Meeting and event invoice processing technology firm Eved in December added a feature that allows for immediate payment of event deposits.
"We heard from our customers that they needed to be able to put true deposits down on spaces [for future events] and to wire money faster," said Eved senior director of client solutions Angie Costales. "So we developed what I like to call the 'pay now' feature. As long as the request is submitted by 6 p.m. Eastern Time, they can select the immediate payment option when uploading an invoice, and we will disperse the funds to that supplier that day."
Eved is not a payment provider and does not make any payments without client money in hand. How that works: Eved customers earn rebates on their spend. If a client chooses, Eved will hold back a designated portion of their rebate in a bank account, which Eved then can use for any immediate pay requests.
"Eved is not fronting the money on the company's behalf," Costales said. "That is important. We have money in an account that is the company's money, and when they say they want to pay somebody [the same day], we have a little bit of reserve and we can pay people with it."
As with regular Eved invoice processing, the company offers clients insight into the details of that spend, including particulars of expenses on rooms and audiovisual and food and beverage services.
Expanding to China
Meanwhile, the company launched in China in April, with an office and Mandarin-speaking staff located in Changsha, Hunan, after hearing from clients that it was a very desirable but challenging market. Eved spent about 18 months working with the Chinese government to set up a local payment processor, enabling it to process payments in China as easily as if the invoices were being paid in the U.S. or the U.K., or anywhere else Eved operates.
"Certain markets have complex regulatory or government mandates for how money can move within a country," Costales explained. "The other piece is being able to operate from a U.S.-based company but trying to pay or receive payment in another currency in these markets is hard to do legally. We did a lot of information gathering on behalf of our customers because China can be a very large market for people's programs."
Lastly, in March, Eved launched a new budget module. The company met with both current and prospective clients, as well as those that the company didn't think would be interested—"to try to get unbiased information"—and found that companies wanted a way to automate the budget approval process.
"[Traditionally,] it's a very manual process in the M&E industry," Costales said. "People are jazzed about [the new module] because they can automate their approval process. It's one less email they have to send. They can fill it out, pick the approver, submit, and it routes to the next person if someone is out of the office."
The budget module also allows clients to input cost estimates and have them updated to actual spend figures as soon as the invoices are entered into the payment system. Costales said the module can be used as a standalone product.