Treasury Management: From Manual Work to Strategic Activities

Treasury managers are increasingly expected to become strategic leaders who oversee the financial health of the business, short, medium and long-term planning, and are capable of maximising working capital and taking advantage of opportunities by using market trends proactively. The reality is that treasury managers are often slowed down by inefficient processes and systems that prevent them from transforming into a truly strategic department.

In this article we explore the challenges related to manual work and inefficiencies that treasury managers and CFOs are facing in their day-to-day work, and how Unified Treasury Management Systems can elevate treasury functions from manual operations to strategic activities.

Treasury managers need to feel confident in the financial data to deliver strategic value to the organization. Additionally, they need flexibility, the ability to adapt quickly to market shifts, and the ability to plan beyond short-term horizons. Managing working capital efficiently - so doing more with less - adds to the complexity of treasury management. The scattered and disjointed nature of financial information is a primary challenge that prevents Treasury managers from fully exploiting their strategic potential.

Managing treasury becomes a time-consuming and manual process due to outdated and multiple systems that hinder real-time visibility of cash positions and spending data across the entire organisation. To avoid blind spots and identify accurate cash position or available cash, financial data needs to be manually aggregated and consolidated from various sources. This approach leads to a slow decision-making process and missed opportunities. Further, multiple currencies create reconciliation challenges, resulting in inaccuracies and delays in predicting cash and liquidity.

Today, spreadsheets are a common way to organise fragmented data, but they also require a time-consuming and error-prone manual process. The Deloitte survey indicates that 65% of treasury professionals spend significant time on data gathering and consolidation, emphasising the need for an efficient method.

With improved visibility, long and medium-term liquidity planning and forecasting become more accurate. The diversification of cash makes businesses more resilient and capable of weathering any market storm, and forecasts allow businesses to allocate funds appropriately to ensure continuous growth.

Moreover, as the organisation expands to new countries and jurisdictions, a treasury management system will continue to provide value, both by removing manual work and by providing insights into the organisation's financial health.

To effectively navigate the complexities of global financial markets, treasury managers and CFOs of cross-border businesses must embrace treasury management solutions to propel treasury management into a strategic function. The introduction of a new tool may seem daunting, especially if many institutions, subsidiaries, or people are involved. Our mission at Fyorin is to help you unify your treasury, diversify liquidity risks, and transform treasury management into a truly strategic function. With our treasury management tool you can: