Crossing borders, balancing books_ the finance leader's guide to international growth

You're listening to the GlobalWorkforce podcast. Each week, weinterview an industry expert to divedeeper into the world of managing aglobal workforce and discuss the bigstrategic challenges that you're goingto encounter along the way. Thisepisode is brought to you byOmnipresent, the global employmentplatform that allows you to employanyone, anywhere without having toset up an entity.

Designed, built, and supported byglobal employment experts,Omnipresent takes care of yourinternational employees andcontractors. So you don't have to worryabout payroll, HR, or complianceissues, making it easier, faster, andsafer to expand internationally.

Today, we're diving into one of themost complex and exciting topics forgrowing businesses, global expansionthrough the lens of finance.

I'm your host, Kaylee. And today, we'retalking about what it really takes forfinance teams to navigate internationalgrowth from regulatory challenges andtax complexity to hiring the right talentacross borders.

Starting me today are two brilliantguests who bring a wealth of insightfrom both the finance and technologysides of the story.

First, we have Caitlin Browner, partnerconsultant at Xero. Caitlin brings deepexperience in accounting and businessconsulting, and she's worked withcompanies navigating exactly thesekinds of growth journeys. She haspreviously held positions at GrantThornton Australia, where she servedas a senior associate.

Caitlin holds a bachelor of businesscommerce from the University ofTechnology Sydney and is a member ofchartered accounts Australia and NewZealand. Caitlin, thanks for being here.

Hi. Very happy to be here.

Great to have you. And we're alsojoined by Catherine Kellett, CFO at Omnipresent.

Catherine has extensive strategic andoperational finance experience havingserved as CFO for global software as aservice businesses and brings a uniqueblend of private equity strategy andentrepreneurial insight.

Catherine is known for her institutionalexperience combined withentrepreneurial passion, contributingsignificantly to Omnipresent's missionof helping businesses hire and manageremote teams globally. So glad to haveyou here, Catherine.

Oh, thank you very much for invitingme and, very much looking forward tothis podcast.

Excited to dive in. Really excited tojump into the conversation. Whenbusinesses start expanding into newmarkets, it's often a major milestone,but it's one that comes with a lot ofcomplexity, especially for financeteams. Whether it's navigatingunfamiliar regulations, setting up theright legal structures or managingfinancial risk across borders, there's alot to get right.

So I want to begin by talking aboutfinance as it relates to globalexpansion.

Expanding into new markets is anincredibly exciting opportunity, but italso comes with a range of challengesfrom navigating regulatoryrequirements to understand culturalnuances.

From both of your perspectives, whatare the most significant hurdlesbusinesses face when expandinginternationally, particularly in terms ofentity structure, compliance, and riskmanagement? And chime in if I'vemissed anything under thosecategories.

Maybe we'll start with you, Catherine.

Yeah.

I think, one of the biggest challenges isactually being able to expand quicklyand flexibly.

When you are going into these newmarkets, there's a lot of investigationthat you need to do. And in the areasthat you've spoken about, as well asperhaps, resources as well and, justgenerally the overall sort of operationalstructure. So I think that would alwaysbe your first challenge is how quicklycan you get into the market and howquickly can you set up, in the marketthat you want to be in.

Yeah. Absolutely. I was gonna saysimilar thing, as well as, like, I guess,being flexible and being able to makethose decisions quickly, but also, Iguess, that balance of having enoughcontrols in place to be able to managethat risk.

Right?

And and, honestly, just like it it's such abig unknown. There are so manyunknowns when you're entering, anew, or in in any area, but particularlywith global expansion, you may nothave that much experience in those,foreign countries. So, it's I think thebiggest challenge is the unknowns, andyou're just likely to miss something ifyou try to do it all by yourself.

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Andso to continue with you for a second,Caitlin, as you're alluding to financialoperations become significantly morecomplex when you're scaling acrossborders. And so how can businessesthink about using technology likeaccounting software and automationtools to manage financial reportingcompliance and day to day operationsmore effectively?

Yeah. I mean, I guess it, it obviouslydoes become far more complex, so itbecomes even more important forhaving timely and accurate informationat your fingertips.

Of course, I am an accountant, so I willinsist that accounting is the backboneof any business. Maybe not the mostexciting part, but importantnonetheless.

