treasury management Archives - Page 7 of 10 - treasuryXL

The size and shape of your treasury team

| 09-11-2017 | Pieter de Kiewit |

Last week I received a call from one of my clients. Over the last years, I found several members for their team. Given the transition they are in, they were looking for benchmark information to shape their treasury team and make it future proof. This has kept me thinking and I started gathering information in order to give a proper answer. As to be expected, there is no standard template resulting in an easy answer. Even for more evolved job types like sales or accounting this is a hard question, corporate treasury is too young and small for sound statistics.

To make my analysis workable, I decided to measure the size of the team in a straightforward headcount. When talking about shape, I would like to work with the main functional areas: cash management, risk management, corporate finance and support. Of course this is an oversimplification. I think the following variables are the most relevant.

To start with the obvious: size matters. Size in revenue, number of employees, number of countries active in, number of currencies used, number of payments are all related to size of the treasury team. Not 100%. Senior management requesting detailed and up-to-date information requires a bigger team. We see this especially with organizations in turbulent situations, internally or in dynamic markets. Treasury teams that recently started, do not yet have a focus on efficiency and tend to be bigger. The willingness to invest in modern IT solutions on one hand creates a bigger team: key users and treasury IT managers, on the other hand it replaces staff doing manual work. Finally improving aspects like segregation of duties and back-up typically create a bigger team.

Moving forward to the shape of the treasury team or perhaps the size of the various functional areas, I observe that the industry and company status have their impact. Typically, companies with a dynamic balance sheet, due to distress or growth (autonomous or take overs) need a bigger corporate finance function. A longer balance sheet in a capital intense industry requires a bigger team. In this area I also see an increase in project and customer finance teams contributing in the structuring of business deals.

Companies with diverse and dynamic payment flows need bigger cash management teams. Especially corporates with an ambition towards strong centralization require extra central staff. They need stronger software support, communicate a lot with subsidiaries and have to understand the business. If achieved, central cash management can be managed by few.

I observe a decrease of number of staff working in FX and interest risk management. Corporates are more risk averse, markets are transparent and ICT enables STP processes. In parallel other types of risk increase the workload: counter party, commodities, insurance, etcetera. Big data and business modeling is having its impact.

This blog does not have the ambition to be comprehensive, the above could be more thorough. Furthermore I could elaborate on aspects like control, IT and especially back office and settlements. Should they even be in your treasury team? I think the topic deserves further attention and could be researched by more than one graduate student.

What are your thoughts? What obvious aspect should be included? I look forward to your reactions,

Pieter de Kiewit

Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search

First 100 days of a treasurer

| 11-9-2017 | TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH) – Sponsored content |

When a government official enters into office, the 100 days in the new role are closely observed by all. Similarly, the first impressions left by a new treasurer are often long lasting and critical to success further down the road. In most cases, after the first three months, all stakeholders have formed their opinion.

Sounds familiar? We know that the first 100 days in a new job are known to be crucial in setting the right course. The challenge facing treasurers is to acquire a quick overview, identify company-critical risks, introduce necessary measures at short notice and, at the same time, convince the new boss that they are also able to set the right strategic course.
In our Executive Briefing, our treasury experts share their experiences and provide tips and insights to support you in the first 100 days of your latest position.

TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions) GmbH

What are hot topics in corporate treasury? Let us know!

| 28-8-2017 | TreasuryXL |

The treasury community knows us from ‘fresh’ content on a daily basis. A growing number of treasury professionals, our experts, send in articles and blogs and it is our goal to present interesting content that matters to our readers.

In order to be able to do so, it is important to stay on top of developments and trends and know what keeps you busy. At the moment we are exploring what the hottest topics in corporate treasury are and we would like to ask your help with this!

In cooperation with Treasurer Search we are making a list of the hottest topics. We are curious what subjects you, as a treasury professional, are dealing with on a daily basis.

Please answer the one-question survey (It only takes 1 minute of your time)

Based upon your input we will know what is relevant for you and we will be able to manage our content better.

Thank you for completing the survey.

