- Does your organization have a treasury training budget? If so, what is it?
- What treasury management topics would you like covered during the treasury training class?
- Are the treasury training course instructors experienced practitioners and educators?
- Does the treasury training event qualify for CTP credits?
- Does the treasury training class offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee?
Ongoing treasury training is critical for the development of professionals within the treasury management industry. Therefore, before enrolling in a treasury training class one should ask the following five questions: Upcoming Treasury Training Events: TreaSolution offers treasury training events (Treasury Boot Camps) on a regular basis. A Treasury Boot Camp gathers treasury practitioners, bankers and vendors together to learn about and discuss treasury management best practices. If you would like to learn about an upcoming Treasury Boot Camp please visit our Treasury Boot Camp webpage.
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The Treasury Boot Camp is a treasury training program that covers treasury best practices, liquidity management, treasury risk management, treasury technology, internal controls and much more! Over two days, Treasury Boot Camp attendees with study real-world examples of treasury and cash management best practices in an active learning environments. Learn more about the Treasury Boot Camp by visiting: www.TreasuryBootCamp.com 6 Reasons Why You Should Attend The Treasury Boot Camp...
Treasury technology is continuously changing... This is why treasury professionals should stay informed about treasury technology changes and how they may affect their job functions. The Treasury Technology Forum (www.TreasuryTechForum.com) is a one-day forum specifically focused on learning, discussing, brainstorming and documenting treasury technology best practices. Listed below are some questions that will be discussed during the Treasury Technology Forum:
If you're interested in the answers to these questions, you may want to consider attending the Treasury Technology Forum. The Treasury Technology Forums are held in Chicago and registration is limited. Register today by visiting: www.TreasuryTechForum.com
Dan Carmody was recently featured in an iTreasuer article titled, "Cracking the Career-Path Conundrum." This article discusses a very important, yet rarely discussed, topic of personnel advancement within a treasury department:
How does a Treasurer promote qualified treasury personnel in a relatively small and vertically aligned treasury department? This is the questions that every Treasurer needs to answer in order to keep a stable, efficient and happy treasury department. Frequently treasury staff is promoted when there is a vacancy within the department. If you have a stable treasury department how do you prevent your treasury staff from leaving the company to pursue their next promotion? One strategy is to let treasury department personnel rotate with other tangential departments so that all personnel can gain valuable insights and experiences. What strategies does your company use to promote treasury department staff? Please comment below.
Financial executives should take note that the Federal Reserve recently began stress testing prolonged negative 3-Month US Treasury rates and how they would effect financial institutions. Should CFOs & Treasurers be conducting similar scenario analysis as a proactive liquidity risk management practice?
One of the key lessons financial executives learned during the 2008 financial crisis is that dramatic changes in the money markets can materially influence corporate liquidity positions. The money market environment would be vastly different if the Federal Reserve were to implement prolonged negative 3-Month US Treasury rates. As reported by Bloomberg, the reason why the Federal Reserve avoided negative rates during the 2008 financial crisis was because they wanted to avoid a "dangerous dislocations in the money markets." Bloomberg goes on to mention that the Federal Reserve stated that "This [negative rate stress test] does not represent a forecast..." CNBC is reporting that the Federal Reserve is now using negative rates as part of their Dodd-Frank compliance to evaluate how financial institutions would react to "severely adverse" conditions. Even though the Federal Reserve does not consider negative rate scenario analysis as a forecast, there are recent examples of central banks (ECB, BOJ, Danish National Bank, Swedish National Bank, Swiss National Bank) implementing actual negative rate policies. (re:Bankers vs. Mattresses) Therefore, the precedent has been set and the negative rate experiment has already begun.
The start of the new year is an ideal time for Treasurers to reflect upon overall treasury strategies and goals. Since TreaSolution's purpose is to help organizations in developing world-class treasury functions, we've compiled a list of sixteen treasury optimization projects that every Treasurer should consider for 2016.
The list of treasury optimization projects range from basic treasury policy and procedures documentation to advance treasury and risk management analysis. TreaSolution hopes that this list will assist Treasurers in creating a world-class treasury department by implementing treasury best practices and simultaneously documenting treasury optimization results. 16 Treasury Optimization Projects for 2016
What are your thoughts about this list of treasury optimization projects? Should any projects be added to this list? What treasury optimization projects will your treasury department pursue this year? Please feel free to add your comments below.
Conducting a treasury review / audit consists of documenting and benchmarking treasury processes, procedures and policies in order to create a strategic, multi-year improvement plan. TreaSolution's treasury review consulting services has allowed us to gain extensive experience working with treasury departments in order to assist them in implementing treasury best practices. Listed below are five reasons why a CFO / Treasurer would want to make a treasury review project a top priority.
New Treasury Department Leadership
There is a substantial learning curve for treasury department senior management (CFO, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, etc...) when they are new to the treasury department. This is especially true if the treasury department senior management is also new to the company. A treasury review / audit inherently shortens the learning curve for senior management because the treasury review will document all critical treasury processes, benchmark them against best practices and highlight both what is working well and opportunities for improvement. What more could new treasury department leadership ask for when starting a new job?
Mergers / Acquisitions
Combining two treasury departments is a challenging process. Combine two treasury departments while consistently implementing best practices is even more difficult! Often there are time constraints when combining treasury operations due to mergers / acquisitions. This often creates an environment of "just make it work" instead of "make it work well." A treasury review after a merger / acquisition allows corporate treasurers to take a step back and critically analyze the combined treasury operations so that best practices can be implemented over time.
Stable Treasury Personnel
"It's always been done that way!" or "If it's not broken don't fix it!" Under most situations having stable treasury personnel is a good thing! Having stable treasury personnel is a reason for a treasury review because there are motivations for not disrupting known processes, technologies, procedures, policies, vendors, etc... A treasury review / audit project is a catalyst to critically analyze all critical facets of the treasury department. A treasury review project will analyze the business logic of each critical process, policy, et al. to ensure the implementation of best practices.
Organic Organization Growth
Has your organization outgrown your current treasury function? Are your treasury personnel struggling with the volume & complexity of your organization's treasury management requirements. If so, a treasury review will assist corporate treasurers in developing a successful treasury strategy that will foster secure and efficient treasury operations. Business requirements dictate the scope of treasury operations. Therefore, a treasury review / audit project will review all critical business requirements in order to develop a secure and effective treasury strategy.
Treasury Technology Advancements
All technology, including treasury technology, advances at an astonishing rate! A key reason for considering a treasury review project is to help ensure that your organization is leveraging treasury technology effectively. A treasury review will analyze the utilization of both current treasury technology (within the treasury department) and treasury technology which is available in the marketplace. A treasury review will provide senior treasury management with a clear understanding as to how treasury technology can make a meaningful impact upon treasury operations, security and efficiency.
Conclusion
Ultimately, a treasury review project enables corporate treasurers to have a thorough understanding of their treasury department operational successes, risks and opportunities. A treasury review / audit project is a tool that successful treasurers utilize when developing a world-class treasury function.
What road will you take to create the best possible treasury department for your organization?
Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions.
Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Best Practices Review Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
As a treasury technology consultant, this is one of the most popular questions I get asked: "So, how long will it take to implement a treasury workstation from start to finish?" The answer depends upon numerous factors such as the size of the organization, the number of people on the treasury workstation team, the scope of treasury operations, the number of financial institutions, etc... Needless to say, TreaSolution wanted to discover some metrics around general treasury workstation implementation durations.
This graph indicates the actual treasury workstation implementation duration (in months) for organization that purchased a treasury workstation. Overall, the average treasury workstation implementation time was 7.51 months. For smaller organizations (<$250 Million in Revenue) the time to implement a treasury workstation was elevated (8.33 months) primarily because those companies typically do not yet have a treasury department. There may be one or two people in the Controller's group who are responsible for implementing treasury technology leading to a longer implementation duration. For organizations between $250 Million - $5 Billion in revenue there is a reduced implementation duration (5.86 and 5.76, respectively). Our options as to why this group is able to implement a treasury workstation more efficiently are:
Finally, organizations that have greater than $5 Billion in revenue tend to have an extended treasury workstation implementation duration of 10.75 months. Our opinion as to why this group has a longer treasury workstation implementation duration is:
Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Workstation Selection (RFP) Treasury Workstation Implementation Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
What is the tipping point? When do large companies actually create a treasury department? TreaSolution's research on this topic indicates that corporations typically create stand-alone treasury departments at approximately the $250 million / year revenue range ( + / - $100 Million). There are some exceptions for smaller, truly multinational organizations. For organizations < $250 Million / year in revenue, the treasury management function is typically conducted by someone in the Controller's department.
