Currency support built around your ordering and payment cycle.

The challenge: exposure between order and settlement

Most importers agree pricing with an overseas supplier weeks or months before they actually pay. In that window, exchange rates move — sometimes in your favour, sometimes against you. If your supplier invoices in US dollars, euros, Chinese yuan or another currency and you convert sterling only when the invoice falls due, your landed cost is effectively a moving target. For a wholesaler working on thin percentage margins across high volumes, even a small adverse move can turn a profitable order into a break-even one.

Layer on top of that the practical friction of paying overseas suppliers at all: comparing bank exchange rates that are rarely transparent, chasing confirmation that a payment has actually arrived, and reconciling foreign-currency invoices against a sterling bank statement that shows a different number every time because the rate used was never disclosed clearly.

How TimeFX helps

We work with importers and wholesalers to set up payments that pay suppliers directly in their own currency, avoiding the double conversion that happens when a supplier invoices in dollars, you pay in sterling, and they convert back to dollars on receipt — a round trip that usually costs more than a single conversion and is often built quietly into their pricing.

Where your ordering pattern is predictable — the same supplier, similar order sizes, a known lead time between order and payment — a forward contract can let you lock in today's exchange rate for a payment due in one, three or six months. That doesn't remove currency movement from the world; it removes it from your specific purchase order, so the cost you quoted your own customers stays intact regardless of what happens to the pound in the meantime.

Typical payment patterns we see

Importers and wholesalers we work with usually fall into one of a few patterns: regular container-load orders from a small number of core suppliers, paid on standard trade terms; more frequent smaller orders across a wider supplier base, often batched into weekly or fortnightly payment runs; or a mix of the two, with a handful of strategic suppliers on negotiated terms and a long tail of smaller, ad-hoc purchases. Each pattern points to a different mix of spot payments, forward cover and batching — there is no single right answer, and we would rather understand your actual pattern than sell you a one-size-fits-all product.

A worked scenario (illustrative)

Consider a wholesaler that agrees a purchase order with a supplier in China, priced in US dollars, with payment due 60 days later on delivery. Between order and payment, sterling weakens against the dollar. If the wholesaler had already quoted a retail price to their own customers based on the exchange rate at order date, that weakening eats directly into their margin on that order. A forward contract booked at order date, for settlement in 60 days, would have fixed the dollar cost in sterling terms from day one — removing that particular source of uncertainty from the calculation, whatever the market does in between. This is illustrative only: whether a forward is right for a given order depends on your cash flow, your appetite for missing out on favourable moves, and your typical order size.

What to prepare before applying

• A list of the currencies and countries your main suppliers invoice in.
• Typical order sizes and how far in advance you agree pricing versus paying.
• Rough monthly or quarterly payment volumes across all suppliers.
• Your company registration details and a short description of what you trade.

We will confirm exact documentation requirements as part of standard onboarding checks, but having this ready speeds up the conversation considerably.