US companies selling to Europe: collecting euros and pounds without international wires

A Denver software company signs its first enterprise customers in Munich and Leeds. Both receive dollar invoices with US wire instructions. Munich pays 25 days late after its treasury team approves a foreign wire. Leeds pays the dollar amount but its bank converts from pounds at a rate the customer queries, and the payment lands $180 short after an intermediary fee. The customer success team spends a week on it.

How European businesses pay

In the euro area, companies pay suppliers by SEPA credit transfer, cheap and increasingly instant. In the UK, they use Faster Payments, which settles in seconds. An international wire in dollars is a different process: often a separate approval, a currency conversion at their bank's rate, and fees that someone has to absorb.

For a European accounts payable team, a US vendor with dollar wire instructions is extra work, and extra work gets paid last.

Invoice in their currency

European buyers budget in euros or pounds. A dollar price makes them estimate the conversion, add a buffer and sometimes ask for a re-quote at renewal. A euro or sterling price list for European customers removes that, and many American SaaS companies find it shortens procurement.

You then carry the currency movement. That is manageable, especially if you also have costs in euros or pounds.

Give them local details

Euro account details with an IBAN, and sterling details with a sort code and account number, in your company's own name, let European customers pay you the way they pay local suppliers. The payment arrives in full, often the same day, with their reference attached.

VAT basics

For most services sold to EU and UK businesses, the customer accounts for VAT under the reverse charge; your invoice shows no VAT and says so. Selling digital services to European consumers is different: EU VAT applies from the first sale, usually through the non-Union OSS, and the UK requires VAT registration for digital services to UK consumers. See EU VAT OSS for non-EU sellers.

What to do with the euros

Many US companies have European costs: contractors in Portugal or Poland, events, a sales hire in London, European cloud regions. Paying those from euro and sterling balances avoids converting dollars out and back. Convert the surplus to dollars when you need it, at a rate you see first.

Paying into the United States: the local rail

Source: Nacha: Same Day ACH. Checked when this guide was last updated; the scheme's own page has the current figures.

Where Rivet fits

A Rivet business account on the Growth plan gives a US company euro details with an IBAN for SEPA and sterling details for Faster Payments, beside its US account details, all in the company's own name. Payments are matched to invoices, balances can be held or converted at a rate shown before you confirm, and payouts go to 120+ countries. Rivet is not a bank; regulated partner institutions hold the funds.