Generally, there is one main reason why an organization needs to create a stand-alone treasury department = cash management complexity. At a certain point during an organization's revenue growth, it's cash management functionality outgrows the Controller's group. The catalyst for this increase in cash management complexity may be due to organic growth, merger(s) and/or acquisition(s). It is at this point that it become more secure & efficient for organizations to develop a new, stand-alone treasury department. List below are five topics that should be taken into considering when developing a new treasury department: Treasury Department Scope of Operations
What is the new treasury department going to be responsible for? Specifically, what will be the treasury department's scope of operations? An organization may want to document their business requirements when answering these various questions. One approach is to start at a very high level business requirements then work your way down to more specific business requirements. Listed below is one example of a high level to detailed level business requirement logic:
Multinational Operations (US & UK) --> Cash Forecasting --> FX Risk Management --> USD / GBP Hedging This is a simple example that should be replicated for every function that will be incorporated in the new treasury department. Once the new treasury department's scope of operations are determined, then an organization can review the department personnel, hierarchy, technology, policies, procedures and internal controls. Treasury Personnel & Hierarchy
Hiring qualified treasury personnel (or providing sufficient treasury management professional development) is one of the most important factors that will determine your organization's overall treasury management success. Treasury department personnel should be familiar with current treasury best practices and internal controls. When creating a new treasury department it is important to have someone on the treasury team who is an experienced treasury practitioner who can implement secure processes that are simultaneously efficient. Continuous treasury department training can help ensure that your treasury department is educated on the most current treasury best practices.
Treasury Technology
Most new treasury departments will utilized a combination of bank website and spreadsheets to manage treasury operations. The main reason for this is primarily because most organizations develop a treasury department while cash management complexity is still reasonable. As organization grows in revenue, cash management complexity will also grow.
In some instances, organizations postpone the development of a treasury department (respective to the organization's annual revenue and cash management complexity.) If a relatively large organization is creating a new treasury department then bank websites and spreadsheet may not be secure and efficient enough to facility treasury operations. In these situations, organizations may want to consider the selection and implementation of a treasury workstation (treasury management system). Treasury Policies & Procedures
Let's discuss the general definitions of treasury policies and procedures. Treasury policies are the rules by which the treasury department will operate. Treasury procedures are the step-by-step instructions as to how each treasury process will be conducted. The treasury procedures will operate within the rules dictated by the treasury policies. The development of treasury policies should be a team effort. The CFO (via Board of Director directives) can lead in the development and approval the overall policies for the treasury department. Specific treasury policy feedback should be requested from various subject matter experts such as Legal, Internal Audit, Accounting, IT, Treasury Consultants, etc... The development of treasury procedures is a more specific task. In order to create a secure and efficient treasury process one must have a detailed understanding of internal control, business requirements, treasury best practices and treasury department capacity. Generally, treasury department procedures will be draft by the corporate treasurer and submitted to both the CFO and Internal Audit for review / approval. Once approved, treasury procedures should be reviewed annually to ensure that they are 1.) meeting business requirements, and 2.) utilizing current treasury best practices. Treasury Internal Controls
Treasury internal controls are of paramount importance. Therefore, throughout the treasury department development process an organization should always consider treasury department internal controls. Are internal controls incorporated into the new treasury policies? Treasury procedures? Are there sufficient separation of duties amongst treasury personnel? Are there sufficient separation of responsibilities amongst departments? These questions (and more!) should be address when creating a new treasury department.
Conclusion....
Ultimately, the overwhelmingly vast majority of large organization will create a treasury department at some point during their revenue growth story. The best treasury department development strategy is to be proactive and not reactive. Treasury department formations are more complex and challenging if an organization has sufficient cash management complexity yet delays the development of a treasury department.
Do you agree or disagree with this article? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions.
Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Best Practices Review Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Department Development Treasury Workstation Selection (RFP) Treasury Workstation Implementation Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
Hiring a treasury consultant is an important decision. A treasury consultant should be able to lead without direct authority and help ensure that a treasury project is successfully completed. Furthermore, treasury consultants are often quasi-representatives of the treasury department during the course of a project. Therefore, it is important to take into consideration the five issues listed below before your company hires a treasury consultant.
