Global reach, local spend: How Conjointly saves 30% on international payments with Wise Business

For Conjointly, a growing Aussie research firm with a global team, handling multi-currency payroll and cross-border payments was draining time and money. Traditional banks were slow, rigid, and expensive. Every international payment through their previous bank alone came with a USD 20 price tag.

In 2022, Conjointly made the switch to Wise Business. What followed? A 30% cut in FX costs, smoother payroll across 15+ currencies, and a lot less friction. Read on to see how they did it.

About Conjointly

Conjointly is an Australian market research and survey platform company that blends automation with expert consulting to help global brands make better product and pricing decisions. From creating interactive research dashboards to delivering sophisticated conjoint analysis, Conjointly serves clients across the world, from Fortune 500 giants to fast-growing startups.

They support global clients, often multinational corporations with offices in multiple countries, and operate with a distributed team across 15+ countries. Conjointly has three legal entities in Australia, the Netherlands, and Malaysia. The company regularly deals with 5 main currencies and occasionally transacts up to 10 more, making currency flexibility essential to their operations.

• Industry: Market Research
• Company size: 50–100 employees
• Headquarters: Pyrmont, New South Wales, Australia
• Global team: Operating across 15+ countries
• Legal entities: Australia, Netherlands, Malaysia

Every success story begins with a ‘No’

Nik Samoylov knew what it felt like to be told no. In the early days of growing Conjointly beyond Australia, he came up against closed doors; banks that wouldn’t support the currencies they needed, platforms that were complex to navigate, paperwork that turned simple requests into long days, and hefty conversion fees.

Nik wasn’t looking for a reinvention of finance, just something that worked. But running a company with legal entities in three countries, he quickly realized that “just working” wasn’t enough. It had to work globally, reliably, and every single day.

	“We have a very diverse bunch of people working in different cities working remotely. And our research team is widely spread across the APAC, Americas, and EU regions.” - Nik Samoylov,CEO,Conjointly

There was a need to pay people in multiple currencies, move money between entities, and comply with local regulatory requirements, especially in the new markets. But everything seemed harder than it needed to be.

Nik found it surprising that their existing bank had no means to open a Malaysian Ringgit bank account in Australia . While another provider looked promising, the interface felt buggy, slow and complex to navigate at exactly the wrong moments. Every transaction carried the risk of delays, or worse, hacky workarounds.

Even sending money to the US came with an overhead of its own. As their existing bank was limited to making transfers in the US through SWIFT, Nik found that they were paying quite a lot for each transaction. The team often found themselves being charged around USD 20 to USD 60 per transaction, an unavoidable fee that piled up quickly with each payroll cycle or supplier payment.

And then there were the quiet costs: the time spent chasing paperwork, navigating approvals, or scanning and uploading documents just to prove something as simple as owning a business bank account.

When the company expanded into South America, Nik found himself personally handling the submission process, just to meet a local compliance requirement. A solution that was not scalable, nor was it a good use of Nik’s time.

The 'Dutch' experiment: Why Wise Business felt like the obvious choice

For Conjointly, the need for change came when they needed to set up a business banking solution in the Netherlands for their newly established Dutch subsidiary.

As CEO Nik Samoylov recalls, "Just opening the business account with Wise Business was very simple. It was also a cost-efficient and convenient option. Since then, we have been using Wise for the parent company as well."

That initial experience became a turning point.

With the possibility of opening a Wise Business account online, it became much easier and meant less hassle when it came to expanding their business operations in new markets. This gave them access to account details in multiple currencies that allowed them to conduct business transactions in countries with strict business banking requirements, like needing a local presence or involving lengthy processes.

What’s more is that even the slow, manual stuff got faster. For instance, when Conjointly was looking into creating a business bank account for handling client payments in South America, submitting proof of a bank account was one part of the process. This involved acquiring the proof document from the local Australian bank - a task that once involved the CEO waiting for an hour or two and personally handling paperwork .

As Nik recounts, “In the past, we wanted to set up local bank accounts with our existing bank for transactions with our South American clients. The bank had a strong emphasis on proofs of bank accounts, and no one else in the company could handle it; they required me to physically visit their branch to get the documents approved. I had to visit my bank branch in-person and wait for an hour or more to get my documents manually stamped and approved.Now, with Wise Business, I can generate the required PDFs and set up a business account in just a couple of clicks, which has resulted in significant time savings.”

Nik and the Conjointly finance team were impressed by how much faster and simpler international business finances could be. So, they made the call to roll out Wise Business across their broader operations, including their Australian headquarters.

The result? Managing global finances became a lot simpler and setting up a business account was much smoother. No queues, no unexpected delays, just easy setup and better control.

In a world of ‘limits’, Wise Business opened doors:

With a global workforce, Conjointly also had a need to manage and pay salaries to employees in over 15 countries. With the ‘Batch Payments’ feature, Wise Business helped simplify payroll for them by allowing their employees to get paid in local currencies like USD, AUD, MYR, CAD, SGD, JPY and more. Things were much simpler as Wise Businesses supported the currencies their old bank couldn’t, skipped the middleman fees, and came with a dashboard that made sense.

Wise’s mid-market exchange rate and transparent pricing helped reduce conversion costs significantly. These savings added up fast especially given the volume of cross-border payments they make every month.