Annette Gillhart – Community Manager treasuryXL

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Minor Treasury Management at Hogeschool Utrecht increasingly successful

| 15-8-2017 | Pieter de Kiewit | treasuryXL |

In July 2017 our expert Pieter de Kiewit wrote an interesting article about the minor treasury managment of Hogeschool Utrecht (University of Applied Sciences).
Hogeschool Utrecht started with this program three years ago and Pieter had been asked by Frans Boumans, lecturer and researcher at Hogeschool Utrecht, to contribute to create the curriculum. Pieter also assisted in finding both guest lecturers and companies providing internships. He will give a presentation to students about labour market opportunities for treasury experts on September 20th, 2017. In his article Pieter continues:

Programs like these do exist at universities in Europe and other countries. The university of Chicago has a strong reputation and we recruited two candidates from France with an extensive academic treasury curriculum. In the Netherlands the Register Treasurers post graduate program is the obvious academic way to go for a treasurer. You can only enter with experience and a degree. Graduating at master level in treasury in the Netherlands is not (yet?) organised.

By now, the Hogeschool Utrecht program has more applicants than seats. Students, not only from Utrecht, but also from other cities enroll. Their backgrounds vary from accounting, audit to business control. They find positions in SMEs, bigger corporates and the financial services industry. Recently Treasurer Search found a permanent position for a graduate with a treasury minor (again). Before we did not recruit graduates as our focus did not match the Dutch educational system. Graduates with treasury expertise were hardly available.

As from September we will continue our cooperation. Together with the people of treasuryXL we will create a brief survey in order to find out what is “hot in corporate treasury”. The results of this survey will be used to have student write papers. Interesting stuff! If you want to contribute or know more about this program you can contact Frans directly ([email protected]) or through Treasurer Search. The structure is set but for good input there is always room.

I hope all this is the preparation for an academic treasury track in The Netherlands. Time will tell.

Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search

More articles of this author:

Fintech recruitment considerations

Consider a treasury intern

If you are not a treasurer with the ambition of a dentist

Banker to corporate treasury transfer – A topic as relevant as ever

Trump’s determination to protect American business

| 14-8-2017 | Rob Beemster |

Many negative issues surround the President of the United States. Approval rating hits new low, surprise on his erratic conduct seems to grow daily. Trump is a unique politician. He is incomparable to any other western political leader. I want to pinpoint his monetary policy in 2017, by looking at the pattern of the dollar so far this year.

The dollar in 2017

Currency pair January 2017 August 2017 Relative decrease USD

EUR/USD 1.05 1.18 12.4%

AUD/USD 0.72 0.80 11.1%

GBP/USD 1.22 1.32 8.2%

USD/JPY 1.18 1.10 6.8%

USD/CNY 6.96 6.70 3.7%

Maybe Mr Trump does have a foreign economic policy.

He sees the results of Chinese manipulation and soft American response as an unfair trade relationship. The President of the US must do something about these unbalances. At least, this is how Trump judges.

Let’s take into account this Potus is a streetfighter. Long bilateral meetings with the Chinese are not options for Trump. Fast and furious, that it is: Bring the dollar down!!
And this is going on for half a year now. It is going the Trump way. Tough (but efficient)!

How to see the future value of the dollar?

The current outlook for the dollar against its main trading relations is related to some issues:

– Process of QE by ECB, and Euro interest rates

– North Korea

– China’s position in this geopolitical stress

– Economic conditions of the US

– Economic conditions of the main trading partners of the US

These are very important to determine the future value of the dollar. But this is the holistic view, we are all used to. Let’s be flexible and take a different stance. Just conclude as Trump will do. Be his alter ego.Then the most important issues are:

– Pattern of the Euro against the dollar and the bilateral trade balance between US and Germany

– China’s reaction to a lower dollar

– US trade balance

– US corporates repatriation of overseas cash

– US investments to produce within America

– FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in America

This is a totally different scope. If we want to understand Trump, then we have to use his view on the international arena. The above mentioned bullet points are crucial. All can easily be measured, Trump loves that. I would like to go through these points to be able to clarify the possible outcome of the dollar for the coming time.