Treasury Consultant Costs
The treasury consulting fees will be a major (but not the only) consideration when hiring a treasury consultant. When retaining knowledge-based professionals it's not always the best idea to hire the low-cost provider. With that being said, treasury department's do not have an unlimited budget for treasury consultants. Therefore, it is important to find qualified treasury consultants who's service fees will be within your project's budget. So how does an organization determine if a treasury consultant's fee will be within budget? There are two main steps: 1.) Communicate with the treasury consultant the project's exact requirements, and 2.) Request a proposal for services from the treasury consultant. An experienced treasury consultant should be able to provide a fairly accurate time & consulting fee estimate based upon their past work with similar projects.
Treasury Consultant Experience
Experience. Experience. Experience. Your treasury consultant should have extensive treasury consulting experience and experience pertaining to the particular project your organization will be pursuing. Hiring a treasury consultant who has numerous years of treasury consulting experience (not just between jobs) and has an extensive list of past clients will be of value to most treasury departments. An seasoned treasury consultant can leverage their experience to help ensure that your treasury project is successfully completed on-time and on-budget.
Treasury Consultant's Best Practices Research
Is your treasury consultant familiar with current treasury best practices? Does he/she know about the general functionality of other treasury departments within your industry / revenue range? A qualified treasury consultant will have extensive information about treasury best practices and will be able to benchmark your treasury department against specific metrics. Furthermore, you should be able to review a treasury consultant's treasury thought-leadership by reviewing their blogs, treasury articles and survey data.
Treasury Consultant Client References
Just because a treasury consultant has past experience does not mean that they provided good treasury consulting services / advice. An organization should review a treasury consultant's client references and testimonials to see if their past clients were satisfied with their services. By leveraging the opinions of past treasury clients, you will be able to make a more informed treasury consultant hiring decision.
Treasury Consultant's Interpersonal Skills
One of the most important consultant skills is often overlooked when hiring a consultant. Did you take into consideration the treasury consultant's interpersonal skills? A treasury consultant can face many challenges while working on a project. Some of the challenges could be:
A skill treasury consultant should be able to consistently interact with all parties on a friendly, professional and steadfast manner. If your treasury project does encounter challenging periods, your treasury department will be able to lean on your treasury consultant's interpersonal skills and experience to guide your project through to more calm waters.
Do you agree or disagree with this article? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions.
Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Best Practices Review Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Workstation Selection (RFP) Treasury Workstation Implementation Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
This treasury best practice metric indicates that most treasury workstations (treasury management systems) are not fully implemented. One reason why TreaSolution asked this question on our Treasury Survey is because we've visited and spoke with many treasury practitioners who indicated that they have a treasury workstation but are not using all of the available functions. Therefore, TreaSolution wanted to document the utilization of treasury workstation that have been purchased and implemented.
There are two main reasons why a treasury workstation is not fully implemented. 1.) The organization did not select the best treasury workstation for their current and future requirements, and/or 2.) The treasury workstation implementation project lacked sufficient budget, resources and/or qualified personnel. Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Workstation Selection & RFP Consulting Treasury Workstation Implementation Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below: Treasury and Cash Management Products that Organizations Plan on Purchasing and Implementing5/12/2015
It's always interesting to discover which treasury management banking products treasury practitioners are interested in purchasing. This graphic indicated that there is a lot of demand for Electronic Bank Account Maintenance (eBAM), Mobile Banking Services, Bank Treasury Workstation, SWIFT for Corporates, and Electronic Billing and Payments. The services that are not in demand are probably already implemented by most treasury departments (i.e. Federal Wire Payments, Prior Day Reporting, Current Day Reporting, Positive Pay).
Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Best Practice Review Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
Most treasury workstations (treasury management systems) provide a core cash management module which includes bank communications, cash reconciliation, cash positioning, etc. In order to create a system that can be applicable to many organizations the treasury workstation vendors typically allow the client to implement other functional al-la-carte based upon their requirements. In this treasury best practice graphic you can see that the most popular functions (beyond cash positioning) to be implemented are Cash Accounting, Cash Forecasting, Debt Management and EFT's. The least popular treasury workstation modules are Bank Fee Analysis (mainly because most organization utilize spreadsheets for this function), Risk Management, Inter-Company Loans, Foreign Exchange, etc.
Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Workstation Selection (RFP) Treasury Workstation Implementation Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
There are many reasons why an organization would buy a treasury workstation (treasury management system). Although there seems to be one main reason: IMPROVED OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY. This is not surprising because the facilitation of corporate treasury management with spreadsheets is typically a manual and time intensive process. Some of the other benefits of implementing a treasury workstation are Improved General Ledger Integration (15.38%), Improved Internal Controls (7.69%), and Improved Reporting (7.69%). In many organizations, the implementation of treasury technology can improve all of the factors listed above in a material way.
Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Workstation Selection (RFP) Treasury Workstation Implementation Treasury Intelligence Reports(FI's) If you found this information interesting, others will also. Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below: The Value of Being a Strategic Treasurer
TreaSolution has documented a dramatic increases in the strategic value of many treasury departments. The shift from a process-oriented treasury department to a key strategic organizational resource primarily started during the financial crisis. During the 2008 - 2009 time-frame most corporate treasurers were on the CEO's speed-dial due to the lack of liquidity, counterparty risk, etc. Since the financial crisis many treasury departments have experienced a strategic renaissance within their organizations. Many strategic treasurers demonstrated their ability to navigate rough waters during financial crisis. As a result of this success, many CEO's have rewarded strategic treasurers by 1.) including the corporate treasurer in more organizational strategy discussions, and 2.) increasing the scope of the treasury department's responsibilities. This is why over 41% of survey respondents indicted that their treasury department is of "High Strategic Value" to their organizations.
Do you act as your organization's strategic treasurer? What are some are some ideas that can help organizations that need a more strategic treasurer? Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Best Practice Review Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
It is not surprising that 100% of survey respondents indicated that their treasury department is responsible for treasury operations and bank relationship management. What is notable is the relatively high percentage of treasury departments responsible for Financial Risk Management (86.6%) and Insurance Risk Management (59.79%). If fact, more respondents indicated that their treasury department is responsible for Financial Risk Management than Debt and Investment Management! The responsibilities of treasury departments have grown since the financial crisis. Hence the growth of more tangential strategic treasury functions such as Insurance and Financial Risk Management.
Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Best Practice Review Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below: Percentage of Companies that Have Implemented a Treasury Workstation (Treasury Management System)5/12/2015
There are many factors that must be taken into consideration when deciding to select a treasury workstation (treasury management system). One key component is treasury department complexity. In other words, are your treasury operations complex enough to justify the selecting and implementing a treasury workstation? This question is answered differently by each organization. A company with domestic operations and two bank relationships is going to answer this question differently than an international organization with over fifty bank relationships.
Generally, treasury management complexity grows as organizational revenue increases. This is clearly demonstrated in the chart above. Many organizations that are less than $250 Million in annual revenue lack the treasury management complexity (and an actual treasury department) to justify a treasury workstation. Starting at about $250 - $500 million in annual revenue, organization generally start to develop actual treasury departments due of increased treasury management complexity. The utilization of treasury workstations becomes a serious consideration as organization approach $1 billion in annual revenue. Above $5 Billion in annual revenue, most organization require a treasury workstation due to the exponential growth of treasury management complexity and scope of operations. Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Workstation Selection (RFP) Treasury Workstation Implementation Treasury Intelligence Reports(FI's) If you found this information interesting, others will also. Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below:
This is a story of the BIG 3... The top three financial institutions listed in the above charge represent over 63% of the Treasury Survey's responses! The second-tier of main cash management banks represent just under 18% of the responses. Combined, nine financial institutions comprise approximately 81% of main cash management bank status.
This does not mean that other financial institutions don't have excellent cash management services and products. In fact, many organization have numerous bank relationships. Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Best Practice Review Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below: It's clear that TreaSolution's Treasury Survey data represents a diverse range of industries to provide a comprehensive overview of current treasury management best practices. TreaSolution's treasury survey participants work in the treasury departments of 19 industries. The industries represented in TreaSolution's treasury survey results are:
Renegotiating credit facilities is an important responsibilities for corporate treasurers and CFO's. TreaSolution wanted to document what the churn rate was for credit facilities on an annualized basis. As illustrated from the above chart, in 2013 almost 42% of treasury survey respondents indicated that they were going to renegotiate their credit facility. This is a rather large percentage which, if consistent in subsequent years, indicates that credit facilities will be renegotiated on average every 2.38 years (i.e. 100% / 41.98%). TreaSolution feels that the low interest rate environment and greater availability to credit may had led to an increase in credit facility renegotiations.
Do you agree or disagree with this data? Please feel free to use the comments to post your thoughts or questions. Relevant TreaSolution Services: Treasury Benchmarking Reports Treasury Best Practice Review Treasury Intelligence Reports (FI's) Did you find this information interesting? If so, others will too! Please feel free to share this page on social media by clicking the buttons below: |
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