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Awarded to the company that had a clear project plan, stuck to it, and maintained the project discipline to achieve a go-live date with great success. Nominated by 3PO Consulting. Challenges FilmRise’s financial operations...

Awarded to the company that had a clear project plan, stuck to it, and maintained the project discipline to achieve a go-live date with great success. Nominated by 3PO Consulting. Challenges FilmRise’s financial operations grew to the point where gaining operational efficiency was critical. With NetSuite as their ERP, they wanted a specialized TMS with existing integrations to be a complement. “This project was both kicked off and fully live in 2022, showcasing the ability for Kyriba to be implemented quickly even with complex NetSuite integrations!” Solution Implemented Cash and Liquidity Management, Payments, Accounting and the Kyriba NetSuite Bridge. Results Within days of kickoff, Kyriba was successfully initialized for bank reporting and connected to NetSuite to begin testing of AP and Treasury payments processing. New techniques were leveraged to meet aggressive FilmRise timelines and the teams relied heavily on 3PO Consulting implementation scripts. Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Recognizing best-in-class performance in payments fraud solution and compliance management. Challenges Secure and compliant transactions are critical for ORIX's AP payment process Corporate goal to take significant steps to streamline financial operations, including migrating...

Recognizing best-in-class performance in payments fraud solution and compliance management. Challenges Secure and compliant transactions are critical for ORIX's AP payment process Corporate goal to take significant steps to streamline financial operations, including migrating from PeopleSoft to Oracle Cloud, implementing an AP payment factory, warehousing financial transactions and establishing an in-house bank in Kyriba. “Kyriba has been a key partner in the transition of ORIX's financial transactions, including the recent migration from FIS Integrity for the full lifecycle of their financial transactions. ORIX's upcoming go live for the in-house bank, which will include intercompany accounting, is a testament to the company's continued commitment to automation and efficiency using the capabilities of Kyriba.” Solution Kyriba’s Fraud and Compliance module with automated screening to include checks against sanctions lists, identification of possible duplicates, changes to sensitive payment details, use of one-time payment details, payments made to high-risk countries, and validation of IBANs. Workflow is enabled to facilitate a centralized process for identification, review, and remediation of alerts along with creation of exceptions where appropriate. Results ORIX is striving to eliminate manual and error prone tasks to ensure their team is focused on activities that will drive value for their organization. The centralized and compliant automated payments fraud solutions maximize productivity. Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Making Real-Time Payments a Reality for Finance and Treasury Real-time payments initiatives are proliferating all over the globe and while many countries have jumped on the bandwagon with various real-time payments use cases, corporate...

Making Real-Time Payments a Reality for Finance and Treasury Real-time payments initiatives are proliferating all over the globe and while many countries have jumped on the bandwagon with various real-time payments use cases, corporate adoption has lagged. But to build the business case for implementing real- time, treasury and finance departments need to identify more business relevant use cases. How Do Real-Time Payments Work? Real-time payments can be transferred using the domestic or regional real-time payment network. For example, use an application programming interface (API) for unitary payments like one-time supplier payments, or use file transfer protocol (FTP) for bulk payments like payroll. While legacy file transfer protocols do not offer the same level of immediacy as APIs, corporates can still benefit from using real-time payment rails in some scenarios. Moreover, because APIs enable broader system-to- system interactions to be real-time, clients can use them for activities beyond real-time payments, such as connecting to ERPs, automating workflows, and facilitating data exchange in real-time. Real-Time Systems on the Rise Real-time or instant payments are not new. Many major economies have either launched real-time initiatives already or are in the process of doing so. For instance, Japan launched the Zengin real-time gross settlement system in 1973, which eventually became a real-time payments network. The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India, launched in 2016, is among the largest and fastest growing real-time payment system globally. As of 2021, real-time payments represent a 31% share by transaction volume and an 8% share by value. Zelle, a real-time payments network owned by seven of the largest banks in the United States, was initially launched in 2017 for peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to compete with payment apps, such as Venmo. Since its launch, this multi-rail network has expanded into business payments and is increasingly preferred by industry use cases, such as real-time disbursements to their customers. In 2021, Zelle added TCH’s RTP® network to its existing list of payment networks, i.e., ACH, Visa Direct, and Mastercard MoneySend. SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), a pan-European payment solution launched in 2017, is used by consumers and businesses for euro-dominated instant domestic and cross-border payments. As of 2022, the payment scheme is supported by 61% of European PSPs and available in 29 countries. The adoption of this payment scheme has stagnated, accounting for just over 1 in 10 credit transfers in the region. A draft EU law is expected to address issues with ubiquity and fees to drive adoption. The New Payments Platform There have been ongoing efforts to expand the reach of real-time payments from domestic to cross- border payments. Asia has been leading the way, with India and Singapore linking their real-time payment systems (i.e., UPI and PayNow). Other developed countries are following their lead, with TCH, EBA Clearing, and SWIFT planning to commercialize their successful cross-border pilot connecting TCH’s RTP network with EBA Clearing’s RT1 network. U.S. Faster Payments Initiative Unlike many other economies whose central banks have issued mandates for real-time systems, the U.S. Federal Reserve instead opted to let the private sector take the reins while acting in an advisory capacity. Thus, in 2015, the Fed formed a task force of market participants, from banks to corporates to fintechs, with the goal of steering the nation’s payments system toward allowing payments to clear and settle faster. The task force’s work produced a two-part final report that determined ubiquitous receipt to be the key to making any real-time system truly successful. The task force recognized several key challenges to achieving ubiquity, including: Federal Reserve enablement of a 24/7/365 settlement Technical and business process issues Disparate rules and functionality for competing services Security Real-Time Payments Network (RTP®) In 2017, The Clearing House (TCH) launched the Real-Time Payments (RTP®) network. Running on a new payments rail, Real-Time Payments transactions clear and settle in seconds, and immediate confirmation notices are sent to payers. In March 2021, TCH announced that real-time payments had reached a milestone by connecting its 100th bank. As of November 2022, there are 280+ participants, plus the key technology providers. However, real-time payments still reach only 65 percent of demand deposit accounts (DDAs). MAKING HISTORY The Real-Time Payments (RTP®) network is the first new payment rail in the United States since the ACH. FedNow The FedNow Service is a real-time payments platform developed by the Federal Reserve as a public sector alternative to The Clearing House’s (TCH) RTP®. The service is a 24/7/365 instant payments network expected to launch in mid-2023. FedNow will use ISO 20022 messaging standards to enable instant account-to-account payments and be accessible through the upgraded FedLine network, which will enable sending and receiving messages for customer transfers, liquidity management transfers, transaction-level reporting and fraud mitigation tools. The standard is highly appealing to corporate treasury and finance, because messages carry substantial information and are based on a common data dictionary that supports payment message flows. INFORMATION > SPEED? The most appealing feature of both Real-Time Payments and FedNow for treasury and finance might not be speed, but information capabilities. Not only can payers send extended remittance information with payments, but these systems also feature Request for Pay (RFP) services that allow payees to send specific transaction details prior to payments. Corporate Pain Points and Building Real-time Payments Use Cases For mass corporate adoption to occur, real-time payment systems will need to address certain pain points that treasury and finance departments are looking to eliminate. PAIN POINT HOW REAL-TIME HELPS Emergency/Last-Minute Payments Particularly in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, companies may need to make emergency payouts for payroll and other demands. Last-minute bill payments may also be needed. Lack of Cash Visibility Clearing payments in real-time reduces settlement risk and provides a clear liquidity picture. Need for Cash Conversion Incoming payments can be immediately turned into accessible cash. Paper Check Usage Checks continue to be the payment method most susceptible to fraud. Businesses can eliminate this slow and risky method with real-time. Batch Payments Real-time can “un-batch” payments for corporates. Rather than relying on batch payments that are locked in at key times each day, real-time payments can be sent at any time. Missing Out on Early Payment Discounts Real-time can ensure that businesses can obtain early payment discounts on the last day of discount availability. Lack of Extended Remittance Information Modern real-time systems contain extended remittance information that travels with the payment. Looking to the future, the U.S. Faster Payments Council identified some real-time payments use cases that could soon make such payments even more appealing: Intercompany payments are low risk and a common use case. Many companies have enabled efficient deployment of working capital across their subsidiaries using the domestic/ regional instant payment option. Just-in-time invoice payments benefit both the business payer and the business recipient. Since this type of payment gives the payer additional time to pay a bill, it lets the payer hold their funds longer to avoid paying a bill late due to current timing of business day clearing. The business recipient also benefits by ensuring funds are collected within their timeframe, and they receive immediate credit for funds when being paid. Payments to suppliers can occur immediately and facilitate faster release and shipment of supplies from suppliers that require payment beforehand. Faster payments involve many moving parts related to treasury functions, remittances, corporate banking, and/or company-to-company payments. All of these real-time payments use cases involve the movement of large amounts of funds and any reduction in latency will lead to more efficient capital management and reduction of risk. These use cases need standardization and interoperability, such as the efforts of the Business Payments Coalition standardized semantic data model which is being designed to enable comprehensive use case integration in corporate ERP systems. At ION, there were times when we needed a payment to come in and it was 4:31 and the Fedwire closed at 4:30. We would have to wait until the next day and it would really impact payroll and liquidity. So, the opportunity to have that cash in the bank, and then being able to make your payroll or anything that’s urgent, is where the benefits come in.” — Lee-Ann Perkins, CTP, Assistant Treasurer, Specialized Bicycle Components and former VP and Treasurer for Ion Geophysical Key Considerations for Starting your Real-Time Payments Journey While instant payments have been available for corporates for several years now, uptake has been slow. One reason for that is real-time payments co-exist with wires and ACH. There is still a place for wires, which will continue to be used for larger value payments. As well, the benefits of real- time payments may not justify the cost of shifting to new payment rails. Key reasons for the slow adoption of real-time payments are further discussed below. Having a small delay when making B2B payments is not necessarily bad. “There are advantages to it, in trying to plan my cash,” said Jeff Johnson, CTP, chief financial officer of commercial kitchen repair service Smart Care Equipment Solutions. “There are advantages to it if people make mistakes. And there are advantages to not having things rushed.” Real-time can be costly. While Real-Time Payments can be relatively costly compared to ACH, they are still cheaper than wires for qualifying volumes. Still, CFOs and treasurers may focus on the premiums banks charge for Real- Time Payments and not see the value in spending extra cash to ensure a payment arrives faster than a normal ACH, noted Jim Gilligan, former assistant treasurer for Kansas City, and currently senior vice president of MFR Securities. Real-time may not be exactly real-time on the receiving side. If the process leading up to the payment execution is slow and manual, then real- time payments won’t have much impact. “Many companies still use batch systems to process receivables, so payments are not captured real-time,” said Gilligan. “It’s still going to take them the same amount of time to process the payment. Customers will likely be unsatisfied when they realize payments sent in real-time aren’t processed in real-time.” Fintech payment platforms can help bridge the gap by digitizing and automating payment workflows. Faster payments can mean faster fraud. Despite awareness of modern fraud activity, treasury and AP departments still fall prey to payments fraud scams even when they have adequate time to claw back a payment. Removing that aspect means that once a payment is out the door, it is gone for good. Bank account verification is key to preventing fraud, and confirmation of the payee is becoming the norm in the context of real-time payments, e.g, in the U.K., 90% of faster payments are subject to confirmation of payee (CoP) checks. It’s clear businesses need to be more thorough in vetting payments before they are executed. While it’s unrealistic for an organization that remits hundreds of payments in a single payment run to manually check every single one, technology can help to eliminate the threat. Payment policies can be digitized, ensuring that rules and limits are automatically applied during the payment journey. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms can compare outgoing payment requests to historical payment patterns, identifying and isolating any anomalies. APIs built into your payments platform allow real-time connection to apps that can match payments against third-party data. This data allows you to verify ownership of the account you’re paying and that you’re not paying an entity on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list. Data visualization can identify and manage exceptions so that payments can easily be reviewed and cleared to minimize delays. Technology has really come a long way. Number one, there’s a lot more data to pull from that makes the software that much smarter. Number two, there’s a lot more threat intelligence available, and an increasing element of collaboration and sharing that threat intelligence. Today, you can run a transaction through an enormous number of tests in less than the time it takes to blink an eye. It adds a real element of credibility to a transaction.” — Brad Deflin, Founder and President of Total Digital Security How to Start Building Your Real-Time Payments Use Cases For U.S. corporate treasury departments that are interested in real-time payments, they will first need to develop their own adoption strategy: Determine some key uses cases for your business. Your bank and/or provider can offer live examples to help you narrow down use cases, understand the benefits, and calculate the business case. Assess the risks that using a new, real-time payments rail could pose, such as the need to update payment governance procedures to prevent fraud. Engage banks and vendors to ensure that they have invested in the appropriate infrastructure to facilitate real-time payments. Real Opportunity Real-time payments present an opportunity for corporate treasury and finance departments. Corporates that manage their own bank connectivity may need more work to identify use cases and build a business case for investment. For corporates that rely on third-party providers to aggregate connectivity, common real-time payments use cases such as sending intercompany transfers or replacing wires at or under the current transaction limit can drive tangible value while the corporates explore broader use cases. Watch this on-demand webinar to learn more about how you can build compelling real-time payments use cases in 2023 to benefit from this payment type.

Awarded to the company that has posted significant gains in productivity, freeing up treasury's time to focus on more strategic initiatives. Nominated by 3PO. Challenges Monthly bank-to-book reconciliation process took hours, and sometimes days...

Awarded to the company that has posted significant gains in productivity, freeing up treasury's time to focus on more strategic initiatives. Nominated by 3PO. Challenges Monthly bank-to-book reconciliation process took hours, and sometimes days due to the volume of AP payments. Reporting of aggregated bank transactions without associated detail was an issue. The potential for a small discrepancy to lead to a large and time consuming investigation caused the Treasury and Accounting teams to seek a better solution. ”Williams-Sonoma is an excellent candidate for this award due to the amount of manual reconciliation time eliminated by automation using Kyriba’s GL Reconciliation module” Solution 3PO Consulting worked with Williams-Sonoma to configure advanced GL reconciliation logic to solve this one-to-many reconciliation issue. Bank transactions and journal entries related to AP activity were identified through patterns in the text descriptions to facilitate subtotaling and automated reconciliation in the event of a match. Results Eliminated the most difficult part of the reconciliation process in addition to the easy reconciliation work, leaving only exceptions for the team to manage. Automation of the most time-consuming part of the process resulted in huge productivity gains across treasury. Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Awarded to the company that had a clear TMS implementation project plan, stuck to it, and maintained the project discipline to achieve a go-live date with great success. Nominated by Actualize Consulting. Challenges Discovery...

Awarded to the company that had a clear TMS implementation project plan, stuck to it, and maintained the project discipline to achieve a go-live date with great success. Nominated by Actualize Consulting. Challenges Discovery began and completed a global rollout of Kyriba amidst a massive-scale merger with parent company Warner Bros Required varied and complex integrations ”Working with Actualize Consulting, Discovery has completed their Kyriba TMS implementation, and the experience has been excellent. They fully plan to expand their use of Kyriba globally with their new parent company (Warner Bros.).” Solution Global roll-out of Kyriba including Liquidity Management, Payments, and Risk Management to replace its legacy system within an aggressive timeline Includes seamless integration with SAP, SWIFT Service Bureau, and trading portals Results The ability to centralize and automate the management of liquidity, payments and risk within Kyriba allowed the organization to standardize processes globally and support its continued growth Discovery is ready to expand the use of Kyriba with the integration of the Warner Bros business which will introduce new regions, functional modules and banking relationships Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Kyriba’s Currency Impact Report (CIR), a comprehensive quarterly report which details the impacts of foreign exchange (FX) exposures among 1,200 multinational companies based in North America and Europe with at least 15 percent of their revenue coming from overseas, sustained $49.09 billion in total impacts to earnings from currency volatility.

A Quarterly Report Assessing the Impact of Foreign Exchange to North American and European Corporate Earnings About the Report The May 2023 Kyriba Currency Impact Report analyzes the reported effects of currencies to North American and European companies’ earnings during the fourth quarter of 2022. To obtain this information, Kyriba analyzed the earnings calls of 1,200 publicly traded North American and European companies as part of a continued effort to provide insight into how foreign exchange impacts organizations. The companies included in this data set are large multinational firms doing business in more than one currency with at least 15% of their revenue coming from overseas.   Currency Impact Report - Overview Kyriba Currency Impact Report: Key Findings The collective quantified negative impact reported by both North American and European companies totaled $30.26 billion in Q4 2022, a 35.9% decrease from Q3 2022. 14% of corporates studied (166/1200) quantified +/- impacts totaling $32.21 billion ($30.22 billion headwinds), ($1.99 billion tailwinds). The euro was the currency most mentioned as impactful by North American and European companies, while the Korean won was the most volatile currency. 163 North American and European companies reported currency headwinds in Q4 2022. Of those companies, 154 (94.5%) companies quantified their FX impacts. Total Quantified Currency Impacts by North American and European Companies (Billions) North American Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) European Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) Top 5 Volatile G20 Currencies Top 5 Volatile Currencies as Weighted by GDP Percentage Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to North American Companies (Billions) Average EPS Impact Reported by North American Companies *Industry Standard MBO of Less than $0.01 EPS Impact Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings North American companies reported a $28.94 billion impact in Q2 2022, 33% smaller than the impact in Q3 2022.1 The average earnings per share (EPS) impact reported by North American companies in Q4 2022 was $0.05, five times greater than the industry standard MBO of less than $0.01 EPS impact. 1 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by North American Companies as Impactful The euro was the most mentioned currency, a continuation from the prior quarter. The Canadian dollar was the second most-mentioned, followed by the Japanese Yen, the Australian dollar, and the Brazilian real. The euro was the most volatile currency weighted by GDP (page 6). Number and Percentage of North American Companies Reporting and Quantifying Negative Currency Impacts Average Negative Impact to North American Companies (Millions) Percentage of North American Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q4 2022 earnings calls, 10 percent of North American companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted North American Industries Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to European Companies (Billions) Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Increasing from last quarter, European companies reported an 68% percent increase in negative currency impacts, with companies reporting $1.28 billion in FX-related losses.2 Of the 350 Europe-based multinationals analyzed, 1.1% reported headwinds in Q4 2022. Of those, 100% quantified their negative impacts (see page 15). 2 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by European Companies as Impactful The euro was the most mentioned currency in earnings calls for Europe, followed by the United States dollar and the Swedish krona. The Danish krone was the fourth most mentioned, followed by the Russian ruble. The ruble was the third most volatile currency as well as the fifth most volatile currency weighted by GDP (page 6). Number and Percentage of European Companies Reporting and Quantifying Negative Currency Impacts Average Negative Impact to European Companies (Millions) Percentage of European Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q4 2022 earnings calls, 2 percent of European companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted European Industries Comparison of Currency Impact to North American and European Companies Average Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Millions) Size of Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions) Number of Companies Reporting Currency Impacts Percentage of Companies Reporting Impacts That Fielded Analyst Questions Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions) Number of Companies Reporting Negative Currency Impact   FX Risk Management is one of the most difficult objectives handed to a CFO’s organization. Kyriba has a team of experts to offer extensive FX Advisory Services to our clients. Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

Receivables finance, also known as invoice finance, is a type of working capital facility that enables businesses to borrow against unpaid invoices. Receivables finance helps businesses to improve their cash flow by unlocking the...

Receivables finance, also known as invoice finance, is a type of working capital facility that enables businesses to borrow against unpaid invoices. Receivables finance helps businesses to improve their cash flow by unlocking the value of invoices they’ve already issued, allowing them to access funds immediately instead of waiting for their customers to pay. With receivables finance, businesses can secure the capital they need to fund operations, growth, or expansion projects. Why is Receivables Finance Important? Accounts receivable measures the money that their customers owe to a business for goods or services already provided. Analyzing a company's accounts receivable will help investors gain a better sense of a company's overall financial stability and liquidity. If clients' late payments or unexpected expenses occur, the company’s financial health could be put at risk. In extreme cases, receivables finance problems could cause damages that are very hard to recover from. This potential risk is why accounts receivable financing allows corporates to convert invoices or credit sales into cash right away, without having to hound their clients for immediate payment. Receivables finance requires a funder or factor that will be willing to finance those client invoices in advance against a fee. What is the Difference between Receivables Finance and Accounts Receivables? Receivables finance is a financing agreement where a company receives financing capital related to a portion of its accounts receivable. Accounts receivables (AR) are legally enforceable claims for payment held by a business for goods supplied or services rendered that customers have ordered but not paid for. Accounts receivables financing is the selling of outstanding invoices for funding–outstanding invoices or receivables are sold to a finance company. Receivables finance solutions enable sellers to access early payment on outstanding receivables, while remaining in control of obtaining the most efficient funding sources for its receivables. How Does Receivables Finance Work? Receivables finance works by advancing a business a percentage of the value of its unpaid invoices. The business will then receive the full value of the invoice, minus any finance charges, when the customer pays. This process helps businesses to secure the funds they need to finance operations, growth, or expansion projects without taking on additional debt or equity. What are the Benefits of Receivables Finance? Receivables finance programs provide the following benefits for suppliers: Instant cash access: companies have immediate access to cash because they do not have to wait for loans to be approved Reduced credit risk position: the finance company who purchased the receivables assumes the risk on the outstanding amounts Improved organizational cash position: the funding derived from receivables finance helps unlock working capital that organizations can use to take advantage of business growth opportunities In short, receivables finance offers a number of advantages to businesses that need to access working capital quickly and easily. What are Some Different Types of Receivables Finance? There are many different types of Receivables Finance, depending on the agreements between sellers, factors, and creditors. Two of the most common types are of receivables finance are: Purchasing receivables: the process of buying goods or services on credit and then receiving payments in the future. A purchasing receivable is an amount of money that a company owes to another company after goods or services have been purchased. Asset-based lending: financing that is secured by collateral such as inventory, accounts receivable, or equipment. Asset-based lending typically works by using a business’s assets as collateral for the loan. The lender will assess the value of the assets and loan up to a certain percentage of the assets’ value. The loan proceeds are then used to finance the borrower’s working capital needs, such as purchasing inventory, paying off debt, or covering operational expenses. In addition, there are types of Receivables Finance within the above categories. The three most common are: Factoring: a type of financing service used by businesses to access cash quickly. Through factoring, businesses are able to sell their accounts receivable (invoices) to a third-party financial institution, called a factor. The factor then advances the business a portion of the face value of the invoice and collects payments from the customer. Invoice discounting: Invoice financing is a type of business funding that helps companies to access the cash tied up in their outstanding invoices. This short term funding option offers businesses a way to get the money they are owed by their customers faster, while still allowing the customer to pay at their own pace. Securitization: Securitization is the process of pooling together various types of debt, such as mortgages and corporate loans, and packaging them into a financial instrument known as a ‘security’. These securities can then be traded on the open market, allowing lenders to diversify their portfolios and access capital more quickly and cost-effectively. These types of receivables finance allow businesses to access short-term capital quickly to address cash flow needs. What is Kyriba’s Receivables Finance Solution? Kyriba’s Receivables Finance solution helps businesses to streamline their receivables finance process and maximize their working capital. With Kyriba’s platform, businesses can manage, monitor, and forecast their receivables finance easily and efficiently, while also reducing the risk of fraud and increasing visibility into their finances. Kyriba’s Receivables Finance solution can help businesses to unlock the value of their unpaid invoices and access the funds they need to grow their business. Key features of Kyriba Receivables Finance solution include: Fast and efficient implementation: using application programmable interfaces (APIs), Kyriba Receivables Finance seamlessly connects to the seller’s enterprise resource planning (ERP), allowing for real-time status updates Advance payment processing: Kyriba Receivables Finance enables eligibility and limit checks before processing documents or receivable sales to banks. Then, the platform completes the workflow by connecting to funders and retrieving the status of drawdown requests Payment and reconciliation: Once collection reconciliation is complete, Kyriba Receivables Finance automatically settles re-payments of financed and collected invoices to the funder on the due date Dashboards, reports, and tips: Kyriba Receivables Finance offers a homepage widget that makes prepayment status, collections, limits, DSO, and other KPIs readily available Seamless integration: Kyriba Receivables Finance is natively integrated with the other modules of Kyriba’s Liquidity Management platform. It provides real-time visibility into other discounting or payables finance programs if any (such as Dynamic Discounting, Supply Chain Finance, and Confirming). This integration provides better business intelligence and reporting, providing a quick, easy, and in-depth analysis of global funding programs. Kyriba’s Receivables Finance module is available for corporates, large and medium companies, as well as to financial institutions as a white-label solution.

Awarded to the company that has minimized fraud, standardized and streamlined payment processes. Challenge With tremendous payment volumes, the need for a best-in-class streamlined process was crucial for continued growth. Solution The New York...

Awarded to the company that has minimized fraud, standardized and streamlined payment processes. Challenge With tremendous payment volumes, the need for a best-in-class streamlined process was crucial for continued growth. Solution The New York Life team worked with the Kyriba product team to develop “Delegation of Authority” rules that flow from the Bank Account Management module to the Payments module for streamlined payment approval profile workflows. Results Through this digital design and collaboration with Kyriba, the New York Life teams have: Realized major workflow efficiencies and improved controls across their broader internal finance and business teams. Driven workflow automation through their innovative design and adoption of Kyriba’s Waterfall Payments solution. Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Chosen by Kyriba's Client Success Team for best-in-class performance across treasury operations. Costco Wholesale is a multi-billion dollar global retailer with warehouse club operations in eight countries. Costco is a membership warehouse club, dedicated...

Chosen by Kyriba's Client Success Team for best-in-class performance across treasury operations. Costco Wholesale is a multi-billion dollar global retailer with warehouse club operations in eight countries. Costco is a membership warehouse club, dedicated to bringing members the best possible prices on quality brand-name merchandise. With hundreds of locations worldwide, Costco provides a wide selection of merchandise, plus the convenience of specialty departments and exclusive member services, all designed to make your shopping experience a pleasurable one. Why They Won: Costco Wholesale looks for ways to improve business operations, while also meeting customers’ needs. Costco’s treasury team continually expands its usage of the Kyriba platform; this includes a current focus on expansions within California and Mexico, and Costco has greater plans to improve and enhance their Kyriba and treasury operations on a global scale in the months and years to come. With nearly 150 years of experience, Phillips 66 is a diversified energy manufacturing and logistics company with unique businesses in Refining, Midstream, Chemicals, and Marketing and Specialties. In the decade since Phillips 66 became a standalone company, it has written a number of new chapters in its history. The company has pursued ambitious infrastructure projects that helped cement the company’s leading positions in the crude and natural gas liquids value chains, and it has shared its success, returning $29 billion to shareholders. And it stayed steadfast and relentless in its vision of providing energy and improving lives. Why They Won: Determined to maximize and expand their usage of their Kyriba TMS, Phillips 66 sought to gain full control of global liquidity, including investment management, and streamline global business and treasury operations. In addition to adopting numerous Kyriba modules and bank integrations across the world, Phillips 66 regularly identifies new and innovative ways to gain full visibility of liquidity and capitalize on automation, including their payment workflow integration with SAP. Looking beyond Kyriba, Phillips 66 adopts value-add relationships with integrated partners, including 360T and ICD to achieve their liquidity optimization and FX risk mitigation goals. Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Awarded to the company that has minimized fraud, standardized and streamlined check payment processing. Nominated by 3PO Consulting. Challenges High volume check payment processing creates a unique payments environment in that checks have been,...

Awarded to the company that has minimized fraud, standardized and streamlined check payment processing. Nominated by 3PO Consulting. Challenges High volume check payment processing creates a unique payments environment in that checks have been, and will continue to be, a primary method of payment in their industry. Highly decentralized treasury operations with 150+ divisions operating independently with multiple ERP’s and 12+ banking relationships “Nucor's payment volume and approach to processing has been impressive, and their ability to continue identifying innovations in check payment processing is deserving of the Payments Innovator award." Solution 3PO Consulting and Nucor utilized a transformation tool to normalize payment files originated by each of the 150+ divisions before the data was provided to Kyriba Centralized check payment processing operations with PNC Bank, which utilizes the new ISO payment formats and has the ability to issue checks on behalf of Nucor's other 12+ banks Results The full end-to-end process includes return acknowledgments, providing complete visibility into the payment process for each of the 150+ divisions Centralized technical and banking relationship approach dramatically simplified the process and eliminated the need for individual banking relationships with each division Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Treasury data analytics is the practice of using data analysis techniques to gain insights into a company’s treasury operations, including cash and liquidity management, investment portfolios, risk management, and supply chain finance. Treasury data...

Treasury data analytics is the practice of using data analysis techniques to gain insights into a company’s treasury operations, including cash and liquidity management, investment portfolios, risk management, and supply chain finance. Treasury data analytics involves collecting, processing, and analyzing data from multiple sources, including bank statements, cash flow statements, financial reports, and market data. Advanced analytics techniques used in treasury data analytics include data mining, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. These tools help treasurers to identify patterns, trends, and outliers in their data and to make predictions about future cash flows and market conditions. Treasury data analytics is a critical component of modern treasury management, helping treasurers to make informed decisions, optimize their cash management strategies, and manage risks more effectively. How Does Treasury Data Analytics Work? Treasury data analytics involves several steps to collect, process, and analyze data to gain insights into a company's treasury operations. The typical process for treasury data analytics includes the following steps: Data collection: Collect data from multiple sources, including bank statements, cash flow statements, financial reports, and market data. Store in a centralized database or a data warehouse for easy access and analysis. Data cleaning and preparation: Clean and prepare data for analysis by removing duplicates, fixing errors, and filling in missing data. Then, organize the data into a format that can be easily analyzed. Data analysis: Use various data analysis techniques, such as data mining, predictive analytics, and machine learning, to analyze the data and help identify patterns and trends. Visualization and reporting: Present the data in a meaningful way, using data visualization tools, such as charts and graphs, or through reports that summarize the key insights from the analysis. Actionable insights: Use the insights gained from the analysis to inform decision-making, optimize cash management strategies, and manage risks more effectively. In general, treasury data analytics involves a combination of technical skills, domain knowledge, and business acumen to effectively collect, process, and analyze data to drive better decision-making in treasury management and financial analysis. Why is Treasury Analytics Important in Treasury Management? Treasury data analytics is important in treasury management and financial analysis because it provides treasurers with actionable insights that can inform their decision-making, improve cash forecasting accuracy, optimize cash and liquidity management strategies, identify potential risks and opportunities, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Traditionally, treasurers used simple historical models to predict future cash flow requirements. However, these models are not sufficient for today’s fast-paced business environment, where companies need to quickly adapt and leverage large sets of data to make important financial decisions. Legacy thinking and outmoded systems are incapable of modeling to predict fiscal uncertainty. Consequently, organizations using these ineffective methods will not be able to manage the rate at which volatility impacts EBITDA. Using treasury analytics is key to improving forecasting accuracy. Predictive cash flow analytics that use advanced statistical modeling and artificial intelligence provide the flexibility to adapt to changes in the market. Reasons why treasury analytics makes a difference for treasury practitioners: Enhanced Cash Management: By analyzing historical data, cash flow patterns, and market trends, treasurers can optimize cash management strategies, ensure sufficient liquidity, and make informed decisions regarding working capital, cash investments, and funding requirements. Risk Identification and Mitigation: By utilizing sophisticated modeling and scenario analysis, treasurers can quantify and evaluate various financial risks, develop matching hedging strategies, and implement risk mitigation measures to protect the organization's financial health. Informed Decision-Making: With access to comprehensive data and analytics, treasurers can choose the most optimal courses of action aligned with the organization's financial goals. Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: By analyzing data and monitoring financial activities, treasurers can identify any potential non-compliance issues, monitor adherence to internal and external policies and regulations, and generate auditing reports for regulatory authorities. Strategic Planning and Forecasting: By analyzing historical cash flow data, market situation, and macroeconomic indicators, treasurers can better align treasury strategies with the organization's overall strategic objectives. Continuous Performance Improvement: Treasury analytics facilitates the set-up of key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics so that treasurers can track and evaluate the effectiveness of treasury initiatives and identify areas for improvement. How Treasury Data Analytics Enables Data-Driven Decision-Making Using treasury analytics enables data-driven decision-making and improves financial operations by providing the following types of data: Liquidity analytics shows net debt and liquidity, how to pay down debt, and when to pay debt Cash flow analytics considers if there is enough cash, whether or not cash forecasts are reliable, and bank activity Payments analytics displays the largest concentration of payments, who is executing/approving payments, and whether or not companies are sending too many wires Risk analytics reveals how much money is available in credit lines, the value of financial assets, and borrowing profiles Supply chain finance (SCF) analytics presents supplier participation rate, number of documents uploaded, and which invoices are financed Compliance analytics illustrates who the users are and where they are located, which modules users can access with which rights, and what data users can access. In summary, predictive treasury analytics with advanced treasury dashboards help treasurers and CFOs make informed decisions to optimize financial operations. Benefits of Treasury Analytics for Financial Analysis and Operations Treasury data analytics offers many benefits for financial analysis and operations. Analytics can help treasury managers: Improve cash flow management and cash flow forecasting accuracy by analyzing historical data, identifying trends, and predicting future cash flows. Use analytics to optimize cash management strategies, such as cash pooling, cash concentration, and short-term investing. Reduce risk exposure by evaluating data on interest rates, foreign exchange rates, and other market trends. Identify potential risks and hedge against them to mitigate the impact of adverse market events. Optimize financial performance by leveraging treasury data analytics. Identify inefficiencies in cash management processes and take steps to eliminate them, resulting in significant cost savings for the company. Treasurers can optimize their cash balances, reduce borrowing costs, and minimize bank fees. Monitor compliance by using data analytics to help monitor compliance with various regulations, including anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations. Improved compliance can help companies avoid costly penalties and maintain their reputation in the market. In brief, treasury data analytics can help companies make informed decisions by providing insights into their cash and liquidity management, investment portfolios, and risk management strategies. By analyzing data from multiple sources, treasurers can gain a comprehensive understanding of their cash positions, liquidity, and risk exposure, allowing them to make better investment and financing decisions that align with the company's financial goals. Key Metrics and Tools Used in Treasury Data Analytics By using key metrics and tools, companies can gain valuable insights into cash and liquidity, working capital, and risk management. Companies can use the following treasury metrics to optimize their treasury operations for improved financial performance: Cash flow forecasting is an essential tool used in treasury data analytics to predict future cash flows. It involves analyzing historical cash flows and using that data to forecast future cash inflows and outflows. The accuracy of cash flow forecasting is critical for effective cash and liquidity management. Liquidity management helps ensure that the company has enough cash to meet its financial obligations. Key liquidity metrics include the cash conversion cycle, days sales outstanding, and days payable outstanding. These treasury metrics are used to monitor cash flow and identify areas where cash can be optimized. Risk analysis helps identify and manage financial risks. Key risk metrics include interest rate risk, credit risk, and foreign exchange risk. These treasury metrics are used to identify potential risks and develop strategies to mitigate them. Payment processing streamlines and automates payment processing by using technology to automate payment processing, reduce errors, and improve efficiency. Key metrics include payment processing time, payment accuracy, and payment volume. Bank account management involves managing and optimizing the company's bank accounts by monitoring account balances, reconciling bank statements, and managing cash positions. Key metrics include bank fees, bank account balances, and bank account reconciliation accuracy. These treasury metrics can provide valuable insights for companies, helping to optimize their treasury operations for improved financial performance. Best Practices for Implementing Treasury Analytics Best practices for implementing treasury data analytics include setting clear goals, leveraging automation, and collaborating with stakeholders: Establish clear goals and objectives: Before implementing treasury data analytics, define clear goals and objectives that align with the company's overall strategic plan by identifying specific KPIs and metrics to track, such as cash flow forecasting accuracy, working capital optimization, and risk management. Leverage automation: Streamline manual and repetitive tasks, such as data entry and reconciliation, with automation to save time and reduce the risk of errors. Use robotic process automation (RPA) and machine learning algorithms to analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately. Collaborate with stakeholders: Involve stakeholders, including the finance team, IT department and business units, to ensure that the analytics solutions meet their needs and requirements. Invest in the right technology: Select the right technology infrastructure, including the right analytics software, visualization tools, data storage, and security solutions. Ensure the technology infrastructure is scalable and can handle large amounts of data. Ensure data accuracy and integrity: Establish data governance policies and procedures to ensure that data is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date. Ensure that data is secure and protected from unauthorized access. By following these best practices, companies can successfully implement treasury data analytics and derive valuable insights to support cash and liquidity, working capital, and risk management. The Role of Treasury Data Analytics in Liquidity Management Treasury data analytics is a valuable tool for modern treasury management and financial analysis. By leveraging advanced analytics tools and customizable treasury dashboards, treasurers can gain insights into their company's financial operations, improve decision-making, increase cash forecasting accuracy, optimize cash management strategies, manage risks more effectively, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Kyriba Analytics delivers integrated treasury dashboards and pre-built analytics for Kyriba Cash, Liquidity, Treasury, Risk, Compliance and Supply Chain Finance modules and data. Kyriba Analytics goes beyond traditional reporting by offering on-demand drill down, dashboard editing, and a transformed visual experience for presentation-ready information sharing. For example, predictive cash flow analytics features in new liquidity planning tools are creating better capabilities to manage longer-term liquidity performance: Liquidity and Working Capital Considerations Liquidity Planning and Analytics Solutions Do I have visibility to liquidity and when it is available? AI-generated planning Dashboards with working capital components forecasted Will I have the liquidity necessary to fund strategic capex or initiatives? Flexibility of reporting levels Formula-based calculations and static or rolling forecasts In-module support of the blending of short-term and mid/long-term forecasts What adjustments and actions for debt, credit policy, or additional working capital program expansion are needed? Future views of critical finance flows How confident am I in my cash flow forecasts? Automated integrations and dashboard-based sliding-scale parameters for real-time updates and decisioning Do teams spend too much time compiling data and/or spreadsheets? Forecast submission and review workflows How can I enhance global liquidity and financial risk mitigation and positively impact financials? What-if Scenario Analysis Compare multiple forecast types Are my working capital strategies helping optimize the cash conversion cycle? Cost of Liquidity? Views of financial flows from ERPs, procurement systems, receivables to identify and track KPIs, metrics AI-enabled forecast predictions

Awarded to the company that embraced technology for optimal transformation and efficiency of their treasury department. Challenges Constantly seeking new ways to automate treasury processes and streamline operations. Dedicated to pushing the envelope with...

Awarded to the company that embraced technology for optimal transformation and efficiency of their treasury department. Challenges Constantly seeking new ways to automate treasury processes and streamline operations. Dedicated to pushing the envelope with cutting-edge technology like APIs, automation of bank feeds, and payment file modification updates via automated methods. Underwent large-scale acquisition of Sinclair Oil. Solution Work with Kyriba PS consultants utilizing the Value Added Services Program. Deployed numerous modules: CMF, Cash Accounting, BAM, BFA, Payments, Payment Factory, Debt, FX Exchange, Investments, Financial Accounting. Bank API projects with two North American banks to streamline current day bank connectivity. Results Full control over their liquidity management: Tremendous month-over-month usage growth. Supported their internal business partners following a complicated and successful integration of Sinclair Oil by HollyFrontier in 2022. Integration to dozens of bank branches across global regions to gain full control of their cash and liquidity. “HF Sinclair is a constantly expanding client relationship emphasizing automation and advancements for their business through optimization of the Kyriba TMS. We are extremely grateful for strategic client partners like HF Sinclair because they push the envelope as well as Kyriba overall to improve and remain advanced in our approach to Products and services to offer."   Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Awarded to the company that has posted significant gains in productivity by creating fully automated cash and investment workflow, freeing up treasury's time to focus on more strategic initiatives. Nominated by ICD. Challenges Inherited...

Awarded to the company that has posted significant gains in productivity by creating fully automated cash and investment workflow, freeing up treasury's time to focus on more strategic initiatives. Nominated by ICD. Challenges Inherited the Kyriba platform in a merger, and had not used the capabilities available to them. Used their bank’s portal to trade money market funds. No automated process for payments Entering data into the TMS and the settlement process was all manual and impossible to have a singular view into the trades being made and the cash balances that were available to invest in money market funds. Solution Charter leveraged Kyriba’s payments and financial transactions modules Kyriba's ICD API integration and single sign-on created a seamlessly automated cash and investment workflow. Results New fully automated cash and investment workflow with Kyriba and ICD offers: Visibility into cash A broad range of products to invest in Significant time-savings Efficiency through resource reallocation Security with data accuracy and risk mitigation “Ultimately, Charter Communications put cash to work that might otherwise sit idle by implementing a single source of truth for cash and investments." Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes.Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

This award, sponsored by Kyriba partner and client Oanda, honors the company that has embraced Kyriba's FX module, and made great strides in managing FX exposure and risk. Challenges Very complex FX Hedging program...

This award, sponsored by Kyriba partner and client Oanda, honors the company that has embraced Kyriba's FX module, and made great strides in managing FX exposure and risk. Challenges Very complex FX Hedging program in order to protect the company against adverse currency movements after elevator contracts, which require material purchases in several currencies, are entered. Solution API connection of Otis’s homegrown FXR and ILR apps to Kyriba's FX for Pretrade import. Kyriba's FX Cash Flow Datahub. Results Sped up the process by leveraging Kyriba's open API capability for financial transactions, which they used to connect the homegrown FXR application directly to Deal Capture in order to receive pretrades as well as to send back a custom-built matching file. Cut time to execute the FX program by over 50%. "Otis required a solution that could help enhance and simplify their complex FX hedging program. The original Deloitte implementation helped Otis to connect its homegrown apps to Kyriba's FX and FX Cash Flow Datahub to eliminate once complicated processes.”   Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Recognizing best-in-class performance in payments fraud prevention and compliance management. Challenges As a leader in innovation in their industry, MetLife’s Treasury was seeking to build upon their Kyriba implementation with advanced payments fraud prevention...

Recognizing best-in-class performance in payments fraud prevention and compliance management. Challenges As a leader in innovation in their industry, MetLife’s Treasury was seeking to build upon their Kyriba implementation with advanced payments fraud prevention and workflows. Need for early fraud detection and alerts, including false positive management. Solution Extensive global implementation of Kyriba’s Fraud and Compliance module. Integrated real-time screening of OFAC Sanctions lists for all outgoing payments. Results Assisted Kyriba in building new fraud detection criteria and alert management. Confidence in real-time OFAC Sanctions screening, a mandatory requirement as part of MetLife’s rigorous compliance policy. “MetLife’s progressive treasury team utilizes Kyriba across many modules, regions, and banks. This includes advanced payment workflows, where most recently MetLife partnered with Kyriba to enhance the fraud detection solution.”   Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes.Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

May 18 | 11:00am SGT | Join Kyriba on 18th May 2023 at 11am SG time and find out how Kyriba’s Cash Management, Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics modules enables treasury teams and finance...

May 18 | 11:00am SGT | Join Kyriba on 18th May 2023 at 11am SG time and find out how Kyriba’s Cash Management, Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics modules enables treasury teams and finance leaders in treasury to proactively manage cash and liquidity lifecycles end-to-end.

Awarded to the company that embraced technology for optimal transformation and efficiency of their treasury department. Nominated by Elire and PWC. Challenges Goal was to streamline banking structure by 75% to increase control over...

Awarded to the company that embraced technology for optimal transformation and efficiency of their treasury department. Nominated by Elire and PWC. Challenges Goal was to streamline banking structure by 75% to increase control over cash, reduce cots and optimize liquidity management globally. Started with over 160 banks and 1,700 bank accounts to support their growing practice of over 1,400 veterinary clinics, hospitals and pet resorts worldwide. Solution Cash position worksheets focusing on account grouping by departments, budget codes, and Regions, fulfilling requirement to capture data from Bank transactions and categorize them based on sub accounts found within the description. Implemented a more scalable strategy to unlock trapped cash, mobilize liquidity, reduce vulnerability to rising interest rates, and standardize treasury and payment controls with Kyriba. Results Achieved close to 100% visibility into their day-to-day activities: Automated and achieved 98% visibility to cash Reduced bank portals and centralized all processing onto Kyriba Automated accounting reporting Complete digital integration of debt and FX, reducing FX risk exposure “Kyriba was used as the technology engine that powered this impressive transformation for NVA, achieving 98% visibility into cash, reduced bank portals and centralized all processing.”   Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

Companies that can identify and use cash with confidence can now leverage liquidity as an asset for strategic value creation. It’s a competitive advantage that has often been overlooked, or not available, but which...

Companies that can identify and use cash with confidence can now leverage liquidity as an asset for strategic value creation. It’s a competitive advantage that has often been overlooked, or not available, but which due to advances in digitized bank connectivity is now becoming a reality. How an organization moves, manages, stores and protects cash has costs, benefits and risks, as with any other asset. As Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, has said, “There’s no question that liquidity is sacrosanct.” Today, many leading firms realize they can now treat liquidity as an asset and use it as a market weapon. Corporate liquidity management practices are today faced with many “new normals”, shaped by increasingly frequent liquidity disruptions, given recent financial, geopolitical, trade and public health crises. These factors are compounded by demands for access to new financial and payment channels; more sophisticated fraud tactics and demands from business to scale to new regions and currencies better, faster and cheaper. Not being able to actively manage liquidity is to lose sight of a key asset: cash on hand, as PwC estimates that 25% of cash held by companies is not visible to finance. Compelling Solutions The legacy approach of creating unique and individual links between an enterprise’s internal ERP systems, trading platforms and banks made it impossible to generate the holistic view required to support the optimization of cash. This disconnected approach resulted in isolated liquidity pools and limited business success. Worse, the creation of unique deployments for every bank or payment system was costly and time consuming. But innovative and compelling liquidity management solutions now address those challenges and meet changing business needs. It is therefore now time to reimagine the bank connectivity approach as one that can simplify daily operations and enable next-generation enterprise liquidity management. The solution now exists that integrates all aspects of the process using consistent interfaces and APIs, and delivers not only new thinking, but a new approach to technology services to support it. The Next Generation for Optimizing Liquidity: Bank Connectivity as a Service The limitations of legacy approaches are so severe that a new digital service for delivering enterprise liquidity management must be a high-priority project. Organizations that stick to the old ways will be compromised. For example, the ability to stop fraud and implement payment control would be greatly curtailed, given that a recent survey by the Association for Financial Professionals found that 81% of organizations had been targets of payment fraud. Furthermore, business agility is impossible when it takes three to nine months to connect the organization to a bank. The most promising way forward is to enable a connectivity-as-a-service approach for all aspects of providing consistent, holistic, documented and secure liquidity management. This allows the enterprise to connect all its liquidity partners quickly and robustly and more easily adapt liquidity providers as needs change. Cloud Resilience & API’s To optimize liquidity, organizations need to deploy a service that has been designed with a modern technology foundation. The use of cloud platforms for this as-a-service model is at the heart of the approach, because it allows the enterprise to match usage and spending. In addition, many IT infrastructure tasks, such as resiliency, backup, security and system management, are done by the service provider. This allows the internal IT team to focus on delivering the highest possible value. Next-generation solutions also use APIs and prebuilt integrations to greatly simplify linking different aspects of the overall system. In this case, it could mean linking enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and trading platforms much more quickly and accurately. The use of consistent and documented APIs and integrations not only saves a great deal of setup time, but also makes future changes simple to implement and eliminate manual errors. Connectivity as a service is enabled by simplified integration and interactions. Figure 1. A multitude of payment channels available to corporate – with more launch in 2021 Unified Data Another key feature of modern as-a-service solutions is that data is unified and stored in one place, making it possible to derive much more useful intelligence from it using analytic tools such as artificial intelligence. As banking platforms change and banks roll out new requirements for how they will receive formatted files, a central depository of up-to-date bank specs relieves corporate IT from needing to follow, build and test these ever-changing bank formats. Finally, a modern platform includes all necessary applications or solutions in one platform. For liquidity optimization, this includes treasury, risk, payments and working capital management. The benefits of using a best-in-class offering that delivers liquidity connectivity as a service are compelling. For one, there are significant shortterm cost savings, starting with a reduction in the cost of onboarding a bank. Based on its experience working with customers and partners, Kyriba has found that the cost typically ranges from $50,000 to $150,000. But this can be reduced by well over 50% using Kyriba’s established and proven banks links and its modern as-a-service solution. Speed and the attendant agility to modify or create net new integrations also improve. With this type of platform, enterprises’ time to production is also two to three times faster. Figure 2. Payment volumes increasing with increased digitization of transactions Fraud Controls A significant reduction in fraud and misdirected payments is now possible, since a cohesive view and comprehensive reporting make it much easier to identify potential problems and remediate them. Further, with a documented set of integrations and stronger process, the chance for mistakes that lead to fraud is nearly eliminated. With a comprehensive data set, enterprises can easily analyze liquidity flows to optimize them. Gone are the days of manually integrating disparate spreadsheets. Such information will also deliver the insights organizations need to make changes that improve liquidity and allow them to use it more effectively. The value of a single source of truth about liquidity provided by this type of service is impossible to ignore. From a business operations perspective, having connectivity as a service as the digital foundation enables enterprises to: Make strategic plans for the use of cash enterprise-wide Provide businesses with an agile banking platform to efficiently add and remove new banking partners, while minimizing the burden on IT resources Optimize the cost of bank fees Determine the best payment channels to use, based on specific scenarios Centralize fraud management Provide a foundation for meeting regulatory and compliance issues However, without a comprehensive solution that tracks all liquidity, benefits are much more limited. Resultant blind spots don’t just impact the liquidity not tracked by the system; they impact all liquidity as well. With only a partial implementation, treasurers are still flying blind. Enterprise Liquidity Management As successful, modern enterprises implement new services and technologies to optimize every element of their business, attention is now increasingly focused on liquidity management. Legacy processes for doing this worked well in the last millennium, but every organization looking for an edge is now taking the next steps to achieve enterprise liquidity management. New services, such as Kyriba’s Active Liquidity Network, provide those capabilities and insights that were not possible using legacy practices. With an underlying service that brings a consistent and holistic view to all aspects of liquidity, organizations are empowered to optimize it as never before. This comprehensive perspective allows them to maximize liquidity across all banks, payment processors and the treasury. And using this data, organizations can make better long-term decisions, positioning themselves for the future. What’s more, these new capabilities reduce the time needed to add new banks or processors and dramatically reduce the costs of doing so. IT teams can now be much more responsive and better able to help the CFO have confidence in getting things done.   Check out this webinar to learn how Treasury and IT worked together at Hilton Grand Vacations with Kyriba to speed up connecting more than 10 banks and 300 bank accounts to improve cash and liquidity management.

KyribaLive is where treasury and finance leaders engage, connect and transform. See all the recorded sessions.

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This award, sponsored by Kyriba partner and client Oanda, honors the company that has embraced Kyriba's FX module, and made great strides in managing FX exposure and risk. Challenges Longtime FiREapps clients, seeking to...

This award, sponsored by Kyriba partner and client Oanda, honors the company that has embraced Kyriba's FX module, and made great strides in managing FX exposure and risk. Challenges Longtime FiREapps clients, seeking to to transform their Capital Markets and Risk Management processes in 2022-2023 Goal was to implement and achieve a best-in-class solution ”After a thorough RFP review, Eastman decided to expand with Kyriba because of the full end-to-end workflow to streamline their very manual front to back-office processes.” Solution Managing all FX, Interest Rate and Commodities trades in Kyriba Downstream Hedge Accounting entries are automatically integrated to SAP, and trade settlement payments are processed directly to their banks Results Saved the Capital Markets team several hours each week Simplified the external audit process Delivered cross-functional automation and controls improvements across the broader treasury and accounting functions. Kyriba's Liquidity Excellence Awards recognize clients, both at the corporate and individual level, for excellence in Treasury, Finance and Cash Management. Winners are nominated by their peers and partners, and are announced at KyribaLive, Kyriba's annual user conference. Nominating partners also receive acknowledgement for their contribution to these clients' successes. Company awards recognize outstanding performance across six award categories: Treasury Transformation, Achievements in Productivity, FX Optimization, Payment Innovation, Working Capital, and Implementation the Year. Recognition is also given to individual contributors for outstanding performance across four award categories: Peak Performer, Pivotal API, Data Demon, and Elevated Visibility. Check out our complete list of 2023 Liquidity Excellence Award Winners. Congratulations to all!

A Quarterly Report Assessing the Impact of Foreign Exchange to North American and European Corporate Earnings About the Report The May 2022 Kyriba Currency Impact Report analyzes the reported effects of currencies to North...

A Quarterly Report Assessing the Impact of Foreign Exchange to North American and European Corporate Earnings About the Report The May 2022 Kyriba Currency Impact Report analyzes the reported effects of currencies to North American and European companies’ earnings during the fourth quarter of 2021. To obtain this information, Kyriba analyzed the earnings calls of 1,200 publicly traded North American and European companies as part of a continued effort to provide insight into how foreign exchange impacts organizations. The companies included in this data set are large multinational firms doing business in more than one currency with at least 15% of their revenue coming from overseas.     Currency Impact Report - Overview Kyriba Currency Impact Report — Key Findings The collective quantified negative impact reported by both North American and European companies totaled $6.74 billion in Q4 2021, a 215% increase from Q3 2021. 16% of corporates studied (187/1200) quantified +/- impacts totaling $11.21 billion ($6.74 billion headwinds), ($4.47 billion tailwinds). The Canadian dollar was the currency most mentioned as impactful by North American companies. The euro was the currency most mentioned as impactful by European companies. 132 North American and European companies reported currency headwinds in Q4 2021. Of those companies, 112 companies quantified their FX impacts. Total Quantified Currency Impacts by North American and European Companies (Billions) North American Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) European Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) Top 5 Volatile G20 Currencies Top 5 Volatile Currencies as Weighted by GDP Percentage Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to North American Companies (Billions) Average EPS Impact Reported by North American Companies *Industry Standard MBO of Less than $0.01 EPS Impact Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings North American companies reported a $4.56 billion collective loss in Q4 2021, ending a downward trend and a 390% increase in the magnitude of aggregate headwinds.1 The average earnings per share (EPS) impact reported by North American companies in Q4 2021 was $0.04, four times greater than the industry standard MBO of less than $0.01 EPS impact and a maintenance of the level set by the previous quarter. 1 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by North American Companies as Impactful The Canadian dollar (CAD) was the most mentioned currency, continuing a trend with the CAD being the most mentioned from Q3 2021 as well. The euro was the second most-mentioned, followed by the Chinese renminbi (CNY), and the Russian ruble (RUB). The euro was the most volatile weighted by GDP, while the CNY was the third most volatile and the GBP was the fourth most volatile (page 6). Number and Percentage of North American Companies Reporting and Quantifying Negative Currency Impacts Average Negative Impact to North American Companies (Millions) Percentage of North American Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions Most Impacted North American Industries Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to European Companies (Billions)   Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Increasing from last quarter, European companies reported an 80% percent decrease in negative currency impacts, with companies reporting $2.18 billion in FX-related losses.2 Of the 350 Europe-based multinationals analyzed, 5% reported headwinds in Q4 2021. Of those, 61% quantified their negative impacts (see page 15). 2 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by European Companies as Impactful The euro was the most mentioned currency in earnings calls for Europe, followed by the Swedish krona (SEK) and US dollar (USD). The Great British pound (GBP) was the fourth most mentioned, followed by the Danish krone (DKK). The euro and the pound were all found to be in the top 5 most volatile currencies weighted by GDP as well (page 6). Number of European Companies Reporting Negative Currency Impact & Percentage of European Companies Quantifying Impacts   Average Negative Impact to European Companies (Millions)   Percentage of European Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q4 2021 earnings calls, 10 percent of European companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted European Industries   Comparison of Currency Impact to North American and European Companies   Average Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Millions) Size of Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions) Number of Companies Reporting Currency Impacts Percentage of Companies Reporting Impacts That Fielded Analyst Questions   Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions)   Number of Companies Reporting Negative Currency Impact   FX Risk Management is one of the most difficult objectives handed to a CFO’s organization. Kyriba has a team of experts to offer extensive FX Advisory Services to our clients. Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

Cash forecasting is the process of predicting near future cash flows, including both inflows and outflows, based on current business conditions and past performance. It is a crucial component of effective cash and liquidity...

Cash forecasting is the process of predicting near future cash flows, including both inflows and outflows, based on current business conditions and past performance. It is a crucial component of effective cash and liquidity management, as it enables organizations to anticipate changes in their liquidity and plan for them accordingly. Proactively managing cash flow enables organizations to make more informed decisions, mitigate risk, and optimize cash investments. Generally, cash forecasting is concerned with identifying liquidity requirements for the next 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days. Differences between Cash Management, Cash Forecasting and Liquidity Planning Cash management looks at daily cash positioning and reconciliation of prior day bank transactions, including bank reporting, bank transaction tagging, and target balancing of accounts. Cash forecasting projects cash surpluses and requirements of days/weeks/months into the future. Forecast data is captured from internal and external sources with the ability to model simultaneous forecasts in parallel and stress-test against multiple business scenarios. Liquidity planning is an evolution of traditional cash flow forecasting surrounding the cash forecast with data which supports better-informed liquidity decisions. It looks into more data sets including cash, credit, debt and investments and extends focus on medium to long-term cash needs. Table: Key differences between Cash Management, Cash Forecasting and Liquidity Planning Cash Management Cash Forecasting Liquidity Planning Primary focus Operational Tactical Strategic Purpose Optimize cash Forecast cash inflows/outflows Manage available cash to meet future obligations Time horizon Short-term Up to 90 days Up to 12 months Frequency Daily / Weekly Daily / Weekly / Monthly Monthly / Quarterly / Yearly Importance to Business Essential for daily operations Critical for short-term stability Essential for long-term financial health Tools used Bank accounts, cash receipts/payments, cash pooling Cash flow statements, Cash flow projections, budgets Financial statements, ratio analysis, cash flow analysis, scenario planning Why is Cash Forecasting Important? Accurate forecasting gives businesses the ability to understand their cash position at any given moment, enabling them to anticipate and plan for any potential shortfalls. Businesses can also use the cash flow forecasting to identify opportunities to reduce costs and maximize returns on investments. Additionally, forecasting can help businesses manage their liquidity, allowing them to minimize the risk of running out of cash and prepare for any potential cash crunches. In summary, effective cash flow forecasting allows organizations to: Ensure efficient and accurate cash flow management by identifying discrepancies between actual and expected cash flows and taking corrective action if necessary. Optimize cash flow planning with more accurate cash flow projections. Forecasting enables companies to anticipate potential cash flow problems and take the necessary steps to avoid them. Companies can also use forecasting to develop more effective strategies for financial planning and budgeting. The Benefits of Forecasting Cash Flow Having a reliable forecasting process is essential for businesses of all sizes. Organizations accurately forecasting cash flow are better equipped to make informed decisions about investments, capital expenditures and working capital management, and eventually achieve greater cash flow efficiency. It is important to ensure the forecasting process is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in the business environment. This includes monitoring external factors such as changes in interest rates, inflation, and market trends, as well as internal factors such as changes in business strategy or operations. By continuously improving their forecasting process, businesses can maintain a competitive edge and achieve greater cash flow efficiency in the long run with the following visible positive business outcomes: Improved Planning and Budgeting: Organizations can plan and budget based on the most up-to-date and accurate financial data. By using the right tools, organizations can predict the timing of inflows and outflows, giving them a better understanding of their short-term liquidity needs. Better Decision Making: By understanding the company’s future cash flow, businesses can make informed decisions about investments, expenses, and other financial activities. Early Identification of Cash Shortages: Organizations can identify potential budgeting issues before they become a problem, allowing them to take corrective action quickly and efficiently. Improved Cash Management: The information gained from accurate forecasting enables companies to better predict future cash flows and calculate future cash balances, equipping finance teams with the cash visibility they need to plan for the future. Cash Flow Forecasting Techniques An accurate forecast includes having a clear understanding of when funds are coming in and when those funds will be needed to pay bills. By using the right cash flow forecasting techniques, businesses are able to better prepare for unexpected expenses. There are two main cash flow forecasting techniques that are commonly used: Direct method estimates future cash flows based on actual inflows and outflows, providing detailed operating cash flow information. It's difficult and time-consuming because it involves recording all cash receipts and payments. Indirect method uses net income and asset/liability changes to determine cash flow. Unlike the direct method, it's simpler and doesn't require listing every cash disbursement. Large companies often prefer it. How to Implement Cash Forecasting in Your Business Organizations can implement cash forecasting by following some straightforward steps. Step 1: Assess Current State The first step is to assess the current state of your organization’s cash. Assessing the current state will help you identify areas of risk and opportunity as well as develop a plan of action for improving cash flow. Key areas to assess include cash balance, cash flow, bank fees, and liquidity. Step 2: Establish Cash Flow Goals The next step is to establish objectives for your organization’s cash flow, including setting specific goals that are in line with your organization’s mission and objectives. These goals should be measurable and achievable with the resources available to you to ensure that your cash forecasting efforts are in line with your overall strategy. Step 3: Design Cash Forecasting Process Once you have assessed your current state and established your goals, you can begin to design your cash forecasting process. Designing the process includes identifying the data sources, the tools and methods used, and the metrics you will use to measure success. This process should be tailored to the specific needs of your organization and should be regularly reviewed and adjusted as needed. Common Cash Forecasting Mistakes to Avoid Without accurate forecasting, companies are unable to assess financial performance, identify areas of opportunity, or manage risk. Poor forecasting can result in: Ineffective cash management Inadequate liquidity Lack of capital Increased debt Some of the most common forecasting mistakes include: Overestimating Future Sales: One of the most common forecasting mistakes is overestimating future sales. This misstep occurs when the forecast is based on an overly optimistic and unrealistic expectation of sales, leaving the business with a cash flow shortfall. Tips: Businesses should focus on realistic sales targets and be aware of any unique factors that may affect sales, such as changes in the market or customer base. Not Taking Seasonality into Account: It is important to consider seasonality when forecasting cash flow. Many businesses have periods of high and low sales during the year and must be prepared for these fluctuations. Tips: Businesses should monitor past sales trends and plan accordingly. Businesses should also be aware of any external factors that could affect sales, such as social, economic, and political conditions. Ignoring Cash Reserves: It is the mistake of taking into account the amount of cash a company has set aside for emergencies or other purposes, which can lead to inaccurate forecasting. Tips: Businesses should always have an adequate amount of cash reserves to cover any unexpected costs or economic downturns. Companies should also review their forecasts on a regular basis to ensure that cash reserves are up-to-date and adequate for their needs. Examples of Achieving Forecast Accuracy Cenveo is the world leader in the management and distribution of print and related offerings, encompassing 20 facilities across the United States with a long history of delivering top value for customers. Cenveo chose the Kyriba Enterprise Liquidity Management platform to improve visibility into overall liquidity and provide management on-demand insights into the performance of their strategic liquidity objectives and Cenveo achieved outstanding business results, seeing 93% forecast accuracy and 90% productivity improvements. According to a Kyriba Value Realization Assessment (VRA) assessment, Cenveo saw the following improvements post Kyriba deployment, including but not limited to: Cash Management: 100% real-time liquidity visibility, 95 hours per month productivity gain. Cash Forecasting: 43% liquidity forecast accuracy improvement, 113 hours per month productivity gain. Liquidity Payment Optimization: Increases in data integrity and workflow controls ensured no loss of discounts, 137 hours per month productivity gain. The Role of Technology in Cash Flow Forecasting Technology has revolutionized cash forecasting, giving businesses access to powerful and precise insights into their cash flow and liquidity. With automated data gathering and advanced analytics and automated workflows, businesses are now able to quickly and accurately forecast their cash position, identify areas of risk, and manage their liquidity with confidence. The potential for cash flow forecasting technology is vast and rapidly expanding. With new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), businesses will have access to more powerful insights into their cash flow and more precise forecasting capabilities. With Kyriba’s advanced solutions, businesses can make more informed decisions, accurately forecast cash positions, and ensure their financial goals are met. Kyriba enables businesses to gain more control over their cash flow with advanced analytics and real-time visibility.

While treasury departments are typically aware of the advantages that a treasury management system (TMS) provides for cash and liquidity management, they are often less clear on what is required to achieve the full...

While treasury departments are typically aware of the advantages that a treasury management system (TMS) provides for cash and liquidity management, they are often less clear on what is required to achieve the full benefits. In this ebook, you will learn the steps needed to design and plan for a TMS, including best practices for how to: Define future state processes Build a prioritized roadmap Design a system. Download this ebook to learn how you can prepare your team for a successful implementation and achieve the most value from your TMS. Holistic System Design Methodology While treasury departments are typically aware of the advantages of using a treasury management system (TMS), they are often less clear on the steps required to achieve the full benefits. It is difficult to get where you’re going if you do not have detailed directions on how to get there, so planning well in advance and establishing measurable objectives better positions organizations to reap rewards when implementing or enhancing a TMS. Not only will clients minimize additional costs and project delays but most importantly, they will also achieve the full set of benefits sought from a TMS in the first place. The first step in positioning a TMS project for success is to follow what is referred to as a holistic system design methodology: confirming the scope and objectives of the project, defining the future state processes of your TMS, creating a roadmap and planning the system design. Confirm the Scope and Objectives of the Project When defining the scope and objectives of a TMS project, treasury professionals should focus on four specific areas: Out of Box API Integration Faster time-to-market No upfront costs to enable real-time payments Improved certainty in cash flows Obtain Clarity on Current State It is difficult to clearly define your scope if you do not have a solid understanding of your point of departure. Depending on whether the treasury function is more centralized, decentralized or if certain functions have been outsourced, you may have a better grasp on how all the daily processes function and who is responsible for which activities. Having a strong foundational knowledge and understanding of the current processes is critical when designing any new solution. To help lay this groundwork, detailed process flow diagrams should be created that include all areas being considered for TMS implementation. The focus should be on: How data flows between people and systems Roles and responsibilities of various constituent groups throughout the process Hand-offs between groups Defining whether the process is systematic or manual Systems and reports beings utilized Key controls needed In gathering all the elements noted above, you will not only help establish a clear point of departure for the implementation, but will also capture a number of data points that are critical for future steps of the implementation. Define Scope and Priorities In order to determine an accurate budget, resource needs and a timeline of a clear scope are required. This includes analyzing all requirements, including those in scope, out of scope or deferred to a future phase of the project. Additionally, throughout implementation, decisions will need to be made regarding where to focus resources and how to sequence tasks. As such, it is extremely beneficial to have clearly defined and prioritized requirements and project scope that have been agreed upon by all constituents. This will assist in providing direction to the project team and help ward off any deviation from the key priorities. The requirements must be at a fairly granular level of detail in order to facilitate these decisions. For example, it is best practice to list out all the reports and determine which functions are a “must have” and what is simply “nice to have” to ensure resources are spent wisely. Set Measurable Objectives The best way to determine the project’s success is by measuring it against a set of predefined objectives. These can be categorized by type including improved financial performance, risk mitigation or enhanced operational efficiencies. Some examples for each category include: Improved financial performance – Reduce bank fees by 20 percent through validating fees charged and renegotiating agreements based on cross bank fee analyses Risk mitigation – Centralize 95 percent of payment approval workflow, release and confirmations Enhanced operational efficiencies – Reduce time required to compile daily liquidity across all accounts by one hour per day The objectives should be incorporated into the project status reporting to ensure the team does not lose sight of them and to ensure that they are achieved as part of the implementation. Ensure Leadership Support and Alignment In a project as significant as a TMS implementation, it is critical to obtain leadership support and ensure alignment and commitment from all key stakeholders. Reach out not only to internal stakeholders but also to external ones including vendors and implementation partners. The project will impact and require involvement across multiple departments, including accounting, accounts payable, FP&A, tax, information technology and treasury. However, prior to engaging these teams you must be prepared to clearly communicate the following: Project vision and importance to the company Specific benefits achievable by each function Anticipated level of effort and resources required Timeline and roll-out strategy Impact to existing processes and potential changes in roles and responsibilities There will be a number of project dependencies on these groups, so ensuring they are committed and have allocated sufficient resources to meet the project timelines is vital to its success. Aligning the project team’s incentive compensation structure with achieving the defined objectives is another effective method to ensure commitment across all levels. Define Future State Processes As part of a TMS implementation, existing processes, roles and responsibilities should be analyzed with a goal to optimize, as well as take advantage of best practices delivered with the system. It is worth noting that taking existing processes and lifting and shifting them to a new TMS is often not the best approach. Legacy processes and roles transform over time. As organizations evolve and grow, the circumstances change, but usually the processes do not. The future state should be designed to improve processes to make the organization more efficient, productive and strategic. Therefore, it’s critical to define what that future state will look like. In order to achieve the ideal future state, a defined set of steps should be followed to optimize the design of the system, realize new efficiencies and to fully benefit from the TMS’ capabilities. Once the scope of the project is defined, the next order of business is to identify the future state processes: Document functional and technical requirements to drive implementation decisions. Draft process flow diagrams of the future state that reflect ownership and hand-offs, and define ideal processes and data workflows. Create a system architecture diagram and identify opportunities to redesign and streamline processes. The architecture might include multiple versions to coincide with roadmap phases. Refine roles and responsibilities to take advantage of treasury’s ideal future state, including defining staffing skill requirements and determining which processes and resources need to be realigned. Analyze the impact of change management on the organization and assess the organization’s ability to absorb this level of change. Developing a Process Flow Diagram Creating a future state process flow diagram lets organizations identify opportunities to redesign and streamline processes and determine how functions will be performed in the TMS. This diagram will help treasury define: Processes or data flows that are manual versus those that facilitate straight-through processing Systems utilized and how data flows between them as well as manual movements Interdependencies between groups, data flow and processes Cross-functional responsibilities and flow of data between internal and external groups Key controls (both systematic and manual) to ensure they are being maintained, if not strengthened Below is an example of a payment process flow diagram showing task cross-departmental ownership: Creating a System Architecture Design In addition to defining the functional process flows, a system architecture diagram should also be created. It will serve as a high-level view of all the integration points coming into and out of the TMS, detail the TMS functionality in scope and identify any third-party dependencies. If the plan is to deploy the functionality in phases, the items can be color-coded to identify which items will be implemented in each phase. When discussing the project with management, key stakeholders or third-party vendors, this illustration is very helpful to convey the desired end state. The Importance of Documenting Change Management As part of the future state definition, it is important to identify changes in processes and how they impact individuals’ daily functions, as well as any potential changes in ownership. The proposed changes must be well documented, and include the rational and perceived benefits, and it must be approved by the heads of each department. If at any point the groups cannot reach a consensus, any open items should be escalated to the steering committee or additional members of senior management if applicable. It is important to confirm and communicate the changes to everyone as early as possible to avoid confusion and disruption when the change is enacted. Build a Prioritized Roadmap The implementation or enhancement process will likely go through many phases before reaching completion. Therefore, it is critical to create a well-defined roadmap that includes a realistic project plan, outlines budgetary and personnel needs, and measures progress. To develop the roadmap, treasury will want to: Clearly outline objectives and designate tasks and priorities for action in the short-, medium- and long-term. Create an impact assessment to weigh the benefits against the cost and time required to achieve the desired outcome. Indicate the timeline, resources and budget required to achieve the stated objectives and prepare a business case. Define metrics and milestones to allow regular tracking of progress. Developing a Process Flow Diagram The project roadmap should be driven by a combination of factors including: Level of effort to accomplish Prioritization of requirement Impact to the organization Key dependencies Centrally managed functions versus decentralized functions Global nature of the business and level of involvement and impact to each region Ability to address significant control deficiencies or risks Expiration of software licenses or sunsetting of existing products Budgetary or resource constraints Treasury will also need to weigh the impact of the roadmap on the organization. Typical approaches to phase the implementation involve either deploying the system by grouping modules, such as cash management and forecasting, bank account management, payments, etc., or deploying by region. For more global organizations, the deployment may be phased by both a set of modules and by region. The roadmap and resource requirements of other groups must be discussed and their feedback incorporated into the plan. The plan should be realistic and, ideally, also build in some opportunities for early wins to gain momentum and confidence in the project. Identifying these opportunities for early wins will avoid having a project that fails to live up to the state objectives or exceeds the budget. Why You Should Assess Project Impact To create a realistic timeline, treasury will want to weigh the benefits of the project against the cost and time required to achieve the desired outcome. The best way to do that is to rate each impact as low, medium or high. Then, plot the impacts on the y-axis of a graph and the time and resource commitment (or level of effort) on the x-axis. This practice can help identify low impact, low effort commitments that are good to start with as a first step to achieve a quick win. Defining Metrics and Milestones Defining metrics and key milestones allows treasury to monitor progress and keep everyone on track. Each time the organization achieves a milestone, share the news and related metrics at stakeholder meetings and in key management conversations. Always communicate positive wins. This will help build confidence in the TMS initiative and demonstrate immediate value to the organization. Designing a System Once there is a solid foundation and clear plan, it’s time to design the system. The focus should be on determining how to best configure the TMS to meet the defined requirements and processes while taking into account industry best practices. The most successful system design projects occur when there is a holistic understanding of both the business requirements and TMS capabilities by all participants in the project, including business and technology stakeholders, as well as third-party vendors involved in the implementation. When designing the system, be sure to: Conduct knowledge transfer sessions with third-party vendors to ensure they fully comprehend the business requirements and objectives. Conduct TMS training sessions to educate stakeholders on the TMS functionality. Confirm with all stakeholders impacted by the implementation that they understand and agree with how the system will accommodate their requirements. Define how the TMS will integrate with other systems, including: • Connection method • Frequency of data transmission • Volume of data being transmitted • Whether data transformation is required • If it is an automated or manual integration • The project phase and priority for each systems integration Incorporate industry best practices into the overall design. Conduct proof of concept scenarios where the implementation team models client-specific examples in the system and provides output for review and validation. Structure a plan to validate output early on to help identify potential system limitations at the outset. Garnering Different Perspectives It is important to understand the perspective, areas of expertise and objectives of all internal and external stakeholders. Most businesses are intimately familiar with their current way of conducting business and the desired future state; however, they typically have limited experience with system implementations or knowing how treasury management systems function. While the vendors are experts on the capabilities of the TMS, they do not have the intimate knowledge of a business’ specific operational treasury activities. In order to increase the knowledge of both parties, time must be allocated at the outset of the project to conduct knowledge sharing sessions. Too often, teams dive directly into the implementation activity without ensuring proper alignment and understanding. The most common cause is due to a failure of both parties to fully appreciate the others’ needs and capabilities before proceeding with the system configuration. In order to help avoid this disconnect, utilize the checklist below and confirm each is adequately addressed prior to the system configuration. Design Requirements (Client) Have I documented my requirements at a level of detail that is granular enough? Have I provided tangible examples of offline processes and reports? How malleable is my future state vision? How well does the system accommodate our vision? What are the limitations that will require workarounds or development? Does the vendor truly grasp my business and desired end state? Has the vendor formulated and clearly communicated the system design to me? System Capabilities (Vendor) How well does the system accommodate the client’s future state vision? • Is it meeting all the high-priority items? • Are stated objectives going to be met? Have I provided tangible examples of offline processes and reports? • Is the workaround acceptable or is system development required to address the gap? Do I fully understand the client’s requirements and have I performed a proof of concept to validate my understanding? Has the vendor formulated and clearly communicated the system design to me? Capturing Data Elements An important aspect of every TMS implementation is determining what data elements must be captured in the system to best achieve the desired output. This can be challenging as you are typically compiling this information at the inception of the project, prior to having a true appreciation for how the data will be used and displayed throughout the system. It is important to ask sufficient questions to understand the downstream implications of how static data, reference data and user-defined fields will be utilized in the user interface and reports. One way to achieve this is through a proof of concept. Treasury should keep these high-level best practices in mind with regard to data elements: Key elements: Ensure crucial data elements are included and captured in the appropriate location to facilitate the required system displays or output. Integration: Consider how data elements will interact and integrate with upstream and downstream systems. Be sure to address requirements for ERP(s), market data, trading portals, etc. Terminology: Determine a standardized, global naming convention that’s consistent, recognizable and understood across the organization. Treasury may want to consider terminology that users are familiar with, such as leveraging the same naming conventions as their ERP system. ERP structure: Look at the ERP structure by region or business unit. Each one provides data elements that treasury can capture at the entity level and facilitate utilization, grouping and reporting of the data downstream. Determining Essential Reports Treasury must confirm which reports and specific data elements are required, which ones are still in use and what their limitations are in order to produce the reporting output. It’s also important to understand the system’s out-of-the-box reporting views and capabilities. It is recommended to perform a reporting rationalization to validate and consolidate the reporting requirements and determine a list of must-have reports. To ensure they have access to the reports they need from the new system while reducing the effort to develop these reports, treasury will need to: Identify opportunities to consolidate like reports with numerous overlapping data elements. Often, report requests are added over time without evaluating already available alternatives. Compare the consolidated set of reports needed with vendor capabilities. Utilizing existing, out-of-the-box reporting from the system generally minimizes costs and project risk. There will likely be some level of custom report development, but fight the urge to try to replicate the existing report package and instead only customize views where they are absolutely necessary. The data element design may need to be supplemented to address areas where limitations are identified. Sometimes there are free form or user-defined fields available that can be utilized to meet unique requirements not addressed by out of the box functionality, so these should be considered when limitations are discovered. Communicating Unique Requirements Some requirements don’t fit neatly into a box or align with the typical system utilization but still need to be included. To decide whether to add them to the list of requirements, treasury should fully examine their merits, communicate clearly so that everyone understands why they are necessary and provide tangible examples. The treasury team and the vendor should work together to identify solutions that can leverage existing capabilities and be open to alternatives that may not exactly mirror the current process. You want to avoid falling into the trap of spending excessive time on an isolated area to the detriment of the overall project timeline or budget. Setting Up System Controls Another key element in the design is analyzing how the system manages controls, assigns user permissions and administers these controls on a go-forward basis. A good starting point is pulling the existing SOX controls in place for each department involved in the project and highlighting which of them are applicable to the TMS. While this will provide a starting point to the level of system access granularity in the TMS, applying these controls can be daunting. Obtaining assistance from both internal resources and the vendor is advisable. To identify key control considerations and figure out how those are addressed in the system, be sure to consider the following: System security: Understand how to manage user access and regional access rights, and dual-review controls in the system. Sometimes the set-up exists in multiple locations, so be sure to obtain a holistic understanding of where security is managed in the application. Existing controls and SOX key controls: Identify how existing controls can be strengthened and how they will change as the process migrates to the TMS. Systematic-based controls: Find opportunities to switch to more automated and systematic controls. For clients migrating from offline processes, hard copies are often utilized as evidence that the control step was taken. However, as you migrate to a TMS, evidence of the control step can often be captured systematically via report or system audit log. Seek to design the system to take advantage of these controls and audit evidence. Additionally, ensure it is clear where to access the audit logs and that they are deemed sufficient by your internal audit group. One example of this is transitioning from paper copy sign-off on payments based on defined dollar limits to a system audit log for which user-approved payments and security rights limit access to individuals based on dollar thresholds. User groups: Determine how to build user groups to achieve control objectives. For example, payment approvers that have the same approval rights can be grouped together. Grouping users will minimize future system administration. Leveraging Proofs of Concept Leveraging proof of concept (PoC) scenarios to validate the system design early in the implementation process is an effective method to minimize project risks and ensure alignment between all stakeholders. A proof of concept also helps identify system limitations at the onset of the project and enables treasury and the vendor to factor them into the overall project plan from the very beginning. A PoC utilizes a specific set of data from a defined period, attempts to flow it through the end-to-end system design and produces an output demonstrating the operational steps, specific calculations and reporting views. It provides the users an opportunity to visualize the system processes and validate the output while there is still time to modify it with minimal rework or impact to the project. The following steps should be taken to create a robust set of PoC scenarios: Key stakeholders should identify proof of concept scenarios (client responsible) Develop input data required to produce scenarios (client responsible) Model scenarios in the system and provide results including screen shots, calculations and reporting views (vendor responsible) Review and provide feedback on output provided by the vendor (client responsible) Identify design changes or potential system limitations (vendor responsible) Validate task priorities, workaround options and development needs (both parties responsible)? The Recipe for a Successful TMS Implementation Depending on the scope and stakeholder groups involved, TMS implementations can be complex projects with multiple moving parts. The organizations that have the most successful implementations and achieve the most value tend to: Perform proper planning and alignment from the onset Spend sufficient time ensuring all stakeholders have a deep understanding of both the business needs and TMS capabilities prior to diving into the implementation Validate the system design leveraging proof of concept scenarios before building out the system holistically Proactively track and measure project objectives against accomplishments and ensure clear communication is provided across all stakeholder groups These items focus on two key points—active engagement with all parties and regular communication. Additionally, planning and system design validation play an important role in every successful TMS implementation. By keeping this recipe in mind throughout the implementation process, treasury is well positioned to deliver on its objectives and ensure the company it supports is better positioned to realize its goals.   Want to learn more about how to prepare for remote treasury management system implementations and avoid project risk? Check out this webinar.

Presented to Kyriba, October 2020 Based on ratings collected in IDC’s 2020 SaaSPath Survey (IDC #US46933620), Kyriba placed in the highest scoring group of vendors serving the SaaS Treasury Management (TM) application market and...

Presented to Kyriba, October 2020 Based on ratings collected in IDC’s 2020 SaaSPath Survey (IDC #US46933620), Kyriba placed in the highest scoring group of vendors serving the SaaS Treasury Management (TM) application market and has been awarded IDC’s 2020 SaaS TM Customer Satisfaction Award. IDC’s customer satisfaction award program, the CSAT Awards, recognizes the leading software-as-a-service (Saas) vendors in each application market who receive the highest customer satisfaction scores based on IDC’s SaaSPath survey. SaaSPath is a global survey of approximately 2,000 organizations across all geographic regions and company sizes, where customers are asked to rate their vendor on more than 30 different customer satisfaction metrics. How Customers Rate Kyriba Figure 1 shows how Kyriba scored in each of the customer satisfaction categories, relative to the overall average scores in each category across all vendors that were reviewed. The inner line represents the overall group averages, while the outside line depicts Kyriba’s scores. Note: All scores have been rounded to the nearest 0.5 for illustration. FIGURE 1: Kyriba Customer Satisfaction Ratings vs. TM Vendor Average Ratings Source: IDC SaaSPath Survey, 2020 Where Customers Say TM Vendors Can Do Better On average, across all the vendors evaluated in this TM market study, figure 2 illustrates the areas in which technology buyers believe the greatest vendor challenges currently exist. These are not specifically reflective of any one vendor, but rather of all TM vendors averaged together, helping to shed light on areas of opportunity for all TM vendors to consider. TM vendors should take note of these areas and self-evaluate how they can improve their own capabilities in these areas to better serve their customers. Likewise, technology buyers and those considering future TM purchases should proactively discuss these potential problem areas with their prospective vendors upfront during the evaluation process to help minimize any challenges in the future. FIGURE 2: TM Vendor Vulnerabilities Source: IDC SaaSPath Survey, 2020 Note: All scores have been rounded to the nearest 0.5 for illustration. What’s Behind IDC’s SaaS Award Program SaaSPath is IDC’s premier SaaS-specific benchmarking survey, providing demand-side guidance on the mind and journey of SaaS buyers, including a deep dive into 15 functional application markets, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, digital commerce, enterprise asset management (EAM), enterprise resource planning (TM), finance, human capital management (HCM), procurement, professional services automation (PSA), sales force automation (TM), supply chain management (SCM), subscription billing, tax, travel and expense (T&E), and treasury and risk. Coverage includes application adoption, deployment models, budget plans and replacement cycle timing, purchasing preferences and attitudes toward SaaS buying channels, application migration strategy, drivers and inhibitors, packaging and pricing options, and in-depth vendor reviews, ratings, spend and advocacy scores for leading vendors in each of the 15 functional application markets. The SaaSPath survey is conducted across all geographic regions of the world, all company sizes, includes roughly 55% IT leaders and 45% line of business leaders, and its respondent base ranges from senior managers up through chief experience officers (CXOs). All respondents go through an extensive screening process to ensure they are familiar with the technologies they are being asked about, are current users, and have influence in their company’s technology buying decisions. Further, all customer satisfaction metrics and ratings are collected solely from current customers of the vendors being rated, to ensure scoring reflects up-to-date customer sentiment based on proper vendor familiarity and knowledge. Each customer is asked to rate their primary application vendor on 33 different metrics, including 19 customer satisfaction metrics (see Table 1) and 13 vendor vulnerability categories (see Table 2). These 33 metrics, detailed below, span across 3 main categories of review, including the vendor itself and its relationship with the customer, several aspects of the product’s implementation, and a broad range of assessment examining the product’s usage and value. TABLE 1: Customer Satisfaction Metrics Q. Based on your experiences, rate Kyriba as a SaaS TM vendor. Please use a 0–10 scale where 0 is ‘Poor’ and 10 is ‘Excellent’. Source: IDC SaaSPath, 2020 TABLE 2: Vendor Vulnerabilities Q. Which of the following issues has your organization experienced with Kyriba as your SaaS TM vendor? Select all the apply. Source: IDC SaaSPath, 2020 Customer satisfaction ratings and vulnerabilities for each vendor are combined and weighted to determine the leading vendors within each application market.

Modern APIs to pay, get payment confirmation, and get account balance, all in real-time. As part of a strategic partnership Kyriba and U.S. Bank have developed API connectors to drive real-time treasury, making real-time...

Modern APIs to pay, get payment confirmation, and get account balance, all in real-time. As part of a strategic partnership Kyriba and U.S. Bank have developed API connectors to drive real-time treasury, making real-time payments and instant data exchange a reality. These API connectors can be enabled upon request for mutual customers based on their business needs and applicable use cases. The Connectors Enable Initiation of real-time payments (RTP®* and Zelle®**) from customer’s U.S. Bank account using Kyriba user interface or client’s ERP Real-time confirmation of payment status Real-time visibility into account balance, transactions and prior day reporting Your Experience Keeps Improving The API connectors complement existing U.S. Bank-Kyriba FTP connectivity for ACH and Wire payments. Together we bring a rich payment experience to our mutual clients. Clients can send instant payments from their U.S. Bank accounts within their existing Kyriba dashboard. Highlights of Key Benefits for Mutual Customers Out of Box API Integration Faster time-to-market No upfront costs to enable real-time payments Reduced costs by replacing qualifying wires Reduced precautionary balances Improved certainty in cash flows Improved cash visibility and forecasting Opportunities to shape business model, strengthen supplier relationships, and drive ROI * RTP® is a registered service mark of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C. ** Zelle® and Zelle®-related marks and logos are property of Early Warning Services, LLC.

Welcome to the 2022 Treasury Technology Analyst Report, the definitive guide for thoughtful financial stewardship in the digital age. Strategic Treasurer created this report as an aid to practitioners exploring how treasury technology meets...

Welcome to the 2022 Treasury Technology Analyst Report, the definitive guide for thoughtful financial stewardship in the digital age. Strategic Treasurer created this report as an aid to practitioners exploring how treasury technology meets treasury needs. Treasurers considering digitizing their processes often face a learning curve as they approach the complexity of many categories of treasury technology. AI, ML, API, RPA, and many other technological terms can sound like alphabet soup, and few feel confident about navigating selection, buy-in, and implementation efficiently. This report can help. Treasury Technology Analyst Report 2022 - the Definitive Guide to Treasury Technology Solutions Today’s treasurer faces a rapidly shifting technology environment full of acronyms and innovations. Those needing the help of modern technology are often those most pressed for time, and the relevant information on technology lies scattered across the internet, buried in either technical jargon or oversimplifications. The goal of the Analyst Report is to offer a single document explaining what matters about technology to today’s busy treasury department. We release a new report annually with content fully revised to be relevant and up-to-date in the current context. Our hope is that you will be able to pick up a single book (or open a single digital document) and come away with insight into the technology landscape’s trajectory, a good idea of which functionality and solution types are most relevant to your company’s current and anticipated challenges, and a solid framework for how to proceed. If you have encountered our Analyst Reports in years past, you may have seen separate documents for different technology types. In 2021, anticipating the upcoming addition of enterprise liquidity management (ELM) solutions as a fourth solution category, we decided it was time to combine the reports into a single document to simplify the reader’s experience. The 2022 Analyst Report begins with an “Overview” section aimed at exploring foundational concepts and terms and discussing treasury challenges and technology innovations on a macro level. Following the Overview, readers will find four categories of solution types explained in detail: treasury management systems / treasury and risk management systems (TMS/TRMS), treasury aggregators, supply chain finance and cash conversion cycle solutions, and the more recently defined category of ELM. The Environment and Challenges Facing Treasury The market for digital treasury tools is impacted by every factor that impacts treasury itself. The department’s responsibilities and the environment it must cope with both shift with every major economic event and with every wind that changes the face of corporate operations in general. What follows is a discussion of what we consider the top factors influencing treasury’s needs and concerns today. Use this section to consider how your own organization and industry relate to the general factors driving treasury technology adoption and how that might impact the solutions available for your specific needs. Adding Demands Rapidly, Adding Staff Slowly The demands placed on treasury seem to multiply with each new economic event and corporate challenge. As more is added to treasury’s plate, the department must respond either with more manpower, more tools to leverage, or both. Treasury’s core responsibility has always been to protect the organization’s most liquid assets, making them managers of cash and of the risks to that cash. As events occur, corporations become aware of more risks to their cash — often through their own painful experiences, global impacts, or experiences of other companies. Economic crises, clearly increasing fraud risks, and other factors all serve to turn the C-suite’s attention on their liquidity risk managers: treasury. As a whole, treasury is glad to have the ear of the C-suite, to have the importance of treasury risk management recognized more widely, and to have more specific areas of risk management entrusted to their care. Treasurers are now considered responsible in many companies for improving organizational efficiency and overseeing payment security, and many of the expectations for its foresight and leadership in treasury risk management have climbed. Several of the other items listed in this section on the treasury environment are part of this increase — situations that demand higher risk awareness, more rapid analysis, and broader attention. While the expansion of treasury’s role is an honor, each increase multiplies treasury’s workload — and these are just the industry-wide increases in treasury demands. As each individual organization grows into new regions, faces new regulations, or acquires subsidiaries, treasury’s workload extends again. The steady expansion of treasury’s responsibilities has been coupled with fairly little increase in its staffing, as survey data shows treasury teams growing only slowly over the years. One added staff member alone cannot make up for the level of demand increases. Treasury needs leverage, and that leverage can most often be found in the form of technology. Vendors have responded to seeing treasury departments stretched thin by building highly efficient tools. By automating many of the most onerous and time-consuming tasks, treasury technology extends the reach of the staff and empowers them to do what only they can, such as strategic and advisory tasks. Some consider the technology vs. staff issue a zero-sum game, but this is not the case in treasury. Certain tasks are, without doubt, being automated in most companies. Staff whose roles are defined by easily automated tasks will need to reskill. However, a lower headcount is not needed in treasury. Rather, technology makes the slow increase in headcount sufficient by offering staff the leverage and efficiency they require in order to do what is increasingly asked of them. Security in the Hybrid and Remote Era The abrupt shift in work locations and the temporary (or permanent) closing of offices around the world in the early weeks of COVID-19 brought on a storm of logistical issues as well as fraudulent activity. Some of the factors that contributed to the security situation were temporary, such as the rampant confusion that lent credence to almost any explanation for payment information changes. However, some of the complications forced long-term adaptations, such as digitization of payment processes, that will continue to be used whether the company remains remote or not. Indeed, the pandemic gave a jolt of forward momentum to adoption of treasury technology. The percentage of payments made electronically shot up in 2020 and has remained elevated since (figure 1). Industry standards have shifted to more electronic processes, and any companies continuing to allow remote work must have the infrastructure and tools to support the logistics and security needs that come with the work from home (WFH) environment. Despite the long-discussed and somewhat implemented “return to office,” the prevalence of remote work and of companies using a hybrid model (remote some days, in office others) has dramatically and — it seems — permanently increased in the wake of the pandemic. Besides the obvious need for digital systems that allow for remote access, the remote worker’s security needs require modern technology. Meanwhile, criminals’ tools and methods have continued to improve, forcing more robust security measures regardless of work location. While relying on a solution, especially one housed in the cloud with remote access capabilities, may seem a counterintuitive measure for fraud prevention, these solutions actually serve to strongly counteract vulnerabilities in three primary ways: They reduce touchpoints or manual handoffs. The fewer the touchpoints, the less opportunity criminals have to insert themselves into a process. They mitigate complexity and improve visibility, narrowing the front that must be defended and making it harder for criminal activity to go unnoticed. They allow for built-in controls that cannot be bypassed. With rising industry standards, heightened risks, cyber insurance requirements, and remote work, the security environment and work location changes are challenging many organizations to speed their adoption timelines for solutions that can help snuff out their vulnerabilities. Efficiency and Scalability Whether due to economic conditions, supply chain problems, geopolitical issues forcing abrupt changes, or other issues, companies today find themselves in need of efficiency, scalability, and the flexibility they offer. Efficiency and scalability are both more easily achieved by leveraging modern technology. Efficiency has to do with processes taking as long as they need to for achieving quality results and no longer. It conserves resources (including time and manpower) so that your company can use them when and where they are most needed. Inefficiency, on the other hand, brings with it error-prone processes (which can be costly), wasted capital, and limited options. For example, if payment approvals take the full length of payment terms, the company loses the option to avail itself of early payment discounts. In areas such as these, inefficiency erodes the company’s control over liquidity and flexibility in time of turmoil. This alone is enough to make efficiency across relevant areas of the organization a matter of import to treasury. In addition, organizational leadership relies on treasury to provide rapid analysis and insight into the impacts and threats caused by various situations. For many treasury departments, the levels of efficiency required to rapidly analyze today’s masses of data despite thin staffing are only achievable through technology and automation. On the scalability side, recent years have proven volatile for the corporate world. Some have seen rapid growth in certain areas. Some have abruptly had to shutter operations in particular countries or lines of business. Many have had to adjust and redirect their strategies due to supply chain problems, lockdowns and travel restrictions, skyrocketing gas prices, and more. For these and other reasons, the corporate world is finding itself in need of rapid scalability, and treasury itself may have to swiftly adapt. When processes are manual, scalability is low. Automation multiplies staff efforts, and many solutions — especially those built on more modern concepts such as software-as-a-service or microservices — make it far easier for treasury to easily adjust the capacity and leverage they are working with up or down as circumstances change. Heavier Compliance Burdens A 2021 survey found that 54% of treasury and finance respondents considered the compliance burdens to be heavier than they had typically been in the past. Over the next 1-2 years, 66% expected their regulatory burdens to increase, and only 3% expect to see any decrease. The compliance and regulatory environment also ranked as the most impactful out of several options on the respondent organizations’ capital spending or cash holdings (see figure 3). From Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, which respondents expected to be the most impactful to their operations in the next three years by a large margin, to PCI-DSS, GDPR, FBAR, etc., regulations are put in place to protect against negligence and willful actions that enable fraud and other problems. While many of these regulations help protect companies and banks, complying with them takes time and resources. It is, without doubt, burdensome, and each year seems to add some weight. Regulations spur the adoption of financial technology in two ways. First, some solutions directly or indirectly streamline the compliance process. For example, networks such as SWIFT are working to ease the KYC process by allowing corporate participants to upload KYC information once to the platform instead of compiling and sending the paperwork anew for each bank. In addition, complying with any regulation that requires financial or account information, such as FBAR, is much easier with solutions that give faster, more accurate financial visibility. The second way compliance serves to push adoption forward is that some regulations have specific technical requirements that may not be possible to meet for some companies without a modern solution. These regulations are often security related. Big Data, Complexity, and Visibility Companies and, specifically, treasury departments in 2022 do not have the luxury of ignoring data. While a strong data strategy takes time to form and implement, every company should at least have a strategy in the works. For many, implementing these strategies will require technology. The ever-growing “big data,” which denotes the overwhelming amounts of data that are pouring into and through companies in increasingly varied forms, continues to prove both an immense opportunity and a challenge. Companies that harness their data are able to gain valuable insights into everything from their own operations to market behavior. However, harnessing that data effectively requires careful management, thoughtfully architected storage, and massive processing power. Meanwhile, the complexity that creates big data, coupled with any growth companies are experiencing, leads to complicated processes and difficulty achieving visibility. Many treasury teams that used to get by with manually logging into bank portals and managing cash positions on Excel are now facing more banks, more accounts, more portals to log into, more formats, and more internal information to manage. Maintaining complete visibility is vital for treasury. Without it, fraud risks are higher, compliance is more difficult, and the treasurer does not have a complete view of the situation from which to advise the organization. Yet with every expansion, every added bank account, and simply every year that passes, increasing data and complexity make it more difficult to achieve that visibility without the use of technology. With solutions that can manage and also help harness data, treasury is able to thrive and support their organizations’ long-term growth. Geopolitical Tensions and Economic Stress It should come as no surprise to most readers that 2022 and the years leading up to it have been years of some global turmoil. From pandemics to armed conflicts and from supply chain issues to soaring inflation, companies and individuals alike have had to cope with a great deal. We’ve discussed how lockdowns, fraud, and the need for scalability in these scenarios have all contributed to rapid adoption of digital processes and robust solutions. The usefulness to treasury of technological support and automation during times of any kind of upheaval, however, is worth discussing separately. When risks become realities and when economic and geopolitical events loom large, organizations need their treasurers to be ready with rapid analysis and strategic guidance. Treasury cannot do this when manual processes are delaying their cash positions, limiting their visibility to all accounts, or when any part of the process leading up to strategic advising takes too much time and manpower. Technological solutions such as those discussed in this report offer treasury margin. They automate portions of the process, reduce errors, and save staff time. This allows all members of the treasury team to continue fulfilling their roles even when there is more information to process and more factors to consider, which is often when the treasury function is most vital to the company’s ongoing success. The Treasury Technology Landscape With a variety of factors driving treasury’s interest in technology, there are quite a few relevant types of solutions. Some of them directly streamline treasury’s own operations. Others are primarily aimed at streamlining different areas of the corporation, but they impact organizational liquidity, efficiency, or security in ways that make them important to treasury’s cash and risk management goals. In this report, we will discuss the general impact of several components and innovations, from APIs to ML. We will then take some time to focus in on a few solution categories, briefly defined here: Treasury Management Systems / Treasury and Risk Management Systems (TMS/TRMS) A TMS is treasury’s core solution for its own operational needs. When a treasury department outgrows Excel, these systems offer a more robust platform for daily tasks such as cash management and positioning, visibility, accounting, and forecasting. A TMS’s benefits also extend to security, flexibility, and smoothly integrated workflows. For treasury teams that use multiple tools and need to share information with other areas, their TMS can serve as a foundation on which the other tools function and to which other areas’ solutions can connect. A TRMS, while largely comparable to the average TMS, offers deeper risk management functionality. Treasury Aggregators (TA) A TA combines the functionality of a data consolidator with that of a payment hub. These solutions are ideal for organizations with complex payment flows or banking information. They simplify data gathering and pass aggregated banking information along to any areas that need it, and they establish connections and translate payment formats, allowing for centralized and efficient payment processes. Supply Chain Finance (SCF) and Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) Solutions SCF and CCC solutions, while they do not directly help with treasury’s own operations, can significantly improve liquidity and working capital. SCF solutions digitally empower programs that create win-win scenarios for buyers and vendors, whether by leveraging the buyer’s superior credit and third-party financing or through leveraging the buyer’s own excess capital. CCC solutions automate various portions of the cash conversion cycle, streamlining processes and, therefore, increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the company’s cash management. Since these solutions tend to cut across multiple departments and impact working capital, the treasurer is often needed as a leader to help identify the real problems and the best solutions. Enterprise Liquidity Management (ELM) A new evolution in treasury technology, ELM systems offer a comprehensive view of liquidity across the organization. These robust solutions include the base functionality of a TMS, but with far more extensive reach. From supply chain finance and payments to foreign exchange, the data showing what’s really happening to liquidity is often scattered across different departments at large corporations, making it difficult for treasury to keep close track and strategize accurately. ELM systems are built to integrate information from across the company, allowing treasury to view and manage liquidity on a comprehensive scale. The Foundations of Treasury Technology Treasury technology has a multi-decade history and is built on many individual innovations along the way. Understanding where the landscape is today, as well as where it’s going, requires a brief study of where it has come from. Data Data has a growth rate of approximately 40% year-over-year. In more recent years, this has led to “big data,” but the growth of data has been challenging and driving innovation since much earlier. From formats to connectivity and processing power, many of the things we will be discussing are built to manage the ever-increasing volumes and types of data. Cash is still king, but treasury departments are learning to value data as a particularly precious resource that allows them to protect the king effectively. Processing Power Fortunately, processing power efficiency increases at an even faster rate than data and doubles every 18 months. This allows computers and systems to keep up with and manage the masses of data. However, coupled with data growth, this rapid growth in processing power means that technology is improving, progressing, and changing at a somewhat dizzying rate. Solutions that were state-of-the-art a decade ago are typically far behind the average solutions coming out today. Connectivity Connectivity has come a very long way in the past several decades. It has moved from the mail service to teletype machines, and from teletype to host-to-host (H2H) connections and SFTP. Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) in Europe — a regulation requiring banks to accommodate customers wanting to access their data through third parties — was largely achieved through application programming interfaces or APIs, which has spurred their adoption worldwide and brought them into the spotlight for a new generation of connectivity. Hosting Models Hosting models for treasury technology, notably for the TMS, have seen a few iterations over the last couple of decades. Early solutions were installed onsite and hosted on the clients’ servers. These solutions, often called “on-premises solutions,” were difficult to upgrade and to maintain and faced inevitable obsoletion eventually. Application service providers, or the ASP model, attempted to solve these problems by hosting the solution with a third party tasked with maintaining it. The approach improved upgrade issues and lowered the maintenance burden on clients, but these solutions still faced obsoletion and other issues. Software-as-a-service, the SaaS model, is the current standard. These solutions are cloud-hosted and multi-tenant, purchased on a subscription basis, and are maintained and upgraded by the vendor. Since the vendors can directly and fairly easily update and rework the software over time, and since they are incentivized to do so through the subscription payment model, SaaS solutions are seen as holding onto their value for far longer than earlier types. Democratization of Technology In 2004, Texas Instruments released the TI-84 graphing calculator, selling it for around $120. This handheld calculator had significantly more processing power and RAM than the most powerful and wildly expensive computers available only 40 years before. Many of us have grown familiar in our personal lives with the experience of looking back on technology from a few years ago and marveling at how much less functionality and power that technology gave us compared to far less expensive technology available today. This applies to the corporate technology world as well. Today’s treasury solutions hold drastically more processing power and functionality than their predecessors and can be obtained for far lower costs. We call this the “democratization” of technology, as the expanded functionality coupled with affordability serve to broaden the market of the solutions. Early installed TMSs, for example, were only financially feasible for extremely large and complex organizations that desperately needed them. Today, there are comparatively powerful options that are affordable enough for a small company of less than $500M in revenue, and the market is only continuing to expand.

Delivering on-demand interactivity with Oracle applications, Kyriba for Oracle is a cloud-based solution that reduces the risk of foreign currency volatility to earnings per share and corporate value. The Cloud-based Business Model Advantage: Quick...

Delivering on-demand interactivity with Oracle applications, Kyriba for Oracle is a cloud-based solution that reduces the risk of foreign currency volatility to earnings per share and corporate value. The Cloud-based Business Model Advantage: Quick ROI and Low TCO By leveraging the Cloud-based business model, Kyriba creates two advantages: speed and low cost, without sacrificing the safety and security of your data. Kyriba is committed to keeping your confidential data safe and secure, and our processes and controls are audited annually. The Cloud-based model frees your IT personnel from the need to manage and maintain the product and updates typically associated with installed and licensed software products, and enables Kyriba to rapidly and continually add product innovations to the market. Kyriba customers experience quick returns on their investment. Up and running quickly, Kyriba provides almost immediate visibility to exposure and risk data, and access to analytics and decision support capability. Confidence in your decisions allows you to take actions to manage risk, reduce costs and gain operational efficiency. Kyriba’ Cloud-based application also provides low Total Cost of Ownership. Because Kyriba is hosted, it requires little or no redeployment during upgrades, and no IT development. You know the subscription-based outlay at the time of purchase; you also know that the cost of ownership will not spike due to upgrades, redeployment, or support during the subscription term. The Kyriba Oracle Extract Toolkit: Facilitating Set-up and Ongoing Data Aggregation Using proprietary technologies, Kyriba aggregates raw G/L data from Oracle, as well as other ERP systems, databases and spreadsheet data sources. To facilitate the process of data collection for initial enrollment and ongoing exposure management, Kyriba has created an Oracle Extract Toolkit. The Kyriba Oracle Extract Toolkit consists of software queries that capture Oracle account/entity configuration and revaluation rules and generate FX exposure data. The Kyriba Oracle Extract Toolkit gathers information about the account definitions and company information. On an on-going basis, the Kyriba Oracle Extract Toolkit provides a query used to extract summary monetary asset and liability or revenue and expense balance data from your Oracle general ledger. The Kyriba queries for Oracle are reports written in SQL*Plus, designed to be run from either the SQL*Plus command line or installed to the Oracle Applications Suite and run as concurrent programs. The programs do not create any database objects nor do they write or update any database tables or objects. The programs require read-only access to several tables and objects located in the APPS schema. If one does not already exist, Kyriba can provide scripts to create a read-only schema to access these objects. From the SQL*Plus command line, output is generated using DBMS_OUTPUT and spooled to a local pipe-delimited file. The extracted files can be manually and securely uploaded to Kyriba by any authorized user. To further maximize efficiency, frequency, time savings, error reduction, and security, while minimizing support required from IT, the extract process (both the execution of the extract query and the encryption and upload of the resulting files) can be automated. For a fully automated solution, queries can be set up within the Oracle Applications Concurrent Manager and executed ad-hoc as needed, or scheduled to run periodically. Subsequent scripts can encrypt and transport the file directly to Kyriba. An automated extraction, encryption and upload process is particularly beneficial if you have multiple data source instances or systems. For each instance of Oracle, your IT team will deploy and maintain the Kyriba Oracle Extract Toolkit queries. The query programs are the only software deployed and maintained in your environment. Kyriba Application Security Kyriba understands and appreciates the importance of keeping your highly-confidential financial data safe and secure, and simultaneously available to your authorized users on demand. We have passed the scrutiny of our discriminating customers and ensure that our standards for security and confidentiality are the maximum possible. Here are some of the elements that built confidence for our customers: Strong encryption to protect sensitive G/L data both in motion and at rest Annual SSAE 18 Type 2 audits for the Kyriba application and company processes and controls ISO 27001 certification Internet firewalls and an additional level of access protection around the production databases Application layer separation from data with application-only access Role-level access and idle disconnect IP Whitelisting, guaranteeing client access from only specific Internet addresses Continual monitoring through port scans and network intrusion detection systems Complete audit trail in application and data back-up Application hosting with AWS and Microsoft Azure Full redundancy in daily operations for Internet connectivity, failover, and load balancing Disaster recovery plan & capabilities provide for full redundancy & a production system recovery objective of 6 hours Annual third-party penetration testing and security audits Employee, contractor and data center personnel background checks Enrollment: A Simple Process The Kyriba Professional Services team will lead your IT and Treasury staff through three simple, well-defined steps including query set-up, resulting data validation, and an exposure presentation, to achieve ongoing, on-demand Oracle data aggregation and Kyriba FX exposure management. A final step automates the file extraction, encryption and upload process. On average, it takes 8-10 hours of an IT generalist’s time per ERP system enrolled in the Kyriba service. Typical enrollment resources include: A developer or resource with APPS schema access or access to a read-only schema to execute the programs to retrieve the setup information and the general ledger balances A developer or functional person (usually Treasury) who can verify Kyriba balances using native Oracle general ledger reports (Optional) A DBA or Systems Administrator, if installing the program to the Oracle Applications Suite as a concurrent program. Kyriba provides instructions for concurrent program installation During Enrollment, your IT personnel will install and execute the Kyriba Oracle Extract Toolkit. The toolkit installs in minutes and provides two components: configuration queries and a general ledger (G/L)extract query. The configuration queries derive a chart of accounts table, revaluation rules and entity structure. Next, IT, or other personnel with access rights, execute the Kyriba G/L extract query to produce a test exposure data set. Once the data is validated, you may be asked to re-run the G/L query to produce a final data set. Your IT team will spend three to six hours on this step, including runtime. During Query Result Validation, your treasury and/or accounting team members will use the sample data generated by the Kyriba G/L extract to verify monetary asset and liability or revenue and expense account information. The Kyriba Professional Services team will produce a sample data set for your review to ensure a complete data set consistent with G/L balances in Oracle. You may also provide data on outstanding hedges, and the validated balance and hedge data is uploaded to Kyriba to calculate FX exposure and support timely, data- driven risk mitigation and cost reduction decisions. This step requires approximately two hours of time/effort. During Exposure Presentation, Treasury and Kyriba Professional Services review your current workflow and systems landscape, progress to date, the future vision for the end state of rollout, and workflow and process improvements. A demonstration of the Kyriba software with your live exposure data and a discussion of how exposure visibility can help you optimize your risk management decisions complete the review. This process requires at least two hours of treasury time/effort. Automated File Extraction, Encryption and Upload Automated File Extraction, Encryption & Upload is supported through standard protocols HTTPS (e.g. via cURL) and SFTP (Secure FTP) for automating the transfer of files to a secure staging area within the Kyriba application. Kyriba has customized these protocols with syntax to enable users to transfer files to, and trigger processing within, the Kyriba application. You can deploy scripts (samples provided by Kyriba) based on the needs of your environment, which retrieve the output generated by the Kyriba G/L Extract Program, and encrypt the file(s), before transferring them over 128-bit HTTPS or SFTP to Kyriba. During your Kyriba enrollment, our Professional Services team will supply scripts as part of the toolkit and work with you to configure them for your environment. The level of effort required to automate the file transfer is subject to the complexities of your environment but is typically measured in hours, not days. The process requires a Systems Administrator, Developer and/or DBA with privileges to create or modify shell scripts to automate the process or integrate with existing processes. Benefits of Automated File Encryption and Transmission Data encrypted at rest and in motion Creation of a straight-through process from business systems/ERP to Kyriba Automates transfer of the extracted data files directly to Kyriba increasing efficiency and time savings, and reducing errors Enables more frequent processing and analysis cycles Allows coordinated transfer of files from multiple business systems Additional security through PGP encryption and IP Whitelisting Uses industry standard utilities and protocols: HTTPS file transfer and SFTP Less operational and IT overhead   Supported Versions Oracle 11i Oracle R12 Oracle and Oracle E-Business are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.   Want to learn more about how to automate seamlessly across your FX management process? Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.  

Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface provided by one application for other application(s) to communicate with it. APIs in treasury management software connect different systems to share cash data or execute cash management...

Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface provided by one application for other application(s) to communicate with it. APIs in treasury management software connect different systems to share cash data or execute cash management and payments workflows automatically and in real time. Despite the fact that APIs are relatively new to treasury and corporate banking, they are already everywhere in our daily life, especially for web and mobile applications. An illustrative example is the ubiquitous Google Maps, which is embedded in almost every location-based service we use, such as local taxi services, food delivery, and hotel booking apps. Underneath every inquiry is an API call to the Google Maps database, from which location related information is picked up and presented to the user instantaneously. Many financial apps have also used APIs to offer seamless data integration with other tools. For example, the popular budget and expense tracking app Mint allows app users to connect to their banks via API and then automatically syncs the data across the accounts to provide a consolidated view on their latest financials. What Is the Difference Between FTP and API Connectivity? In today’s enterprise IT landscape, FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is still the most commonly used connectivity option for data to be transferred between systems. Most often SFTP, or Secure File Transfer Protocol, is used, which means there is a layer of security to the FTP process. As both names suggest, (S)FTP is a file based transfer protocol, and it is also known as ‘batch transfer’ in treasury and payments. It works like a file package delivery service, where many files containing required data are packaged and sent directly from one system to be received or picked up by another system. For big data packages that cannot be sent as attachments in emails, FTP is very useful. But the downside is that it takes time for the packages to be delivered to the destination, because it is a step-by-step transfer process across the different systems, as files have to be selected and downloaded and further transferred at every step of the process. If it takes 5-10 minutes for each step, it will take a long time for a data package to go from one system to its final destination. Then it will take the same amount of time for any acknowledgement of information to travel back to the starting point. The downside of FTP is exactly the reason why API has attracted so much interest recently in corporate banking, treasury management, and payments processing, because it enables instant data exchange between systems simultaneously, in a secure way. When connected via an API, two (or more) systems can exchange any amount of data directly in real-time. There is no longer the need for any file packaging and transfer. What’s more, data can be made available via API to any number of systems at the same time, just like the Google Maps and the Mint app examples mentioned above, making it possible to have data available on-demand. What Are Banking APIs? In the context of banking APIs, the code in APIs facilitates communication between financial institutions and external companies. In general, there are three types of banking APIs. Private APIs, or closed APIs, are internal APIs belonging to a bank or financial institution They are used to share information within a closed ecosystem. Partner APIs can be used only by partners of the bank or financial institution. Public APIs are more commonly known as open banking APIs. Public APIs are available for third parties to use, without requiring any type of partnership. Since access rights are usually limited, open banking APIs are typically considered secure. Three Common Types of Banking APIs OPENNESS MAIN USE CASE INNOVATIVENESS Private APIs Closed system for own use Process automation and system integration In-house innovation Partner APIs For partnered access only Seamless customer experience with partner apps Innovate with agreed/selected external service providers Public APIs An open ecosystem Open banking and embedded finance Open innovation Banking APIs enable companies to include financial services with their products, for example: Digital wallets that securely store credit card information can also be used by an API to send encrypted data when the receiving customer or business asks for payment. Invoice factoring, where APIs can be used to prepay funds by 30, 60, or 90 days Insurance disbursements can be paid quickly via APIs, with no need to wait for a physical payment These banking APIs facilitate efficient and secure communication and data-sharing among multiple entities, applications, and services. Overall, the use of different types of banking APIs can help financial institutions improve their operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation. What Are Premium APIs? Premium APIs, a type of private API, are APIs that banks sell directly to their corporate customers. This type of API provides customers direct access to bank data that the bank customers can then incorporate into their underlying processes, including treasury, finance, and ERP systems. Unlike open banking APIs, premium APIs in treasury are not regulated anywhere, giving banks the opportunity to monetize the significant amounts of data that the regulations do not cover. The purchasers of the data can then use it to create new and existing products. Fast, accurate information is key to decision-making and premium APIs help provide a comprehensive view by bringing together vast amounts of data from disparate areas and feeding it into one source. Potential use cases for premium APIs include: Real-time foreign exchange feeds and data for analysis, trades, and currency hedging Tax APIs, including compliance and auditing Property value calculations based on trends and local data Credit and lending data, such as credit scores and deposit balances Financial planning and budgeting for corporates and individuals Corporations will continue to identify use cases that will let banks develop, release, and monetize premium APIs, driving innovation, bringing opportunities, and providing a competitive advantage. What Are the Benefits of Using APIs for Treasury Management? The use of APIs in treasury management can bring us many benefits, mainly around convenience, efficiency, security, and instancy. For treasury, it can improve the experience in all treasury functions such as bank connectivity, payments, cash reporting, and forecasting. Convenience: consolidating information from different systems means comprehensive updates and reporting without the need to log into different banking portals. Efficiency: no more wait time for file exchange. On-request payments and real-time reconciliation minimize manual errors and improve operational efficiency, with the ability to quickly share data with stakeholders across the company. Security: security risks are lowered, with no files to tamper with and internet security protocols in place. Real-time updates mean fraudulent activities can be captured promptly. Instancy: real-time data feeds provide instant updates on foreign exchange rates, bank transactions, trades, valuations, and payments. This means your cash position is always up to date, allowing for data-driven decisions. Use Cases of APIs in Treasury Banks have increasingly adopted APIs to offer better experiences for their customers. But APIs have potential for use cases far beyond bank connections. For corporate treasury and finance, APIs have nearly limitless potential. A recent study by research firm IDC identified that 90% of finance leaders have already implemented or expect to incorporate APIs within their financial technology stack. API for Bank Data consolidation Clients who connect via APIs to their banks can truly get real-time visibility into their account balances, transaction status, or other banking data. When such data is aggregated across different banks, your cash and banking information can be presented in one dashboard, for example in your treasury management system or other cash forecasting software, enabling you to take further actions based on timely and accurate data sets. API for Real-time Payments This is probably the most well-known use case for banking APIs in treasury. It is a payment type where the transmission of the payment message and the availability of “final” funds to the payee occur in real time or near-real time. Many banks already support real-time payments with their APIs, such as CashPro by BoA, CITI, and JPMC. You can find more details from the Kyriba developer portal, and more banks are being added regularly. API for ERP-to-Bank Integration Kyriba has developed API connectors to SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, and other major ERP providers to provide real-time data flows and instant updates, like changes in payment status, to the connected ERPs. With such connectors, you can integrate your TMS workflows with your ERPs, including cash forecasting, payment initiation, payment confirmations, and GL reconciliation. API for Embedded Treasury With APIs in treasury, it is now possible to embed financial and banking data into any corporate process whenever and whenever needed, enabling great data accessibility and supporting data-based decision making. This is what is called ‘Embedded Treasury’. This is a game-changing development for treasurers, who can now access and share real-time financial data at any time and make data-based decisions more quickly and accurately, increasing treasury's advisory value to the C-suite. Example of Integrating APIs into Treasury Processes Kyriba client Hunt Companies is an early adopter of APIs. They use the Kyriba bank connector to J.P.Morgan’s bank API for real-time payments and have replaced all qualifying wire payments with RTP®, reducing bank fees from $6 on average for a wire transfer to less than $1 for RTP®, with a potential for much greater savings as more banks are added. On top of payments, Hunt Companies have also adopted the API integration between ICD and Kyriba to obtain up-to-date account data, fund availability, and market data, with which the organization is able to make informed investment decisions.

Beam Suntory’s Treasury transformation modernized their operations in a decentralized environment, and with the added complexity of navigating global volatility. A dispersed team challenged by manual processes with a need to leverage a system...

Beam Suntory’s Treasury transformation modernized their operations in a decentralized environment, and with the added complexity of navigating global volatility. A dispersed team challenged by manual processes with a need to leverage a system to accommodate growth, worked with Kyriba to future proof cash and liquidity management. The interconnected ERP, TMS and Payments systems ensures business continuity, visibility and confidence in liquidity optimization today while mitigating unnecessary risk or loss for years to come. “The level of business continuity that is supported by a global, standardized Kyriba platform that is fully integrated with other existing Treasury systems has been critical to gaining efficiencies and reducing costs.” — Petar Tomicic, Manager, Domestic Treasury   Key Challenges Before Kyriba Need for timely, global visibility to cash and liquidity for expanded, optimized investment and deployment of liquidity. Ability to provide on-demand information to Financial Leadership Team, including global capabilities, enterprise wide view of cash and liquidity and centralized financial risk management. Payments globally not standardized, leading to higher costs, processing inefficiencies, more complexity managing banking systems and controls. Bank connectivity: The time to add a new bank took many months, a limiting factor in flexible, agile bank relationship management and consolidating cash visibility. Time spent by Treasury and Accounting staff on routine processes was time consuming with various manual inputs, leading to greater possibility of errors and delays in timely financial reporting. Limited FX interconnectivity between core systems including FXall trading platform, Treasury Management system, Bloomberg terminal, and SAP ERP system. Management of intercompany netting process housed in separate bank system (beholden to that bank) with limited direct connectivity, leading to increased costs and complexity when accounting for 30+ entities globally. “Kyriba’s payments platform has a vast network of banking partners and connectivity, which makes it incredibly easy to onboard or switch banking partners when necessary, with reduced internal IT costs and ultimate flexibility.” — Brad Cowan - Senior Analyst, Treasury The Solution New payment controls and real-time connectivity for a more strategic treasury. Goals of the Project Transform treasury operations with automated processes and operational efficiency, without additional headcount Optimize intercompany netting, cash, liquidity and risk management Seamlessly integrate Kyriba, SAP, Bloomberg and FXall while standardizing payments globally as a means to gain further efficiencies, cost savings, flexibility and fraud protections Support business continuity and resilience with easier cross-training of staff More centralized Treasury processes Add rigorous financial controls Positive Outcomes with Kyriba 80% productivity improvement with automated FX and MTM process with Bloomberg, FXall, and SAP all fully connected and integrated with Kyriba - 16 hours per month saved with month end accounting entries alone 50% increase in automation of accounting entries (short term investing, loans, hedging, cash accounting) 3-6x Time-to-Value Bank Connectivity: Time to add a new bank has been reduced to 1-2 months with Kyriba Consolidated standardized global payments platform with improved business continuity and reduction in implementation costs Deploying bank fee analysis module enabled greater automation and efficiency in reporting, and has assisted in reducing fees Eliminated bank dependency and optimized interconnectivity between systems leading to a significantly improved process

In this ebook, we reveal the most common types of accounting errors, breakdowns in accounting controls, system configuration issues, and process deficiencies leading to unnecessary FX risks. Hidden Accounting Impacts We hear time and...

In this ebook, we reveal the most common types of accounting errors, breakdowns in accounting controls, system configuration issues, and process deficiencies leading to unnecessary FX risks. Hidden Accounting Impacts We hear time and time again that CFOs and Treasurers alike “don’t know what they don’t know” about their foreign currency exposure data. All too often, the first symptom of a problem shows up as a material misstatement of FX gain/loss. Usually, this is a result of what Kyriba has coined as “accounting volatility.” We use this term to describe the phenomenon of systematic, recurring inaccuracies that exist in most multicurrency ERP systems, that obscure the true magnitude of a company’s foreign currency exposure in ways that make the problem difficult to detect. In many cases, accounting volatility is reflected in the delta between hedging actions and actual FX gain/loss resulting from the underlying exposure. Background and Purpose In this ebook, Kyriba will hightlight critical issues facing treasury and accounting teams and cover shortcomings in the way companies today account for multi-currency transactions and manage the resulting foreign currency exposures. Time and again, our analysis of foreign currency exposure management processes within organizations uncovers a ticking time bomb that could (and eventually does) have material impact on a company’s financial performance and its ability to accurately reflect FX gain/loss within financial statements. Frequently, this time bomb is an undetected exposure hidden within the ERP that is masked by a variety of data integrity issues. Without adequate visibility into the source data, Treasury can only cope with/or try to manage around the problem. As a result, their decisions (even when based on sound strategies) are ineffective and even potentially counterproductive. All too often, this time bomb is detected once it’s too late. The problem ultimately surfaces in the FX gain/loss line of the income statement and the CFO is faced with foreign currency exposures that have serious economic and compliance consequences. In every case we have witnessed, the question isn’t if companies are misstating FX gains/losses, but whether how large the material impact is. Getting to the heart of the matter and preventing a disaster begins with a close examination of the ERP system(s), controls and related processes that undermine the accuracy and completeness of foreign currency exposure data. The first section of this ebook will deal specifically with the issue of accounting volatility -- a result of pervasive, self-reinforcing inaccuracies that exist in most ERP systems with regards to foreign currency -- that obscures the true magnitude of a company’s exposure in ways that make the problem difficult to detect. An examination of the processes that contribute to foreign currency exposure identification often reveals uncoordinated activities and the lack of a true process owner who has the oversight to adequately manage and drive actions throughout the entire process. In the second part of this ebook, we’ll discuss why foreign currency exposure management goes beyond Treasury and is ultimately an enterprise-wide issue. Companies that approach foreign currency exposure management from an enterprise perspective (assigning the proper ownership, authority and resources to the process) can focus their attention and energies on strategic, value-based decision making that will protect and strengthen the value of the organization. The third part of this ebook will discuss how companies can begin to transform their foreign currency management practices into enterprise-level, standard processes. The FX Exposure Management Process Owner: Starting Where the Buck Stops In almost every conversation we conduct with CFOs, Treasurers, and Accounting, a common theme emerges: an overall lack of crossfunctional coordination and collaboration within organizations with regard to activities that impact FX exposure quantification and measurement. While Treasury may be regarded as the process owner, in reality they maintain control of, and have authority over, only one piece of the puzzle. Different functional groups within an organization contribute to foreign currency exposures and their management process. The FX gain/loss line on the corporate income statement is the ultimate product for these efforts. Responsibility and accountability for that number resides with the CFO. As such, it is the CFO who assumes responsibility and accountability for the process and must ensure coordination among the contributing functional groups to ensure that this result is both accurate and acceptable within company policies. The only way to ensure the kind of cross-functional coordination required to properly manage the foreign currency exposure management process is to elevate awareness and priority of the issues throughout the enterprise. Acknowledging foreign currency exposure as an enterprise risk means assigning the proper level of oversight, accountability, and resources to the entire management process. At a strategic level, the FX business process owner must have the strategic responsibility for addressing and maintaining currency risk management decisions, processes, and policies. The FX business process owner must be able to coordinate tactical activities across multiple disciplines, and communicate effectively with Finance, Accounting, Tax, and Operations representatives from around the globe. Ultimately, they’re the stakeholder with visibility into the foreign currency exposures and management process, from data to exposure, across the enterprise. The Data Dilemma: Getting to the Source of FX Related Accounting Volatility The Challenge of Defining Exposures In most organizations, the Treasury department is accountable for managing foreign currency exposure and the related FX gain/loss. While Treasury often maintains control over the process to select hedging instruments and dictate internal risk management tactics, their ability to mitigate the effects of FX volatility depends on accurate and complete exposure data. If the data is inaccurate or incomplete, companies may execute risk mitigating actions within policy but still sustain significant FX gain/loss volatility. The real problem with foreign currency exposure data integrity issues is that they are extremely difficult to detect until a major problem has surfaced. In our experience, we frequently find off-setting errors and omissions that distort foreign currency data, falsely masking the true exposure in ways that make it difficult to isolate an anomaly and determine the source of an error. We’ve come to refer to this phenomenon as accounting volatility - a pervasive, self-reinforcing sequence of data integrity issues that become increasingly complex and intractable over time. Treasury is a customer of the accounting organization when it comes to foreign currency exposure data. Assuming that a multi-currency accounting system is in place for the enterprise, valid foreign currency exposure data is dependent upon two key premises: Multi-currency transactions have been properly recorded in the transaction currency. Accounts that are required to be revalued in accordance with ASC 830 / IAS 21 are being revalued on a periodic basis. Accounting volatility can result if multi-currency accounting entries have not been recorded appropriately, or if the revaluation process is not properly identifying accounts that should be revalued. The result in either case is a misstatement of the foreign currency gain/loss in the income statement for the organization. Either foreign currency gain/loss remains embedded within the monetary asset and liability accounts in the balance sheet, or it has been improperly recognized prematurely in the income statement. In the following section of this ebook, we will discuss these issues and provide questions that CFOs and Treasurers can ask to determine the future likelihood, and historical magnitude, of accounting volatility within their organization. Recording the Transaction One difficult-to-detect issue that has serious impact on foreign currency exposure management is the entry of the foreign currency transaction in the functional currency instead of the transaction currency. As a result, the exposure is not detectable and cannot be managed by Treasury. In addition, the foreign currency gain/loss associated with this transaction exposure is not realized incrementally with the process of account revaluation. Rather, it is realized all at once, when the transaction is cleared or settled. Another prevalent issue is the clearing and reconciliation of multi-currency account balances in functional currency instead of transaction currency. This results in invalid transaction currency balances and mismatched relationships between the transaction currency and functional currency within the ERP system. Because revaluation processes are based upon transaction currency balances, invalid balances can lead to unrealized FX gain/loss calculations and inaccurate, posted results during period-end processing. These accounting issues are evidence of a process breakdown usually attributed to employee training in the area of transaction entry. Detecting these issues requires a disciplined analytic review of the monthly foreign currency FX gain/loss for entities within the enterprise, given the foreign currency exposure relationships within each entity and changes in foreign currency rates. Intercompany Mismatches Intercompany mismatches have a significant impact on the nature, level, and complexity of a company’s foreign currency exposure. Generally, intercompany transactions are recorded in one of the functional currencies of the entities that comprise the intercompany relationship. As a rule, the intercompany account balances recorded within two entities of an intercompany relationship should net to zero on a currency-bycurrency basis. Despite this, one common source of accounting volatility is mismatched intercompany balances in which one entity has recorded an intercompany payable or receivable, while the other has either neglected to record the corresponding transaction or has recorded it inaccurately. This too is a symptom of a multi-faceted process breakdown - one in the recording of the transaction and another associated with the reconciliation process. Intercompany transactions that take place in a currency other than the functional currency of either entity creates additional exposure for the enterprise and further complicates the FX exposure management process. As described in the table at the bottom, when a third currency enters this relationship, each entity has an exposure to the transaction. There are two ways to resolve this issue and eliminate the exposure. One way is to execute two currency conversions: one entity purchases the currency, and the other entity sells the currency. Alternatively, a process must be developed to convert the third currency balance into one of the entity’s functional currencies based upon a pre-determined rate convention, followed by a single currency conversion to settle the balance. In many cases, creating an intercompany transaction in a third currency is not an acceptable business practice. Unfortunately, due to the complexity around intercompany balances, lack of visibility in transaction currency across multiple systems, multi-department responsibilities, and inadequate reporting infrastructure, it’s often unknown that this is an unacceptable business practice. ERP and Systems Configuration ERP Configuration of FX Postings Specific FX-related configuration, administration and maintenance issues in most major ERP systems add to the complexity and potential for problems with multi-currency accounting. Oracle Oracle does not define a functional currency at the company level. It is defined for a set of books. The ability to support multiple functional currencies for a company is often overlooked or misconfigured. Revaluation rules apply only in the context of a company in a set of books. If a company transacts in multiple sets of books, multiple rules may be required for the same accounts and/or currencies -- this is often overlooked or misunderstood. Revaluation processing looks at functional currency of the set of books, not the company. A non-functional transaction in a set of books with the same currency will be ignored for revaluation. SAP SAP does not define a functional currency but rather a local currency. Often times, the revaluation processes is run multiple times whenever the functional currency is different from the local currency, effectively reapplying FX adjustments. Revaluation criteria are usually managed through the use of variants (i.e. predefined parameter definitions) that are static, requiring constant manual updates to reflect current accounts and entity relationships; these updates are often overlooked. Institutions where the Controller organization is decentralized, account setup and changes in entity relationships contribute to uncoordinated revaluation criteria and the potential to either:a. Revalue some accounts b. Revalue accounts multiple times c. Revalue accounts that should not be revalued System Configuration & Maintenance Issues: Revaluation Under ASC 830 / IAS 21 Framwork As detailed previously, accounting and process issues related to transaction data quality may not be the only source of accounting volatility. In many cases, problems related to monetary asset and liability account revaluation in accordance with ASC 830 / IAS 21 guidelines contribute to unreliable FX gain/loss statements. In working with clients to set up end-to-end processes for identifying foreign currency exposure, we routinely uncover and help to resolve issues related to revaluation validity that hamper customers’ ability to properly reflect the impact of currency revaluation on their financial statements. We commonly encounter inaccurate results from improper revaluation of accounts across the enterprise, typically finding a combination of accounts that are being revalued properly, as well as accounts that are being revalued, but shouldn’t be. In most cases, companies are unaware of the problem. In either scenario, the underlying root causes of these inconsistencies can be grounded in the following factors: 1. Maintenance of the systems and processes comprising revaluation processes become inaccurate over time. SCENARIO #1 An account that should be revalued is not being revalued 1. Treasury has no visibility into this account for their exposure management process Thus, they cannot mitigate risk with regards to the underlying currency exposure 2. There is no unrealized FX gain/loss being recorded on a monthly basis The total FX gain/loss that exists within the account is sitting in the balance sheet, waiting to be realized all at once when transaction(s) making up the account balances are cleared and/or adjusted **You may encounter compliance issues as a result of this scenario 2. Initial setup of the revaluation environment within a multi-national company is complicated. SCENARIO #2 Accounts that should not be remeasured are identified for remeasurement 1. Treasury takes risks mitigating actions for these inaccurate balances (in the accounts) as part of the exposure management process An associated FX gain/loss in addition to currency conversions, hedge valuations/settlements, and the inherent cost (bank fees, forward points, and/or option premiums) associated with currency hedge transactions are recorded for the account 2. The effects of the risk mitigating currency actions have been realized with no off-setting amount that would have resulted from an underlying exposure The company will eventually discover that the account should not have been revalued and records the adjustment to reverse the recorded unrealized FX gain/loss Initial Revaluation and Process Design Setup of the revaluation environment within a multi-national organization is complicated. Initial setup requires: An understanding of the requirement to revalue monetary asset and liability accounts as prescribed by ASC 830 / IAS 21. Configuring a combination of systematic and manual processes across the accounting enterprise to accomplish the requirement. The initial configuration can be very complex, as is evident in the many different variables which must be assessed when configuration is done: Multi-system accounting environment Revaluation processes provided within each of the accounting systems that comprise the enterprise accounting framework. Each system can approach revaluation differently Revaluation dependencies on specific account setup parameters Manual processes to address accounting system deficiencies or desired business practices Centralized vs. de-centralized processes Period-end close processes Our analysis and work with companies has shown that finding the one person in the organization that understands every revaluation parameter, setting, and process is nearly impossible. The fragmentation of responsibility around this area will continue to complicate the overall revaluation framework, leading to a consistent misstatement of the FX gain/loss and an inherent ability of Treasury to successfully manage the foreign currency exposure. Maintenance of Revaluation Process Maintenance of the systems and processes comprising revaluation can often become inaccurate. Does your process include any of the following common reasons? Rapid merger and acquisition activity with lagging system integration Growth in the chart of accounts with no process for determining if accounts should be added to the revaluation list Complicated revaluation rule maintenance environment within accounting systems No common oversight, responsibility or ownership of the process – fragmentation of responsibility No periodic account review process to test effectiveness of systematic and manual revaluation processes Consistent turnover within the accounting staff, who has revaluation responsibility as part of the close process Lack of ongoing education and training Lack of consistent visibility to revaluation results and context to interpret the results Inconsistent review of FX gain/loss and not establishing a process for resolution of results outside of tolerance The Assessment of FX Risks Diagnosing Accounting Volatility: Symptoms, Questions and the Self-Assessment So far, we have discussed common foreign currency exposure data integrity issues, the role of the ERP and accounting systems administered by IT and/or Accounting, and accounting and organizational issues that contribute to the problem of accounting volatility. Next, we’ll consider the symptoms of these problems in the form of key questions that CFOs or Treasurers can pose to indicate the degree of accounting volatility within their organization. How confident is Accounting that multi-currency transactions are being recorded properly, including initial entry and clearing of the transactions? If multi-currency transactions are not being recorded or cleared properly, they can create unexpected FX gain/loss volatility. As discussed previously, if a Regional Accounting Manager records a multi-currency invoice in the local currency of the entity instead of the transaction currency, the Treasurer will have no visibility to the exposure. When the payment is cleared, the gain/loss on the transaction will unexpectedly impact the income statement. When was the last time Accounting reviewed enterprise-wide revaluation to determine if the system(s) configuration and related processes produced a result that compiled with ASC 830 / IAS 21? In the vast majority of companies that we have worked with, we have uncovered multiple ERP/accounting system setup/configuration problems and process issues which not only raise compliance concerns, but also create embedded FX gain/loss volatility that is very difficult to detect and manage. How confident is Accounting that intercompany transactions are being reconciled on a timely basis and are in balance? We commonly witness intercompany transactions that demonstrate the significant balance discrepancies discussed previously. Intercompany issues we often encounter that can cloud foreign currency exposures include: Intercompany transactions where only one side of the transaction is recorded in the GL Intercompany transactions that do not have matching balances Intercompany transactions that are not posted in the same transaction currency Intercompany transactions that are recorded in a third currency (functional currency of entity) Does Accounting perform foreign currency gain/loss analysis on a regular, monthly basis and maintain a proactive process for the resolution of exceptions? If yes, how often do they encounter unexpected results, and what is the process for investigation and resolution? If not, do they verify that the gain/loss on currency exposures is as expected and within corporate tolerance? Assessing Your Organization’s Foreign Currency Exposure Management Situation Upon addressing these key questions, you should be able to assess your company’s ability to quantify and manage foreign currency exposures. The FX Exposure Management Capability Model represented by the excerpt below, can help you determine your company’s current capabilities and define concrete goals to improve your ability to quantify and manage foreign currency exposure. We’ve developed this assessment with selections to help you identify the most applicable attributes of your FX Exposure identification and management. Once you take the assessment, the category with the most items checked will be an indicator of your company’s ability to manage foreign currency exposure. Representative extract from the Kyriba FX Exposure Assessment Foreign Currency Exposure Management: An Enterprise Issue Additional Resources Savvy corporates are adopting a roundtable approach to currency risk management. Currency has become an issue outside the halls of treasury. Modern currency aware organizations understand that currency impacts many areas of the business and that all of those areas are represented at the company’s currency roundtable. Everyone at the currency roundtable has access to accurate, complete, and timely exposure data, as well as the analytics to understand how those exposures impact their functional area -- and conversely, how decisions they make affect foreign currency exposures and the company’s overall financial performance. Currency surprises impact in obvious (and not-so-obvious ways). When a company’s revenue is regularly eroded by currency surprises it has less cash available for productive activity. That loss has ripple effects, including credit rating downgrades that raise the firm’s cost of capital and debt covenant breaches that limit its access to liquidity. Both reduce available cash and limit the organization’s ability to deliver maximum profit to shareholders. For more detail on the deeper impacts of currency surprises, check out the latest Currency Impact Report from Kyriba: Kyriba Currency Report Recommended Next Steps CFOs, Treasurers, and Accounting can turn to Kyriba FX to provide an unparalleled ability to access accurate and complete exposure data, on demand. Our platform is backed by a team of experts who continually support the currency risk management process at some of the largest organizations in the world. Put simply, teams that have identified FX related accounting to exposure management issues can rely on Kyriba to provide a solution to remediate any sources of accounting volatility and inaccuracy. In many cases, organizations choose to leverage Kyriba’s industry leading software platform to measure, monitor, and manage their currency risk management programs on an ongoing basis. About Kyriba FX Risk Management Kyriba FX Advisory Services helps treasury and finance professionals understand and manage currency impact to financial results. Organizations ranging from Amazon to Google use Kyriba FX analytics to monitor and manage the impact of currency on their business. Kyriba FX was developed as the first solution to automate foreign exchange exposure management for multinational companies, delivering unparalleled expertise and driving measurable results. To this day, Kyriba FX is focused on helping organizations quantify their foreign exchange exposure and cost-effectively insulate their company from the uncertainty of currency volatility. Whether we’re working with a Fortune 50 organization or a growing U.S. company poised to go global, we take the same approach to understanding our customer’s foreign exchange policies, processes, and objectives. Kyriba FX is a cloud based software suite that customers can deploy to cost-effectively manage their own foreign exchange exposure management process.   Want to learn more about how to automate seamlessly across your FX management process? Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

Tuesday April 25 | 11:00am ET | 4:00pm GMT | Having real-time insight into the locations of your liquidity is key to survival as financial institutions begin to unravel and the world economy continues...

Tuesday April 25 | 11:00am ET | 4:00pm GMT | Having real-time insight into the locations of your liquidity is key to survival as financial institutions begin to unravel and the world economy continues to feel like a ride at Coney Island. Join this demo webinar to learn how Kyriba helps treasury and finance professionals create agility to thrive during economic uncertainty.

Tuesday, May 2 | 11:00am ET | 4:00pm GMT | Securing budget for a treasury project during heightened volatility becomes easier when ROI can be achieved in months, not years. FX Risk management has...

Tuesday, May 2 | 11:00am ET | 4:00pm GMT | Securing budget for a treasury project during heightened volatility becomes easier when ROI can be achieved in months, not years. FX Risk management has been proven time and again to realize quick ROI gains, dramatically improving approval and success from internal stakeholders.

Executive Summary Thank you for reading this edition of the Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFI) Survey. This survey was underwritten by Kyriba for the 2nd year in a row as they continue to serve an...

Executive Summary Thank you for reading this edition of the Non-Banking Financial Institution (NBFI) Survey. This survey was underwritten by Kyriba for the 2nd year in a row as they continue to serve an increasing number of companies in these industries. This survey and the report were written and produced by Strategic Treasurer. The previous iteration of this survey focused solely on insurance companies, but by expanding this research in 2022 to related industry verticals, we have been able to capture a greater breadth of “treasury intensive” financial companies. The majority of survey respondents were headquartered in North America (Canada, United States, Mexico), with European companies representing the next highest level of coverage. Asia-Pacific headquartered firms made up 4% of respondents. With this year’s research, we sought to better understand the priorities, plans, and activities that financial institutions were focused on. The results didn’t disappoint. You are invited to read through the top ten items from the research and see what is dramatic and notable, as well as what hasn’t changed much. We learn from each of these situations, and knowing what others are doing informs our thinking and may help adjust our priorities. Disbursement Preferences: Staff, Technology, and Then Structure NBFIs are centralizing their staff and using specialized payment technology most heavily. However, the use of pay-on-behalf-of (POBO) structures is in the early stages of adoption while showing strong signs of likely growth. Highest Priorities: Security, Compliance, Efficiency NBFIs face numerous competing demands, and security/fraud prevention (66%) dominates all other priorities, including compliance (45%). Efficiency matters too in a more limited measure. Benchmarking — Achieving a Personal Best What are companies measuring? They are most frequently tracking their current performance against their own historical numbers (62%), while a minority of firms currently perform external benchmarking: 41% against similar company types, and 24% against companies of the same size or complexity. Thank you for taking the time to read through this report. For those who invested the time to take the moderate-length survey, you have our deep appreciation. You are helping out this vital industry. Your input allows us to understand what is happening and what professionals are thinking and doing in the NBFI space. As always, those who take the survey receive more information and details from the research. It is one additional way of thanking you for your time. Key Finding Analysis 1. Heavy Users of Accounts The NBFI world uses multiple account types, and a notable minority have a high volume of accounts. These accounts cover operating activity (in this survey, we use the term “demand deposit accounts” or DDA), investment activity (custody accounts), and trust accounts (trust). DESCRIPTION OF ACCOUNT TYPES: Demand deposit accounts and current accounts: These are transactional accounts at the organization’s operating bank. Various deposits and disbursements flow in and out of these accounts, and cash is held in them. Custody accounts: These are accounts at custodial banks that hold investments/securities for the organization making investments. Securities are held in these accounts. Trust accounts: These are accounts that are managed by a trustee (typically a bank) on behalf of a third party. Activity running through these accounts is approved and executed by the trustee based upon valid and appropriate instructions. 2. Disbursement Preferences: Staff, Technology, & Then Structure How are NBFIs organizing their staff, leveraging technology, and using payment structures? The use of “centralized staff” (payment factory or shared service center) and “centralized technology” are both likely to achieve majority status shortly. POBO looks to continue its strong growth and is expected to achieve a one-third adoption level within a few years. Centralized staff: Service centers (49%) are the most used option (amount in use or being implemented). Specialized technology: Payment hub technology is highly popular, with 48% using or implementing these tools, and another 11% indicating that they are evaluating the use of this technology. Payment structure (POBO): The pay-on-behalf-of structure is in use or being implemented by 29%, with another 14% evaluating it. DESCRIPTION OF ACCOUNT TYPES: Centralized staff: This refers to a shared service center or center of excellence that handles the operational activity for, in this case, disbursement activity. These can be either regionalized or centralized on a global basis. Specialized technology: A payment hub is a common name for the technology that can support all aspects of payments. This is a system or service that allows for 1) an approval process for payments, 2) data transformation, or putting payment instructions into the proper format, 3) operational management, delivering and confirming payment information to the right payment rail or messaging platform, and 4) other services: security, validation, confirmation, etc. Payment structure (POBO): The pay-on-behalf-of structure allows a company with many subsidiaries or affiliates to use a single structure for disbursements. This structure may be a separate entity that is created for this purpose or may be an existing entity. The disbursements are routed through this POBO structure, and the individual entities/companies transfer the value of the payments and the related liabilities to that entity for processing and management. Instead of having 10 disbursement accounts with 10 similar processes, this is collapsed into one for efficiency of capital and time purposes. 3. INSURANCE COMPANY. Insurance Liquidity Concentration, & Aggregation Techniques Institutional money market funds (MMF) are the most common tool for aggregating investment balances among insurance companies. Sweep mechanisms are used by over half of insurance companies and represent an easy way of automatically ensuring all cash is invested. Notably, only 2 out of 9 companies are using insurance liquidity pools currently. This service allows for consolidated investing and segmented tracking for the participants in the insurance liquidity pool. When we combine the responses for currently in use, implementing, and evaluating, the numbers stack up as follows: Insurance liquidity pool: 50%. (Currently in use: 22%.) Investment sweep: 73%. (Currently in use: 56%.) Institutional MMF: 95%. (Currently in use: 67%.) DESCRIPTION OF ACCOUNT TYPES: Insurance liquidity pool: Primarily in the United States, insurance companies may have the options of establishing their own investment pools that support multiple companies and investment portfolios. The company can combine shorter-term funds from multiple portfolios and insurance activity and invest them in larger blocks. This reduces the number of trades and effort while allowing the individual portfolio managers to have greater liquidity while earning higher rates. Individual ownership is tracked. There are specific rules that must be followed. Many companies refer to their liquidity pool or pools as “STIP” for “short-term investment pool.” Investment sweep: Excess cash left in operating accounts or investment accounts is moved to an investment fund automatically. The excess funds are “swept” into an investment account and in many cases are returned the next day automatically 4. Non-Insurance NBFIs Have More Waterfall Payments than Insurance Companies One-third of NBFIs overall generate 11 or more waterfall payment series each year. Nearly half (46%) do not have any. Stratifying the respondents between insurance companies from the rest of the NBFIs shows that the use of waterfall payments among insurance companies is roughly half of other NBFIs: Insurance companies: − 22% have 11 or more each year. − Majority (61%) do not have any waterfall payments in a year. Non-insurance company NBFIs: − 42% have 11 or more each year. − 29% do not have any waterfall payments in a year DESCRIPTION OF ACCOUNT TYPES: Waterfall payments: There are multiple situations where an investment arrangement requires payments to be made to an entity that is at the top or middle of an entity hierarchy. Payments made to the first entity are then cascaded down through other entities until everything is completed. This cascading is referred to as a “waterfall payment,” and typically these payments flow downstream on the same date. 5. Highest Priorities: Security, Compliance, Efficiency NBFIs face numerous competing demands. Priorities help determine the emphasis and order for which activities and initiatives are staffed, funded, and completed. For this question, seven options were provided for respondents to rank in order of priority. Looking at what respondents ranked 1st and 2nd for highest priorities, it was clear that there seems to be a strong consensus about the top of the house. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION: Willie Sutton is famous for his response to the question of why he robbed banks: “That is where the money is.” We could imagine the corollary in response to this in a similar question-answer style: “Why are you (NBFIs) focused on security/fraud prevention?” “Because there are many more Willie Suttons out there with far more automation and sophisticated tools trying to rob us.” Compliance is always a top priority for regulated businesses like most NBFIs. Fines, fees, and reputational damage are some of the key motivators. Only security/fraud tops compliance. Is this due to the cost and reputational damage being an even higher concern for NBFIs? 6. Payment Controls Are a Continuum of High to Low Adoption. Fastest Expected Growth: AI/ML Limited access and encryption (all payment files) are the only two methods used by the majority of companies. Four other services sit between 30% and 47% adoption, and another 10-17% of firms expect to add to these services. Use of AI/ML to protect against payment fraud has a 30% “plan to use” response. This represents nearly double the rate of the next highest controls. Machine learning is highly effective at detecting patterns. This pattern detection can also spot anomalies — instances where a pattern isn’t consistent. Fraudulent items can often be detected based upon the “patterns” of changes, access, and frequency, and a user can review those items before payments leave the company ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION: The principle of least privilege requires companies to restrict the access of users and credentials to only those areas/systems/data that are relevant. Then, if a credential is stolen or if an individual seeks to steal information or money, their ability to act or move around is greatly limited. This mitigates the amount of damage that can occur if one credential is compromised. Encryption of all payment files should make it more difficult to see and edit confidential banking information. The public/private key process also renders editing a file far more difficult, as the encryption/decryption process will alert the system or users of the error. AI/ML. Anomaly detection capabilities can be learned by an ML tool, and various rules for detection can also be programmed in. When this is done, the user is alerted to anomalies that need to be reviewed by a human. The alerts can be informational only (and the payment continues unless stopped by the person), or they can be part of an interdiction (the payment stops unless and until a human reviews and approves the interdicted item). 7. Measurements: Financial Performance Wins Over SLA What gets measured, we are told, gets improved. What is being measured? Two-thirds of companies trace various financial performance metrics. Staff performance is a distant second at 41%, followed by quality-related performance measures (38%). ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION: It is not surprising that in finance areas, measuring financial performance takes the top spot in this survey. However, why do not even 3 out of 10 companies measure staff professional development if people are the most valuable asset? Is there little correlation between staff development and success? Is it related to the fact that measuring staff development is highly challenging? What is the benchmark? 8. Benchmarks — Personal Best What do companies want to improve? It may be that they are measuring what is most important to them. It may be that more companies measure what they can most easily get measurement data for. Most companies track their current performance against their own historical numbers, while some performed external benchmarking. 62% measure themselves against themselves. The external benchmarks are as follows: − 41% measure themselves against similar companies (similar industry verticals). − 24% measure against companies of about the same size ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION: Company complexity has a variety of dimensions. The most common factors companies think about for comparable numbers are 1) revenue/sales and 2) industry vertical. Other factors of complexity include 1) number of systems in use, 2) how many countries the organization operates in, and 3) the number of underlying processing systems. Benchmarks are used for a variety of reasons, including: − Staff size/resources − Efficiency purposes − Confirmation as to the position of the company via leading practices − Progress over time against their own performance and others in their “peer group” 9. Collateral Management: The Most Common Manager Is…Treasury Collateral management is a risk related function that supports the operational and investment activities of many NBFIs. Treasury is the department that is most frequently responsible for managing collateral (31% of firms). More than one-fourth of firms don’t assign this role. 10. Collateral Management’s Impact on Cash Positioning: Tracked Separately. Collateral management within NBFIs appears to be relatively immature (non-integrated). Just over a third (34%) indicated that they have visibility or links to the collateral and underlying exposures. − Collateral and exposures can be seen together: 17%. − Clear view into collateral pools: 14%. − Can see the exposure and collateral within the cash positioning and forecasting process: 3%. Most firms (66%) track collateral and cash positioning in separate channels with no cohesive or unified view. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION: The practice of collateral management appears to be, on average, somewhat informal for many NBFIs, as can be observed from the following data points: − 28% of companies don’t have collateral management assigned to a particular area. − 66% lack a unified view of collateral or track it in a separate channel than their cash positioning activity Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse is a warning for all finance leaders. Check out  this on-demand webinar and hear Kyriba's top treasury and payments experts discuss the collapse, subsequent fallout, and how your organization can mitigate risk with improved liquidity planning.

This eBook explores the use cases for AI in treasury management and corporate finance, as well as the barriers preventing mass adoption of the technology. These technologies are applicable in cash and liquidity management,...

