Using Acctual as your Wise alternative

International money transfers are still so complicated. We live in a world where you can do business with anyone, in any country, at any time. But getting paid across borders isn't as simple as it should be. 

There's so many different payment options to choose from now. Even if you think you’ve found a good one, you might be frustrated with the limitations of the services.

Even companies like Wise, which is a reliable and trusted platform, may not offer all the features you need to manage your global payments and invoicing efficiently. When payment options are inflexible and invoicing is cumbersome, it adds yet more inefficiency to your workflow. Ultimately, it hinders your business growth.

That's why Acctual exists. It's the leading alternative to Wise, which offers a powerful suite of features designed for modern businesses who want to accept global payments. There's flexible multi-currency payments, invoice management and accounting integration, all with advanced security features. 

Everything you need to streamline your financial operations and focus on growing your business.

What is Wise?

Wise was originally known as TransferWise before rebranding in 2021. It's a fintech company that specializes in international money transfers. Founded in 2011, Wise was revolutionary in the way people send and receive money across the world. It grew its brand on low-cost, transparent and fast transfer services with an aim to reshape the old financial system into a new one.

As a user of Wise, you can hold, send, receive funds and quickly convert money into multiple currencies. So it's a handy tool for both personal and business use.

Services provided by Wise

• International money transfers allow you to send money to over 80 countries with low fees and live exchange rates. 

• Multi-currency accounts mean you can hold and manage money in multiple currencies within your Wise account, like having multiple bank accounts which you can use to exchange money between multiple currencies instantly.

• A borderless credit card is available so you can spend money globally with a Wise debit card and it automatically converts currencies at the best rates during the transaction. 

• Wise can offer batch payments, multi-currency accounts and direct integration into accounting software.

Overall, you can't deny that Wise offers some great features. It is significantly more modern and cheaper than traditional banks for international money transfers. It's transparent too, with users able to see the exact fees and exchange rates before making a transfer, ensuring fewer hidden costs. As for its speed, most money transfers are completed within one business day, even for international payments.

Now, while Wise is a powerful tool, it might not fulfill all the needs you're looking for in your invoicing and money transfers, particularly for global payments. There are often reports of limited customer support for smaller transfers and there are limits on certain countries where Wise is available to use. Adding to this, it doesn't currently support any crypto-to-crypto or crypto-to-fiat payments.

For example, there's no inbuilt feature to use stablecoins for cross-border payments. Adding to this, the way Wise works, they keep most of the funds within their ecosystem, similar to a bank. Users are left at the mercy of account freezes while having to manage added money maneuvers between Wise and traditional banking systems.

If you're frustrated with the inflexibility of Wise features and you're looking for a great alternative to Wise, that's where Acctual comes into play.

Acctual: The best Wise alternative

Acctual is the most flexible way to get paid in any currency. It's unparalleled in its versatility for cross-border and cross-currency payments. You can work in fiat-to-fiat currency payments or even integrate stablecoin cryptocurrencies.

What makes it different from Wise is how the accounts function. With Wise you have to manage multi currency accounts, continually moving money between them. For example, when a client pays in Euros it goes into a Euro account and you’re left to manually convert it into a Dollar account.

In contrast, Acctual’s account exist solely for your client’s convenience, so they can pay in their preferred way. Then you just select the currency you want to receive and everything happens automatically. 

For example, a customer can pay in Dollars or Euros and you can get paid in crypto stablecoins. Or vice versa, a customer could pay you in a stablecoin like USDT and you could get paid out automatically to your bank account in fiat currency like Dollars or Euros. 

No need to manage several multi currency accounts. Your clients enjoys the simplicity of paying how they prefer and you receive funds exactly how you want them.  

This is a leap forward for modern businesses that are operating in multiple markets and across borders. The headaches of global payments disappear as you handle varying currency transfers almost automatically. Acctual even works for businesses in locations where Wise doesn’t operate, such as Nigeria, UAE, and India. 

Businesses realize the ability to work with international clients without continual worries about currency conversion issues and fees. In short, Acctual is super convenient for simplifying the payment process between vendors and clients. The easier it is for clients to pay, the faster you get paid. Ultimately, that leads to improved cash flow for your business.

Simple signup flow

You can get started with Acctual in minutes and even integrate your accounting system. The signup process is designed to be swift and user-friendly. In 10 seconds you can sign up via your Google account or manually with an email and password. Once signed in, Acctual guides you through a personalized onboarding experience.

To make sure you get the smooth payments you need, you can select between an individual account, which is ideal for freelancers and sole proprietors. Or choose a business account for registered companies and entities. 

Once you’ve defined your business and personal/business information, you can start picking your features! There’s no credit card required to choose your plan, which includes: 

• Free: Great for individuals getting started

• Growth Plan: Includes automation and batch payments

• Company Plan: Advanced approvals and integrations

• Enterprise Plan: Custom solutions for large-scale operations

Then, you can hook up your accounting system like QuickBooks and Xero, and you’re ready to go.  

So, in just a few clicks, you can start using the platform. Minimal time, minimal effort. Plus, complete integration ensures financial data is automatically synchronized across all your systems. There's no need for manual entry or human errors.

Powerful invoice creation

There's no need to use a separate invoicing tool either. Within Acctual, there's an invoice creation tool that is completely flexible. You can create an invoice that meets your standards, whether you're a small business or a large organization. It’s invoicing that actually meets your needs.

Invoices can be tailored as well to reflect your brand and the requirements of your organization. From the invoices page, you can create a new invoice with a single click. It will automatically be filled with your branding, company name, email, address and tax numbers. Then, simply add customer details. For repeat clients, just select them from the dropdown menu. Or choose to add a new customer.  

The final step is to add the item and price details along with payment details and terms. Here, you can define the payment methods available, including crypto or fiat. These can even include flexible or multiple payment methods, so your clients can pay however they want. 

What makes Accutal stand out from Wise and other alternatives is the removal of invoicing payment barrier. Traditionally, both parties need to be aligned on their payment methods, particularly with stablecoins. With Acctual, you don’t need to agree on the asset and blockchain. Instead, the client can choose how they want to pay and you receive payment straight into your desired wallet or bank account. 

When ready with your preferred payment methods added, send the invoice directly to the client with a payment link or save it to send later. It’s up to you.

Complete invoice management

You don't get left high and dry after you've created an invoice, either. Acctual has robust invoice management features so you can keep track of everything in real-time. Your team can resend, mark as paid, or void invoices with just a click of a button.

Throughout the payment process, this keeps you incredibly organized so you can keep track of outstanding invoices and payments. There's complete flexibility with multiple options for managing your invoices. It ensures that you can handle various scenarios that your clients throw at you. 

Should you need to resend an invoice, you can click to deliver another email, copy a payment link, or download a PDF to deliver manually. Payment received elsewhere? Make an invoice as paid, along with notes and links to the payments to help reconcile your accounts. For cancellations, you can quickly void and add a memo with the reason. 

Bill payment

Got endless bills to keep paying? Well, Acctual isn’t just an invoicing tool, it covers bills too.

You can upload and pay bills directly from your wallet. Either add a bill from the dashboard or even forward invoices to a specialized email address to add them to your account. So no more fiddling with getting bills out of your email into your payment system.

The Acctual system autofills the vendor, invoice number, invoice date, due date and payment amount to give complete accuracy. Plus, you can add manual fields for added flexibility. 

Then, it's easy to connect your wallet and pay your bill in just a few clicks with everything logged in your accounting journal. Simply open up the bill, hit pay, connect your wallet and choose the transaction asset. Sign the transaction via your wallet and Acctual takes care of the rest. You’ll see everything recorded in your accounting journal.

Fund transfers

We all have to manage so many different currencies these days, from different global fiat currencies to borderless cryptocurrencies like USDC and USDT. With Acctual, you can transfer funds between different accounts in seconds or even move across blockchains.

So you can go from one crypto wallet to another or between crypto and fiat accounts smoothly. You can even use the once click transfer feature to move funds across chains and bank accounts.

With the one click transfer feature, you could have US Dollars and convert it into USDC on Ethereum. Or could instantly switch USDC from Ethereum to Polygon. You have complete control over your finances across all your accounts.

The process is incredibly straightforward. You select your source, choose the destination, enter the amount and confirm the transfer. Adding to this, everything is tracked in the Transfers tab so you can keep an eye on status and completion. 

Made for Teams

Acctual is built to support growing businesses. That means team collaboration is built into the fabric of the platform. You can add and invite team members and manage permissions from the settings page.

It makes teamwork easy and ensures everyone has access to the required financial data to do their job efficiently. Plus, admins have complete control over the access, so sensitive information can be protected where necessary. As your team changes, you won’t have to worry about complex password management. Just quickly invite and edit roles from the simple settings page. 

Contact management

Managing payment relationships with clients can get messy quickly, particularly for complex jobs that have multiple payments in and out. Acctual gives you a complete home for managing relationships with clients so you can keep track of all your contacts and their relevant payments.

Everything is centralized to reduce the risk of losing important details. You can enjoy adding another layer of efficiency to your process, streamlining communications between your business, clients and vendors.

On the contact page, quickly add new content, including name, email address, payment details and billing address. Plus, link the contact to QuickBooks or Xero to help automate your reconciliation process. With contacts ready to go, it becomes straightforward to start creating invoices and paying bills. If you stop working with a contact, you can archive the details for future reference instead of deleting them.

