Boosting payment efficiency with OFX’s flexible and easy-to-use batch payments

Meet our client, Goodstack and Intelligent Foundation

Goodstack’s mission is to embed the act of “doing good” in as many transactions globally as possible. 

It achieves this by providing API solutions to corporate clients, allowing them to offer their services at discounts to charities or make donations easily. Some of Goodstack’s notable clients include Atlassian, Canva and LinkedIn. 

Goodstack’s charity arm, Intelligent Foundation (IF), manages the disbursement of funds on behalf of Goodstack’s clients to their nominated charities.  

“Think of Goodstack like an infrastructure provider; the pipes between charities and donors, allowing good things to happen between the two,” explained Paul Umbrazunas, Goodstack Local Executive Chairman. 

“Then think of Intelligent Foundation as a distributor of money. It’s a charity, it’s got independent trustees,” he adds. 

To ensure donations reach charities quickly and make the process as efficient as possible, Paul and his team needed a reliable and secure solution.

The challenge: overcoming rigid and inefficient batch payment processes

For Paul, disbursing funds to charities efficiently was a top priority. Secondly, he needed a solution that could also provide strong customer support in order to ensure things went smoothly. 

“We’re doing complex payments in terms of the numbers of charities and the number of donations, so that needs to be facilitated as smoothly as possible”, said Paul, who’s also on the Board of Trustees of Intelligent Foundation. 

“I needed to know that we had a relationship with someone if things didn’t go as planned,” he added. Paul initially approached the banks to seek support, but very quickly hit a roadblock. 

The banks had a rigid way of uploading payments in their systems and he was told he needed to use “their fixed methods and inputs”, which he felt was “inefficient and prone to making mistakes.” 

So he looked at other options.

“We need to be flexible and have different approvals and procedures in terms of how the money is disbursed.” 
– Paul Umbrazunas, Goodstack Local Executive Chairman, when asked what he was looking for in a batch payment solution

Why OFX was the clear choice for batch payments 

Paul discovered OFX through a personal connection, and the choice was clear after comparing it with banks and competitors. 

Unlike banks, which offered lengthy and rigid payment processes, OFX provided solutions and a service that aligned with the Foundation’s needs from the start. 

Firstly, the ability to do high volume batch payments was a must. As the charity size is growing, the foundation is now managing higher volumes of donations. 

OFX ticks this criteria. “It’s built for volume,” Paul claimed. 

Secondly, the flexibility to do single payment runs allowed Paul and his team to process one-off payments easily, adding, “it’s very flexible and very easy to use” and “it’s massively more efficient to deal with you guys (OFX).”

Another major benefit was the ability to create approval workflows in the platform. He appreciates how he can monitor payment statuses in real-time and receive status updates via email. 

“When there’s a payment upload, there’s a first level of approval from someone, with subsequent second level approval from a Trustee. You’ll also receive an email confirming there’s approvals waiting, and they’re all individualised which is good. And then you go in and you approve them all,” he explained. 

The real-time email notificationson payment statuses provides a clear audit trail and transparency, something Paul valued greatly. “From a governance perspective, it’s really good… you’re getting updated in real time.”

“It’s just really easy and intuitive to use.“

Paul highlights how time-saving the interface is compared to traditional banks and other solutions. With OFX’s batch payments, all his team needs to do is upload CSV files with the charity bank details for quick, seamless, and accurate disbursements. 

He acknowledges the platform’s user-friendly nature, saying, “It’s just really easy and intuitive to use.” 

This also means it was effortless for employees to use. Onboarding was straightforward and quick. He shares how one of his financial operations staff was able to train four employees in the UK in less than a day.

When asked to use one word to describe OFX, Paul said “friendly”. He attests how “everyone’s been helpful” and “if there’s anything we need to discuss, it’s all handled quickly and efficiently.”

The extra OFX touch

The responsive client support has also been a standout feature for Paul. 

“The platform’s great, but it’s the after-sales service that’s important,” he said, referencing his ongoing relationship with the OFX team. 

When there’s an issue, he calls or drops an email to the OFX team and he knows it’ll be resolved quickly, followed by a status update via email . Having this support means any issues can be raised and settled in a prompt manner, ensuring no delay in their disbursements. 

He speculates the service he receives from OFX would be “far better than the banks.”

Since using OFX, Goodstack and Intelligent Foundation have:

A solution that is light years ahead

Since 2021, Goodstack has grown from 20 to 200. Similarly, Intelligent Foundation has increased the number of charities it supports from 180 to 400.

“For us, it’s just going to be volume, volume, volume. We use Xero and everything’s integrated at the moment. So anything that happens, it’s fed back to our accountant,” Paul remarked. 

With the help of OFX, Paul was able to consolidate and simplify the foundation’s charity disbursement process, making it faster, more flexible, and scalable. 

The after-sales service support, user-friendly interface and flexible batch payment functionality have enabled Paul and his team to manage donation disbursements efficiently and focus on their core mission – “to embed doing good” in as many transactions as possible.

For Paul, the OFX experience has been a game-changer. He is confident that the company and foundation is well-equipped to manage increasing donation volumes and maintain operational efficiency as they continue to grow.

“Check out the platform and compare it to what you’ve got at the banks, because it’s just light years ahead.” 

– Paul Umbrazunas’s advice to other businesses considering OFX