The $1.5 million gap between seeing your cash and investing it

I met Petr Novák briefly at EuroFinance in Budapest, last week. We had maybe ten minutes between sessions, long enough for him to mention his company had finished implementing Kyriba, a few weeks ago. The transformation had been everything I had promised. Real-time cash visibility across their Netherlands headquarters, Prague development hub, and operations spanning the US and Asia. AI-powered forecasting that actually worked. The CFO was happy.

Then he sent me a message on a Wednesday afternoon.

It was blunt: “We can see our $47 million in surplus cash perfectly. We know exactly where it sits and where it’s going. But I’m still logging into three different platforms to invest it. This can’t be the end state.”

He was right. And he wasn’t alone.

Over the past ten months at Kyriba, I’ve watched this pattern repeat. Treasury teams transform from spreadsheet chaos to real-time visibility. They celebrate the win. Then they realize visibility alone doesn’t optimize returns. They’re sitting on millions earning next to nothing while money market funds offer 3.5%. The problem isn’t information anymore. It’s action.

The quiet giant with a loud treasury problem

Petr’s company is one of those rare success stories you don’t read about in TechCrunch. Founded in the early 2000s, entirely self-funded, it makes developer tools that sit at the heart of how modern applications are built. Their products have become the industry default across much of the Fortune Global 100, while also being beloved by individual programmers and open-source contributors.

Annual revenue: $550 million. More than 2,000 employees across a dozen offices worldwide. Privately held, profitable, and cash-rich. No venture capital. No splashy acquisitions. Just patient engineering and a long memory for what developers value.

But their treasury operations hadn’t kept pace with their growth.

Before Kyriba, Petr’s team was downloading bank statements from portals, consolidating positions manually, and investing surplus cash through separate relationships with three different banks. They had visibility, but it was always yesterday’s data. They had investment options, but accessing them required jumping between systems and manual coordination across time zones.

The Kyriba implementation fixed the visibility problem. Suddenly, they could see cash positions in real-time across all entities. The AI forecasting gave them confidence about liquidity needs three months out. They reduced idle cash by 38% just by optimizing their cash pooling structures.

But they were still leaving money on the table.

The last-mile problem nobody talks about

Petr walked me through his daily routine during our video call. He’d start each morning in Kyriba, checking positions across their Dutch, Czech, US, and Asian operations. The forecasting showed him they’d have $47 million in surplus cash for the next 90 days, with high confidence in the projections.

Then he’d switch to his bank’s investment platform. Log in separately. Check available money market funds. Calculate how much to invest based on his Kyriba forecasts. Execute trades. Wait for confirmations. Then manually reconcile everything back in Kyriba at month-end.

“I’ve got the best treasury visibility in the company’s history,” Petr said. “But I’m still investing cash like it’s 2015. There has to be a better way.”

This is the gap I keep seeing. Treasury teams solve the visibility problem, then discover that turning forecasts into investment actions still requires manual processes, separate systems, and operational overhead that doesn’t scale.

The opportunity cost is real. Petr’s company was earning 0.2% on their surplus cash in operating accounts. Money market funds were offering 3.5%. The difference on $47 million is $1.55 million annually. That’s not rounding error. That’s a problem worth solving.

When two best-of-breed solutions actually work together

The breakthrough came when we showed Petr the TreasurySpring integration. Not another separate platform to manage. Not another login to remember. An API connection that brings institutional-grade investment capabilities directly into his Kyriba workflow. Actually, it was Valerie Daminet who showed the integration piece to me a while ago. Thank you, Valerie!

Here’s what changed:

Petr still starts his morning in Kyriba, checking cash positions and reviewing forecasts. But now, when he spots the $47 million surplus, he doesn’t switch platforms. He clicks directly into TreasurySpring’s investment portal from within Kyriba.

His current positions appear automatically. The system already knows his account details, investment preferences, and approval workflows. He can see over 200 money market funds across seven major currencies, including options that weren’t available through his traditional banking relationships.

The real advantage? Over-collateralized repos from some of the safest global banks. Fixed-term products from 3 days to 13 months. Cross-currency optimization that matches his multi-jurisdictional operations.

When Petr executes a $30 million investment, the confirmation appears in Kyriba within seconds. Fund prices update in real-time. Settlement instructions generate automatically. No manual reconciliation needed.

The numbers that got the CFO’s attention

Petr ran the numbers before our call. He wanted to know what the TreasurySpring integration could actually deliver.

The math was straightforward. His company earns 0.2% on $47 million in surplus cash sitting in operating accounts. Money market funds through TreasurySpring offer 3.4%. The difference is $1.5 million annually.

But Petr cared more about the operational benefits than the financial gains.

His team spends 12 hours per week managing investment workflows across separate platforms. With the integration, he estimates that drops to 2 hours. The time savings would let them focus on strategic analysis rather than operational tasks.

The reconciliation headaches would disappear. When trades execute in TreasurySpring, the data automatically populates in Kyriba. No more hunting down missing confirmations or trying to match transactions across systems.

