Introduction
As corporate treasury teams hunt for ways to gain the most visibility into all the data their existing systems gather in order to make the best decisions, they’re dealing with the world of multiples: multiple banks, multiple accounts and often, multiple systems. Each with their own integration requirements and workflow processes in place to be able to get the data necessary to make effective financial decisions. This compounding – and sometimes confounding – complexity of data sources can drive even the most seasoned team members to the brink when it comes to making effective decisions for their business from this data in a timely manner.
Can’t all the data sources just get along?
It’s actually simpler than you may realize. The advent of bank APIs – and their ability to provide a direct, immediate link to bank data and integrate directly with ERPs and TMS system data — is removing the barriers between disparate systems and providing the advanced data needed by treasurers for complete visibility into their core financials. Without significant set-up time or capital costs.
In this blog, we’ll look at three key areas where bank APIs are turning what were treasury headaches and labor-intensive processes with the old standard technology into actionable functions that deliver real-time data, accelerating treasury’s ability to holistically use their financial data to better manage overall liquidity and make more informed decisions.
Real-time, actionable data = better liquidity management. It really can be that simple.
Critical Problem #1: Missing or failed payments
If you’re a treasurer, then you know that missed or failed payments can be a huge headache. Not only do they cause disruptions in cash flow, but they can also lead to late fees and other penalties.
We all know how critical payments are for our business’s cash flow. There are critical payments that simply can’t wait like debt payments where penalties are imposed if paid late; intercompany funds transfers with time sensitive payables; or tax payments and customer refunds. Not to mention mergers and acquisitions, where the deal can’t be completed until treasury completes that final step of transferring the payment(s) stipulated by the agreement.
Simply put, as soon as the company puts a layer in between its process and the banks, the door to errors happening opens, creating the potential for problems that can have a material impact.
Solved: Instant payment tracking from end-to-end
APIs that provide multibank API connectivity are invaluable tools that can help solve many of the critical problems faced in treasury and accounts payable, such as missing or failed payments. With bank API connectivity, payments are acknowledged, confirmed and tracked – all in real-time. You no longer have to spend time waiting for a payment file to come back, nor pick up the phone to call your counterparty to confirm that a payment arrived successfully or waste any valuable time trying to fix payment problems that could have been avoided.
Instead, you can avoid the layers between systems that frequently result in payment problems:
- Bank portals which require separate logins, don’t have controls on payment submissions or lack the centralized audit trail required for SOX compliance? GONE.
- Inability to get payment status when you want it vs when the bank’s schedule will provide it? GONE.
- Uncertainty as to whether your beneficiaries have been paid in a timely manner by not being able to assess the payer and payee bank country, currencies, payment amount and route? GONE.
- Lack of visibility into all your payment status’ – regardless of bank – in one place? GONE.
Effective bank APIs let you know the exact time a payment is completed and bank fees you are paying at each step along the way, while also delivering automatic payment failure notices — and the reason why it failed – so you can take immediate action and better manage your cashflow.
This provides tangible results for the CFO, Treasurers/AP and IT. The CFO gains complete certainty for critical one-off payments, especially M&A payments and other strategic activities; the Treasury & AP teams gain a major reduction in the number of missing or failed payments; and IT doesn’t have to code new payment types, reducing the company’s vulnerability to fraud.
This real-time view into financial data via direct bank API connectivity allows for better financial forecasting and planning, enhanced security measures, and greater control over finances that enable organizations to make more informed decisions without sacrificing accuracy or efficiency. In today’s digital age, these solutions are essential for staying competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.
See how cashflow software can help you gain a competitive – and instant- cashflow advantage
Problem #2: Recon is slow and error-prone
For the treasury and finance teams, it’s vital to keep all parts of the business running like a well-oiled machine. Reconciliation is a critical component of this process as teams work to reconcile internal records with external bank statements. Without effective processes, organizations can struggle to ensure accuracy and compliance in their business activities.
When reconciliation involves manual processes, such as curing exceptions or resolving late payments, unique challenges arise that need to be addressed such as inconsistent data formats, time-consuming tracking of matching transactions across multiple sources, low visibility into the overall reconciliation status – all leading increased risk of human errors and delayed financial close cycles.
Knowing how best to manage these risks is key every organization’s ability succeed financially & operationally.
Solved: Instant reconciliation
Close the books sooner by reconciling transactions as they occur. Data from all your financial institutions is delivered in real-time, directly into SAP, so FinLync’s AI-powered matching engine reconciles 24/7.
Unrivaled Matching
Embedded inside your SAP, FinLync leverages 100% of the data needed to maximize clearing of payables and receivables open items. Customer remittance data and card acquirer settlements are further seamlessly integrated, delivering invoice matching accuracy for bulk payments that can’t be beat.
Automated GL Posting
The FinLync recon app is the only reconciliation software that lives inside SAP, so it’s the only system that can post directly to your GL and AP/AR ledgers, including generating bank charge and under payments GL entries to proposing document types, tax amounts, profit/cost centers and more.
No More Rules Configuration
Eliminate complicated posting rule and ongoing reliance on IT. FinLync’s self-learning matching engine picks up the subtle differences as items are posted and applies them to all future transactions.
See how cashflow software can help you gain a competitive – and instant- cashflow advantage
Problem 3: Creating the cash position is painful
Accurately forecasting cash flow is one of the most important tasks for any business, as cash flow management effects a company’s financial health. That being said, cash flow forecasting should include cash-in and cash-out updates gathered from an accounting system or through multiple scenarios, existing budget, and cash-related financial data.
Solved: Instant CashFlow
FinLync’s cash flow forecasting software is embedded in your organization’s system of record—your ERP—giving it a foundation in your most up-to-date information across departments for ERP forecasting. Unlike inflexible spreadsheets that depend on manual data imports and exports, the FinLync app draws upon dynamic data appropriate for ever-updating forecasts and reports.
Simply put, real-time connectivity to an ever-changing data stream enables more precise forecasting based on the most timely information available from the general ledger like receivables, payables, payroll, treasury, sales orders and purchase orders, providing detailed visibility down to invoice level and categorized into reliability by AI-driven payment behaviors.
Deep ERP embedment of the FinLync cash flow forecasting tool enables deep drill-down capabilities and total data integration between your bank data and ERP data, allowing users to see, analyze and interpret the detailed information that leads to precision. Real-time connectivity becomes real-time forecasting, helping treasury teams anticipate events, analyze trends and improve investment decisions —without being handicapped by bank data timetables.