Free invoice generator

For those who want to get started quickly with Acctual, you can use the free invoice generator tool that allows you to create invoices quickly without even needing an account. Anyone can start creating invoices immediately with complete flexibility. It supports crypto payments and fiat payments right from the off. It's a modern payment system available to everyone, accessible to everyone.

Without creating an account, you can add your invoice details, including currency, items, taxes and price. When adding your client email, the invoice generator will start to autofill the billing details. Instantly, the invoice is customized with the client's billion details and even their logo! All that’s left to do is add your payment methods and terms before sending or downloading the invoice. 

So you could be sending bespoke invoices payable in fiat or crypto in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee.

Multi-sig payments for crypto companies

Security is critical when it comes to crypto. Once a payment is made, there's no going back, which is why Acctual has inbuilt multi-sig payments. It's an ideal solution for crypto companies that rely on multi-sig treasuries powered by Safe.

So you can create and pay bills from Safe directly in the system in Acctual. Again, you can quickly add bills to your account with all the accurate details. If your Safe requires multiple signatures, the bill payment will show that it requires certain signatures. Then, other signers can simply log in and sign from Acctual or the Safe app.

It delivers enhanced security for crypto transactions and provides a trusted method for managing large sums of money in your business.

How to choose the right payment software for you

When choosing payment software, there's a jungle of information to untangle. You have to find the features you need. You have to understand the sneaky fees and you have to understand whether it even works in your country. Let’s look at the key decisions and how Acctual compares. 

Fees and pricing

Before committing to a payment software, take the time to learn the fees. Most platforms, even Wise, have a complex fee structure. Every type of payment has a different cost associated. That’s before even considering currency transfers and withdrawals!

Acctual is completely transparent with the pricing, so you'll always know exactly what you're paying and when you're paying. You can enjoy unrivaled flexibility with payments and currency options.

Acctual charges a simple 1% fee for its flexible payment options. That covers giving your clients a choice in the way they pay, whether it's stable coins or fiat currency. And funds are always transferred directly into your chosen wallet or bank account. No holding funds, ensuring your money goes where it needs to go, goes exactly where you want it with minimum fees.

Security and compliance

When it comes to finance, security and compliance are paramount. There should be no compromise when it comes to dealing with financial transactions. Acctual takes all the critical steps to ensure that your information is dealt with and transmitted in a secure manner. Your financial data is protected and it always adheres to regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of legal issues.

Adding to this, Acctual goes one step further than most with multi-sig integrations for crypto payments and automatic integrations with traditional bank accounts and secure crypto wallets.

Account verification

Waiting for account verification can be frustrating, especially when you’re worried about cash flow. However, any legitimate payment platform (crypto or not) should have robust KYC and AML practices in place. Make sure to check the verification process before signing up. Some alternative payment platforms can take days to validate accounts. But with Acctual, you can have a verified account in minutes!

As part of regulatory requirements, Acctual follows strict KYC guidelines when verifying accounts. This helps ensure complete compliance and security. Before you can accept crypto and fiat payments, Acctual requires specific personal information to comply with financial regulations while also protecting you from fraud.

Once verified, you get access to payments without interruption. It helps safeguard against illicit activity and meeting legal requirements means you can access these flexible payout options. The best bit is KYC approval typically takes minutes for most users, although it can take a couple of days if manual review is required. All of your information is stored using industry-standard encryption and strict compliance protocols to protect your data.

If you're waiting for KYC verification, you can still create invoices and get going, but your flexible payments option is limited until you're approved.

Geographic restrictions

Acctual is available in most countries around the world. Where Wise fails it’s is coverage, Acctual can help, the platform is designed to provide global reach - especially for businesses and freelancers who work in emerging markets.

Unfortunately Acctual, it's not available to those under the OFAC sanctions and similar restrictions. For example, in the US, the service isn't available if your primary address is in New York, Florida, Louisiana, or Alaska. That means if your business operating address is in a restricted state, you won't be able to use the Acctual service.

Get started today with a Wise alternative

So if you're looking for a Wise alternative, then try out Acctual today. You can start enjoying invoicing, payments and accounting by creating a free account now, or simply try out the free invoice generator without even needing to create an account.

Want to stay up to date with all the latest news and features launched at Acctual? Then, make sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Acctual is the best Wise alternative, offering everything you need to run the finances in your business and focus on what really matters - growth.

When you’re searching for the best TransferWise alternative or apps like Wise, it's crucial to find a solution that actually solves your current roadblocks. Acctual is a Wise competitor that delivers a more flexible set of features for businesses to manage global payments.

Other companies like Wise might well offer similar international transfer capabilities, but Acctual provides crypto integration, powerful invoicing tools and accounting integrations. If you need a TransferWise alternative that combines flexible currency options with an empire of business features, Acctual is that solution.

Frustrated with currency transfers? Hunting for automatic accounting integration? Or desperate for a flexible alternative to Wise? Acctual provides the features and versatility for modern payments.