So that accounting data drives so manykey business decisions that I think it'sreally important that we can leveragetechnology, to help us stay on top of allof that. So, you know, having, makingsure that the software is easy to use,easy to stay compliant, but also, easyto be able to monitor trends, havingsort of built in automation, utilizingeither AI or machine learning or beingable to program the software so thatit's more automated.

And I think really importantly, havingintegration with other softwares orother apps so you can build your ownapp stack as it was because eachbusiness is different and unique andhas different, needs. So being able tointegrate all those softwares to be ableto reduce of time lag or or, you know,human error. If you're having to type itinto multiple softwares in, you know,different places, you're likely to end upwith errors, and it just takes a lotlonger. So I think making sure that wehave all of those integrations and allthe data flowing, seamlesslythroughout, is gonna make sure thatyou do have all the information youneed at your fingertips when you needit. Like Catherine said, being able tomake those you know, being able tomove flexibly and quickly, you need tohave the right information, in order todo that.

I love that. Thank you for going into somuch detail. That makes a ton ofsense. That's really helpful.

Kathryn, to jump back to you, what aresome of the biggest challengesbusinesses face when managingrevenue and cost across multiplemarkets? Outer currency fluctuations,market specific pricing strategies, coststructures, impact financial stability.

Yeah.

Yeah. These are some sort of specific,items that we're focusing on today. Imean, there were other other areas,but just following up on what Caitlinsaid, I mean, I am an extensive userand experienced user of Xero, and I'veimplemented Xero in multiplecompanies and across multiplemarkets.

Xero really supports with these sort ofrequirements that we have and thesesort of specific complexities, but just togo into sort of responding to thosespecific points, so, with multi currencytransactions and fluctuations, thiscreates complexity.

Exchange rates can significantlyinfluence and impact revenue andcosts, and managing multiple,international bank accounts addscomplexity as well to the financialmanagement and tracking.

In Omnipresent, for example, we have adedicated treasury manager becauseof the complexity of our bankingtransactions and arrangements, So youcan see that, very quickly, even thoughyou might be a reasonably smallcompany, if you are in multiple,markets jurisdictions, there will besignificant complexity, built aroundthat.

On market specific pricing, differentmarkets may require different pricingstrategies. One market might tolerate aprice of X, whereas another marketwould only tolerate a price of Y. And soyou have to tailor the pricing to eachmarket, while maintaining profitability,which can be challenging if you've gotfixed costs coming from differentlocations.

Diverse cost structures can vary aswell significantly across markets, dueto factors such as labour costs,regulations, local suppliers.

Managing these diverse cost structuresand ensuring efficiencies is alsochallenging.

Overarching all of these challenges,though, we've already touched on it, isthe local compliance and legalrequirement, and that we need toensure that we are obviouslycompliant, not just with the local, butinternational regulations as well, whichis really the priority concern, whensetting up in different markets.

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. It's it'sso fun to dive into this. And I think akey theme of so much that we talkabout at Omnipresent is just the, thecomplexity of this global compliance.So thanks for expanding on that.

So talking about banking instance,infrastructure payment systems, theydiffer widely across countries.

What are some of the key banking andpayment challenges that businessesencounter when expanding globallyand how can they ensure smoothfinancial transactions? And Caitlin, Iknow you've already alluded to sort ofthe power of integrations and thinkingthrough your platform and how itsupports you navigating this, but I'dlove to hear more, about that.

Yeah. I mean, I think banking is such achallenging thing because whilst yes, Ithink in this day and age, you know,traveling around the world, transferringfunds can be relatively easy.

However, I think when you're actuallysetting up a business in a new country,and there are, you know, a variety ofregulatory requirements around havinga local bank account, whether youneed someone to actually physically goin and set up that bank account, or canyou opt for a, you know, sort of thesemore digital banks?

Is it possible to have those sort ofdigital banks set up so that you don'tmaybe need to have, you know,someone on the ground to manage,those, you know, the bankingoperations?

And does that also help with, I guess,that integration piece?

You know, I, you know, from a personalperspective, recently moved to the UK,and I still haven't set up a physicalbank account because it was toochallenging to be able to have myaddress and my, you know,employment records and all of the stuffthat you needed. So I ended up goingfor a digital bank that made it mucheasier to set up, and navigate that sideof things. So I think the biggest thingthere is that it obviously is gonnadepend on the region that you're in,and what the requirements are of thecountry that you're trying to set thebusiness up in.

Obviously, like, as Catherine alluded to,sort of the FX challenges are probablygonna be one of the bigger issues andunderstanding how you're going to,how is cash gonna flow? Becauseobviously, cash is the bread and butterof any business.

So how are you gonna get money intothe country, but also how the profit'sgoing to possibly leave that country aswell. If that's what you're looking to do.

Yeah. So much nuance and, and noone size fits all answer for any of this.And so to push maybe a little bit moreon kind of the tax side of that, taxesbeing obviously a hugely complexaspect of this global expansionjourney.

What should businesses beconsidering and how can they balancemanaging compliance and controllingcosts from a tax perspective?

And I'll maybe stay with you, Caitlin, fora bit longer.

Yeah. I think I think I mean, tax isobviously huge.

I think, you know, if we just lift off someof them, you know, you've got incometax, local service tax, sales tax, tariffs,unemployment taxes.

And then you've got to consider notonly the tax rates that you're paying,but, when or how do you file those taxreturns?

Is tax required to be permittedthroughout the year? Is it just a onceoff payment? Because, again, that'sgonna impact your cash flows.

Is transfer pricing an issue, and is thatactually gonna have flow on effectsback to the head office? It's not justabout the tax implications in, thatforeign jurisdiction. It's actually howdoes that flow back, to your, you know,headquarters.

I mean, I actually work for a smallbusiness on the side, and we looked atexpanding into Rwanda for outsourcingopportunities.

But, ultimately, that became too hardbecause as we looked into it, thecomplexity and the tax implications justbecame too hard, and the costs justoutweighed benefits.

So I think when we're really trying tolook at, how do we manage andbalance that, I think it's about makingsure you have a trusted adviser andyou have someone to lean on.

You know, with global expansion, youneed to get the best advice, and I thinkyou need to get it really early becausethere are some decisions, like, around,you know, how you set up the businessentity structure wise that are verydifficult to reverse once you've madeonce you've committed to thosedecisions.

And it may not be a big deal whenyou're small, but as you grow, andhopefully that's, you know, whatbusinesses are trying to do is grow andget bigger, those smaller cracks tend togrow with you. So, yeah, I think, youknow, from my experience, we endedup talking to our accountant, inAustralia who connected us withsomeone in Rwanda to haveconversations about all of that. And itwas incredible, the the things that I justhadn't thought of when it comes to thetax or the banking, they were able tohelp us with.

But, honestly, I actually I didn't knowabout Omnipresent and those types ofbusinesses, and I I probably wouldhave gone with, you know, down thatpath as well, maybe in conjunction withmy accountant because it just madethings a lot simpler. I was actually reallyexcited when I found out about whoOmnipresent were and what they did.

So if we have a look at expandingagain, I suspect that that's the routewe'll be going down.

Yeah. Thanks for expanding on that somuch. And it's, it's really cool to seejust also how these tools work so welltogether. And I love that Catherine is asuper user of Xero and there's a lot ofsynergy.

So yeah, thanks for sort of expandingand also mentioning just the earlier youcan start thinking about this, the betterand the easier it makes it to build thatfoundation.

That kind of ties into my next questionmore around the team setup elementsand, and thinking about balancingcentralized versus decentralized team.So some companies choose tocentralize their financial operations.Others give more autonomy to localteams.

Catherine, what are the benefits anddrawbacks of each approach and howcan businesses strike the right balancebetween centralized financial controland this local expertise?

Yeah, it's a very interesting question,actually. I mean, one of the things isthe power of, software and, cloudbased software and Xero beingobviously the market leader in theaccounting space with all theintegrations that Xero now has as well.But, this is more of a sort of humanquestion, and actually we we spoke toRobert Half about this because they'vedone a lot of, research in this area. Andwhat we sort of concluded was that,you know, a centralised team gives youthe consistency, greater control, andand probably cost efficiencies, but itcan be slow to respond to local needs.A decentralized team offers the agilityand the on the ground knowledge,especially useful when whennavigating complex local regulatory orcurrency fluctuation.

But the key really is, I suppose, findingthe hybrid, the centralized transactionalwork, versus perhaps the empoweredregional teams to make strategicdecisions.