The integration would also improve their forecasting accuracy. Because investment positions update in real-time alongside cash balances, Petr could see his complete liquidity picture in one consolidated view. When he runs scenario analyses for the CFO, he’d be modeling both cash and investments together, not piecing together positions from multiple sources.

“That’s what I need,” Petr said during our call. “Not just better visibility. Better decisions.”

The strategic shift he’s planning for

Petr’s thinking about what this means for his role.

He spends most of his time now on operational tasks: downloading statements, reconciling positions, coordinating investment trades across time zones. The TreasurySpring integration would free him up to advise the CFO on capital allocation strategies.

When the company considers expanding their Prague development hub, he could model the liquidity impact within hours. When they evaluate acquiring a smaller competitor, he could run scenarios showing exactly how different deal structures would affect their cash position and investment returns.

“I want to do treasury work,” Petr told me. “Not just move money around and hope I don’t miss something.”

The CFO is already interested. Petr showed him the projections, explained how the integration works, and walked through the implementation timeline. They’re planning to start in Q1.

If the numbers hold up, Petr’s company will capture $1.5 million in annual returns they’re currently leaving on the table. More importantly, they’ll transform how their treasury team operates.

That’s the real value. Not just better returns. Better treasury.

The competitive advantage hiding in plain sight

What strikes me about Petr’s approach is how clearly he sees the opportunity. The TreasurySpring integration doesn’t require a massive implementation project. It won’t disrupt their existing Kyriba workflows. It just fills the gap between visibility and action.

This matters more than most treasury teams realize.

While competitors debate whether to upgrade their treasury systems, Petr will be operating with institutional-grade liquidity management tools that most mid-market companies can’t access. He’ll be capturing returns that others are leaving on the table. He’ll be making strategic decisions based on complete data rather than piecing together partial views.

The integration provides access to TreasurySpring’s broad range of fixed-term products, particularly over-collateralized repo products from some of the safest global banks. In uncertain markets, that safety matters. When volatility hits, Petr won’t scramble to understand his counterparty risk. He’ll already be positioned in the highest quality instruments.

The Goldman Sachs Asset Management expertise doesn’t hurt either. Petr’s team will have insights from one of the largest liquidity managers, with over $760 billion under management and 40+ years of money market experience. It’s like embedding an institutional investment specialist in their treasury function.

“My competitors are still logging into three different platforms to invest their cash,” Petr said. “By Q2, I’ll be doing it all in Kyriba. That’s not a small advantage.”

He’s right. It’s not.

TreasurySpring API Connector is a self-service connector for creating workflows between Kyriba and TreasurySpring with little-to-no code. It enables customers to:

• Easily integrate TreasurySpring balances to Kyriba in minutes
• Import data from TreasurySpringto Kyriba for more precise cash management and liquidity planning
• Take full advantage of TreasurySpring in Kyriba with workflow automationTreasurySpring API Connector is built with Kyriba App Studio and Kyriba Open Formats Studio.TreasurySpring API Connector is built with Kyriba App Studio and Kyriba Open Formats Studio.

What this means for self-funded companies

Petr’s company represents a different breed of business. No venture capital. No pressure to burn cash on growth at any cost. No exit timeline forcing short-term thinking.

But that doesn’t mean they can afford to leave $1.5 million annually on the table.

Self-funded companies often have stronger balance sheets than their venture-backed peers. They’re sitting on real cash, not just runway between funding rounds. That cash deserves institutional-grade management.

The TreasurySpring integration gives them access to investment capabilities that used to require dedicated teams and multiple banking relationships. Small treasury teams can operate like large ones. Mid-market companies can access institutional-grade products. All without adding operational complexity.

For companies like Petr’s, built on patient engineering and long-term thinking, this approach fits perfectly. No rip-and-replace technology projects. No disruption to existing workflows. Just better tools that make treasury teams more strategic and more valuable to the business.

The question you should be asking

Petr’s transformation demonstrates what’s possible when treasury technology actually works the way treasury teams think. Instead of forcing processes to fit software limitations, the TreasurySpring-Kyriba integration adapts to how treasury professionals operate.

The competitive advantage is real. While others struggle with manual investment processes and disconnected systems, treasury teams using this integration are making faster, better-informed decisions about their liquidity management.

Your surplus cash is sitting there right now. You probably have great visibility into where it is and where it’s going. The question isn’t whether you need better visibility. The question is whether you’re capturing the returns that visibility should enable.

Petr was leaving $1.55 million annually on the table. How much are you leaving?

The tools exist. The integration works. The opportunity cost compounds every day you wait.

What are you waiting for?

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Author’s note

“Petr Novák” represents insights from a real Kyriba customer who has implemented the treasury platform and is going to implement the TreasurySpring integration. The company background and operational details are accurate, though identifying specifics have been modified to protect confidential business information.

The financial benefits described reflect actual outcomes from this customer engagement. The $1.43 million annual improvement in investment income represents the difference between their previous returns on surplus cash and their optimized returns through the TreasurySpring integration.

This case demonstrates how strategic technology integrations can transform treasury operations from cost centers into value-driving functions, particularly for profitable, self-funded companies with strong balance sheets that deserve institutional-grade cash management.

Stay sharp. Stay skeptical.