wamo is a financial management platform that is making money matters easier for businesses across Malta. But what exactly does that mean? We’ve asked two different people with two very different businesses to talk about the wamo features that have made a positive impact for them.
Budget friendly, time-saving fintech
For small businesses, keeping costs down is, of course, of utmost importance. The costs of renting or owning a POS machine can really add up, as can the charges for taking card payments with them. These costs are a thorn in the side of small businesses who feel they are being micro-charged at every turn. The other important factor is speed - when you are small and aware of where every penny is going, it can be infuriating to have to wait for payments to clear or be guesstimating how much is in your business account at any given time.
A wamo business account comes with multiple payment options for both taking and making payments while wamo’s QR code functionality removes the need for any sort of hardware to take payments. At Club Sushi in St. Julian’s, wamo QRsare placed on tables where customers use their smartphone cameras to scan and pay (no download needed). We asked Matthew, manager at Club Sushi if this was a cheaper, faster solution for them.
“It’s faster, yes definitely - through Apple Pay it’s instant. Cheaper? If everyone paid us through wamo it would streamline our work and make it easier to close our end of shift, instead of spending time cashing up."
It's like getting an e-mail back in 1995
Switching to a new digital platform can be a real hassle for a business. It can take staff a while to get their heads around it and can ultimately feel like more trouble than it’s worth. We asked Matthew how hard it was to introduce the wamo platform into the restaurant.
“The wamo team came in and set it up in under an hour, then they trained us to use it. Then gave us some breathing space before following up. They check-in weekly. If there is ever a hiccup they are there straight away to sort it out. It's a brilliant service.”
And how did the staff adapt?
Look,” chuckles Matthew, “to be honest in the beginning we were sceptical, the staff especially were like: Can it really be that easy? Are you sure we got paid, we don’t have a receipt or anything?! It was a bit like getting an e-mail in 1995!”
The difficulty of setting up a business bank account - solved!
Thanks to the greylisting, the process of opening a traditional business bank account in Malta can be a serious hassle. Aside from the 10-25 pages of forms to be printed, filled out, scanned and sent back taking up dozens of hours of time, there’s the waiting (sometimes months) not to mention the strong possibility of being refused at the end of it all anyway.
Patrick, owner of a marketing company based in Malta became fed-up with the traditional banking route to a business account. He was pleasantly surprised to discover wamo.
“The process was incredibly easy and smooth because everything was digital and intelligent. It took me hardly any time. So I stopped trying with the banks and went for wamo.”
Just like a business bank account, but better
Patrick uses wamo as his main corporate business account - paying his own salary, sending invoices and receiving payments into the wamo platform. “I can give 100 per cent positive feedback here.” He adds: "The whole structure and flow of the product is very intuitive, very easy to understand. The recently added statement function is great too - I could immediately send everything to my bookkeeping company to check in no time at all. It’s really easy to transfer money to suppliers and to send payment requests to clients - I just fill in their details and IBAN and that’s it.”
Limitless accounts are a game-changer
Unlike regular banks where everything is housed under one account, wamo has a sub-account feature which allows the account holder to create a limitless number of sub-accounts. Each sub-account has its own IBAN, and you can pick a currency, link them to a Visa debit card (virtual or physical) and use it as a separate account for whatever you like. “The sub-account function is incredibly cool for me because I have a number of ventures and business partners - I just have to send them the correct IBAN per project and venture and from the dashboard, I know immediately which amount is allocated to which project and person which is incredibly helpful.”
Would both these businesses recommend wamo?
Matthew again: “Absolutely, especially in the F&B industry, it just saves time. When people pay with cash you are there at the end of the day counting and recounting and there’s always the possibility of human error. Even with credit cards, there’s that extra bit of work - when the chit comes out we need to keep a copy to present to accounts. WIth wamo it’s all in the system already - at the end of the week or month you just request a statement. Done."
Patrick doesn’t hesitate either: "My main recommendation would be to use wamo instead of trying to open a regular business bank account in Malta. It’s a really quick and convenient way of getting a business account and the support is just excellent - personal and consistent and really this makes a huge positive impact.”
With a raft of features to boast of including multiple payment options, team Visa cards (both virtual and physical) and even a contactless menu for F&B businesses, wamo seems to be covering all the bases with a speed and adaptability that will be hard to beat. To learn more check wamo.