Recap & Recording: What Your Treasury Should Measure (Even Without a TMS)

Our speakers stressed that reporting should not exist for its own sake: treasury metrics need to be simple, actionable, and tied to real decisions around liquidity, risk, funding, and cash visibility. A recurring theme was that the right setup depends on the company’s size, complexity, and risk profile — not on a one-size-fits-all blueprint.

The session featured insights from the following lineup of speakers:

Bas Rebel

Start with purpose

“If you don’t know why or what you want to measure, then measuring anything is good. For that reason, I believe that irrespective of the technology that you’re using, that any treasury should start by defining what exactly is his value add.”
Bas emphasized that treasury first needs a clear purpose before choosing KPIs or technology. Measurement should start from the value treasury wants to deliver to the business.

Define the value

“I think this is very important topic what we have today. What do you want to measure? And for me whenever that question comes up, I always try to go back to Lewis or Alice in Wonderland.”
Bas emphasizes that measurement must start with intent and direction. He uses the Alice in Wonderland example to show that treasury needs a clear goal before choosing metrics.

François De Witte

Keep it focused

“I prefer to have 5 KPIs, but which are really focused than to have 25, where we eventually end up in finding a number of irrelevant things.”
François highlighted the importance of rightsizing reporting and avoiding KPI overload. He stressed that fewer, better-chosen measures create more focus and efficiency.

Fit the strategy

“What I think should happen is that Treasury should always tie in with business strategy.”
For François, treasury metrics only matter when they support strategic priorities. He also stressed that the right tooling must fit the company’s needs, budget, and complexity.

Jean Pierre Renard

Stay relevant

“I think you should tie in with business strategy. What is important, what is relevant in this case.”
Jean-Pierre reinforced that relevance should be the filter for every treasury metric. He argued that treasury should measure what helps the business move forward, not just what is easy to report.

Automate to analyze

“Rather than doing the effort in the processing of information, you should want to be able to automate that and then focus on the information that is behind it.”
He emphasizes that automation should save time for analysis, not just speed up reporting. The goal is to free treasury teams to interpret and act on the data.