Cashflow and payments onboard

SHIPSHAPE CASH FLOW

When your yacht is a mobile, multi-million euro business, you need systems that let you respond and spend whenever and wherever required

Whether you are a captain, owner or yacht management CFO, smooth operations depend on the ability
to make seamless payments in any location, in any currency, knowing the admin is taken care of effortlessly. Drawing on nearly a decade’s experience supporting the world’s largest superyachts, Centtrip suggests eight ways to make your payments plain sailing.

Use multi-currency cards with high limits
Empower your captain and crew to deal with opportunities and challenges as they arise. A prepaid, multi-currency card with high transaction limits makes it easy to balance empowerment and control while enabling spending in any location.

Switch to cashless cruising
The everyday world is increasingly cashless and moving to a multi-currency card will increase transparency and reduce risk. Just make sure your cards enable large ATM withdrawals for those few occasions when cash is the only option.

Manage your international currencies and payments
Running a mobile, multi-currency business can get expensive. Every day can mean a different currency. Using a multi-currency account and card will help avoid foreign transaction charges and unfavourable exchange rates at every turn. Consider working with a foreign currency expert that can expedite your international payments and help you develop strategies to mitigate your exchange rate exposure.

Define structures and controls to meet your needs
Every organisation is different. You shouldn’t compromise the way you live or work by bending to a generic, out-of-the-box system. Instead, look for a system like Centtrip, that lets you create your own structures to manage multiple, independently owned vessels (or family office assets) from a single desktop or smartphone. Make sure you can have as many cards as you need for each account, and check you can set individual spending limits, authorisation hierarchies and reporting structures.

Simplify the back office
Improving life at sea is one thing, but what about the finance team? A happy accountant makes everyone’s life easier. Getting card and other transactions into an accounting package sometimes requires tedious export/ import routines or, even worse, rekeying report printouts. A payments system that provides API integration saves time and avoids error. These days, a smartphone app with a receipt capture function is another essential. A couple of seconds at the purchase stage saves hours processing paper expenses.

Optimise payroll processing
Yacht payroll is a large, recurring expense which is essential to get right. Late payments hurt morale and damage crew retention. Wire transfer fees alone can add up to 1% to salary costs. You need a partner that can make multi-currency, international payments quickly, reliably and efficiently.

Demand best-in-class security
Sadly, cybercrime is everywhere and high- spending yachts can attract unwanted attention. Look for the highest levels of system security to protect your money and your privacy.

Cards get lost, cards get found, cards get stolen. So also look for the ability to instantly lock or unlock, and transfer funds to and from cards. This avoids the stress and inconvenience usually associated with missing cards.

Ensure excellent 24/7 support
Finally, one of the soundest ways to improve your operations is to ensure that the partners you rely on are able to provide the robust and expert service you need, when you need it.

When you next pick a payments partner, look for one like Centtrip that has a deep understanding of your world as well as their own. Be sure they understand the unique circumstances of life onboard and have the experience to respond quickly to the situations you face. That’s a sure way to make your payments plain sailing.

Centtrip supports over half of the world’s superyachts (vessels of 40m or longer) and counts many LYBRA, MYBA and IYBA members as clients.

For further details:
email marine@centtrip.com visit www.centtrip.com/marine