Cash Management review – Fitting like a glove

| 18-01-2021 | Bas Meijer |

Can you remember when your current Cash Management structure has been set up? Probably at a point in time when there was a refinance, additional funding need or when a new treasurer came on board. The world is changing, your clients and their behavior are changing, therefore probably your Cash Management environment needs changing.

Unfortunately these changes are not automatically translated and implemented into your Cash Management setup. And as not every bank is the same, some banks cannot provide the Cash Management setup your corporate needs.

Reflecting the Cash Management needs every 3-5 years is a good habit. Solutions are evolving, banks are changing their focus & pricing can be renegotiated. But the most important goal is that the Cash Management setup should fit your corporate like a glove, not too big, an certainly not too small.

TreasuryXL has multiple experienced Treasures with up-to-date knowledge and experience, who can help your organisation to achieve these  goals. Maybe your corporate is ready to take the next step, or your Cash Management infra structure is outdated. Is there need for automation, independent banking portal, TMS or market data provider?

From experience this review brings a contribution to the bottom line. But not only in money, also in speed and accuracy. With new tooling your current choices can be reviewed in time, which helps you to make the next steps down the road. The Treasury Department is never static, and should always adapt to the changing environment. Make sure that your Treasury function, how big or small, fits like a glove to the needs of the corporate!

 

Bas Meijer

Treasury Specialist

 

 

 

 

 

Interim Treasurer: Cost or revenue?

| 15-12-2020 | Bas Meijer |

Temporary staff in general is looked at as ‘too expensive’ . When turnover is showing headwind, or management is under pressure by internal- or external stakeholders, cost saving is the first instrument management uses.

Agreements with expensive temporary staff is ended and fixed employees are asked to go the extra mile. This is not the case for all financial expertise.

The interim Treasurer is a good example. In the past 20 years I have experienced that interim Treasurers are able to create value to the company, and add contribution to your bottom line. In some assignments this was 1-2% of the turnover.

In general the interim treasurer should be able to have a rate of return of 3-6 months, based on a 1 year assignment. The revenue will not be limited to this 1 year assignment, but last much longer. I have experienced a much shorter period, up to 4-6 weeks.

Are you interested in cost saving, and attribution to your bottom line? Do not just let your expertise walk out of the door, but hire an interim treasurer for an analyses on the potential cost saving for your organisation. You’ll be surprised what an added value an interim treasurer can bring to your organisation.

 

Bas Meijer

Treasury Specialist

 

 

 

 

 

Scoren met treasury in kleinere organisaties

| 19-08-2020 | treasuryXL | Pieter de Kiewit

Kosten besparen, business kansen creëren en risico’s verkleinen, dat is wat goede treasury elke organisatie kan brengen, dus niet alleen de multinationals. Als treasury aficionado zie ik dagelijks dat organisaties zichzelf tekort doen. In dit artikel maak ik graag concreet waar ik het over heb omdat ik merk dat velen het vakgebied onterecht complex vinden.

Kosten besparen

Het managen van geldstromen kost geld:

  • De bankier als loodgieter stuurt ook een rekening, vaak alleen niet zo expliciet. Deze rekening is bijvoorbeeld voor transacties en het aanhouden van rekeningen. De realiteit is dat de meeste organisaties en vaak ook hun banken geen voortdurend zicht hebben op deze kosten en dat ze voortdurend wijzigen.
  • Wat ook wel eens gebeurt is dat voor één internationale betaling even veel (per stuk) wordt betaald als voor 5.000 internationale betalingen. Dit terwijl kwantum korting van toepassing is.
  • Wat ik ook regelmatig zie is dat een bepaalde financieringsstrategie is gekozen waarbij een oplossing de markt conforme prijs heeft maar de juiste oplossing niet is. Rood staan op een rekening courant is veel duurder dan een hypothecaire lening. Vaak wordt niet nagedacht over wat de juiste oplossing is.
  • De laatste van vele voorbeelden die ik wil noemen is dat diverse offertes aanvragen bij diverse leveranciers kan leiden tot substantiële kostenbesparingen. Vaak is de huisbank best bereid een lager tarief voor een dollar deal te berekenen en zijn er velen die nog goedkoper kunnen leveren.

Het zijn simpele oplossingen maar de tijd wordt er niet in gestoken.

Business kansen creëren

De gereedschapskist van een treasurer zit vol oplossingen die het verschil kunnen maken tussen een kans verzilveren of niet. Zo zie je in bijvoorbeeld projecten organisaties of bedrijven die leveren in exotische oorden, dat de business stopt op het moment dat de klant pas wil betalen na complete levering. Dat kan te risicovol lijken of het kan zijn dat de leverancier de upfront kosten niet kan dragen met eigen middelen. Via garanties, letters of credit, borgstellingen door de overheid of projectfinanciers kan de business dan soms toch worden gerealiseerd. En besef goed, niet zo lang geleden was (equipment) leasing nog geen geaccepteerde oplossing. Nu kunnen transporteurs verladingen aanbieden en kunnen de vrachtwagen producenten meer produceren.

Risico’s verkleinen

Bij treasury en risico wordt vaak gedacht aan rente en valuta. Dat is terecht, de bijbehorende risico’s moeten prudent worden aangepakt. Een veel belangrijker risico is beschikbare liquiditeit. Goede treasurers kunnen forecasten en ingrijpen om cash beschikbaar te maken voor de organisatie. Extra faciliteiten vanuit de bank, doordacht werkkapitaalmanagement, managen van betalingstermijnen en tools als factoring kunnen het verschil maken tussen overleven of niet.

Hulp nodig?

Met deze korte opsomming wil ik duidelijk maken dat voor iedere organisatie treasury van grote waarde is. Dat kan met een expert op de payroll, met eigen boerenverstand of met een tijdelijke oplossing (Rent a Treasurer). Het gaat niet om complexe materie, wel om de bereidheid af en toe een stap terug te doen en het vakgebied te overzien.

Zullen we overleggen? Wie weet kan ik u in contact brengen met de expert die voor u het verschil kan maken.

 

 

Pieter de Kiewit

Owner at Treasurer Search

Rent a Treasurer – Joint Venture treasuryXL & Treasurer Search

| 29-07-2020 | treasuryXL | Pieter de Kiewit

Organisations with treasury exposure, without the expertise. The ones of you who know me longer, know this is one of my favourite hobby horses. For a longer period of time I have been tinkering with many plans to help the aforementioned organisations. This led to contributions to treasuryXL as a community and educational institutes like the Hogeschool Utrecht and the Vrije Universiteit. Now we will work on the obvious: bringing highly skilled treasury interim managers to organisations without a treasurer.

Impact on SME’s

Treasurer Search has a long and solid track record in finding interim treasury managers to large organisations with a corporate treasury function. One of our team members reaches out on a continuous basis to these managers to ask them about their availability, skills and preferences. Many of these managers love to work in smaller size organisations. There they can have real impact, save costs, mitigate risk and create opportunities.

Target audience treasuryXL

One of the important target audiences of treasuryXL is the group of CFOs, group controllers and entrepreneurs who, consciously or not, deal with treasury topics. In the content distributed on the platform the following is taken into consideration: non-technical treasury information on a regular basis with a clear upside-story. The communication channels that are used are also the ones that hardcore treasurers might not tune into but other financials do.

Rent a Treasurer

All the pieces of the puzzle have been on the table for a long time. The plans have been there for a long time and now we will act. As Ben Tiggelaar states: “the gap between plans and success is action”. Through treasuryXL you can “rent a treasurer”, click the link for more information about the concept.

Thank you,

On behalf of Treasurer Search, Pieter
On behalf of treasuryXL, Kendra

 

 

Pieter de Kiewit

Owner at Treasurer Search

How the Treasury QuickScan add value to your business

| 27-8-2019 | François de Witte | treasuryXL |

Do you want to know if you can save a substantial amount of money and/or protect your company against major financial risks? Are you willing to invest time and money in treasury within your organization? 

The Treasury QuickScan can help organizations with just one scan to assess if an additional effort in treasury can be an added value.

The Treasury QuickScan as a solution
SMEs struggle with increasing exposure to cash & liquidity problems, financing needs and risks (currencies, commodities, interest and liquidity).

Moreover, they do not always have a full-fledged Treasury/finance Department in the organization. That does not mean that these organizations cannot save costs or that there are no opportunities for funding, for example. It is not always necessary to set up a separate treasury department in a company to control and manage the treasury.

The Treasury QuickScan aims to bring a solution to these companies. An experienced hands-on Treasurer can do a first scan within the organization.

The objectives to provide to the company are:

  • A diagnosis on his treasury
  • A benchmarking towards his peers
  • The identification of the pain points
  • Some quick wins and an initial business case to determine whether it is worthwhile investing in the treasury (resources, tooling).