This eBook explores the use cases for AI in treasury management and corporate finance, as well as the barriers preventing mass adoption of the technology. These technologies are applicable in cash and liquidity management, payments fraud detection, documentation of treasury processes, and more. AI/ML Today While artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have gradually worked their way into everyday life in treasury and finance, but we’ve only scratched the surface of their potential. It’s important to understand that AI and ML are not technically the same thing. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they are two distinct technologies. AI is a broader term denoting intelligent machines that can simulate human thinking capability and behavior. ML, in contrast, is an application or subset of AI that enables machines to learn from data without additional programming.1 What makes AI so powerful now, as opposed to just a few years ago? The simple answer is data. We have so much more now than ever before. Both companies and consumers are using a host of applications that generate mass amounts of data, and with the right systems in place, that data can be transformed for better decision-making. Data scientists train AI models on historical data. Next, they run new data through the trained AI model to make much more informed predictions. Such models are incredibly useful for treasury and finance, which have had to make rapid adjustments in recent years to keep organizations running. Applying AI in Treasury Management and Finance With applications proliferating across so many areas, as well as the connectivity that banks and technology providers are building through APIs, treasury and finance departments have more data at their fingertips than ever before. But processing all of that data manually is nearly impossible. That’s where AI comes in. Technology providers train AI models on data that is extracted from operational applications and placed in a central repository. These can vary and have different advantages. Data warehouses store data in hierarchal dimensions and tables. Data lakes, in contrast, store massive amounts of raw data, storing it in flat architectures to allow users more freedom for data management.2 Unlike robotic process automation, which can only replicate processes, AI models can analyze data and identify trends and patterns in a fraction of the time that humans can.3 This allows for much faster and complete conversion of raw data into meaningful information that treasury and finance departments can use. AI models can be used for various treasury functions such as cash forecasting, payments fraud detection, and working capital optimization. For example, AI can drastically improve receivables management. As noted in a recent AFP Treasury in Practice Guide, a technology company’s accounts receivable (AR) team was struggling to manually process over 2,500 monthly checks, leading to major delays. Realizing that it needed to make a change, the AR team worked with its banking partners to implement an machine learning-enabled receivables solution. The solution automated the manual gathering, consolidation and formatting process that the AR team had been doing every morning, allowing most payments to process within two days. Furthermore, over time, the machine continues to learn from exceptions, improving accuracy. It has also provided the AR team with more opportunities to increase electronic payments adoption. How Machine Learning Works for Treasury Payments Fraud Detection Modern payments fraud detection software uses AI to screen payments against historical payment data pulled from a data source. All the characteristics of payments—the payment amounts, payment types, the number of payments, where they’re going, etc.—reside within that data source. A machine then analyzes that data, which enables it to identify anomalies in future activity. A number of different models can be used to pinpoint those anomalies. One of the most effective is an isolation forest methodology. This model compares all the different variables in the data source against new payments to determine the normality of those payments. Any payment that has an unusually high abnormality rank is flagged and set aside for further review. Machine learning solutions can even show users that variable comparison, providing them with insights into how that normality/abnormality rank is calculated. Users can even set their own levels for abnormality tolerance. Companies that work in industries that are high targets for fraudulent activity might want a very low abnormality tolerance, whereas organizations that are less at risk might want to set it much higher so that minor anomalies won’t disrupt payment activity. Additionally, workflows can be embedded to swiftly resolve anomalies. Real-Time Screening, Alerts and Notifications The rise of same-day and real-time payment systems has increased the need for real-time responses to fraud attempts. Modern fraud detection software uses AI/ML to screen payments against historical payment data, pinpointing any anomalies. By providing more complete data, these solutions enable data-driven decision-making. Solutions can flag any abnormal payments, providing insights into the variables that determine payment normality. Generative Adversarial Networks The lack of data around fraud can be a problem for AI models. Training AI models can thus be challenging because the algorithms often can only learn from good payments and, at best, a handful of bad ones. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) can solve this problem. GANs are deep learning models that pit two separate neural networks against each other. One network mixes real data and synthetic data together and attempts to outwit the opposing network. By training fraud detection models on these competing networks, fraudulent transactions can be more easily identified in real data. Cash Forecasting Manual processes persist in treasury, even with the advent and evolution of technologies like AI. Many treasury departments continue to rely on Excel, even though it can produce highly inaccurate cash flow forecasts that can negatively impact the business. Organizations can increase the accuracy of their short-term cash forecasts with AI-based tools that learn from the history of cash flows and continuously improve inflow projections over time. With deeper analysis of this data, organizations can better predict cash flows by season or region, which in turn reduces efforts for key functions like accounts payable by, anticipating free cash flow closing, and adjusting the payment campaign budget. AI/ML users also can select what companies, currencies and cash flow types to include, as well as adjust the forecasting period to align on short-term payment/funding/investment decisions. With interest rates increasing, treasury teams can optimize liquidity by reducing their maximum idle cash while also minimizing the risk and cost of overdraft. Treasury will be able to determine how much of its budget it can allocate towards certain expenditures over a period of time, or whether it will need to borrow funds to make certain payments. AI tools can factor in multiple variables and errors found in historical data to better estimate cash inflows and outflows over the next seven days. This allows treasury to determine how much of its budget it can allocate towards certain expenditures over that time period, or whether it will need to borrow funds to make certain payments. Soon, as these tools accumulate more data, they will be able to make predictions on mid- and long-term horizons. Check out Kyriba's latest AI-powered cash forecasting module: Cash Management AI to see how AI in treasury management can already be used fluently for short-term cash forecasting. ChatGPT and Generative AI in Treasury Management ChatGPT has become a popular generative AI app, in part because of a $10 billion partnership with Microsoft. ChatGPT is well known for its natural language processing chatbot abilities that answer any question. Yet the real opportunity for ChatGPT and generative AI is to change the way we interact with online software applications, including online search and business applications like ERP and treasury management systems (TMS). ChatGPT can also be used within a TMS where the user gives instructions to the system using keywords or questions. With a user experience (UX) that has been optimized for natural language processing, the TMS can respond to basic queries such as “What is my exposure to the Yen?” or more complex requests, including “What caused the variance in my forecast last week?”. Treasury may also find this technology to be useful in documenting treasury processes and procedures. Documentation and how-to manuals take time and effort to compile. Fortunately, ChatGPT and similar generative AI models can do all the writing for you after being fed a minimum amount of information. Take Action The demands of today, and tomorrow, dictate that CFOs and treasurers must act. While pervasive economic hardships and rising global inflation may make it difficult for companies to justify spending on new technology, they are facing massive challenges if they don’t adjust to the pace of the modern business world. Rest assured; if your peers aren’t investing in this technology yet, they will be soon. Many companies have also stockpiled their cash reserves throughout the pandemic — now is the time to begin spending some of that cash on tech enablers, one good area to look into being AI in treasury management. Treasury teams would be wise to look for a trusted partner as they explore possible use cases of AI in treasury management. There are technology providers with teams of data experts and portfolios of treasury apps available. Many tools are already in production and require minimal effort on the part of the company. As we emerge from the pandemic—a time when companies were focused primarily on survival—the focus now needs to be on growth. As more data becomes available, growth will come from those organizations that are able to harness that data and turn it into useful applications. Others will drown in it and fall behind. With AI in treasury management to assist the human, treasury teams can ensure that they are positioning their organizations for success. Related Resources Javapoint: Difference Between Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning TechTarget: Data Lake AFP: Identifying Value for Treasury: Automation, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence PYMNTS Intelligence: How Payments Automation and Digitization Can Reduce Errors and Streamline Transactions Gartner: Success With AP Invoice Automation Requires More Than Paper to Digital ERP News: Automation for Business Intelligence Kyriba: 15-Minute Guide to Payment Hubs Want to see how AI in treasury management improves cash forecasting? Join Kyriba's upcoming monthly live demo sessions. An on-demand demo session is available here.

Tuesday, April 18th | 11:00am ET | 4:00pm GMT | Securing budget for a treasury project during economic uncertainty increases the focus on defining KPIs and effectively measuring ROI. Benchmarking allows Treasurers, CFOs and...

Tuesday, April 18th | 11:00am ET | 4:00pm GMT | Securing budget for a treasury project during economic uncertainty increases the focus on defining KPIs and effectively measuring ROI. Benchmarking allows Treasurers, CFOs and Boards to better understand the value delivered from a treasury transformation project.

A Treasury Management System (TMS) is a software application that allows companies to process cash flow, manage banking relationships and enhance the value of their cash flow. A Treasury Management System can help companies...

A Treasury Management System (TMS) is a software application that allows companies to process cash flow, manage banking relationships and enhance the value of their cash flow. A Treasury Management System can help companies manage their assets, liabilities and bank accounts through automation and integration with third-party applications. A TMS provides real-time visibility into cash positions, enables better decision-making, and improves overall operational efficiency. The system includes a range of features and functionalities, including cash and liquidity management, risk management, and payment processing. Understanding Treasury Management Systems Treasury management is the process of managing an organization's liquidity, money market instruments, banking, concentration and disbursement activities. The goal of treasury management is to constantly monitor cash inflows and outflows in order to optimize the company's liquidity position. This includes managing all the financial risks associated with running a business. Treasury management also plays an important role in financial planning: If you want to know when your business will be profitable or how much debt or equity funding is needed for expansion plans over the next few years, having accurate projections about your company's financial health is essential. Treasury management is especially important for large organizations that need to ensure they are never short on cash but also don't have too much cash available at any time. Examples of these organizations include: Banks and other financial institutions Governments Major corporations A treasury management system is a powerful tool for organizations looking to streamline their treasury operations, manage financial risk, and improve cash management. By providing real-time visibility into cash positions, automating routine processes, and providing tools for managing financial risk, a TMS enables treasurers to make informed decisions and drive business growth. While implementation of a TMS requires significant investment, the benefits of improved operational efficiency, reduced financial risk, and improved compliance can be significant, making it a valuable investment for any organization. It is also important to understand the risks of not adopting a TMS. Advantages of a Treasury Management System A treasury management system automates and streamline the financial activities of companies. They automate tasks, like payments and invoicing, which can be time-consuming and require multiple people to complete. A treasury system can be used for both domestic and international payments and can handle multiple currencies. For example, if your business imports products from overseas suppliers or exports goods to other countries, then having a TMS in place can help you manage the different currencies involved in those transactions correctly. A treasury system also provides real-time reporting of financial data. It allows you to create customizable reports to meet your specific needs. A treasury software provides tools for managing financial risk, including foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk, and credit risk and helps organizations achieve regulatory compliance and improve their relationships with stakeholders, such as lenders, investors, and suppliers. Why Do You Need a Treasury Management System? First of all, a treasury management system provides improved efficiency. Automated payments save time and reduce errors by eliminating manual data entry, as well as automating reconciliation processes for accounts payable systems. Also, automated inventory tracking allows businesses to keep track of their current stock levels without having an employee manually update them every day or week. This means fewer errors on orders. Secondly, a good system will provide real-time information about everything from cash balances down through individual purchase orders, so companies know exactly where all their money goes—and when it comes back into play again. Thirdly, it is an important tool for achieving regulatory compliance. Many countries have stringent regulations around treasury operations, including cash management and payment processing. A treasury system can help organizations comply with these regulations, reducing the risk of fines and reputational damage. How a Treasury Management System Works A treasury system is a comprehensive solution that automates and streamlines the financial processes of a business. It works by aggregating data from multiple sources, including bank accounts, payments and investment portfolios, providing a complete and accurate picture of a company's cash position. This information enables treasurers to make informed decisions about cash management and investment strategies, reducing the risk of cash shortfalls and minimizing borrowing costs. It also provides tools for managing financial risk, including foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk, and credit risk. The system enables treasurers to monitor and manage these risks in real-time, providing a comprehensive view of the organization's risk exposure and enabling proactive risk management strategies. A treasury system usually includes different modules, each focusing on an important aspect of your finances: Cash Management: A TMS tracks incoming and outgoing payments, including those made through ACH transfers. The system ensures that funds are available when they're needed by monitoring the company's accounts receivable and payable balances as well as its bank balances. Cash Forecasting: A TMS helps identify trends so treasury can adjust budgets accordingly in order to meet goals without encountering unexpected costs along the way. Risk Management: A TMS provides a comprehensive solution for identifying, assessing, and managing financial risk, including advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. Liquidity Management: A TMS monitors cash flow on an ongoing basis, allowing organizations to plan ahead for future expenses like payroll or vendor payments in order to avoid overdrafts at the bank or costly loan fees from third parties like credit card companies or payday lenders. Choosing the Right Treasury Management System Choosing a treasury system is a multi-step process. Cost is always a factor, and can vary greatly depending on your organization’s desired functionality. That’s why it’s important to: Evaluate your needs. Convincing the CFO to approve the adoption of a TMS almost always requires the treasurer to carefully build a strong business case. But treasurers can have greater success if they know how to position a treasury solution as a necessity. Decide which features are most important to you, and then look at the available options from different providers. You can compare different solutions based on those criteria, then choose one that works for your business today and into the future. Implement a TMS that will work for years to come by meeting all of your current requirements while also allowing room for growth as needed over time. Other Capabilities of Treasury Software Treasury management largely encompasses cash management, bank account management and financial transactions. Treasury management systems provide CFOs and treasurers with the visibility and reporting needed to optimize cash, control bank accounts, manage liquidity, deliver compliance, and oversee investments, debt and intercompany loans. Cash Pooling and In-house Banking: Organizations can easily manage notional and physical cash pools to offer real-time intercompany positions, interest calculations and reporting. Multilateral Netting: Treasury management systems help calculate net payables and receivables positions by participant, delivering optimized exposure management and integration with in-house banks. Bank Relationship Management: Bank account management, signatory tracking, FBAR reporting, and bank fee analysis enable improved control of bank accounts and better transparency into bank fees. Financial Transactions: Industry-best treasury management systems fully track treasury financial transactions with complete integration to payments, accounting and cash forecasting modules. Accounting and Compliance: Automatic generation of journal entries, support of all ERP solutions for automated integration with the general ledger (GL) and GL reconciliation makes it easy to comply with industry and internal regulations. Essential Treasury Software Treasury and risk management applications are essential tools for any business looking to increase cash flow and reduce costs. By automating your financial processes, they allow organizations to save time while becoming more efficient and secure. Usually evaluating the return on investment for a treasury transformation project is a complex undertaking that goes far beyond evaluating productivity savings versus the cost of the solution. Companies need to ensure that they consider all potential value components of a treasury project and its impact across the entire organization to ensure that a full value assessment is included in the decision-making process. With such intricacies and value components that are often neglected, many treasury teams look for outside guidance in calculating the potential ROI of such projects in order to ensure that they are comprehensive in their evaluations. Road to Treasury Transformation There are many different paths companies can take to achieve treasury transformation. You can start with process standardization, or payments transformation, or simply reduction of bank fees. Below are three great examples from Kyriba's client community. Kyriba client Beam Suntory chose to modernize their operations in a decentralized environment. They worked with Kyriba to future proof cash and liquidity management to protect their future growth. The interconnected ERP, TMS and Payments systems ensures business continuity, visibility and confidence in liquidity optimization. Kyriba client Lowe’s has an extremely large bank account environment with over 2000 bank accounts at 33 banks. With Kyriba’s Bank Fee Analysis, Lowe’s is able to pull reports on a macro scale to immediately identify any outliers by comparing services across banks and drilling down to a micro-level for any out-of-policy store activity. Kyriba client Align Technology built an FX Hedging Program in alignment with senior management’s goals by integrating Kyriba FX with SAP ERP and implementing Data Integrity Analysis to validate exposure and identify inconsistencies.

Advanced treasury management and data-delivery capabilities enable finance organizations to see their global cash, liquidity, and risk exposures and create value for the business. Recent disruptions, such as the pandemic and current inflationary conditions,...

Advanced treasury management and data-delivery capabilities enable finance organizations to see their global cash, liquidity, and risk exposures and create value for the business. Recent disruptions, such as the pandemic and current inflationary conditions, have thrust treasury management into the spotlight. With rising interest rates and a strengthening US dollar, many finance organizations are turning to their treasury departments to proactively mitigate currency impacts upon foreign earnings and to enhance the use of internal liquidity over capital markets. Some are also looking to reduce costs in response to inflation. These factors are putting pressure on treasury departments to elevate their operating models and to digitally transform their capabilities around financial risk, balance sheets, working capital, and payments while simultaneously reducing costs. Some organizations are responding to these pressures by accelerating their digital transformation agendas and moving core capabilities into the cloud. They are also seeking to use internal and external data more extensively by enhancing their analytical capabilities. One way to accomplish these objectives is to combine a leading, cloud-based financial system, such as Workday Financial Management, with the enhanced treasury management capabilities of a cloud-based, supplemental system, such as Kyriba. Eight potential ways to achieve ROI Greater process efficiency via treasury automation and standardized reports. Timely and accurate cash visibility. Reduced banking fees and transaction costs. More effective hedging programs to manage FX and IR risk. Enhanced liquidity management and funding opportunities. Decreased IT support and required maintenance. Improved operations and fraud detection. Greater agility and enhanced business continuity via global SaaS platforms. Treasury as a value lever: Leveraging a Supplemental Treasury Management System Supplemental treasury management systems (TMS) generally offer in-depth functionality across treasury management and accounting, bank connectivity and payments, control and compliance, risk management, and supply chain finance. Accordingly, the business case for implementing a supplemental TMS can be compelling, especially for companies that need to perform complex intercompany lending, hedging, risk valuation, foreign exchange, and other intricate financial operations. However, modernizing the treasury management function requires a combination of capabilities, including industry-specific knowledge of leading practices; functional specialties such as strategy and operations, risk management, financial advisory, tax, and cyber security; and highly experienced professionals with technical skills across the various ERP ecosystems such as Workday and Kyriba. Deloitte not only offers these diverse capabilities but also integrates them efficiently. Deloitte is also a recognized market leader in finance transformation; it has achieved the highest quality rating on Workday implementation scorecards and it is Kyriba’s only enterprise-certified alliance relationship, having received implementerof-the-year awards for the last three consecutive years. With these qualifications, Deloitte is well-positioned to help you combine a cloud-based financial management system with a supplemental TMS. This can open up many opportunities for cashmanagement cost savings and improved treasury function performance. Cloud-based solutions to enhance visibility and management of cash, liquidity, and risk exposures Leverage Deloitte’s extensive finance transformation experience, knowledge of leading practices, and familiarity with the financial management and treasury management capabilities found in leading platforms such as Kyriba and Workday. Tailored for treasury optimization As detailed in Table 1, finance leaders have the ability to alleviate many common ERP treasury-management pain points by tapping Deloitte’s extensive finance transformation experience, knowledge of leading practices, and familiarity with the financial management and treasury management capabilities found in leading platforms such as Kyriba and Workday. How can we help Deloitte can assist you in taking the next steps to modernize your treasury management capabilities by guiding you through an initial scoping session to determine a personalized path forward. During this session, we can apply our technical acumen, treasury knowledge, and finance transformation experience to help you: Assess the current state. Develop a digital finance strategy based on combining leading cloud-based systems. Identify finance transformation opportunities and create a roadmap for realizing them. Design the solution and develop an implementation plan according to leading practices. System integration and implementation support for your selected solution. Ultimately, through proprietary accelerators and pre-defined data integrations, we can help you streamline your TMS implementation, delivering it simultaneously with a cloud-based financial management implementation, or after it is complete. Time to get strategic? Treasury management trends triggered by digital disruption several years ago have only intensified under recent economic conditions. The role of the treasury function continues to grow as a value-add partner of the CFO and a strategic advisor to the business—all while core treasury goals and mandates, such as liquidity risk management and being a steward for financial risk management, have become even more important in a world of volatile markets, tight supply chains, and rising interest rates. Could it be time for your organization to get strategic about liquidity management with a cloud-based financial management system and a supplemental treasury management system? To find out, contact us.   This document contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this document, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This document is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this document. Product names mentioned in this document are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only. Deloitte is not responsible for the functionality or technology related to the vendors or other systems or technologies as defined in this document. As used in this document, ‘Deloitte’ means Deloitte & Touche LLP, which provides audit, assurance, and risk and financial advisory services and Deloitte Consulting LLP, which provides strategy, operations, technology, systems, outsourcing and human capital consulting services. These entities are separate subsidiaries of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Copyright © 2023 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.   Want to learn more about how to gain with a supplemental treasury management system? Check out this webinar to hear how Deloitte helped Exelon and Constellation Energy modernize their Treasury organization through a Kyriba implementation.

Nearly every company doing business beyond its own borders faces the challenge of developing cost-effective FX risk management programs, and each year corporations incur billions of dollars in currency related losses due to global...

Nearly every company doing business beyond its own borders faces the challenge of developing cost-effective FX risk management programs, and each year corporations incur billions of dollars in currency related losses due to global currency volatility. Even small organizations with modest international operations can be impacted by currency exposures if treasury fails to effectively manage foreign exchange (FX). In this eBook you will be introduced to three common manual foreign exchange profiles and examine anonymous case studies of how a company from each profile type was able to gain greater insight into currency data and exposure, improve workflows, increase overall efficiencies and withstand currency headwinds — all by modernizing and automating their FX processes. In many cases, these losses are attributable to manual, spreadsheet-based currency risk management programs and processes, which are vulnerable to human error and faulty hedging strategies — strategies that hinge on inadequate or incomplete data. Ongoing FX volatility, lack of access to accurate and timely data, and real time responsiveness to exposure and market risk changes put demands on organizations to embrace fully-automated FX risk management programs. Regardless of the sophistication or complexity of an organization, every corporation can benefit from automated FX risk management. This is true even for larger or more sophisticated companies already utilizing general treasury software or trading platforms. In fact, automated FX risk management programs can enhance the value of a trading platform, ERP(s) and other technologies. What Does Automating FX Mean? Automation involves modernizing procedures by systematizing each step of a process, eliminating the need for manual intervention along the way. Within the FX risk management programs, this may include automating processes for the data collection exposure consolidation, calculation and analysis, as well as hedge recommendation. Automation also involves seamlessly integrating multiple systems, including ERPs, trading platforms and market data providers to ensure exposures are aggregated easily and automatically with the latest technology, like APIs. At Kyrbia, we advise corporations to consider three types of FX automation when looking to enhance their FX risk management programs Data Transfer Automation to optimize the data gathering portion of FX risk management, which ensures human “touch-points” are minimized and the potential for error is reduced. Workflow Automation to identify and establish exposure benchmarks across the enterprise, ensuring consistency and eliminating currency surprises. Process Automation to introduce complete, end-to-end modernization to ensure errors are mitigated, efficiencies are maximized and risk is eliminated. The Benefits of Automated FX Risk Management Programs Although automating FX may sound intimidating, by working with the right technology and fintech provider, it can often be completed easily and quickly with quick-strike benefits. Automation eliminates the need for manual intervention, reducing the potential for costly human errors. Diminishing the need for manual involvement frees treasury professionals from having to gather data from multiple sources, giving them more time to analyze information, track exposure trends and proactively seek out other opportunities to eliminate risk. Automation transforms how treasury professionals are perceived within an organization, allowing them to be seen as resources in strategic planning. By using automated FX risk management programs, organizations also gain: Improved efficiency Significant time savings Increased FX controls Greater insights into FX exposures Reduced currency impacts to earnings Optimized FX risk management costs Managed impacts from FX risk Leveraging technology allows organizations to perform risk analytics on command, becoming less dependent on financial institutions or outsourced service providers. This provides the most flexibility, visibility, and control over an FX program while not losing time on external dependencies. By dividing the automation of foreign exchange management into three distinct profiles, we can better examine where companies stand with their current FX programs and determine what steps they need to take to achieve full automation. These three profiles are broken out by companies looking to expedite processes, create flexible & adaptable workflows, and enrich data intelligence to optimize FX risk management programs. Expedite: The “expedite” category describes corporations that are interested in incrementally improving their existing FX management programs through efficient data processing. Generally, companies that fit this profile type rely on manual processes that are vulnerable to errors. The CFO may be interested in transitioning away from a spreadsheet-reliant program and looking to automate data aggregation and facilitate in-depth exposure analyses. Adapt: Global organizations have dynamically changing exposure & risk profiles within a continuously changing foreign currency market. Organic growth, acquisitions, and restructurings can leave hedge programs frequently chasing down issues if the FX risk management program is not designed to quickly “adapt” to evolving conditions. When it comes to FX, chasing down issues ultimately puts the organization at higher risk of ineffective risk mitigation decision and negative P&L impacts. Enrich: The “enrich” category describes highly-complex organizations seeking to take advantage of efficient processes by shifting efforts to more strategic analysis. Companies in this category have optimized the blocking and tackling of operating an FX risk management program, and are now ready to leverage automation to improve data inputs and risk forecast assumptions. Hedge programs will maximize effectiveness the more hedge decisions accurately align with actual business activity. Editor’s Note Companies in each one of these profile types have distinctly different challenges and operate at varying levels of sophistication, but they all share a common trait: the need to automate their FX programs. Three Corporate Profiles, Three Automation Success Stories Every corporate environment offers unique challenges, and the following anonymous case studies illustrate how automated workflows can enhance a company’s FX risk management programs — regardless of the inherent complexities. The specifics for each company in this eBook vary— some used FX trading platforms or had previously established in-house banks. Regardless of the specifics, after modernizing their programs, each organization saw near immediate quantifiable results, including improved operational efficiencies, time savings, reduced expenses and reductions in currency-related risks. 1. Expedite: A $6 Billion Global Electronics Manufacturer Why They Automated The company relied on a manual, forecast-based, legacy balance sheet FX program requiring treasury specialists to gather spreadsheets every month from 30 entities around the globe. They consolidated the forecasts, uploading and executing the appropriate trades manually. This process took four days in total (two days for data consolidation; two for currency hedging), requiring additional steps, touch-points and manual calculations along the way – all of which amplified the potential for human error. Solution The company looked for a solution to help them design an automated program. Kyriba’s Balance Sheet FX solution offered the cutting-edge SaaS technology and back-end support needed to complement their existing forecasting processes. With Kyriba, their new FX solution enabled a streamlined data aggregation process and initial exposure analysis. This, in turn, supported the development of an end-to-end, automated workflow, which helped the FX team improve their analysis and adjustment process. The team aggregated data for all entities at a corporate level and then executed trades and hedge accounting with a seamless integrated trade execution portal. By using Kyriba's FX risk management solution, treasury could select what to trade and the trades would immediately be processed. This eliminated unnecessary steps while adding more rigid controls, reducing the likelihood of human error causing something to go wrong during the trade process. The time savings and assurances that processing errors are reduced allow the company to spend more energy on strategic analysis. Outcome Kyriba significantly improved the data aggregation and exposure calculation processes, but seeing the trend analytics and having the ability to compare datasets in the system were also vital. With their new FX risk management solution, treasurers could quickly break down exposures – by entity –and identify what drove the changes while drilling into specific accounts. This was a monumental change compared to their manual processes which did not allow for this advanced degree of reporting; nor did it offer the granular details they needed. Automation saved time and reduced the potential for error. With the click of a button, trades were moved from one system to the next. Treasury no longer needed to open different files, copy, paste and upload separately. This saved significant transaction time, which amounted to many hours saved each month due to the frequency of trades. Additional Benefits The modernized process gave the FX team more time to analyze data and identify trends. Better still, the entire process could be completed in less than a day compared to the manual process, which took about four days to complete. FX professionals could make daily adjustments in exposures, enabling them to immediately identify if – and where – the forecast was off and how to best align currency hedges. The treasury team could also lower the exposure hedge threshold while expanding the number of currency pairs tracked and traded. This helped improve the data collection to hedge execution process by 60 percent. The treasury team lowered corporate hedge thresholds to less than $200,000. 2. Adapt: A $15 Billion Consumer Goods Company Why They Automated With most of the treasury department’s efforts spent manually collecting error-prone data, company decision-makers realized they needed to upgrade their treasury infrastructure. Gathering balance sheet data alone required tapping into 38 different systems in a legacy ERP environment. This antiquated process limited opportunities for the team to focus on data analysis and risk mitigation. These issues were compounded because the company was acquiring another, smaller company at the same time. Executives tasked the FX team from the smaller company – which was already resource-challenged – with managing the post acquisition currency program. The post-acquisition balance sheet program was only hedging one-off inter-company loans and FX trades were executed over the phone. Rolling and settling hedges required constant manual intervention. Additionally, FX hedges in spreadsheets (managed by multiple employees) were an ongoing headache because the cost of wrong-way trades or over/under hedging was high. Cohesive, end-to-end automation was needed to improve efficiencies. Solution Executives recognized the need for an automated program, eliminating the risk of manual errors. The company introduced a customized backbone treasury infrastructure that drew on best practices and offered various treasury technology solutions, including a currency analytics solution, a TMS and a trading platform. For its balance sheet program, the entire hedging process was automated – including weekly collections of exposure data from local business units, ERP systems, spreadsheet uploads and user inputs. Once balances were collected, the team analyzed exposures to determine the external hedging needs. These were executed using an automated trading platform and housed in the new treasury workstation. Kyriba was chosen not only as their TMS, but the company chose its Balance Sheet FX solution to be used as a centralized FX risk center, facilitating automated data collection, exposure calculations and hedge recommendations through technology-enabled automation with the ERP systems, Kyriba TMS and trade executive portal. Within Balance Sheet FX, the team had visibility into individual entities and profit center details. Data was sourced from 38 legacy ERP systems via a weekly template (from 25 local business units) and SAP automatically pushed the data to Kyriba. Outstanding hedges were automatically transferred and uploaded to display net exposure. Kyriba then created recommended hedge actions based on the corporate policy and generated trades netted at the corporate level for all exposure balances. Trades were sent (via direct automation) for execution. Confirms were sent back to Kyriba for automated entity-hedge allocation and reconciliation.When the companies acquisition closed, Kyriba provided a strong FX risk management solution framework that made it easy to integrate the new entities. Rather than taking months to work with new entities to gather exposure data and educate new employees, the company could quickly guide entities in how to adopt FX processes and follow policies. Outcome By automating, the company revented its treasury infrastructure from the ground up. The transformation took place at the same time the small treasury team managed its day-to-day responsibilities – while the company executed six acquisitions and four divestitures. Additional Benefits The new workflow significantly reduced cumulative FX transaction net losses from$88 million to less than $2 million. The notional size of the balance sheet hedging program increased from $800 million to $2 billion. Hedge accounting documentation now saves the company $120,000 per year thanks to consolidating technology platforms. Trading fees have been reduced by more than $1.3 million in 12 months. 3. Enrich: An $8 Billion Specialty Food Company Why They Automated The company originally relied on a non-formalized, manual cash flow exposure forecasting process – one that was completed ad hoc, using numerous spreadsheets and a variety of touch-points. Data collection was inconsistent, calculations were completed manually and the potential for error was high. Across the business and reporting structures, many currency pairings were complex and represented significant risk. Reviewing spreadsheets and formulas for each forecast period was resource-intensive, requiring the treasury team to manually review each submission. Additionally, comprehensive management reporting was limited, despite the amount of time devoted to the task. Solution Prior to evaluating FX technology to address their needs, the company conducted an inventory of necessary data required to support a more formalized process and quarterly hedging cycle. The goal was to ensure – when an opportunity to hedge was identified, or the business required a hedge – the team had all the necessary data to act quickly. Once the inventory was finalized, they sought out technology that would further enhance their workflow. The company’s cash flow forecasts were integrated with Kyriba’s Balance Sheet FX reporting reflecting existing hedges, creating an initial view of net exposure by entity. After reviewing the exposure and making desired adjustments and edits, the team executed a decision process in Kyriba to recommend hedges at an entity level (applying the company’s policy-defined threshold, target ratios and level of materiality, creating a report that allocates decisions by entity, currency pair and account group). Kyriba then created trade recommendations for the company’s in-house bank, including internal and external trades, displayed within the application for review. Once recommended trades were approved, the system generated a report of external trades which are sent automatically to an integrated trade execution portal. Kyriba then received the trade confirms, allocating them back to individual entities. Outcome The new workflow empowered the company to standardize a process with currency pairs, exposure types, geographical details and entity information. With corporate-mandated standardization in place, the implementation facilitated improved reporting with complete flexibility supporting individual user-defined views. This proved to be a significant time-saver, enabling the treasury team to focus on analyzing the accuracy of the forecasts, which helped eliminate nearly all calculation errors. Additional Benefits The ability to segregate and analyze specific data sets significantly reduces the time spent on reporting. Previously, it took at least three days (per quarter) to complete; now the process takes less than six hours (including collecting and uploading data and completing board presentations). The company has seen a 50 percent increase in participation in the forecasting process. Realized increased flexibility in the reporting. The company’s new workflow offers more details on all proposed actions. The increased collaboration and visibility allowed the team to add four new entity currency pair combinations to its existing hedge program. There has also been a 50 percent improvement in corporate target hedge ratios. Conclusion Before automating, each company profiled had the potential to endure significant losses (due to human error and faulty, incomplete data). After automating, each organization – regardless of its size and complexity – saw near-immediate benefits. Most importantly, each experienced a reduction in FX-related losses, managed impact from volatility and a substantial decrease in unmanaged FX currency risk. Kyriba is committed to helping organizations improve the impact currency exposure has on corporate financial results by offering best-in-class technology and services. With Kyriba, organizations can reduce risk, reduce costs and streamline processes. Kyriba facilitates end-to-end automation, which includes direct ERP data extraction and aggregation, forecast consolidation, exposure and risk analysis generation and automated risk transfer and trade execution connectivity to banking portals and trading platforms using state-of-the-art, highly-secure SaaS solutions. If your organization is dependent on a sluggish, error-prone manual FX program, you should know adopting an end-to-end, fully-automated currency risk management program can help you achieve the kind of benefits detailed in this eBook. Kyriba has helped leading multinationals and small and mid-size companies with FX exposure, to successfully transition from manual FX programs to modernized, cost-effective programs. Want to learn more about how to automate seamlessly across your FX risk management programs? Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse is a warning for CFOs and finance leaders who are not able to offer immediate, real-time questions on impacts to their balance sheets, income statements and cash flow. View Recording

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse is a warning for CFOs and finance leaders who are not able to offer immediate, real-time questions on impacts to their balance sheets, income statements and cash flow. View Recording

Kyriba’s Liquidity Analytics is part of the comprehensive SaaS-based Kyriba Analytics reporting platform giving CFOs and treasury the ability to identify enterprise-wide, integrated cash, coupled with debt and investment data presented with superior visualization...

Kyriba’s Liquidity Analytics is part of the comprehensive SaaS-based Kyriba Analytics reporting platform giving CFOs and treasury the ability to identify enterprise-wide, integrated cash, coupled with debt and investment data presented with superior visualization and analysis. Liquidity management across the organization becomes more strategic, insightful and faster with the latest Kyriba Analytics offering: Analyzing the Net Financial Position To gain a comprehensive understanding of the financial position of a company, it is essential to analyze the variation of net debt over time. This analysis can provide insights into how the company’s liquidity has changed over a given period and whether these changes are a cause for concern. The examination of intercompany loans across subsidiaries as part of the net debt allows analyzing the role of in-house liquidity for the group. The breakdown by currency increases visibility into the associated forex exposures prior to hedging. To counter the delays in reporting typically experienced from non-integrated, spreadsheet-based tools, Kyriba’s solution brings the treasury data and financial transaction records together intraday to calculate the net debt position. By using these resources, Liquidity Analytics offers a current picture of the organization’s financial standing, enabling the CFO to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions to manage and mitigate financial risks. Building a Solid Financial Plan Liquidity Analytics allows optimized financing from the planned evolution of working capital and capital expenses. The ability to forecast the company’s funding requirements in relation to its financial resources increases the effectiveness of planning and managing the financial operations of the company. In an economic climate that is fraught with uncertainty, it is imperative for the CFO to make contingency plans that account for various business scenarios, both those that anticipate growth and those that defend against downturns. Liquidity Analytics enables stress testing of cash inflows and outflows, thus validating the strength of the financial plan against the pressure of a volatile market. By utilizing this tool, the CFO can ensure that the company’s financial plan is resilient and can withstand a variety of potential economic scenarios. Controlling Liquidity Liquidity ratios play a crucial role in determining a company’s credit rating and subsequently its cost of debt. Liquidity Analytics provides both historical variations in liquidity and its future evolution anticipated from financial planning. This analysis encompasses not only cash and cash equivalents, but also committed credit facilities. The tool can also aid in mitigating credit risk by exercising control over the allocation of the liquidity portfolio across banks, thereby avoiding any potential concentration of funds. By ensuring that the liquidity portfolio is diversified and not concentrated in a single institution, the solution helps reduce the risk of over-reliance on any one bank, thus contributing to the financial stability of the company. Analyzing the Structure of Your Debt Portfolio Analyzing and optimizing your debt portfolio over time is crucial in order to minimize interest expenses. Liquidity Analytics expands the CFO’s effectiveness in calculating and forecasting the exposure to interest rates volatility. Future interest rate what-if combined with liquidity stress test provides an estimate of the cost of the financial plan by scenario. This analysis helps the CFO make informed decisions regarding the company’s financial operations and ensure the cost of the debt is minimized in the long term. Kyriba Analytics Reporting Platform for CFOs and Treasurers Liquidity Analytics What is my net debt and my liquidity? How and when best to pay down my debt? How many “days of survival” do I have? Cash Analytics Do I have enough cash? Are my cash forecasts reliable? What is my activity with banks? Payments Analytics Where is my biggest concentration of payments? Are we sending too many wires? Which users execute payments and who approves them?   Risk Analytics How much is available on my credit lines? What is my borrowing profile? What is the value of my financial assets? SCF Analytics What is my supplier participation rate? How many documents have been uploaded? Which invoices are financed? Compliance Analytics Who are the users and where are they located? Which modules can they access with which rights? What data can they access?

FX Risk Management is one of the most difficult objectives handed to a CFO’s organization. Touching not only all key areas of Treasury, Accounting & Finance, but also necessitating coordination with operations & lines...

FX Risk Management is one of the most difficult objectives handed to a CFO’s organization. Touching not only all key areas of Treasury, Accounting & Finance, but also necessitating coordination with operations & lines of business.

Kyriba Mobile securely extends core treasury and payments functions from desktops to mobile devices, allowing informed, real-time decisions on the go.

Liquidity planning is an evolution of traditional cash forecasting surrounding the cash forecast with data which supports better-informed liquidity decisions. Liquidity planning makes the forecast actionable by connecting the outcome of cash forecasting—how much...

Liquidity planning is an evolution of traditional cash forecasting surrounding the cash forecast with data which supports better-informed liquidity decisions. Liquidity planning makes the forecast actionable by connecting the outcome of cash forecasting—how much cash the organization expects to have—with information about the levers the CFO and treasurer can pull to meet cash flow targets and mobilize cash. Treasury and the CFOs are often under immense pressure to provide the entire organization with the right level of operating capital (working capital), to meet the critical wide range of financial obligations in the most cost-effective way. Liquidity Planning expands beyond cash and liquidity management, delivering the ability to manage available funds from different sources across varying timelines to fund current operations and future obligations. Typical levers may include investment, borrowing, credit facilities, and aspects of the cash conversion cycle. Liquidity planning data tells finance teams where sources of cash are so that they can execute decisions rapidly, enterprise wide. Challenges of Liquidity Planning for CFOs CFOs and finance teams are severely constrained when it comes to liquidity and tight management of available cash flows at any time, particularly in volatile environments when inflation is high and the borrowing rates are increasing rapidly. Today’s CFO needs to move beyond inconsistent visibility into longer-term flows and be capable of making accurate strategic decisions. The following are some of the key challenges that CFOs face in liquidity planning: Managing volatility: One of the biggest challenges for CFOs is managing the volatility of the markets, which can have a significant impact on liquidity planning. For instance, a sudden market downturn or interruption (such as the recent SVB crisis) or an unexpected geopolitical event can result in a significant decrease in cash flow, forcing the CFO to quickly adjust their liquidity plan. Rising interest rates: Another challenge for CFOs is the increasing borrowing rates, which can impact liquidity planning. As interest rates rise, the cost of borrowing increases, making it more difficult for companies to access the funds they need to maintain adequate liquidity. This can be particularly challenging for companies that are highly leveraged or have a large amount of debt. Inflation: CFOs must also navigate the effects of inflation, which can impact both the cost of goods and services and the value of assets. This can make it more difficult to accurately forecast cash flows and plan for the future. Regulatory compliance: CFOs must ensure that they are in compliance with all relevant regulations, including those related to liquidity planning. This can include requirements for maintaining adequate reserves or complying with specific reporting requirements. Uncertainty in the global economy: With ongoing geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty in many parts of the world, CFOs must be prepared to quickly adjust their liquidity planning strategies in response to changing market conditions. Technological disruption: The rise of new technologies and digital platforms is also changing the landscape for liquidity planning. CFOs must be able to navigate the complexity of these new tools and platforms, while also ensuring that their company's financial data is secure. For example, the recent trend towards sustainability and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing, which has led to increased scrutiny of companies' financial practices and may impact their access to capital in the future. How to Measure the Impact of Liquidity Planning Most impacts to, and from, working capital are measured through metrics that include weighted average cost of capital (WACC), cash conversion cycle (CCC) and various debt metrics like interest expense, return on debt, etc. Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) represents a firm’s average after-tax cost of capital from all sources. WACC is calculated by multiplying the cost of each capital source (debt and equity) by its relevant weight by market value, then adding the products together to determine the total. The cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a metric that expresses the time (measured in days) that it takes for a company to convert its investments in inventory and other resources into cash flows from sales. The average interest rate can be hedged against interest rate volatility with fixed rate loans and interest rate derivatives The average borrowing spread can be secured with long-term debt and reduced with buyer invoices and inventory guarantees The average treasury spread can be enhanced by reducing opportunity cost on cash and maximizing return on short-term investments What Impacts the Timeline of Liquidity Management When cash forecasting timelines extend beyond 90 or 120 days, the visibility and accuracy of forecasts begin to diminish significantly, and companies are often required to invest for shorter tenors or commit to more debt capacity than really needed. These pressures begin to increase when strategic decisions are limited or rely on debt or the sale of assets to supply the funds required for expansion or M&A activity, for example. More and more, companies are relying upon technology to increase the available sources of liquidity information and make the task of aggregating and analyzing information from those sources more granular, accurate and meaningful. Another attribute of a leading system is the ability to continuously improve your forecasting processes through benchmarking and comparing plan to actuals or budget to actuals. Key Features of a Liquidity Planning Solution Effective liquidity planning is critical for any business, as it helps to ensure that there is enough cash available to meet financial obligations and invest in growth opportunities. To support this, there are several key features available in modern Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions that can help CFOs and finance teams make more informed decisions. One of the most important features is the ability to extend forecasting horizons. In the past, liquidity planning was often limited to short-term forecasting, which made it difficult for CFOs to make strategic decisions that would impact the company's financial health in the long run. However, with modern SaaS solutions, it is now possible to create more accurate forecasts that extend weeks, months, and even years into the future. This extended visibility allows CFOs and finance teams to plan for a variety of scenarios and make more informed decisions about how to allocate resources. Another important feature of modern SaaS solutions is their ability to aggregate and process huge amount of data sets, including cash flow projections, accounts payable and receivable, and historical performance, and provide data-driven insights into the company's financial health to help identify areas where liquidity may be at risk. This allows CFOs and finance teams to take proactive measures to address these risks, such as securing additional financing or optimizing cash management practices. Finally, modern SaaS solutions usually offer dashboards with real-time liquidity analytics to provide comprehensive view of the company's liquidity position, taking into account both current and projected cash flows, as well as existing debt and other financial obligations. By analyzing this data, CFOs and finance teams can identify areas where liquidity may be at risk and take proactive measures to address these risks. A more detailed list of key features of a liquidity planning solution includes: Flexibility and Configurability Model forecasts the way you want with as many iterations as you like, including top down or bottom-up presentations to support different types of forecasting in your organization. Formula-based Construction Include or exclude the data you want in each line item and summary total. Multiple, Parallel Forecasts Run multiple cash forecast cycles at once, designed with different data and assumptions. What-if Scenarios Model forecasts against various liquidity and risk scenarios. Excel-like Entry On-demand single click editing and copy/paste directly into the forecast. Submission and Review Workflow Collaborate with other users including notifications and comments. Variance Analysis Combine with Cash Analytics for detailed and drill-down on forecast variances. Load Data from anywhere Unify forecast data from ERP, spreadsheets, data lakes and other sources via API or file interface. AI-Enhanced Cash Flows Combine with Cash Management AI or other AI apps to include data-driven forecasts as part of your cash flow planning. What is Included in Kyriba’s Liquidity Planning Solution Kyriba’s Liquidity Planning Solution is the result of the focus on continuous innovation and product development across treasury and finance functional areas impacting liquidity management. Kyriba’s solutions help finance organizations of all sizes and industries deliver improved financial performance. The latest innovation is the Liquidity Planning and Analytics product suite, which creates a liquidity management system and solution for better working capital management and cash flow forecasting over longer horizons. Liquidity decisions are more focused and accurate with the right mix of technology and reporting, ultimately reducing the cost of liquidity availability. Kyriba’s Liquidity Solution helps treasurers find the right balance and optimal mix across varied sources of liquidity to meet obligations while keeping costs at the right level. The new user experience is easy to use, and includes features to make scenario analysis, plan comparisons and collaboration across the finance organization more actionable and insightful. With this solution Kyriba creates more confidence for the CFO and treasurer with expanded forecasting information, as well as with investment and borrowing data to make more informed liquidity decisions, making the cash forecast actionable, demonstrating the impact of investing, and borrowing decisions with real-time data and analytical insights. Kyriba’s Cash Management, Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics modules give treasury teams and finance leaders in treasury, FP&A, finance, procurement and accounting the tools and interactive reporting they need to proactively manage cash and liquidity lifecycles end-to-end.

Corporate payments, or B2B payments, usually refer to the financial transactions made by a company or corporation to pay for various expenses related to its business operations. These payments may include salaries, wages, bonuses,...

Corporate payments, or B2B payments, usually refer to the financial transactions made by a company or corporation to pay for various expenses related to its business operations. These payments may include salaries, wages, bonuses, and benefits for employees, payments to suppliers and vendors for goods and services, taxes, rent or lease payments for office space or equipment, insurance premiums, and other expenses. Efficient and secure management of corporate payments is critical to the financial health of a company. Effective payment systems can help improve cash flow, reduce the risk of fraud and errors, and ensure that the company can meet its financial obligations to its employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders. What Are Some Common Types of Corporate Payments? Corporate payments usually include the following types: Treasury payments: loans, debts, investments These payments are important for the financial health and stability of a company. Loans and debts are necessary for companies to finance their operations, whether it's to purchase new equipment, expand their facilities, or pay off existing debts. Investments, on the other hand, are crucial for companies to grow their wealth and generate more revenue. By making smart investments, companies can increase their profits and expand their business operations. Supplier payments or Account Payable (AP) payments: payments a company makes to a supplier for purchased goods or services These payments are a critical component of a company's cash flow, as they ensure that suppliers are paid on time for the goods or services they provide. By making timely supplier payments, companies can build stronger relationships with their suppliers, negotiate better prices, and ensure a steady supply of the goods and services for business continuity. Tax payments: payments to tax authorities to fulfill the legal taxation obligations These payments are an essential part of a company's financial responsibilities, and failure to make them can result in significant legal and financial penalties. Tax payments can include income tax, sales tax, property tax, and other types of taxes. By making accurate and timely tax payments, companies can avoid costly penalties and maintain their legal and financial standing. Salary payments: the amount a company pays on agreed terms to its employees in exchange for job performance These payments are essential for attracting and retaining talented employees, as they provide a stable income and financial security. By making salary payments on time in the correct amount, companies can build a motivated and productive workforce, reduce turnover, and enhance their overall performance. Methods of B2B Payments Transfer B2B payments may be made through various methods, such as cash, checks, wire transfers, electronic funds transfer (EFT), credit cards, or other forms of payment.  But they are usually electronically transferred through banks. In the US and some other countries, checks are still being used, while ACH and wire payments remain the most popular methods. New B2B payments methods such as real-time payments are gaining ground globally. Recently some corporations have also started to accept crypto currency. Bank transfers can be split into domestic payments and cross-border payments. For cross-border payments, there is usually an associated foreign exchange risk. How Do Businesses Manage Their Corporate Payments? It varies company to company, but it is common that the business process owner for corporate payments is treasury under the office of the CFO. Without payments being received on time in the right amount, businesses can face late supplier deliveries or other contractual penalties which endanger all sorts of business activities. Therefore the B2B payments process (including claims and accounts payable) is considered as a business-critical process. Effective payment systems can help improve cash flow, reduce the risk of fraud and errors, and ensure that the company can meet its financial obligations to its employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders. However B2B payments processing remains inefficient in many companies, often due to the following reasons: Siloed and obsolete home-grown back-office systems: Companies may use multiple systems for different types of payments, such as separate systems for payroll, vendor payments, and expense reimbursements. This can lead to inefficiencies and a lack of visibility into overall payment processes. Manual processes with a lack of end-to-end process automation: If payments are processed manually, such as using paper checks or invoices, it can be time-consuming and prone to errors. These manual processes may require a lot of manual data entry, which can lead to typos, incorrect information, and lost documents. Legacy connectivity to banks: Payment systems may not be integrated with other systems used by the company, such as accounting or ERP systems. This can lead to duplication of efforts, manual data entry, and errors. Decentralized payment processing teams: If payment data is stored in different systems or departments, it can be difficult to get a comprehensive view of all payments being made. This can lead to inefficiencies in tracking and reconciling payments, and even worse, increased fraud risks. What Are Some Challenges with Corporate Payments? Corporate payments are traditionally challenged by their sheer volume of payment activities and manual processing inefficiency. Some of the most outstanding problems with B2B payments are: Outdated back-office payment systems requiring extensive and costly IT support Long lead time to connect to banks via bank APIs or H2H with own IT resource Unavoidable payment errors and oversights from manual processing Potential money loss from undiscovered duplicate payments Increased operational risks due to potential fraud and non-compliant payments Slowness to leverage faster payment rails (e.g., RTP®) or other nascent payment methods (e.g., Zelle) to support customers’ evolving B2B payments needs Hidden Cost of Payment Errors and Non-Compliant Payments Perhaps it is not often visible to the stakeholders in a company how much manual and analog systems can cost, or perhaps the practice has been the way it is for so long that it has just become an accepted cost of doing business. Through a step-by-step process description it is possible to demonstrate how much money businesses are losing each year in their payments processing - particularly those with cross-border activities and FX exposure. Costs can come from a few different sources and very often companies underestimate the accumulated costs that arise from these payments: Manual errors causing remitted funds to not arrive at the correct destination Duplicate payments that could be the result of a mistake or fraud Non-compliant payments that run afoul of official sanctions lists, leaving the firm open to fines and other regulatory action Our analysis finds that companies can significantly reduce the erroneous and non-compliant payments that the average business is losing by persisting with outdated processes. If only ten payments are affected each month this can result in extra annual costs of over $40,000 on average. The following flowchart shows in detail how costly a duplicated payment made by mistake can be for a given company, not to mention that in many cases these errors can be compounded as companies expand organically and by acquisition, adding layers of complexity to find out where and how such mistakes have been made.     The increasingly disparate structures produce more risk, whether FX or regulatory, and greater vulnerability to payment fraud too. Steps to standardize controls and simplify and automate processes can not only mitigate these exposures, but with more accurate information can also strengthen decision-making and lay the foundations for future growth. Below is another detailed flowchart to show how much time and money a company can lose when a foreign supplier payment fails to arrive in the payee’s account. Use of Treasury and Payment Solutions To effectively manage corporate payments, it is recommended to choose a treasury and payment solution that meets an organization's current and future business needs. One of such solutions is a payment hub, also known as a B2B payments platform or a payments processing system. Such a hub consolidates payment requests from ERPs and other payment initiating systems, transforming disaggregated and decentralized payment processes into a single source of record for all outgoing corporate payments. Corporations are changing the way they process payments. Technology, regulation, globalization of trade – all are factors driving the need for payments centralization. CFOs and treasurers worldwide recognize that fragmented and decentralized payment processes do not offer the efficiency. A cloud-based payment hub such as Kyriba’s enables global real-time access to payment data while as many users as needed can easily be onboarded. This way, the CFO and the treasury team can gain full control and visibility into the status of AP, treasury and other ad hoc payments. A payment hub can help companies streamline their corporate payments process with great efficiency, cost saving and security.. The primary benefits of centralizing payments with cloud-based payments hubs are: Visibility into outgoing cash flows Reduced payments fraud and improved operational risk management Control over payment timing Standardized procedures across all regions Increased efficiency and reduced costs Regulatory compliance.   Best Practices of Managing Corporate Payments There are many ways to design the workflows and implement the technical enablers needed to optimize your payment process. Many Kyriba clients have demonstrated successes with best practices they share with the community and their peers. For example, Cooke Aquaculture has built a robust in-house bank and a payment factory to unlock liquidity, freeing 20% of full-time employees in the financial shared service center for more strategic level work. Even more importantly, by placing focus on process standardization, Cooke has seen a result in 100% accurate and automated accounting and reconciliation from a standardized process across all entities. Another good example is from Kyriba’s client Adobe. As an organization which has 125 global users manually logging into 10+ banking portals on a daily basis to process payments and statements, the use of Kyriba’s payment hub has led to a centralized repository of 24 signers tracked and 8 bank letter templates maintained with 4 Banks connected for bank fee statement reporting and proactive fee management.

Open banking is a banking practice that gives consumers full control over their own banking or financial data so that they can decide whether any third-party financial service providers can access the data to...

Open banking is a banking practice that gives consumers full control over their own banking or financial data so that they can decide whether any third-party financial service providers can access the data to provide them with better products and services. That’s why it is also known as "open bank data”. Open banking is enabled by the use of APIs. In Europe, the legislation of PSD2 (Payment Service Providers Directive) has been a main driving force behind making open banking a reality for every consumer. Open banking has also become a hot topic for corporate treasurers because many of the Open banking use cases and their associated benefits are applicable in the business context too, especially when it comes to system integration and real-time data accessibility. What Are the Main Purposes of Open Banking? Open banking is a step forward in the future digitalization of financial services. When people ask why open banking, consider the following two main areas open banking will drive positive changes: Open innovation. Banks have always been like walled gardens. If you have two bank accounts at two different banks, most likely you have to log into two banking apps to manage your money. It is so for security reasons, but it also creates inefficiency. Now with consumer’s consent, Fintech startups can gain access to consumer data at any bank through Open API. This has boosted innovation in the financial services industry. Service customization or personalization. When consumers are no longer tied up with one bank’s own designed products and services but a whole ecosystem of apps, there is a lot of space for customization or personalization. For example, when you give your consent, third-party apps can use your banking data to offer products and services that are tailored to your financial situations. Is Open Banking Secure? It is unsettling for many people when they hear that their banking data will be shared. This is a well justified concern. There is always some associated risk when data is handled online. However, open banking security has been deeply designed into the processes and legislators in different countries are watching this space closely. For example in Europe consumers have improved security with PSD2’s implementation of Strong Consumer Authentication (SCA). Two things are important to keep in mind for open banking data sharing. First, without your consent, your banking data cannot be shared by your bank or any third party service provider. Afterwards, you also have the right to ‘unsubscribe’ any time from the data sharing. Second, even with your consent, you will not share any credentials such as log-in username or passwords. The data to be shared usually are things like type of the account, name of the account, transaction history, or balance details. What Are the Benefits of Open Banking? For consumers, the main benefits of open banking are: Full control of their own financial data Enhanced banking experience across different financial services Reduced costs with much lower switching costs Quick access to the latest and greatest Fintech innovations For corporate treasury, the main benefits of open banking are: KYC process can be streamlined with the introduction of APIs Quick access to and adoption of the latest and greatest Fintech innovations that are targeted at corporate financial challenges Real-time treasury becomes possible with the proliferation of faster payments, instant settlement, and real-time availability of balance and transaction data Use Cases of Open Banking for Corporate Treasury The following open banking use cases are often discussed in different treasury forums and can be a good starting point for corporate treasurers to consider: Real-time cash visibility: API connectivity aggregates in real time the cash position into any system of your choice–for example, it can be your TMS system or your ERP system–to make available figures from all bank accounts into one centralized view for unprecedented instant cash visibility. In practice, this means that the time and effort of logging into multiple banking portals or systems to download and consolidate the bank statements and transaction data can be saved. This also means that the cut-off time for intraday statements will no longer be the bottleneck of data reconciliation, as data arrives at your system of choice instantly. Inbound and outbound payments: API-based real-time payments can bring tangible benefits to corporate cash management because it transforms the current payment processes both in terms of speed and tracking of both inbound and outbound payments. Treasurers choosing to adopt the new world of instant payments have already seen concrete business outcomes. For example, Kyriba client Hunt Companies gained both cost saving and efficiency by being an early adopter of ACH’s RTP® network in the USA, reducing its bank fees from $6 on average for a wire transfer to less than $1 for RTP. Data aggregation for real-time decision making: Data is the real link behind various processes within an organization and poses opportunities to form cross-functional business optimization. For example, traditional FTP connectivity between TMS and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is being replaced by API for data exchange (e.g. Kyriba provides API-based ERP connectors for SAP, Oracle, D365 and Netsuite). Accurate real-time data enables better decision-making, including timely analysis and forecasts, and mitigation of financial risks. On top of that, when data becomes available in real-time, there is a new opportunity to apply other technological enablers to use the data to achieve new levels of cash and liquidity management. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) for example to automate cash flow forecasting has been gaining its ground among corporate treasurers. The possibilities with APIs are infinite. Check out more use cases enabled by Kyriba’s Open API platform and see how they can support your organization to bring your treasury, cash, payments and working capital to the next level. Challenges with Open Banking for Corporates Despite the promising future of open banking for both consumers and businesses, there are still a few challenges that remain: Lack of standardization: APIs are a new addition to the bank connectivity, and each bank has their own way of defining how they transfer data. A universal standard does not exist, which means each time you connect to a bank API, it becomes a project of its own. New technology meets old technology: Technology evolves rapidly year to year. Both banks and corporates grow their IT infrastructure over the years with numerous hardware and software additions and upgrades and system migration and updates. When a new tech stack meets the old, things do not work automatically. The idea of using APIs to connect systems for real-time data transfer is great but in reality, the task to make it happen is not to be underestimated. Balance of openness, security and data privacy: Concerns over data privacy, security and compliance have grown among legislators, regulators, companies as well as ordinary citizens. Actions are being taken in different parts of the world to ensure a balance between open innovation and data security. For example, in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been published since 2016 to protect against data breaches. How to Use Connectivity-as-a-Service There are many ways to start benefiting from open banking. One good place to start is to look at the current and future needs of connectivity for your treasury operations. No matter what you want to do with open banking, it always starts with the connectivity, whether it is connecting to different banks’ APIs, integrating the products and services from Fintechs, or building data pipelines with strategic business partners for your own data lake. Due to the importance of APIs for open banking, it is recommended to discuss the API roadmap with your banking partners or system providers to ensure that you have enough visibility into the capabilities they will provide to meet your future business and growth needs. Choosing a technology provider and adopting Connectivity-as-a-Service is a good start for your open banking initiatives. When to Adopt Open Banking in Treasury Many companies and treasury teams with limited IT resources are still on the lookout for options to adopt the open banking technology. Due to the nature of the APIs provided by banks and financial institutes, both the number and the specifications are constantly growing and changing, posing challenges to find actual business cases or the IT resources to take them into use. However, it is important to bear in mind that existing connectivities to your banks, such as SWIFT, EBICS, and H2H, are complementary to APIs so that all data that is not yet made available via APIs can be aggregated by these existing set-ups. Therefore it is already possible for the more advanced treasury teams to begin the journey now and start preparing the set-up for open banking and real-time treasury. In addition to using existing connectivities, it is important for companies to identify specific use cases where open banking can add value, such as optimizing cash management or improving liquidity forecasting. This can help justify the investment in IT resources and ensure a successful implementation. Companies should prioritize security and data protection when working with open banking APIs. This includes ensuring that all data transfers are encrypted, using secure authentication methods, and implementing strict access controls. Finally, it can be helpful to engage with other stakeholders in the industry, such as partners, banks, and fintechs, to share knowledge and best practices. This can also help identify potential collaboration opportunities that could further enhance treasury operations through open banking.

Real-time payments are a payment type where the transmission of the payment message and the availability of “final” funds to the payee occur in real time or near-real time and on as near to...

