BCR Publishing
We are the leading provider of news, market intelligence, events and training for the global receivables finance industry.
Working with industry leading organisations, experts, governments and universities, BCR Publications delivers expertise in factoring, receivables and supply chain finance to a global audience.
BCR has long been a beacon of innovation and excellence in the realm of receivables finance, playing an instrumental role in shaping the industry’s international landscape. Through its comprehensive conferences, insightful publications, and thought leadership, BCR has facilitated crucial dialogues and connections among industry professionals, driving forward the development of receivables finance globally.
What is the Treasurer Test
The Treasurer Test will take approximately 70 – 100 minutes to complete. It consists of two parts:
This part is build out of multiple-choice questions that measure knowledge in the following 4 functional areas:
– Cash management
– Risk management
– Corporate Finance & Funding
– Miscellaneous Treasury
Each area contains 30 questions with a time limit of 10 minutes.
Duration: 4 x 10 minutes.
This part comprises a personality assessment based on the “Big Five Theory”.
There is no right or wrong. This section consists of statements in which you must indicate whether or not this applies to you.
Total number of questions: 80
Duration: 30 – 60 minutes
After finishing the Treasurer Test you will receive a report. This report will show you the results as an absolute and as a bench marked score against your peer group.
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Frequently asked questions
TEST
What will be tested?
Your current Treasury knowledge will be tested, built through experience and study. The Treasurer Test assesses your technical knowledge level in corporate treasury, using questions about Cash management, Miscellaneous, Risk management and Corporate Finance & Funding. The Treasurer Test also assesses your personality profile with a test based on the scientifically-acknowledged Big Five theory.
How do I prepare for the Treasurer Test?
We recommend to make the test in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed. Don’t be afraid when you can’t complete all questions. There are more questions than you can answer in the time that’s available. If you don’t know the answer on a question, move on to the next. There are several things that will be measured such as speed, productivity and accuracy. See a summary of our preparation advice here.
What tools do I need for the Treasurer Test?
Laptop/Computer, internet, scientific calculator, pen and paper.
RESULTS
How are the results measured?
Your corporate treasury technical knowledge level score is based on the type of questions answered correctly. Each category contains 30 questions with a time limit of 10 minutes. It is not expected that you will answer all the questions within the allowed time. There are 4 categories in total.
The question structure is build with the method ‘easy’ to ‘complex’. The more complex questions are rated with a higher score. Therefore, speed in combination with correct answers will result in a higher score. Your score will be presented as an absolute number and also will be compared with a reference group based upon the length of relevant treasury experience.
Your psychological preferences are scored on a stanine scale. A stanine scale is a way of presenting the area of normal distribution of your results compared with the ‘general population’ and all other treasury testees (not related to the number of years of experience).
How are the results presented?
Per knowledge subject you will get a benchmarked score on how many questions you answered correctly of the total available answers in that category. Besides your score, we will show how many questions you made and how many of those you answered correctly. The personality profile is measured through assessing your natural inclination towards certain personality aspects. The report shows your benchmarked score on a stanine scale.
Who can see my results?
Treasurer Test results are only downloadable by the person who has taken the test. This means that If you paid and registered for the test you will be able to download the Treasurer Test report directly. If your (potential) employer or training institute paid for the test, you can forward the report by email. Please note that testees are not obliged to share their test results with a paying third party. At the end of the test they can choose whether or not to disclose the report to the paying third party. This reflect the latest changes in data protection law.
How do you combat fraud?
Suspicious accounts and the highest 20 percent of scores are randomly investigated, amongst other ways by using video-based retesting. If suspicions are not countered, the account will be blocked.
REGISTRATION
How do I take the Treasurer Test?
You should register, agree to the Treasurer Test terms of use and privacy statement, and pay for the test. Subsequently, an entry code will be emailed to you. With this code you can log into your account and take the Treasurer Test.
When and where do I take the Treasurer Test?
The Treasurer Test is an online test. This means you can take the Treasurer Test anywhere and anytime in the world.
How much does it cost to take the Treasurer Test?
The Treasurer Test costs € 595,- (ex VAT). You can pay online with a credit card, debit card, PayPal or iDEAL.
What happens with my personal information?
Your personal information is stored for one year. One year after taking the test, personally identifiable information (PII) such as your name and email address, will be deleted from our database. This means that your results are anonymized and only used for benchmarking purposes.
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The link between financial performance and working capital metrics
| 10-07-2018 | Theo Paardekooper | treasuryXL
Managing working capital is an important task for treasurers in order to reduce the financial risk of a company and to improve the financial stability. In various studies the costs and benefits of working capital have been claimed.
According to Blinder and Maccini (1991), supply costs and price fluctuations can be reduced by larger inventories and this can prevent loss of business due to scarcity of products. However, there are also effects of investment in working capital, which may lead to a negative impact on firm value. Firstly, keeping stock available imposes costs such as warehouse rent, insurance and security expenses, which tend to rise as the level of inventory increases (Kim & Chung, 1990). Secondly, larger investments in working capital, involves opportunity costs and financing costs (Kieschnick, Laplante, & Moussawi (2013) and this will increase credit risk. Summarizing, working capital management affects the perational performance of the company and external circumstances can influence working capital management accordingly. The corporate treasurer is the key person to create working capital policies and initiate managerial focus on this topic. In order to define the added value of a treasurer in the perspective of working capital management the main question is:
Is there a link between the financial performance of a company and its working capital metrics?
This question can be mathematically rephrased as
Where the working capital metrics are defined in the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)
Several studies conclude that a faster rise in the cost of higher investment in working capital relative to the holding of more inventories and or granting trade credit to customers may lead to a decrease in corporate profitability (Deloof 2003) and Shin and Soenen (1998) find in a comprehensive study a strong negative relationship between working capital metrics and corporate profitability for US corporates. Most studies focuses on the linear relationship between financial performance and working capital metrics, however a non-linear relationship between financial performance and working capital metrics is at stake. On top of the non-linear relationship industry specific effects might play an important role. After investigating the statistics of a database containing the financial information of 39.052 non-US listed corporates in a time period between 2010 and 2017 2 samples of scatter charts below give a view on the data
Theo Paardekooper
Independent treasury specialist