Payments research
Glide Research
Glide Research maps payment rails, FX corridors, and banking access so travellers, freelancers, and treasury teams can move money without legacy wire tax.
3,154 articles
Latest articles by Glide Research
- Learn · UK payment rails·10 min
CHAPS vs BACS: UK payment rails compared
Compare CHAPS, Bacs Direct Credit, and Faster Payments by settlement model, timing, limits, published bank fees, cut-off times, and business use case.
- Learn · Cross-border costs·11 min
Cross-border payment fees: where the money actually goes
A defensive breakdown of sender, intermediary, receiving, FX, card, platform, and stablecoin costs, with a sourced $10,000 comparison across rail types.
- Learn · Payment timing·11 min
How long do international payments actually take?
Compare international wire, ACH-style, SEPA instant, local real-time, and stablecoin timing, including cut-offs, last-mile credit, holidays, and compliance holds.
- Learn · Getting paid·11 min
How to receive money internationally as a business
How to issue international receiving instructions, handle SWIFT, IBAN and purpose data, respond to holds, choose conversion treatment, and match receipts to invoices.
- Learn · Payment operations·11 min
What is payment orchestration?
How payment orchestration routes transactions across providers, where failover helps, what remains processor-specific, and when the added complexity is justified.
- Learn · Money rails·10 min
What are payment rails? A comparison of how money actually moves
A concise comparison of ACH, wires and SWIFT, SEPA, UK rails, and India’s UPI, IMPS, NEFT, and RTGS systems, with a framework for choosing among them.
- Learn · B2B payments·12 min
B2B payments: a practical guide for businesses paying and getting paid
An end-to-end B2B payments operating model covering commercial obligations, counterparty onboarding, invoices, approvals, rails, treasury, settlement, and reconciliation.
- Learn · Billing operations·13 min
How recurring payments work: subscriptions, billing, and authorization
How recurring card and ACH payments move from consent to billing, collection, retries, dunning, cancellation, and reconciliation, with scoped US regulatory guidance.
- Learn · Payment direction·12 min
Push vs pull payments: what’s the difference and why it matters
How payer-initiated push payments differ from payee-initiated pull payments across wires, ACH, instant transfers, direct debit, and recurring card charges.
- Learn · Accounts payable·13 min
AP automation: what it actually changes about accounts payable
How AP automation adds invoice capture, matching, approval routing, payment preparation, and exception controls without removing human judgment.
- Learn · Business finance·13 min
What is working capital, and how do businesses manage it?
Working capital explained with the current-assets-minus-current-liabilities formula, cash conversion cycle, timing risks, and practical management levers.
- Learn · Payroll operations·14 min
What is a payroll system? How businesses actually run payroll
How payroll systems turn employee and time data into gross-to-net pay, direct deposits, tax deposits and filings, records, pay statements, and year-end forms.
- Learn · Spend management·13 min
What is expense management? How businesses track and control spend
How expense reports, employee reimbursements, company cards, spend controls, receipt evidence, approvals, accounting, and reconciliation fit together.
- Cards·12 min
Crypto debit cards: how they work, fees, and what to watch for
How crypto cards convert at checkout or before it, published Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini, and Glide examples, and US tax implications.
- Accounts·12 min
Multi-currency accounts: how they work and how to choose one
A practical guide to multi-currency accounts, conversion costs, receiving details, and published Wise, Revolut, HSBC, and Glide fees.
- Cards · Compliance·12 min
No-KYC crypto cards: what they actually are, and the trade-offs
An honest guide to no-KYC crypto-card claims, prepaid limits, jurisdiction risk, later verification, weaker protections, and regulated alternatives.
- Remittances·13 min
Sending money to India from the USA: rails, costs, and timing
Compare remittance apps, bank wires, and stablecoin-assisted transfers from the USA to India, with sourced pricing and a worked FX example.
- Stablecoins·14 min
Stablecoins for cross-border payments: a practical guide
How USDC cross-border settlement works, what on- and off-ramps cost, where stablecoins beat SWIFT, and what the GENIUS Act changes.
- Comparisons·14 min
Wise alternatives compared
An honest, sourced comparison of Wise, Revolut, OFX, Remitly, and Glide across fees, coverage, speed, limits, and stablecoin support.
- Learn · Vendor payments·10 min
How to pay international vendors: methods, costs, and what to check first
How businesses pay international vendors by wire, international clearing, payment platform, or stablecoin, including payee data, tax forms, costs, and fraud controls.
- Learn · FX risk·11 min
Managing FX risk: a practical guide for businesses with foreign-currency exposure
A practical FX risk-management guide for businesses, covering exposure registers, natural hedging, multi-currency balances, forwards, options, and a worked example.
- Learn · Global payroll·11 min
International payroll: how businesses pay employees and contractors across borders
How international payroll works for SMBs: EOR versus entity versus contractor, current published cost examples, currency, funding, compliance, and controls.
- Learn · Treasury·11 min
Corporate treasury management: what it means for a growing business
Learn what corporate treasury does, when an SMB needs treasury discipline, and how to manage cash, liquidity, forecasts, FX, banks, and controls.
- Learn · Foreign exchange·11 min
What is the interbank exchange rate, and why can quotes differ?
Learn what the interbank or mid-market exchange rate means, why customer quotes differ, and how to calculate the effective FX spread with an example.