Pattern of the Euro against the dollar and the bilateral trade balance between US and Germany

The more than 12% revaluation will have a serious impact on the trade balance between US and Germany. When the correction emerges, Trump might temper his view on Germany. When we notice correction in the trade data, the dollar has gone far enough…

China’s reaction to a lower dollar

So far the yuan has gained some territory but not as much as other major currencies rose against the dollar. How will PBOC and the Chinese Government react on Trump’s wishes to correct the trade balance by a devaluation of the dollar against the yuan? If they take action on Trump’s stated requirements, whatever this may be, then pressure may diminish.

US trade balance

For many years the US faces a deficit on its trade balance. The more than $500 billion yearly shortage is a notable pain point. If a remarkable achievement can be noticed on short term, a more relaxed dollar attitude may be expected.

US corporates repatriation of overseas cash

In history, attempts have been organised by US governments to return overseas cash of US corporations. During President Bush jr Presidency, corporations did repatriate cash. When Trump does decrease the corporate tax tariff to 15% and he rewards the US corps to transfer their money back to the US without any other penalty payments, a large repatriation may get going. Many of these funds will until now be held in local currencies, so a switch to the dollar may occur.

US corps return back to America

Trump has ordered US companies to produce in the US instead of overseas. If he becomes successful by bringing factories back to the US, the trade balance will shift, employment will improve. Also when large repatriation is done, these funds can be invested in local factories.

FDI in America

Many non-US corporations are scared by the threat of the US government that regulations like import tariffs and other taxes may be charged on imports. It will damage the advantage corporations have experienced last couple of years due to the high dollar. If special import tariffs are installed, investments may be done in the US to avoid these special expenditures. Onshore producing on American soil will become an alternative.

How to manage this?

Foreign currency management has always been a hard part of the international business. Currency moves are unpredictable. But since Trump, one has to be aware of non-economic issues as well. Note that all the above mentioned issues can have effect on the value of the dollar. Professional guidance of your flows is becoming more and more important. Barcelona valuta experts helps you to install a decent strategy to counter unpredicted events. We guide you in protecting the cash flow.

Rob Beemster

Owner of Barcelona valuta experts BV

Payment Processing in 2017: FX-MM’s survey and the results

| 4-8-2017 | treasuryXL | FX-MM |

For almost 25 years, FX-MM publishes about the issues that bankers, corporate treasurers, fund managers, traders, brokers and technology vendors face in the international financial markets. With a focus on treasury, trading and technology, FX-MM serves all of these sectors effectively with their magazine on a monthly basis. Earlier this year they asked their community to take part in their payments processing survey, which they had conducted together with Accuity. 215 senior professionals involved in payments processing from the banking and corporate sector, ranging from the largest multinationals to SMEs, responded.
FX-MM now published a summary of the results online, which we summarize for you.

According to FX-MM’s editor Peter Graham the survey shows the ‘critical importance of payments data accuracy for banks and corporates as they seek to grow their businesses and increase their presence across the world.’

FX-MM made a difference between financial institutions and corporations in their survey. To be categorised in the corporate category, the respondent must work for a non-banking organisation that makes a substantial amount of payments through their daily operations. Typically this includes a range of payroll, supplier, and partner transactions and was referred to as ‘corporates’.

95 top-level corporate respondents from a wide range of industries took part in the survey, with the majority either being treasurers or chief financial officers.

The 120 respondents from the banking sector represented individuals working in all areas of payments processing, from corporate banking, payment operations, and electronic payments, to remittances, settlements and operations. Much like the corporate respondents, the banking respondents represented a wide range of organisations, .

Global reach

Geographically, respondents to the survey were mainly based in Europe and North America. 25% of bank respondents, and 20% of corporate respondents, however, were based outside these mature markets and featured representatives from all regions across the globe.

The majority of banks – 39% – are active in at least 15 regions, and at least 20% serve more than 50 geographic markets. Since only 21% of the banks only process payments domestically, these results highlight the need for accurate payments data across a range of regions. The survey highlights the frequency in which banks today are operating in emerging markets. Indeed, 61% of banks said they often or always route payments through Eastern Europe, 56% through Asia Pacific, 37% through Africa and 35% through Central and South America.

The need for global reach, and the increasing internationalisation of today’s business world, is also reflected in the corporate world. While just 9% of corporate respondents to the survey only send or receive payments domestically, 72% send or receive payments to up to 50 countries.The rest % send payments to more than 50 countries.

It seams that corporates are even more likely to expand their operations internationally than banks, with 64% saying they intend to enter new geographic markets. That implies that a wide scope of payments data is critical as corporates plan for the business needs of the future.

Why does payments data accuracy matter more in today’s market landscape?

Sarkis Akmakjian, Senior Director, Product Management at Accuity, explains:

‘Evolving business strategies combined with the demand to send payments into emerging markets drives the need for accurate payments that go through every time and in any location. Yet, underpinning each successful transaction is critical financial and routing data. It is not surprising, then, that many financial institutions and multi-national organisations have become more concerned with ensuring this critical information is kept up to date.’

For multi-national corporations, accurate payments data is becoming a key factor in achieving strategic objectives. As the survey highlights, a growing number of global corporations (64%) are expanding their supply chain, customer base and workforce into new markets. However, this cannot be fully achieved if payments cannot be processed with certainty into those countries.

Many respondents (61%) acknowledge that their business could take advantage of new opportunities if it was less of a challenge to process payments. Therefore, they are most helped when payments data is delivered through tools that enable efficient processing.

For financial institutions, accurate routing data drives metrics like straight-through-processing (STP) rates and client satisfaction. In fact it takes fewer delayed payments which damage relationships with clients in a financial market that is growing more competitive.

For both financial institutions and global businesses, the ability to overcome global payments challenges grows more important. Both types of businesses are looking to the accuracy of their bank and routing data to meet the pressure for accurate payments.

Mission critical for corporates

Significant consequences for corporates arose from not having complete and accurate payments data for their suppliers and vendors. 58% said it led to too much time spent on manual research to correct data errors, while 31% said it led to a lack of trust and posed a reputation risk with vendors.

The survey revealed that there are clear challenges for corporates as they onboard and maintain payments data for their suppliers and vendors. The corporates indicate that problems arose when vendors did not keep them up to date when their payments data changed, or when vendors did not supply all the information they needed. Corporates also stated that their onboarding process was too arduous and that they did not catch errors in vendor data.

Despite these challenges, the importance that corporates attach to payments processing should not be underestimated. 82% of respondents said the ability to process payments accurately had a direct effect on their organisation’s current success and future growth, while 62% said their organisation could take advantage of more new business opportunities if processing payments were less challenging.

The survey revealed the biggest challenges corporates face in keeping bank and payments up to date, namely manual entry of data that led to errors in their master database and ensuring that payments met complex country-by-country requirements and language requirements.

Bank STP concerns

For banks, 57% said their straight-through-processing (STP) rate for payments was less than 95%. Clearly, this is a cause for concern. The most common cause of payment failure or delay at banks was incorrect or missing beneficiary details, missing or incorrect clearing system details or missing or incorrect account numbers.

The survey also revealed bank priorities for payment processing in 2017. . More than half of the respondents said reducing cost, time and effort was a priority. 42 % cited the need to minimise the risk and exposure of failed payments. A larger group mentioned the automating of data and workflow to save time. 33% of the banks in the survey wanted to protect organisational reputation and existing customer relationships.

It became obvious that banks are feeling the pressure as far as payments processing is concerned.

Without doubt payments are a vital instrument to keep the global economy running. Banks and corporates face challenges. Inaccurate data is clearly an obstacle to increase straight-through-processing and to realise the full benefits of payments automation. Overcoming these inaccurate data issues will reduce costs for banks and corporates and also place them in a better position to take advantage of business opportunities as they expand into the global markets.
(Source: FX-MM)

You can read the complete article about the survey results on FX-MM by following this link.

Annette Gillhart – Community manager treasuryXL

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Re-inventing treasury workflows: Smart Treasury

While the role of the treasurer is changing, it becomes increasingly challenging to maintain the current workflows and simultaneously take on new demanding tasks. One of these often manual and time-consuming tasks is risk management. As seen in, among others, this year’s Global Treasury Benchmark Survey of PwC, the registration and management of financial instruments stands among the top 3 challenges on the agenda of the surveyed treasurers. In this article, we take a more in-depth look at possible optimizations in some key treasury workflows.

Example FX management workflow

Hedging your FX exposure risk made easy

A common problem is the lack of visibility on the existing (global/local) FX exposure risk.
In order to calculate the FX transaction risk, transactional data from the TMS & ERP systems need to be consolidated effectively. Typically, this happens to be a (very) painful exercise. With Cashforce, however, using our off-the-shelf connectors (for ERP & TMS) and our full drill-down capabilities, you have all FX exposures at your fingertips.

FX Exposure Management – Current positions & exposures

But there is more to it. Imagine that linked to your FX exposure, an automated proposal of the most relevant FX deal would be generated to properly hedge this risk. A grin from ear to ear you say?

FX Exposure Management – Suggested hedge

And what about forecasting FX exposures? It’s now all within reach!

FX Exposure Management – Future positions & exposures

Whether you choose to take on an intercompany loan, a plain vanilla FX forward or another more exotic derivative product, chosen deals could then be automatically passed on to your deal transaction platform, to effectively execute the deal without any hassle. After execution, deals will automatically flow back into the system. Consequently, a useful summary/overview will be generated to effectively manage all your financial instruments.

Workflow integrated cash forecast

Finally, integrated cash management

New financial instruments / deals will generate a set of related cash flows. Ideally, these are directly integrated in your cash flow forecasts. In Cashforce, this data is automatically integrated within the cash flow forecast module, and will be put into a dedicated cash flow category. Learn more one how to set up an effective cash forecast in this article or this webinar.

Cash flow forecast overview

The analysis possibilities are now limitless, thanks to the ability to drill down to the very transactional-level details. The real number crunchers strike gold here: the analysis features open doors to unlimited in-depth analysis and comparison of various scenarios (E.g. the simulated effects of various exchange rate movements).

Drill-down to the transaction level

Using our big data engine, the delivery of rich and highly flexible reporting is facilitated. It’s fair to say that the typical SQL server (which currently 95% of the TMS systems use) can’t hold a candle to this. Through an advanced ‘self-service’ interface, users can drill down completely into respective amortization tables, historical transactions and effortlessly create customized reports and dashboards. We’ll talk more about why we believe Big Data engines are crucial for any Treasury software in our next blog.

Integration with ERPs & payment platforms

Next to this, Cashforce will automatically generate the accounting entries (in the format of your ERP/accounting system) related to your deals. The appropriate payment files will be generated in a similar fashion.

So…

As might be clear after reading this article, we strongly believe that integrated data flows & a Big Data engine are the foundation of a new type of Treasury Management System that runs like clockwork and can serve effective treasury departments, but also renewed finance/controlling/FP&A departments.

You are curious to hear more about effective treasury management? We’ve recently recorded a webchat on how to set up an efficient cash flow forecast process.

Nicolas Christiaen

Managing Partner at Cashforce

How to convince a manager as a treasurer

| 17-7-2017 | Theo Paardekooper |

Management decisions are generally made based on analysis of data. However, this statement is far from correct. Arguments count, too. However, having the correct arguments does not mean that they are convincing. Being right is not the same as getting what you want.

How is this possible? If you are in full control of this principle, every action will become a success. To understand this principle we have to get involved in the world of behavioral finance. It is the cross section of economics and psychology. As a treasurer or financial professional you have to discuss issues regularly with your management and some background on this topic might come handy now and then.

One of the main biases is the risk appetite of a human being. People are risk averse if they can get a profit, but they are risk minded to make a profit to reduce former losses.

Another bias is about the difference between perceived risk and actual risks. A human being expects that small risky events will occur more often, than high-risk events. For this reason people buy a lot of insurance products that will cover these small risks, like travelling insurance, biking insurance, etc. Also the success of big lotteries is linked to this bias. The chance to win a million Euro’s in a lottery is as big as the risk to get involved in a car accident.

Decision-making is highly influenced by former experience. This can create a bounded awareness on the topic. People can get overconfident about their opinion or over-optimistic about the likelihood of outcomes of actions. People who are overconfident are often surprised, while people who are over-optimistic are often disappointed.

Every human being is influenced by bounded awareness. Just take a look at the example.

Didn’t you spot the gorilla? If you didn’t don’t be ashamed; almost half of all people don’t see it.

Decision-making is often a group process. Groups have effect on decision making by itself.

Just take a look at the following experiment.

It is hard to understand but from a behavioural perspective it is not important to know why, but it is important to know how. If you can use these non-rational principles to influence the decision making process, it will help you to convince everyone.

Are you convinced, if not, I probably forgot some other non-rational principles…

Theo Paardekoper

Independent treasury specialist

Roadmap for unwinding derivatives

| 14-7-2017 | Roger Boxman |

Banks offer proposals to smaller companies and housing associations to unwind interest rate swaps. The benefit for the banks is that this will reduce their risk weighted assets. Whether this offer is attractive or not depends on several issues.

A short-list of advantages of unwinding to keep in mind is found below:

The advantage of skipping break clauses and uncertain margin call events and therefore a reduction of liquidity risk.
Creating a potential current tax loss on the unwinding fee which can be possibly offset in the near future.
Opportunity to restructure the funding structure and refinance against lower interest rates.
Optimise the redemption schedule and therefore to create lower interest rate risk in the loan portfolio.
Reduce costs of monitoring and supervision.
No hedge accounting issues with unexpected profit and loss accounting in combination with latent taxes.

Off course the decision to unwind or not depends highly on the amount of the fee and the specific expectations of the organisation. No situation will be the same, an exact blueprint simply does not exist. In a substantial number of situations, the ‘do nothing option’ will be the best.

Roger Boxman

Senior Advisor Internal Control

Een parttime CFO – parallellen met de Flex Treasurer

| 29-6-2017 | CFO netwerk | treasuryXL |

CFO netwerk biedt (parttime) CFO diensten aan ondernemingen, waarvan aard en omvang van de activiteiten de fulltime inzet van een CFO niet rechtvaardigen. Wat dat betreft herkennen wij parallellen met onze Flex Treasurer, die wij op treasuryXL aanbieden aan ondernemingen, die wel treasury exposure hebben, maar geen ruimte om een fulltime treasurer of cash manager in dienst te nemen. We waren in gesprek met Jeffrey Janssen van CFO netwerk en hebben de parallellen voor u uitgewerkt.

CFO op maat

Wat is de toegevoegde waarde van een CFO voor een onderneming?

Veel jonge en kleine bedrijven hebben vaak niet de financiële mogelijkheden om een ervaren CFO in dienst te nemen. In deze situatie is wellicht een parttime CFO een goede oplossing. Een ervaren professional met commitment die u voor een beperkt aantal uren inhuurt, maar toch de vinger aan de pols houdt en indien nodig 24/7 voor u beschikbaar is.

Maar waar u als ondernemer ook bent in de levenscyclus van uw bedrijf, het goed functioneren van uw financiële afdeling is van groot belang en zij hoort u tijdig te informeren over strategische, financiële vragen die van belang zijn voor het voortbestaan van uw bedrijf. Daarbij gaat het niet alleen over cijfers, maar ook over een sterke CFO, die u uitdaagt en als business partner optreedt bij de bepaling van de strategie en volgens een strakke CFO-agenda de groei van uw bedrijf ondersteunt.

Uw bedrijf groeit

U werkt hard en investeert. Het bedrijf groeit en alles gaat eigenlijk beter dan verwacht. Of toch niet? Er ontstaan groeistuipen en er worden veel ad-hoc beslissingen genomen om de voortrazende trein op het rechte spoor te houden. In deze fase kunnen grote fouten worden gemaakt die de continuïteit in gevaar brengen. De belangrijkste hiervan is dat het strategische plan niet wordt gevolgd en dat dit plan niet regelmatig wordt geëvalueerd en aangepast. Aspecten die in deze fase van groot belang zijn:

Het hebben van juiste en tijdige stuurinformatie (ook wel KPI’s genoemd)
De kwaliteit van de organisatie (juiste mensen, juiste skills) De administratieve systemen en procedures. Zijn deze nog adequaat en kunnen ze de groei aan?
Is er voldoende cashflow aanwezig om de continuïteit te waarborgen?

Succesvol en nu verder…

Alle bedrijfsprocessen zijn goed ingericht – het gaat heel goed met uw bedrijf. De resultaten zijn uitstekend, maar blijft dat zo? Indien u niet bezig bent met nieuwe innovaties, oog hebt voor de veranderingen in de markt loopt u het risico dat uw groei gaat stagneren en te laat uw organisatie hierop aanpast. Ook dan moet U keuzes maken die ingrijpend zijn en een weerslag hebben op mensen en systemen. In deze fase is het cruciaal dat u de continuïteit van het bedrijf centraal stelt en het bedrijf robuust maakt voor de toekomst. Ook hier is het de taak van de CFO om dit spanningsveld te bewaken en u tijdig te helpen in uw besluitvorming.

Ups and downs

Iedere onderneming komt ze vroeger of later tegen. Door te weinig innovatie streven uw concurrenten u voorbij. De resultaten lopen opeens terug. Uw bankiers komen vaker langs en aandeelhouders zijn niet tevreden en eisen veranderingen. U bent het grootste deel van uw tijd kwijt aan het managen van uw liquiditeit en het sussen van aandeelhouders en personeel. Zorg dat u in deze fase de juiste mensen binnenhaalt om het tij te keren, dan wel te zorgen dat keuzes worden gemaakt. Dit kan van levensbelang zijn om een faillissement te voorkomen.

Wat kan een CFO betekenen?

Een krachtige CFO is een sparringpartner die u als ondernemer in iedere bedrijfsfase ontzorgt en uw financiële continuïteit bewaakt. Hij of zij is onder meer verantwoordelijk voor de financiële systemen en processen, de stuurinformatie en de contacten met financiers en accountant. Maar bovenal moet hij als financiële business partner onderdeel zijn van uw team en mede sturing geven aan de strategische agenda van uw onderneming. Een onderneming kan niet functioneren zonder een goede CFO in het hart van uw organisatie.

Een Flex Treasurer als ondersteuning voor de CFO

We merken dagelijks dat treasury iets is waar CFO’s en Controllers er vaak te weinig tijd voor hebben en/of niet altijd de noodzakelijke kennis. HR managers en directeuren bemoeien zich er liever niet mee.

Ook hier hetzelfde beeld: de meeste organisaties zijn niet groot genoeg om een treasury-afdeling te huisvesten maar dat betekent niet dat deze organisaties geen kosten kunnen besparen of dat er geen mogelijkheden zijn voor bijvoorbeeld funding. Om de treasury van uw organisatie onder controle te hebben is het niet altijd nodig om er een complete afdeling van te maken.

Een ervaren hands-on treasurer kan een eerste check doen binnen de organisatie om te bepalen of het de moeite waard is om te investeren in treasury. Door optimalisatie van interne processen, het beter beheren van banken en bankkosten of het opnieuw organiseren van FX processen kan vaak een substantiële besparing worden gerealiseerd.

Cash & liquidity management ondersteuning

Heeft u een goed overzicht van uw liquiditeitspositie? Is er geen versnipperde cash- en kredietbenutting? Bent u onlangs geconfronteerd met liquiditeitsproblemen t.g.v. onverwachte uitgaven? Wordt u regelmatig geconfronteerd met manuele verwerking van betalingen? Bent u recent geconfronteerd met fraudegevallen? Is het aantrekken van de financiering een issue?

Een treasury expert kan u helpen in het vinden van de juiste antwoorden op deze vragen. Een Flex Treasurer kan ondersteuning bieden op tijdelijke basis, onder meer voor de volgende aspecten:

Begeleiding opvolging liquiditeitspositie groep en uittekenen processen in dit verband
Assessment van het cash forecasting proces en voorstellen tot optimalisatie
Optimalisatie betalingsprocessen (incluis fraudepreventie)
Advies selectie bankpartners
Nazicht van de bankvoorwaarden
Bepalen van de optimale financieringsstrategie
Automatisatievoorstellen en begeleiding van de implementatie

Optimalisatie werkkapitaalverkeer

Kampt uw bedrijf met een DSO (gemiddelde betalingstermijn klanten) die veel hoger is dan het sectorgemiddelde? Heeft u een duidelijk afgelijnd acceptatieproces en een politiek voor de betaaltermijnen? Is je facturatieproces optimaal? Heeft u een afgelijnde politiek voor de selectie en de betalingstermijnen aan uw leveranciers? Heeft u regelmatig incassoproblemen? Kampt u met wanbetalingen en afschrijvingen op uw klantenportefeuille? Ondervindt u regelmatig reconciliatieproblemen bij binnenkomende en uitgaande betalingen?

Dan kan een Flex Treasurer, die treasury & working capital management expert is, u helpen bij het vinden van de juiste antwoorden op deze vragen en het optimaliseren van uw werkkapitaalbeheer.

FX en IR risico analyse

Heeft u een goed zicht op de risico’s die je bedrijf oploopt (o.m. valuta en renterisico) en op de impact hiervan op uw bedrijf? Heeft u een politiek in verband met de risicoafdekking? Heeft u een zicht op de mogelijkheden om ze in te dekken? Koerswijzigingen in valuta en rente kunnen zeer vluchtig zijn en leiden tot onnodige extra kosten. Als u zich wilt concentreren op uw ‘core business’, zonder u zorgen te hoeven maken over bv. de EUR/USD wisselkoers of de Europese rente dan is het inhuren van een Flex Treasurer de ideale uitkomst. Hij kan de organisatie helpen eenvoudig en effectief de risico’s af te dekken, alsmede te onderhandelen over betere spreidingen en lagere kosten bij uw bank.

Aangeboden diensten

Met de verschillende CFO diensten van CFO Netwerk krijgt u het beste van beide werelden: de expertise van een ervaren CFO en op maat gemaakte uitbestede CFO diensten — tegen een prijs die u zich kunt veroorloven. De CFO-diensten zijn schaalbaar in de tijd. Dit betekent dat het niveau van ondersteuning geleverd wordt, dat u nodig hebt en wanneer u het nodig hebt.

Op treasuryXL bieden wij een Treasury Quick Scan aan, die beoogt de treasury-pijnpunten in kaart te brengen en de aanbevelingen om deze te verhelpen, inclusief de business case. Op basis daarvan kunt u bekijken of er voor verdere ondersteuning een treasury-expert voor uw organisatie zinvol is.
Daarnaast biedt treasuryXL ook treasury coaches aan. Treasurers werken vaak alleen of in een klein team en hebben ondersteuning nodig van andere (meer senior) treasury professionals. Vaak is deze ondersteuning niet aanwezig binnen het eigen team. In ons netwerk zitten een aantal senior professionals die deze ondersteuning op regelmatige basis kunnen bieden. Zij kunnen op regelmatige basis of incidenteel ingepland worden.

Mogelijke samenwerking

Omdat er duidelijk parallellen zijn tussen de diensten van CFO netwerk en treasuryXL en de diensten elkaar goed aanvullen, onderzoeken wij op dit moment of wij wellicht kunnen samenwerken. Het doel is om organisaties, die een financiële professional – parttime CFO of Flex Treasurer – nodig hebben, als klant nog beter van dienst te zijn.

Tag Archive for: treasury management