A questionnaire for 5 treasury topics
By means of a structured questionnaire, the Treasury QuickScan aims to make a quick scan / diagnosis of the treasury. Down below, we provide you some questions by topic:

  1. Working Capital Management:
  • Do you actively manage your working capital indicators (Days Sales Outstanding, Days Inventory Outstanding, Days Purchases Outstanding)
  • Do you have a credit policy in place?
  • How is your credit control organized?
  • Do you actively manage the payment terms of your suppliers?
  1. Cash and Liquidity Management:
  • Do you all have a visibility on all your cash positions?
  • Who manages the various cash positions daily?
  • Are you sometimes confronted with payments that are not paid due to lack of funds?
  • Do you do daily interbank transfers to settle the debit balances and to invest the excess liquidity optimally?
  • Do you already have an automatic cash pooling?
  • Do you centralize your in- and outgoing payments or consider doing this?
  • Do you have a cash forecasting process in place?
  1. Financing and Bank Relationship Management:
  • Do you experience difficulties in obtaining bank financing?
  • How many banks do you use? Do you need all the banks?
  • Do you ensure that the side business is distributed fairly to banks that grant large credits?
  • Are you monitoring regularly the costs which banks charge to you?
  1. Risk Management:
  • Do you have an overview on your foreign exchange, interest rate and liquidity risks?
  • Can you measure the impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuations on your Profit and Loss account?
  • Do hedge your main risks?
  • Do you have a written policy regarding the risk management?
  1. Organization and Compliance:
  • Which are the current tools in place to manage the fraud and operational risks?
  • Do you apply the 4 eyes principle throughout the company?
  • Do you have an overview of who can sign where on your bank accounts?

A short recap
The Treasury QuickScan does not solve all your treasury issues but will provide you get a mapping of the current situation, the issues, a first set of recommendations and a business case for further investments in treasury.

For organizations without a dedicated treasury department, this Quick Scan can help them to determine how to manage the treasury. This can be done with own resources and/or you can also consider outsourcing some tasks. This can be very helpful for the development of your company.

How to start a Treasury Quick Scan?
Simply send me a mail or give me a call and we discuss the best option for you.

François de Witte

Founder & Senior Consultant at FDW Consult

Managing Director and CFO at SafeTrade Holding S.A.

 

Treasurer – So what is it that you do exactly?

| 11-10-2017 | Lionel Pavey |

A few weeks ago I took my daughter Charly to the Scouts on a Saturday morning – she goes every week and really enjoys it. I get a couple of hours to myself and normally do the weekend shopping in that time. 2 ½ hours later I went back to pick her up and whilst waiting I got talking to a couple of the parents from the other Scouts, about work, whilst enjoying cups of coffee and hotdogs. They asked me what I did and I explained my vocation as a Treasurer and Cash Manager.

“Yes” one said, “so you are the same as a bookkeeper really. What makes you different? What do you bring that others do not? What makes you special?”

Advantages and benefits of Cash Management

  • Cash is King – profit is an opinion. I can not make you more profit, but I can improve your cash flows and your understanding of them.
  • I can speed up the operations your company uses to administer its cash.
  • I can help you stay solvent.
  • I can address your working capital issues.
  • I can spot fraud.
  • I can estimate your cash position for any time in the future based on your data input.
  • I can obtain better terms and conditions with debtors and creditors.
  • I can warn you when trouble will be ahead if nothing is done.
  • I can analyse the best loan deals for your financing operations.
  • I can make detailed cash flow forecasts that you can show to your banks when negotiating with them for loans or banking facilities.
  • I can reduce costs.
  • I can pay your bills more quickly.
  • I can improve your liquidity.
  • I can reduce your administrative work flows.
  • I can enable you to recycle your cash more quickly.
  • I can reduce your inventory holdings.
  • I can let you know when your future financial commitments have to take place.
  • I can help you maintain good relationships with your creditors.
  • I can optimize your cash at all times.
  • I can reduce your borrowing costs.

You need to generate enough cash from your activities to pay your suppliers, repay shareholders and/or investors and have money left over to invest and grow your business. Be honest, to do all that you need professional support and guidance allowing you to concentrate on growing your business.

They looked at me and said “So you are not really a bookkeeper then.”
I looked at them and smiled – mission accomplished!
“Now you know what a cash specialist can do for you and your company. So, give me a call when you think you need help with any of these issues.”
It is a good feeling when you positively change someone’s perception about what your job actually entails.

I told them what I can do, but did not say how. Are you interested in the how? Go to Rent a Treasurer.

 

Lionel Pavey

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist