How to build a global finance team that scales with your company
Omnipresent
The global employment platform created by global employment experts. Compliantly hire & manage employees worldwide.
The hidden challenges that can detail global growth and how best CFOs are solving them
You’ve hired your first international employees. The sales team is scaling. The HR team is hiring in three countries. Your global expansion strategy is starting to take shape.
And finance? Finance is holding it all together.
Some of this might sound familiar. In the early days, complex budgeting is still being done in spreadsheets. Your accounting software isn't set up for the complexity of different sales taxes in various countries.
As your global expansion accelerates, these cracks really start to show. You’ll face a whole host of complex questions that you may not be able to answer.
How do we run payroll in Germany? When does our expansion into a new country trigger permanent establishment risks? How do we offer health insurance in Canada that’s both cost-effective for us and attractive for our staff?
The problem? Many finance teams in globally expanding companies are built for speed, not scale. Your finance talent might be holding the purse strings, but they’re not a strategic driver as you expand.
We spoke to two experts who’ve guided companies through exactly this stage of growth, albeit in very different contexts.
Across their experiences, one pattern stands out: companies that succeed at global expansion don’t wait for finance problems to appear. They build for scale before the cracks emerge.
Design your finance infrastructure for scale from the beginning
Many companies optimise for what they need right now, not what they’ll need six months from now.
But this can’t be the case with your finance function. After all, your finance team needs to be the lead strategic driver at every step of your global expansion.
As Caitlin explains
“There are some decisions around how you set up the business entity structure-wise that are very difficult to reverse once you've committed.”
Both Katherine and Caitlin agreed that the trick is building a finance function that knows when to balance flexibility with appropriate risk management.
Yes, you could hire contractors to save money in new global markets, but you could face misclassification penalties or even trigger unintended permanent establishment risks and unexpected tax obligations.
The takeaway? Don’t treat international hiring as a one-off decision. Treat it as the start of a structural shift in your business and design accordingly.
Optimise your finance technology before the cracks appear
As operations expand across borders, financial management becomes exponentially more complex. Suddenly you’re juggling multiple currencies and regulatory frameworks.
Here’s where cloud-based accounting software and integrated financial systems become essential tools for maintaining visibility and control.
“Making sure that we have all of those integrations and all the data flowing seamlessly throughout is going to make sure that you do have all the information you need at your fingertips when you need it.”
Here’s where it also helps to ensure you’re using tech solutions that give you the flexibility to scale as you grow. For instance, while some Employer of Record vendors will offer you an all-in-one solution, you may want to use a provider that integrates seamlessly with HR and payroll tech solutions you already use.
This is why (plug incoming) the new integration between Omnipresent and Xero makes it so much easier for you to manage your finance operation seamlessly and transparently as you hire in new countries.
Don’t underestimate currency complexity, even at early stages
You've probably already experienced the headache of currency fluctuations if you've done any international business.
But there's a world of difference between occasionally sending an invoice in euros and managing a full-fledged international operation with payroll, suppliers, and customers in multiple currencies.
As Katherine explains, currency complexity is built into Omnipresent’s cross-border operations.
"At Omnipresent, we have a dedicated treasury manager because of the complexity of our banking transactions and arrangements. Even though you might be a reasonably small company, if you are in multiple markets and jurisdictions, there will be significant complexity built around that."
On market-specific pricing, different markets may require different strategies. One market might tolerate a price of X, whereas another market would only tolerate a price of Y. You have to tailor the pricing to each market while maintaining profitability, which can be particularly challenging if you've got fixed costs coming from different locations."
Recommended by LinkedIn
Build a tax strategy that evolves with your footprint
Many growing companies probably think they understand tax. But they're probably used to dealing with taxes in their own countries.
As Caitlin explains
“Tax is obviously huge. You’ve got income tax, local service tax, sales tax, tariffs, unemployment taxes. And then you've got to consider not only the tax rates that you're paying, but when or how do you file those tax returns? Is tax required to be remitted throughout the year? Is it just a once off payment? Because again, that's going to impact your cash flows.
So what does a global tax strategy look like? Here are some of the takeaways from our interview with Katherine and Caitlin
Centralise for control, but localise for agility
How should you structure your finance team across borders?
According to Katherine and Caitlin, there’s no universal model, but there is one universal mistake: failing to plan for structure at all.
Many companies start out centralised, with all finance functions in one location. But as time zones stretch and regulatory complexity grows, local agility becomes critical.
Katherine sees the most successful businesses evolve into a hybrid: a central team for consistency and controls, with regional hubs or specialists embedded in markets that need faster responses.
Make sure your global finance team has the skills it needs
Finding great finance talent is hard enough domestically.
Now try doing it across multiple countries, each with its own qualification standards, compensation expectations, and work cultures.
Retention also looks different. Career expectations and progression vary market to market. And onboarding has to balance global consistency with local relevance.
The best companies don’t just hire global talent, they build a strategy for developing and retaining it. That includes role clarity, career development pathways, and a clear sense of how global and local finance functions work together.
Katherine explains how global expansion unlocks exciting new opportunities to give upskill and train your finance team.
“We need clear training for new hires both on internal systems and strategy, but also in the context of local tax, compliance, and reporting rules. We've found success by pairing global onboarding with market-specific sessions as well, and using cloud tools to keep things consistent.”
Treat finance as a strategic growth function, not just a cost centre
Finance in high-growth companies used to be the team that said “no.” But in international businesses, it has to become the team that enables better decisions.
It’s why the companies that make a success out of international expansion ensure that their finance teams:
The shift is subtle, but powerful: from finance as a gatekeeper, to finance as a growth partner. And that shift only happens if you build the systems, processes and mindset to support it.
What’s new at Omnipresent
Crossing borders, balancing books: the finance leader's guide to international growth
You can watch the full interview with Katherine and Caitlin on YouTube.
In other global employment news
About us
Global Team Trends is brought to you by Omnipresent. For growing companies who need to employ globally, Omnipresent is the only Employer of Record embedded into your business. Omnipresent simplifies global employment, allowing you to expand quickly, easily & profitably - all without having to set up a foreign entity.
Get in touch if you want to know more about who we are and how we can help you.