Cross-border payment collection is a service that lets a freelancer or small exporter in India receive payment from a foreign client or marketplace in rupees, with the paperwork that India's export rules require. It is also called international payment collection or inward remittance for exporters.
Why is it hard? A foreign client wants to pay as if paying a local supplier: a US company pays by an ordinary US bank transfer, and a European company by a euro transfer. A normal international wire transfer is slow, and banks in the middle may take fees. The Indian freelancer also needs proof for the tax department and RBI that the money is export income. That proof is a foreign inward remittance certificate (FIRC), or a similar advice from the bank. With it, export income can be treated correctly under GST and income tax.
A collection service solves both problems. It gives the freelancer local account details in other countries, such as a US account number. The client pays into it as a local transfer. The service then converts the money to rupees and pays it into the freelancer's Indian bank account, which can be a savings account or a business current account. It also issues the paperwork for each payment.
Say a video editor in Kolkata finishes a project for a client in the United States, worth $1,200. She sends the client an invoice with her US account details from the collection service. The client pays by a domestic US transfer. Two days later, the rupees arrive in her bank account in Kolkata, minus a fee that she saw beforehand, along with the payment's paperwork.
The main cost to watch is the forex markup, the margin added to the exchange rate. Services compete by keeping it small and showing it clearly.
Some exporters keep the dollars instead, in a multi-currency account, and convert later. Collection services also often send money out, using a cross-border payout network. Exporters of goods, rather than services, usually need trade finance as well, such as a letter of credit from a bank.