Real-Time Treasury
It’s about time for real-time treasury. Consumers do not accept delays, so why should corporate treasuries? With the ubiquity of bank APIs, there are no reasonable excuses for treasury to accept anything less than real-time data for cash management, payments, reconciliation, forecasting and other daily functions.
Problem
Treasury is inhibited by outdated data and file-based processes. Old-school bank connectivity (SWIFT, file-based transfers) puts treasurers on the bank’s schedule, frustrating access to real-time account data. The resulting discrepancies compromise the accuracy of treasury’s cash and account positions, frustrating payments, investments and reconciliations.
Solution
Real-time treasury means speed and precision. Getting data from all sources in real time reduces manual labor, decreases errors, and improves the decision-making abilities of treasury and those who depend on it for forecasting and other crucial operations.
CFO
Instant access to available cash balance data supports strategic actions, like M&A, greater agility and reduced vulnerability to fraud—providing a significant competitive advantage
Treasurer & Assistant Treasurer
Improve treasury KPIs; ability to recruit best talent; eliminate bank file management
Treasury Team
Automatic, same-day reconciliation; richer data leads to faster issue resolution
IT
For connectivity, bank APIs are more secure with less initial setup or ongoing maintenance; fewer users to track because they are already provisioned on ERP
Process Comparison: Vendor Inquires on the Status of an Overdue Payment
Without FinLync
With FinLync
Without FinLync Step 1
Locate payment batch
With FinLync Step 1
Automatically notified in ERP dashboard of payment reject and reason
Without FinLync Step 2
Review status of payment batch file, identifies technical error
With FinLync Step 2
Fix technical error so payment is reprocessed
Without FinLync Step 3
Report technical error to IT support
With FinLync Step 3
Notified of new error at transaction level and automated reversal due to account holder’s name not matching beneficiary account names
Without FinLync Step 4
Correct message structure, generate new payment file and resubmit
With FinLync Step 4
Call vendor to update on new payment date
Without FinLync Step 5
Receive vendor request for payment status, email payment processor and wait for response
Without FinLync Step 6
Check status of payment instructions, find a transaction error for that vendor
Without FinLync Step 7
Communicate the reject to the accounting clerk with rationale that account holder’s name doesn’t match beneficiary
Without FinLync Step 8
Reverse payment document, correct vendor account-holder name, resubmit payment
Without FinLync Step 9
Notifies vendor that payment has been fixed and resubmitted for payment
More About Real-Time Treasury
- Gain confidence in your cash balance information. Bank API connectivity means you can instantly refresh information on your current balances and make sure enough cash is available to process payments as well as gain an accurate cash position. If you’re sending a large wire to a new vendor, end-to-end payment tracking allows you to track the payment’s journey in real time.
- Accelerate payments by revamping manual processes. By processing payment requests faster with automated approval workflows, you have the option to speed up the time it takes to pay those invoices. This can improve relationships with your vendors, who may be more willing to extend credit or offer a better deal in the future.
- Refresh stale data. Rather than relying on out-of-date information, you can keep data fresh using bank APIs—meaning you always know how much cash is on hand and what your financing options are. This is vital in times of crisis, when it’s essential to keep management and the Board fully up to date with the company’s financial position on a day-by-day basis.
- Avoid bottlenecks due to incidents and exceptions. Any exceptions can be handled in the moment since your data is fully auditable, transparent and updated in real time.
- Improve visibility of bank fees. With more visibility of bank fees for your cross-border payments, you can identify the total cost of a transaction with each bank. This transparency puts you in a better position to negotiate with future partners.
- Reduce fraud risk. With data updated instantly, users can quickly spot any discrepancies in dollar amounts or account information. In addition, enforcing tight-access management controls, implementing automated workflows, and reducing the number of hands a payment touches can all reduce the risk of both internal and external fraud.
- Gain an advantage over non-real-time competitors. You’ll have the edge with access to richer and more up-to-date information—as well as the agility you gain by not wasting time collecting data.
- Speed up processes. Real-time treasury doesn’t just automate tasks—it also helps speed them up, allowing your teams to spend time on more strategic work.
- Manage fraud risk. With transaction information flowing via APIs, you can detect questionable transactions as soon as they happen instead of finding out about them the next day. What’s more, you avoid the risk of file tampering that can arise when files are held in a folder until they can be sent to the bank.
- Recruit the best people. Treasury and finance professionals want to advise the business, instead of being stuck collecting data for hours every day.
- Regain control. With real-time treasury, you can access your data when you want to instead of waiting for the bank—and you can also accomplish day-to-day tasks without being delayed by the need for IT intervention.