It'll also depend probably where yourother team members are, such as yoursales team, perhaps your productteam, your innovation team, you know,those sorts of teams as well, perhapswhere they're located depending onwhere finance needs to partner moreclosely with those teams. So it is a verycomplex, question and decision, and itwill be very much based on the size ofthe individual company, the goals andobjectives of the individual company.

Overarching this though, again, is isthis governance, keeps, popping up.There's no way around it.

And we need to ensure that we are,you know, compliant and fully, meetingall the regulation requirementswherever we sort of end up basing ourteams, how we end up splitting ourteams. And, cloud based toolsobviously do enable us to be able tohave a mix of perhaps a decentralized,centralized version of a team, thatperhaps we weren't able to have, someyears ago.

Yeah. Super, super interesting. And somaybe to continue along that theme,whether or not a business is going for acentralized or a decentralizedapproach, they want the best talent.

What should these globalizingbusinesses consider when it comes totalent availability, compensation andbenefits, legal compliance, culturaldifferences, what should be on theirmind as they're building these teams?

Yeah. Again, another interestingconversation and something weactually discussed directly with RobertHalf as well.

And we were aligned on some keyfacts.

Hiring financial talent internationallymeans more than just finding the rightskills. It is about that local knowledgethat we've talked about, that legalcompliance, but also the cultural fit aswell for the organization.

Every market has its own expectationson, compensation and benefits andmissteps here can cause reputationalor legal risks. So we do need to be verycareful with that and have a fullunderstanding of what those sort ofcompensation and benefits packagesshould look like.

Working with local recruiters andadvisers does help, and we knowRobert Half have a huge internationalpresence, and, you know, that theywould be able to advise in this area,especially when it comes to sort ofcontractual negotiations, setting up ofpayrolls, and, making sure we have allthe right sort of tech requirements inplace.

Also, I think, an employer's brandingplays a huge role. People want to seehow your values show up in your localcontext. So, you know, we we atOmnipresent, we recruit all over theworld, as well for for our clients, butalso for ourselves.

And I think, you know, the brands thatwe carry nowadays, the clients that wework with, carry an awful lot of kudos.And, we have employees that areabsolutely delighted to work with thesebrands that we work with.

Yeah. I love that a hundred percent.And maybe the final piece of that, sortof hiring flow is that onboardingmoment. So after you found the righttalent, how can companies onboardfinance teams effectively and kind ofcoming back to this theme of makingsure that they understand both thelocal market nuance and the business'soverarching financial strategy?

Yeah. Well, recognizing that, not justfinance teams are becomingincreasingly increasingly transient, youknow, they feel like they can workanywhere and that is the case.

You know, I I have a team and we arevery globally, orientated, So, you know,it's crucial that we do get the balanceof local onboarding as well as globalalignment.

We need clear training for new hires,both on, sort of internal systems andstrategy, but also again on the contextof local tech, compliance and reportingrules.

We found success by pairing globalonboarding, with market specific,sessions as well, and again using cloudtools to keep things consistent, andthere's a lot more options around sortof cloud based training and supportnowadays.

The other way as well of sort of really,sort of onboarding new team membersand embedding them especially in thissort of remote environment is, creatingsort of informal mentoring links as wellbetween local and global teammembers, which will help embed theculture and also enable regularfeedback loops to ensure onboardingevolves as the business, grows.

But now there are lots of sort ofinnovative things nowadays that wecan do with, onboarding andintegrating new, employees whereverthey are in the world, which is reallyexciting.

And, you know, really, really enhancesour, global sort of market opportunities.

Yeah. A hundred percent. I just wentthrough that and onboarded withOmnipresent in Toronto. You all are in,in the UK and it is really, really cool tosee how smooth that process can benow, and how embedded you can feelreally quickly. And so maybe a finalpoint for you, Kathryn, just around therole of finance teams, like they're nolonger just responsible for reportingnumbers and they're playing strategicrole in business expansion. So how canfinance leaders, ensure that they'resupporting the company's growth whilemaintaining compliance and mitigatingrisk?

Yeah. So, finance as a function,particularly in this scaling business is,is a very fulfilling experience. I myselfhave, you know, done a few roles nowand, this is where I prefer to sort ofoperate and exist.

You become integrated into thebusiness and you will be involved in allaspects of the business, certainlypartnering with the business.

The role of finance in a scalingbusiness really does have twofundamental deliverables though, andthat is, relevant financial performanceinformation and cash risk management,as we've touched on before, andCaitlin's already mentioned the cash,side of things.

