Mass payment,  sometimes known as mass payouts or batch payments, is a way of paying multiple recipients all at the same time. They are often facilitated by either a payment provider or a payment provider’s own platform. 

They’re especially popular with businesses as it allows them to pay multiple employees and suppliers quickly and easily. 

How do they work? 

This will depend from company to company, but most mass payment providers will require a spreadsheet including all the payee information. This will likely be their name, the payment amount and the bank details.  If you’re making mass payments abroad or in different currencies, this information will also be there. We’ll go into more detail on this below. 

Platforms like our RationalFX mass payment platform will provide you with an Excel template you can save to your computer. 

You then upload that spreadsheet to the platform or share it with your payments provider. All those payments will be made simultaneously. 

How do you pay for a mass payment?

Which provider you have will depend on how you do this. But it’s most likely you’ll either pay via debit/credit card like you were making an online payment in an e-store. Or you will pay via bank transfer. 

If you’re paying in multiple currencies, you may have to make a number of bank transfers depending on how the payment provider deals with international payments. However, this will still be far, far less payments than you’d have to make without using a mass payments platform or provider. 

Can you make mass payments abroad? 

There are a number of mass payment platforms and providers that specialise in international mass payments. These will have differing limits on recipients and currencies. 

For example, our RationalFX mass pay platform lets you pay up to 1,000 recipients in over 50 currencies, all from one platform, in one batch.

International transfers often come with extra fees as well as admin and paperwork to navigate any red tape. International transfer providers will have built up relationships with banks and payment processors abroad to help navigate these. By using an international mass pay platform you’re able to take advantage of all of these relationships at once. 

What are the advantages? 

You save time

It goes without saying, but if you have a payroll of 50 employees and you need to individually transfer all their wages, it’s going to take some time. Now imagine that when they’re all over the world. Or if your business starts growing and you have to pay 100, 500 or 1,000.

Most platforms and providers will allow you to schedule recurring payments too. So you only need to upload the data once then just set a date. 

You save money

Domestic bank transfers can still incur fees but this is especially the case if you’re sending money abroad. Banks overseas will likely take commission or charge transfer fees and if you’re sending money to multiple different countries these can really add up. But, as we mentioned above, international payment providers will have relationships in place to help navigate these and you’ll just have to pay one small fee instead. 

Sound like it could be useful? You can read all about the RationalFX platform and organise a free demo by emailing our team at [email protected].