studio's Armenian bank. One payment arrives in two days, one in six, one $45 short and one held while the correspondent bank asked what it was for. The clients paid on time. The rails did not.

Why dollar wires to Armenia are slow

A wire from a US bank to an Armenian bank usually travels through one or more correspondent banks. Each can hold it for compliance checks and deduct a fee. The client's accounts payable team, meanwhile, often treats international wires as a separate, manually approved process, which slows the payment before it even leaves.

Make the payment domestic

American companies pay vendors by ACH. US account details in the studio's own name let a client pay it like any US vendor: account number and routing number, entered once in the AP system. The full amount arrives, usually in one to two business days, with a reference that matches the invoice.

The W-8BEN-E

Expect the first question from a new US client's finance team to be a request for Form W-8BEN-E. It confirms the studio is a foreign company. For services performed in Armenia, payments are generally made without US withholding. Sign it once per client and update it if company details change.

Dollars and drams

Salaries in Armenia's IT sector are often benchmarked in dollars and paid in drams. The dram appreciated sharply against the dollar in 2022 and 2023, which squeezed companies that earned dollars and paid salaries fixed in drams.

Holding dollars and converting on a schedule before payroll, rather than on every receipt, gives you control over the rate and makes it easier to see how much each currency move costs. Pay dollar costs, such as cloud services, tools and contractors, directly from the dollar balance.

Where Rivet fits

A Rivet business account accepts registered companies after verification, including Armenian LLCs and CJSCs. Approved companies get US account details in their own name on every plan, for ACH and wires, plus euro and sterling details from the Growth plan. Payments are matched to invoices, dollars can be held or converted at a rate shown before you confirm, and contractors in 120+ countries can be paid from the same balance. Rivet is not a bank; regulated partner institutions hold the funds.