Finance needs to provide relevantbusiness financial information, to keystakeholders, both internal andexternal, because invariably, probablythe business that you work in will have,investors nowadays.

And by this sort of information, I mean,we must provide information thatenables the process of decisionmaking and support the business.

So we have to be more creative andlisten to what the business needs sothat we can provide that in informationthat enables the business to achieve itsgoals and objectives.

For example, you know, giving thebusiness confidence to be able togrow.

Now the key risk really for a scalingbusiness is cash.

Finance are responsible for managingcash, to an agreed plan, so we willhave a plan or a budget in place, andthat will include how we're going tomanage the cash and sort of expectedcash numbers on a rolling basis.

So this consists of, you know, revenuecosts, cash collection and cashpayment, And that is really the cashmanagement strategy.

But if this strategy is off plan, this is acritical risk for the business andfinance are responsible for ensuringthe business is aware of its customercash position at any point in time soremedial activities can be taken swiftlyand timely.

So this is something that we are reallyconscious of, and we do consciouslymanage it, within Omnipresent, but alsothis would be something if I was sort ofsharing my knowledge, and experiencewith people entering into, scalingbusinesses, this is what I would besaying.

But also in a scaling business, thescope of finance is broad andextensive, and I actually could go onabout this all day, what we do.

But for the purposes of this podcast,I'm sticking to the specific point, thatwe're discussing today.

Yeah. Thanks for thanks for noting thatthough. I think that is super interesting.The scope is huge and it's critically itcritically supports all of these elementsof a functioning global business.

This has brought us already to our lastquestion. I will jump to you first, Caitlin,and then we'll wrap with you,Catherine.

I would love to hear just based on yourexperience, what are the biggestlessons businesses should take awayfrom this, from your learnings, when itcomes to managing financialoperations and talent acquisition innew markets?

Yeah. I mean, I think I think the biggestthing is is you don't know what youdon't know. Right?

And this it becomes more evident thatthe more global your, reach goes.

You know, I think it's, Confucius thatsays, if you're the smartest person inthe room, then you're in the wrongroom.

And I think that's that's very, very keyto this. I think you need to be able tolean on on trusted advisers or peoplewho've come before you or people thatare experts in this in this field, so thatyou don't, you know, make hugemistakes at the beginning.

And so that you have I guess you'reequipped with the knowledge as soonas possible so that you can startmaking, those right decisions and soyou can move quickly.

And I think probably the last thingwould be that in order to make thosegood decisions and to make themquickly, you need to have the rightinformation at the right time. So make itas easy as possible for yourself to haveaccurate data at your fingertips,whether that's, you know well, in thisday and age, that is really throughtechnology, leveraging accountingsoftware and integrations so that youdon't have to do it all manually becauseI don't think many people have excessresources at their disposal either. So,trying to, you know, make it as easy aspossible for your business to get thatinformation so you can make thosegood decisions.

A hundred percent over to you,Catherine, same question, just to, to tiethis all up, based on all of yourexperience, biggest lessons forbusinesses, to take away managingfinancial operations and talentacquisition in new markets.

Yeah. Well, implementing a global,financial, management tool is alwaysthe starting point and that being Xero,of course.

Then, I think, again, it's it's going allabout this, balance between meetingthe local regulatory, and compliancerequirement and having that in incountry knowledge, and what the costand control is of the wider sort ofresource team, whether you go for thatmix of centralised or decentralised, andwhat that means for servicing localoperations.

Also around this sort of financialcomplexities, comes with managingnew financial operations in newmarkets or in multiple jurisdictions, aswe've touched on, the challenges ofmanaging the FX fluctuations, thecomplex banking structures, the othersort of cost space, managing the cash,making sure the flow of cash aroundthe different entities and jurisdictions istimely and effective.

And then, again, back to my sort offinal point and overarching point is that,compliance and, regulatoryrequirements of, of local markets ornew, jurisdictions that you're enteringinto.

Yep. That makes sense. Thank you both so much. That was an incredibly insightful conversation. And I thinkreally interesting to just see a fewrecurring themes jump out right away.

From what both of you have shared and for everyone listening or watching,we hope that this gives you a clearpicture of the finance challenges andopportunities that come with scalinginternationally and stay tuned. We willbe sharing the full episode link soonand as always thank you for being partof the conversation.

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