What drove the biggest impact for Conjointly was how Wise Business was much cheaper to send and receive money, had access to accounts in multiple currencies, and even offered seamless ACH payment capabilities which enabled faster and more cost-effective transfers to and from US bank accounts.

With Wise Business, Conjointly achieved 30% savings on currency conversion fees compared to the traditional bank that they were using.

As Nik puts it, “ACH payments is where we saved quite a bit of money. If our bank charged us USD 20, because Wise Business has ACH support, it was just around USD 2 for each payment. This means that receiving money from Americans and sending them money is much cheaper. We easily saved more than a thousand dollars a year on this.”

Nik also noted how Wise’s support stood out in high-stress moments.

“There were a couple of cases of fraud and a bunch of unfamiliar transactions. And after pointing out that they were wrongful transactions, there were refunds in the end.” he said.

That kind of responsiveness helped build trust at a time when every second, and every cent, mattered. What started as a simple fix became their ideal way to manage global business transactions.

Daily business finance made simpler with Wise

Since adopting Wise Business, Conjointly has transformed the way it manages global payments and multi-currency operations.

• Multi-currency support: With Wise’s multi-currency setup, they can hold and use different currencies easily; whether it's paying suppliers, sorting out local taxes, or managing global expenses, it all happens in one place.
• Sending money: With a remote team working from across 17 countries, Conjointly uses Wise Business to run global payroll through batch payments, sending salaries in local currencies like USD, AUD, MYR, CAD, SGD, JPY and more. Paying in local currency keeps tax filing and compliance straightforward, while also avoiding surprise conversion fees for employees.
• Receiving money: Wise Business makes it easy for Conjointly to receive payments in EUR, GBP, and especially USD, their primary revenue stream, without hidden fees or delays.
• Wise Business Card: The Wise Card is another essential tool used by around 10 to 15 employees who use it daily for everything from software subscriptions and accounting tools to meals and transit during international travel. Whether they’re purchasing a plugin or grabbing lunch in another timezone, the card is built for how they spend.

"We travelled to places like Thailand, Taiwan, Albania, and Georgia, countries where the currencies aren’t widely used. But even there, paying with the Wise Business card was easy. We never had to worry about currency conversion."

• Accounting software integration: Back at the headquarters, all of this syncs into Xero. But it’s not just plug-and-play. Xero requires that outgoing payments are logged in the same currency they’re sent in, so if you're paying a contractor in MYR, your system needs to reflect that exactly. With Wise Business, Conjointly can instantly convert USD to the correct local currency and send payments, all while keeping books clean and audits simple.
• Two-Factor Authentication: Wise Business has two-factor authentication (2FA) which adds an important layer of protection during user login and payment approvals. This security feature ensures that only authorized users can access the account and authorize transactions, helping to safeguard sensitive financial operations and build confidence in the platform’s reliability.
• Activity dashboard: Each day starts with a routine that now feels refreshingly modern: checking whether clients have paid, confirming outgoing transfers, and reviewing balances, all on one dashboard, with a single login. There’s no patchwork, no tabs, no toggling. Just a single, consistent way to manage money across continents.

Nik and his team are not chasing payments anymore, but rather focus more on building, expanding, and moving forward as a company.

The outcome:

30%	8x	15+
savings on currency conversion	savings due to ACH payments	currencies supported for payroll

From cost savings to operational speed, the switch to Wise Business brought measurable improvements where it mattered most. What success with Wise Business looked like:

• Reduced currency conversion fees by up to 30%, saving substantial costs.
• Transfers from USD were 8x cheaper due to availability of ACH payment, which wasn't offered by their traditional bank.
• Enabled fast, seamless cross-border payments, improving operational flow.
• Managed multiple currencies securely through a trusted platform.
• Received timely and effective support from Wise’s customer service team.
• Enhanced security with two-factor authentication for account access and payments.

What began as a local operational challenge in the Netherlands led Nik and his team to reassess the way they managed money across borders. The result was a fundamental shift in their financial setup with streamlined processes, lower costs, and fewer delays.

The real advantage? Their financial operations could now match the pace of their business goals. In an increasingly global market, where speed and scale go hand in hand, that kind of agility isn't just helpful, it’s a competitive edge.

Transaction speed and cost claimed depends on individual circumstances and may not be available for all transactions. Information provided as of 29 July 2025

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Cutting a clear path through the business banking maze

Wise Business is built for modern teams navigating cross-border complexity. From paying international vendors and running multi-country payroll to integrating seamlessly with accounting platforms, Wise simplifies global business finance. It helps remove the inefficiencies that hold teams back so they can stay focused on growth.

A Wise Business account allows users to can send, receive, and hold in multiple currencies. Experience hassle-free global transactions by transacting like a local business. Here's what you get with a Wise Business account:

• Free to register — Hold and convert between 40+ currencies. Send to 140+ countries
• Debit cards for you and your team, which you can use in 150+ countries
• Multi-user access for team members, with ways to control and manage permissions
• Pay up to 1,000 recipients at once with the Wise batch payments feature
• Integrate with your favourite cloud accounting solutions like Xero, Quickbooks, and more
• Get account details to receive in 8+ currencies for a one-time fee of 65 AUD

Sign up for the Wise Business account! 🚀

This general advice does not take into account your objectives, financial circumstances or needs and you should consider if it is appropriate for you.