Real-time payments are a payment type where the transmission of the payment message and the availability of “final” funds to the payee occur in real time or near-real time and on as near to a 24-hour and seven-day (24/7) basis as possible. Real-time payments are designed to be as close to 24/7 as possible, meaning that payments can be made and received at any time of the day or night, seven days a week. This is a significant departure from traditional payment systems, which may have limited hours of operation and require several business days to process payments. The terms “real-time payments,” “faster payments,” and “instant payments” are often used interchangeably to describe this type of modern payment infrastructures. While there may be subtle differences in the way these terms are used, they are generally used to describe the same type of modern payment infrastructure. These payment systems are typically domestic or regional in nature, meaning that they are designed to facilitate payments within a specific country or region. However, there are efforts underway to develop cross-border real-time payment systems that would allow for the seamless transfer of funds between different countries and currencies. Source: Prime Time for Real-Time ACT Worldwide,2022 What Are the Typical Use Cases for Real-time Payments? With the world moving to a new level of instancy, every organization should understand both the value impact and the use cases for real-time payments when it comes to its own business context. There are many great examples of how companies are using instant payments, especially with large volume low value payments, to save costs and increase speed. Below are some of the use cases Kyriba clients are benefiting from: Time-sensitive payments are perfect for real-time payments, for example emergency payroll, disaster relief, and AP exception payments from industries such as distribution and logistics. Intercompany transfers are low risk and a common use case. With real-time payments, companies can efficiently deploy working capital across their subsidiaries. Instant insurance claims disbursement is a typical example of improving customer experience with real-time payments. The same also applies in the gig economy where business or service transactions can be settled immediately on the spot. Request-to-pay is also becoming more common, where suppliers embed real-time payment instructions within an email to simplify the invoicing process, either to encourage early payment or to accelerate late payments. What Are the Benefits of Adopting Real-time Payments? There are many good reasons to add real-time payments to your payment mix, mainly because of the unprecedented visibility and transparency this new payment type brings to both the payer and the payee. Some of the most outstanding benefits of using instant payments are: Improved supplier relationships: making early or on-time payments is an easy way to improve rapport between vendors and clients. With instant payments, invoices can be paid immediately and some vendors will offer discounts for early payments. Control over working capital: faster payments mean more accurate cash visibility that allows companies to unlock working capital, releasing funds for debt repayment and/or reinvestment Increased security: with full visibility of payment details including end-to-end tracking and confirmation of credit, risk of fraud decreases Improved ROI: lower bank wire fees and reduced time spent researching, correcting, and resending failed payments translate to significant cost savings for businesses Immediate settlements: with the ability to transfer payments and pay bills 24/7, payment delays are eliminated, transaction history is current, and account balances stay up-to-date Non-repudiation: because instant payments carry a digital footprint specifying the time, date, origin, and destination of each transaction, no one can dispute that a payment was sent, received, and processed. How to Enable Real-time Payments Globally there are more than 70 countries where domestic or regional instant payments are available. For example, you can find real-time payment systems in: Americas (USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico) SEPA countries (over 25 countries supported) Asia (Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong) In different countries and regions, instant payments might have different names too. For example: USA: RTP® by The Clearing House, FedNowSM Service by The Federal Reserve UK: Faster Payment System SEPA countries: SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) Singapore: PayNow India: Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) Corporates can access real-time payments via FTP or Bank API (e.g., CashPro by BoA, CITI, JPMC), depending on which is supported by your partner banks. On top of the bank connectivity, the following payment formats all support instant payments: JSON: a lightweight data interchange format that is commonly used in web applications, and it is often used for real-time data exchange due to its simplicity and flexibility ISO 20022 XML: a messaging standard that allows for the exchange of structured financial messages between different parties, and it is used by a growing number of financial institutions and payment systems around the world. Fixed formats: standardized formats for financial messages that are used by various financial institutions and payment systems. These formats provide a consistent structure for financial messages to ensure that they are processed correctly and efficiently. CSV formats: simple text-based formats that are commonly used for storing and exchanging tabular data, such as financial transactions. They are easy to use and can be opened and edited using a wide range of software applications, making them a popular choice for organizations. What Is a Typical Payment Flow of Instant Payments? The payment flow of instant payments can vary depending on the specific payment system or infrastructure used, but there are some common elements that are typically involved. Here is a general overview of the payment flow of instant payments: Initiation: The payment process begins when the payer initiates an instant payment request, typically through an online banking portal or mobile app. The payer may need to provide information such as the recipient's name, account number, and the amount of the payment. Authorization: Once the payment request is received, the payer's bank verifies that there are sufficient funds available and authorizes the instant payment. Transmission: The payment message is then transmitted to the recipient's bank in real-time or near-real-time. This transmission may occur through a variety of channels, such as a secure messaging network or an instant payment platform. Clearing: The recipient's bank processes the payment message and ensures that the funds are available to the recipient. This may involve verifying the recipient's account details, checking for any fraud or errors, and updating account balances. Settlement: The final step in the payment flow is settlement, which involves the transfer of funds from the payer's bank to the recipient's bank. This settlement typically occurs in real-time or near-real-time, and the recipient's account is credited with the payment amount. Overall, the payment flow of instant payments is designed to be fast, efficient, and secure, with minimal delays or processing times. This makes instant payments an attractive option for businesses and individuals who need to make and receive payments quickly and reliably. The Federal Reserve explains on its website how instant payment flow works among its network participants. It represents well how instant payments work in general, with everything taking place in as quickly as just seconds. Source: FedNow “About The FedNowSM Service” 1. In step 1, a sender (i.e., an individual or business) initiates a payment by sending a payment message to its financial institution through an end-user interface outside the FedNow Service. The sender’s financial institution is responsible for screening the payment according to its internal processes and requirements. 2. In step 2, the sender’s financial institution submits a payment message to the FedNow Service. 3. In step 3, the FedNow Service validates the payment message, for example, by verifying that the message meets message format specifications. 4. In step 4, the FedNow Service sends the contents of the payment message to the receiver’s financial institution to seek confirmation that the receiver’s financial institution intends to accept the payment message. At this point, the receiver’s financial institution will have the opportunity to confirm or deny that it maintains the specified account. 5. In step 5, the receiver’s financial institution sends a positive response to the FedNow Service, confirming that it intends to accept the payment message. Steps 4 and 5 are intended to reduce the number of misdirected payments and resulting exception cases that can occur in high-volume systems. 6. In step 6, the FedNow Service debits and credits the designated master accounts of the sender’s and receiver’s financial institutions (or their correspondent financial institutions), respectively. 7. In step 7, the FedNow Service sends a payment message forward to the receiver’s financial institution with an advice of credit and in parallel sends an acknowledgement to the sender’s financial institution, notifying it that settlement is complete. 8. In step 8, the receiver’s financial institution credits the receiver’s account. As a term of the FedNow Service, the Federal Reserve Banks anticipate requiring the receiver’s financial institution to make funds available to the receiver almost immediately after step 7. This crediting to the receiver’s account as well as the debiting of the sender’s account by their respective financial institutions happens outside the FedNow Service. Source: FedNow “About The FedNowSM Service” Examples of Real-time Payments Adoption Kyriba client Hunt Companies was among the early adopters for real-time payments in the US and is a great example to demonstrate the associated benefits. The main challenges Hunt Companies faced before the use of instant payments were as follows: Significant bank fees resulting from the huge volume of payments Lack of visibility into payment status, especially the rejected payments Significant time spent by the team to research and resend failed payments With RTP® Hunt Companies has seen the following business outcome: A reduction of bank fees from $6 on average for a wire transfer to less than $1 for RTP® An impactful number of productivity hours gained per month by Hunt’s finance team In just three months, the client has seen a 375% increase in the number of payments using RTP® month-over-month Why Are Cross-Border Real-time Payments More Complex? Cross-country real-time payments are more complex and challenging than domestic real-time payments due to several factors: Regulatory Frameworks: Each country has its own regulatory framework, which can vary widely in terms of security requirements, data privacy laws, and customer protection regulations. This makes it difficult to ensure compliance with all relevant regulations when transferring funds across different countries. Interoperability: Different countries use different instant payment systems that are not always interoperable with each other. This can make it difficult to transfer funds seamlessly between different countries, with payments formats and messaging standards differences. Settlement Systems: Settlement systems can vary widely between countries, and cross-border instant payments require a settlement system that can handle multiple currencies. It requires coordination between different payment systems and financial institutions, which usually takes time. Fraud and Cybersecurity: when real-time payments are sent across different countries, they can be more vulnerable to fraud and cybersecurity threats. There is increased risk of payments fraud due to the delays in currency conversion and settlement. What are Immediate Cross-border Payments (IXB)? There are ongoing efforts to make cross-border real-time payments a reality. SWIFT gpi and the ISO 20022 XML V9 messaging standard are both good examples of efforts to standardize payment messaging and improve interoperability between different payment settlement systems. A great advancement in this direction is the new payment initiative of Immediate Cross-border Payments (IXB). EBA Clearing, SWIFT and The Clearing House have announced that they are working together to deliver pilot service for IXB for real-time USD-Euro payments in 2023.

FX volatility is at a 20 year high, and coupled with high interest rates, the challenge of delivering predictable earnings guidance against a tightening budget has become a top priority for CFOs.

FX volatility is at a 20 year high, and coupled with high interest rates, the challenge of delivering predictable earnings guidance against a tightening budget has become a top priority for CFOs.

The scale of Lowe’s bank account environment is extremely large, with over 2000 bank accounts with 33 banking partners. Prior to Kyriba, the treasury department used a third party application for bank fee analysis,...

The scale of Lowe’s bank account environment is extremely large, with over 2000 bank accounts with 33 banking partners. Prior to Kyriba, the treasury department used a third party application for bank fee analysis, and the process was extremely cumbersome, taking 2 full days to complete, resulting in just a summary of numbers with no analytical work. "Before Kyriba, the goal of the process was just to simply get through it. No analytics...just 2 full days of pulling the data together.” Jon Korpal, Senior Treasury Analyst, Lowe’s With Kyriba’s Bank Fee Analysis, Lowe’s is able to pull reports on a macro scale to immediately identify any outliers. They now produce a complete analysis of their volumes, unit fees and total fees by account, all on a month-over-month and year-over-year breakdown. They can immediately compare services across banks and drill down to a micro-level for any out-of-policy store activity. “With Kyriba we are more easily able to zero-in on store activities. I can quickly see the stores that are generating excess fees simply because they are doing things outside of our standard policies and procedures.” Jon Korpal, Senior Treasury Analyst, Lowe’s High Turnover Requires Quick Identification of Out-of-Scope Fees The ability to quickly identify stores garnering excess bank fees is crucial in the retail environment, where employee turnover can be high. For example, a store that deposits loose change in their nightly deposit will get charged fees for doing so. If this practice is not detected and corrected right away, it is possible the employee in need of training will have moved to a different position or company by the time other software would have caught the mistake. “I’m able to get the data out of Kyriba using Bank Fee Analysis, so I’m able to spend my time focusing on the analysis side and not just trying to compile the data. I feel very confident I have visibility into everything I need to see, and it really keeps the banks honest.” Jon Korpal, Senior Treasury Analyst, Lowe’s Keeping the Banks Honest Roughly 95% of Lowe’s accounts are with 3 main banks, and every year Lowe’s performs an annual peer bank study with a third party that compiles and compares fees that Lowe’s is being charged against other companies in their peer group. Using Kyriba’s Bank Fee Analysis allows Lowe’s to feel confident in their numbers and can determine if any anomalies are a one-off issue or a more concerning trend. With all the rates going up in today’s environment, having Bank Fee Analysis, and the banks knowing we have access to the data, allows us to confidently challenge banks on fees and rates with success. Scorecard System Helps Treasury Demonstrate Kyriba’s Value to Management Lowe’s employs a scorecard system to review and analyze technology, and in evaluating Kyriba, Bank Relationship Management scored as the most valuable to Lowe’s. Treasury was able to use the efficiency and cost savings made possible through the module to demonstrate the need to management and get funding for adding Bank Fee Analysis to their Kyriba instance. About Lowe's Lowe’s grew from one small town hardware store in North Carolina to one of the largest home improvement retailers in the world, with over 1800 stores in US and Canada and $96.3 billion in annual sales.

On-Demand, On Your Time. Kyriba has elevated technology for CFO’s and Treasurers around the world. Join us for a deep dive into the NEW Kyriba Treasury, Payments & Risk Platform. With brand new User...

On-Demand, On Your Time. Kyriba has elevated technology for CFO’s and Treasurers around the world. Join us for a deep dive into the NEW Kyriba Treasury, Payments & Risk Platform. With brand new User Experiences, embedded analytics and visualizations and next wave connectivity strategy with Award Winning API’s, Kyriba is helping customers realize real-time liquidity.

In a high interest rate environment, coupled with increasing volatility, CFOs and Treasury leaders are demanding more robust and real-time controls over their liquidity. This demo webinar will demonstrate the value of Kyriba's liquidity...

In a high interest rate environment, coupled with increasing volatility, CFOs and Treasury leaders are demanding more robust and real-time controls over their liquidity. This demo webinar will demonstrate the value of Kyriba's liquidity planning solution.

Kyriba is the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, delivering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for CFOs and corporate treasurers with a full suite of products and solutions across cash and risk management, payments, and...

Kyriba is the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, delivering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for CFOs and corporate treasurers with a full suite of products and solutions across cash and risk management, payments, and working capital. The company was founded in 2000 and is currently headquartered in San Diego, with global offices in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and other major locations. More than 2000 clients in 100 countries trust Kyriba's cloud treasury platform to empower and enable them to transform the way they access and leverage liquidity to build resilience, generate value, and unlock growth. Is Kyriba an ERP System? Kyriba’s cloud treasury platform is a treasury management system (TMS) and it is not an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The purposes of the two systems are different. As Oracle defines it, ERPs are used to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations. A complete ERP suite also includes enterprise performance management, software that helps plan, budget, predict, and report on an organization’s financial results. Usually ERP systems are either installed on-premises or implemented in the cloud. ERP platforms act like an information center for a company, enabling end-to-end workflow management and data analytics, by tracking all aspects of production, logistics, and financials. A Treasury Management System (TMS) is a more special-purpose software that focuses on the business needs and workflows for treasury, which is a function under the Office of the CFO. A treasury management software allows companies to process cash flow, manage banking relationships, and enhance the value of their cash flow. It can also help companies manage their assets, liabilities, and bank accounts through automation and integration with third-party applications. With modern API connectivity, ERP systems can easily be connected to any cloud treasury platform to exchange data in real-time. Kyriba has launched API connectors to SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, and other major ERP providers to provide instant data flows, including event-based notifications. Kyriba can also push instant updates, like changes in payment status, to your ERP. Why Choosing Kyriba's Cloud Treasury Platform Before You Become a Kyriba Client There are many things to take into consideration when evaluating a software vendor. But it always starts with the business needs of your organization. To help our clients better understand their needs especially when they decide for their first cloud treasury and finance solutions, Kyriba has developed an industry-leading value engineering framework for our prospects to identify the maturity of their current state and the future state they would like to achieve. The Kyriba Value Engineering consultation and evaluation is complimentary for our prospects. Kyriba also invests heavily into enterprise security, because we know that treasury and payments are mission critical processes that require the strictest security scrutiny and validation by our enterprise clients. Kyriba has always focused on compliance and security testing as well as maintaining security and other data related certifications as part of our commitment to our customers. The platform is ISO 27001, SOC1/SOC2 compliant. It is also fully certified by SWIFT. After You Become a Kyriba Client Client experience is at the center of what we do. Our goal is to help companies implement strategic, automated processes to optimize their treasury operations. Kyriba offers an integrated approach to client success, ensuring customers are provided with the best implementation, training, and support resources available. For example, in 2022 Kyriba launched its new Kyriba Academy to provide our clients with regular and high-quality training programs, either on-demand or on-site, in order for our clients to accelerate their deployment, learn about new use cases, and get the most out of the Kyriba solution they have purchased. Every year Kyriba organizes client focused events for our client community to meet up and share their experience as Kyriba clients, the most famous one being KyribaLive. This event is more than a user conference: It is a global industry-wide gathering of treasury and finance professionals looking to harness new ideas and new technologies to streamline their operations and accelerate business performance. In 2022, KyribaLive was held in Paris and in 2023 KyribaLive took place in Phoenix, USA. Who Uses Kyriba’s Cloud SaaS Software? Many global companies, including enterprises and mid-sized firms, choose to use Kyriba’s cloud treasury and finance solutions, including treasury, payments, risk management, and supply chain finance. The over 2000 clients come from almost all industries, such as Retail, Insurance, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Real Estate, and Transportation. The Kyriba platform is also well recognized in Public Sector, Non-profit, and Financial Services. 25% of EURO STOXX 50 companies and 20% of Fortune 500 companies are Kyriba customers. Check Kyriba client success stories to find out more about how Kyriba supports our clients to achieve treasury excellence: Adobe Danone Spotify Kyriba also has a global network of partners to support its client base, who play a crucial role in our growth and success. Kyriba partners include local system integrators, ERP vendors, audit firms, and banks. Our partner program delivers an array of tools, resources, and benefits designed to deliver value to you and our customers. To locate a Kyriba partner in your region, visit our partner page for more information. You are also welcome to visit our news channel to follow our latest partnership announcements to see how Kyriba invests constantly to drive open ecosystem innovation on its could treasury platform. The Core Values of Kyriba Kyriba promotes five core values that form the basis of our “iCare” value system. These values are designed to be carried out in our workplaces globally, and guide our daily decisions. It is also Kyriba’s commitment to our customers, our partners, and to each other. The “iCare” values are: Innovation: rewarding employees for their innovations to encourage process improvement Accountability: taking personal responsibility for our actions Client Success: understanding client needs and developing solutions to drive decision-making within their organizations Respect: appreciating each other’s ideas, efforts, and commitments; embracing our diverse cultures and points of view Excellence: striving for excellence through leadership, teamwork, transparency, and integrity Diversity & Inclusion are also at the core of the Kyriba culture, rooted in our commitment to cultivating an inclusive environment that encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices of our employees. The company employs over 1000 people globally. As Kyriba continues to grow, we are dedicated to attracting, hiring, and developing underrepresented populations, and have established the following metrics to keep us on track: By 2023, 29% of our US employee base will consist of underrepresented populations. Women will represent at least 32% of our global employee base by 2023. By 2024, 40% of our management (Supervisory) positions will be held by women. At Kyriba, we believe diversity is one of our greatest strengths, allowing us to better serve our clients, advance our cloud treasury platform, and transform the marketplace.

Team of Four Solve “The Big Problem” at DT One William Tan, Kyriba, Neo Zi Xin and Vincent Fu, DT One The Challenge In the past, this fast growth company faced significant operational risk...

Team of Four Solve “The Big Problem” at DT One William Tan, Kyriba, Neo Zi Xin and Vincent Fu, DT One The Challenge In the past, this fast growth company faced significant operational risk issues and onerous banking processes with multiple bank accounts with multiple different banks due to its unique business model while lacking digital solutions or connectivity. A few major challenges defined “The Big Problem.” Operational risk – working capital was burdened by manual processes and required one treasury team FTE to manage cash positions and consolidate transactions, including manual consolidation of 3,000+ transactions per month from emails and spreadsheets. Flying blind – there was no single source of truth, minimal automation, no connectivity to banks, concerns for audit and regulatory requirements eclipsed challenges of posting errors to the wrong accounts. As banks were added, fees increased. Massive growth – DT One accelerated revenue growth by three times from 2017 to 2021, adding multiple new product offerings. Banking presence consequently increased 55%. Treasury now manages 100+ bank accounts with close to 30 unique banking partners. The Solution Prior to 2017, operational treasury functions were embedded in the finance function. However, following DT One’s exponential growth and international expansion, the added risk to operational cash and daily treasury operations coupled with an expanded scope of work necessitated a dedicated treasury function. In a bid to solve the problem and improve processes with a fully digitised solution, treasury determined the following objectives in advance of their RFQ process to: Improve automation and mitigate operational and regulatory risk. Reduce the staff hours spent on treasury operations. Achieve a single source of truth. Integrate and automate processes to reduce human errors, enhance checks, controls and balances as well as provide data driven analytics to the business. The strategy was put in place to improve the function of each treasury team person, advance and automate processes and fully digitise treasury technology to overcome the challenges of rapid, international growth as a company in the sophisticated and constantly evolving telecommunications space. Kyriba was selected to support the long-term growth of the company and as a SaaS solution, the finance function can scale and grow the technology as needed. The team leveraged Kyriba’s open API connectivity to gain 96% instant visibility into cash, and thus reduced idle cash by four times, gaining a yield on investment cash by two times. Best Practice and Innovation A full audit was conducted to determine the impacts of accelerated growth against the already high operational risk resulting from legacy processes and systems within the finance structure. This data guided the finance team to appoint a treasury team to manage the specialised and strategic functions around cash, liquidity and bank transactions during a rapid growth stage. A four-person treasury team was set-up with an ambition to solve “The Big Problem” and deliver more value-added services. With modern technology empowering their vision to be a strategic advisor to the business, the small but highly motivated and focussed team was able to expand their expertise and deliver advanced data analysis and decision support to the business leaders. Taking an API first approach to bank connectivity further demonstrates the best practice and innovation that solved the major problem of scalability, financial controls and strategic liquidity management for the company now and in the years to come. Bank connectivity and a consolidation of accounts’ views enabled the team to negotiate a uniform fee schedule across a single banking group despite the account location. Key Benefits Cost savings. Process efficiencies. Return on investment (ROI). Increased automation. Risk mitigated. Improved visibility. Errors reduced. Manual intervention reduced. Increased system connectivity. Future proof solution. Exceptional implementation (budget/time) – five months reduced to three months. About DT One DT One is the world’s largest network of non-cash micropayments and digital pre-pay partners. DT One’s B2B digital transfer network enables transfers for mobile top-ups, data bundles, vouchers, gift cards, utilities and a host of other prepayments, across 160+ countries. With a network of 1,800+ customers and network partners, DT One delivers smart digital connectivity solutions for over five billion mobile consumers across emerging economies, helping them maintain quality digital and social connections.

Payment fraud is a prevalent financial crime in today’s global and connected business world. It usually involves a fake or illegal money transfer committed by a criminal. It victimizes many organizations both in terms...

Payment fraud is a prevalent financial crime in today’s global and connected business world. It usually involves a fake or illegal money transfer committed by a criminal. It victimizes many organizations both in terms of financial losses and reputational damage. Types of Payment Fraud Fraud takes many forms. For consumers, some prevailing payment fraud examples are: Credit card fraud: fraudsters can steal credit card information through phishing - pretending to represent legitimate businesses and asking for card details, or skimming - installing small devices on payment terminals to record card information. Account takeover fraud: this type of fraud occurs when a criminal obtains a victim’s bank account login credentials to steal funds and/or information. Criminals can take over existing bank, credit card and ecommerce accounts, resulting in unauthorized transactions, credit card fraud and suspicious shopping sprees. Gift card fraud: gift cards are similar to cash and scammers exploit this by contacting victims with urgent situations, instructing them to purchase gift cards from specific stores, and providing the card numbers and PINs to access the loaded money, resulting in permanent loss of money for the victim. For corporations, the following types of payment fraud are commonly seen: Business email compromise (BEC): BEC scams typically begin with an urgent email sent to an employee that appears to come from a senior level official, requesting a money transfer. A variation of this scam consists of emailed invoices that appear to come from a routine supplier that have new instructions on where to send payment. Check fraud and Wire fraud: these are still the payment methods most susceptible to payment fraud today. AFP research found that 66% and 39% of financial professionals reported fraud activity via these two payment types in 2020. However, check fraud has declined in recent years as fewer organizations are using checks for B2B payments. Deepfake: voice fraud is a relatively new method of attack but one that has proven highly effective. As the name suggests, a criminal fakes the voice of somebody else with software that can successfully copy his/her voice via a small audio sample. Ransomware attacks: in a ransomware attack, a company’s internal system is compromised (usually through email phishing). Users are instructed to either pay a ransom or permanently lose access to their systems.   Who Is Responsible for Fraud Prevention in a Company? In modern enterprises, payment fraud prevention is a shared responsibility. That is also one of the reasons why it is challenging to stop payment fraud from happening. The typical payment process owner in a company lies within the office of the CFO, most often being the treasury team. There is also the Account Payable (AP) team who processes supplier payments and the Human Resources (HR) team who ensures salary payments are paid on time. These teams usually use their own specialized systems to process these payments. For example, treasury usually uses Treasury Management Systems (TMS) or a banking portal offered by a bank, while the HR team uses a payroll system due to confidentiality and data protection requirements. From an IT standpoint, the CISO office ensures that the payment systems in use fulfill the IT and cybersecurity requirements. Main Challenges with Fraud Prevention When it comes to corporate payments, there are three major areas of vulnerability in an organization that usually lead to payment fraud: Technical Vulnerability Insufficient encryption Disparate ERP or siloed back-end systems Data unsynchronization Lack of end-to-end automation Processes Vulnerability Lack of process standardization Lack of visibility Manual interventions throughout the payment process Human Vulnerability Inadequate training and lack of awareness about payment fraud Errors or lack of experience in judgment Lack of communication especially among different teams A simple rule of thumb is: The more decentralized a company is, the more manual steps are involved in the payment processes, the weaker the defense vector is, and the bigger the challenges are to prevent payment fraud. What Are the Consequences of Payment Fraud? Many high-profile fraud cases have captured media attention over the past years. They cost the victims both monetary and reputational losses. One such case was with Google and Facebook. A Lithuanian man called Evaldas Rimasauskas pleaded guilty in 2019 for committing accounts payable fraud by sending phishing emails to Google and Facebook employees with fake invoices and luring them to wire millions of dollars to his own bank accounts. The two companies were reported to have lost more than $100 million in total. Another famous fraud case that was highly visible in the media was with Nike. A former marketing manager of Nike scammed nearly $1.5 million in Nike proceeds for his own use by committing internal fraud. He was said to have forged his friend’s signature on checks and withdrew much of the money without his friend’s knowledge. Insider fraud can be very hard to prevent or detect because the signals might only be captured long after the fraud has been committed, or never detected at all. Use of Fraud Detection Solutions Today, treasury and finance professionals have many fraud detection solutions at their disposal. It is important to have control and monitoring mechanisms in place on top of employee education. The following best practices give a good start. Offer employee training programs with fraud simulation tools to increase awareness about payment fraud Design an end-to-end automated payment processes to standardize payment controls and audit to prevent fraud Standardize the workflows to lower the vulnerability coming from silos and lack of communication between the teams Adopt AI-powered real-time screening of all payments data to identify and block suspicious transactions for further validation Use of a Payment Hub to Prevent Fraud When you design workflows to prevent fraud, take the following checklist into consideration: Duplicate payment check BIC validation – including beneficiary country Bank account owner validation Sanctions list screening Payment policy compliance Payment pattern check with rules and AI For an example of how using the above controls in conjunction with Kyriba’s treasury and finance software successfully stopped payment fraud in its tracks, see how Kyriba helped prevent a payment fraud case worth of $8m.

Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS), or corporate ERP to bank connectivity as a service in treasury and corporate payments management, is to provide quick onboarding and secure connectivity services to businesses so that they can be released...

Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS), or corporate ERP to bank connectivity as a service in treasury and corporate payments management, is to provide quick onboarding and secure connectivity services to businesses so that they can be released from the workload of building and maintaining those connectors by themselves with cost efficiency. By choosing Connectivity-as-a-Service, organizations can reduce time spent on connecting ERPs to banks by as much as 80%, compared to the DIY approach. The main reason is that in today’s corporations, it is very common to build or buy a special-purpose software or a Software-as-a-Service platform in order to digitize a particular business process, treasury being one of them. Along with many of such digitalization initiatives over the years comes the challenge of system silos. Moreover, as the number of systems grows, so does the architectural complexity behind them. A by-product of such IT infrastructure growth is the lack of connectivity among different systems. From ERP to CRM to TMS, manual data transfers are still unavoidable, leading to inefficiency, inaccuracy, and insecurity in corporate information management. Version control is another issue. Even with the same software vendor, different versions of software may not be able to integrate without a significant upgrade, which requires IT resources.  S/4HAHA migration is a good example. The assessment of migrating existing bank connectivity to the new cloud and the difficulty of adding successive banks is typically one of the most underestimated areas of the project. When multiplied across a dozen partner banks, with their own flavor or proprietary requirements and connectivity standards, durations extend accordingly. Connectivity needs in Corporate Treasury Depending on the scale of a corporate, usually there are the following needs for connectivity in corporate treasury: Bank connectivity: usually this is required for corporate payments, bank relationship management, bank account management, or compliance. Bank connectivity in modern enterprises is usually done by host-to-host FTP, API or SWIFT. ERP-to-bank connectivity: recently the term ‘Embedded Treasury’ has captured a lot of attention from treasurers. In essence it means to embed banking data and payment processes into ERPs to achieve a new level of system integration and data accessibility. This can be achieved by using prebuilt ERP connectors. Open API connectivity: many system vendors today provide a suite of open API to facilitate system integration or use case innovation. By using open API companies can enhance their financial processes with less software development effort. Meanwhile, the processes can be extended to include more data points for better decision making. For example, treasury and FP&A under the office of the CFO can easily connect their systems through open API provided by the vendors and achieve new levels of data sharing. Kyriba recently partnered up with Acterys, a unified SaaS platform for analytical applications suited for financial reporting, consolidation, and planning solutions integrated with Power BI & Excel. Together the two companies are ready to support the CFO office to combine strategic analysis with operational missions to produce more accurate forecasts and predictions. Challenges with ERP to Bank Connectivity in Corporate Treasury From several surveys conducted by Kyriba and Gartner Peer Insights on the topic of connectivity among CIOs, the following challenges are shared across corporates in different industries: Resourcing, both in terms of budget and IT talent Meeting the required timeline for new system implementation or the migration of old systems Maintenance of the legacy systems which cannot easily be retired or replaced by new systems Connecting treasury or other payment systems to multiple banks with different specifications and payment formats Lack of standardization across system interfaces or lack of interoperability Cyber security, compliance, and growing threshold for privacy and data protection Find out more on the main research questions and the results of the surveys: What impacts do IT leaders expect APIs to have now and in the future? Survey: APIs-Enterprise Maturity and Use Cases What are the key considerations when IT leaders form their strategy and roadmap? Survey: IT Priorities and Technology Selection What Are the Benefits of Using Connectivity-as-a-Service? Taking into consideration the challenges and the amount of resources required to tackle them, many companies have chosen to work with a technology vendor who specializes in providing Connectivity-as-a-Service. The main benefits of working with a vendor include: Leverage preconfigured and pretested connectors for ERP to Bank connectivity. Companies use mainstream ERP systems such as SAP, D365, Oracle, or Netsuite do not have to build all these connectors one by one. Instead, they can leverage the pre-built and pre-tested bank connectivity solutions. Use the latest connectivity options such as Bank APIs and other ad hoc connectors. At Kyriba’s Marketplace, you can already find 15 real-time bank connectivity solutions to all major banks, supporting use cases of payments, statements, and transactions. Dramatically decrease the time and costs associated with system migration or maintenance. Minimize system maintenance costs by outsourcing it to technology partners Improve end-to-end automation and quality of data for better decision-making Focus IT staff productivity on initiatives driving top-line business growth ROI of Choosing Connectivity-as-a-Service Kyriba’s Value Engineering team works closely with our clients to understand how value has been realized by choosing Kyriba’s products and services. Based on Kyriba’s experience working with our clients who have various connectivity needs and the use of state-of-the-art tools and processes to evaluate the return on investment, our conclusion is that the choice to use Connectivity-as-a-Service generates tangible return on the initial investment our clients make. Below is a simple comparison to demonstrate how up to 80% reduction in integration time can be achieved by clients who choose to use Kyriba to connect to their banks instead of doing it by themselves. Examples of Using Connectivity-as-a-Service No two companies have the same IT set-up. There are many ways to start the use of Connectivity-as-a-Service. Below are a few examples from the success stories achieved by Kyriba clients. Case 1: Kyriba client Oracle Cerner chose to migrate its SWIFT BIC to the Kyriba SWIFT Service Bureau. By using this Connectivity-as-a-Service for SWIFT bank connectivity, Oracle Cerner can comply with SWIFT standards and save costs of maintaining SWIFT AL2. Outcome: the company saved 930 IT hours per year, including 410 hours of SWIFT AL2 maintenance and 520 hours of bank connectivity maintenance. Case 2: Kyriba client Adobe has 125 global users manually logging into 10+ banking portals on a daily basis to process payments and statements. By choosing Kyriba’s Connectivity-as-a-Service for bank connectivity, Adobe has achieved: Centralized repository of 24 signers tracked and 8 bank letter templates maintained 4 Banks connected for bank fee statement reporting and proactive fee management FBAR reporting information generated from Kyriba Case 3: Kyriba client Şişecam uses Kyriba’s Connectivity-as-a-Service for ERP to bank connectivity to ensure that all payment orders have to be raised via Şişecam’s ERP systems. If there is no record of a payment order in an ERP system, that payment will not be made. Workflow: Once an order has been raised on an ERP system, a payment file is created directly within Kyriba. Signatories can log in to the system to approve payments quickly and easily, using multi-factor authentication security, before the payment request will be sent out to the banks for further processing.

Bogged down by manual processes and lack of resources, the treasury team at Riot Games opted to level up their technology by implementing a TMS and an independent investment portal. Riot Games is a...

Bogged down by manual processes and lack of resources, the treasury team at Riot Games opted to level up their technology by implementing a TMS and an independent investment portal. Riot Games is a developer and publisher of many popular gaming titles, including League of Legends, which launched in 2009 and remains popular around the world some 13 years later. Other games launched by Riot in the past three years include Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, Legends of Runeterra and Wild Rift - a mobile version of League of Legends. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Riot Games has grown exponentially, with over 4,000 employees and 20 offices worldwide and has implemented many new systems and processes over the years to accommodate its explosive growth. Riot Games operates all over the world and collects revenue in various currencies. Due to its structure, revenue and cash go back to the developer’s publishing entities. While most of the company’s spending occurs in the US, several of its global publishing entities had built-up excess cash. Philip Giron, Treasury Manager, Riot Games, explains: “Outside of China, where we publish through our publishing partner, Tencent, we have five major publishing entities worldwide in South Korea, the Americas, the European Union, Singapore, and Japan. These reflect the main currencies we manage — US dollars, euros, Japanese yen, UK sterling, Korean won and the Singapore dollar. We also hold up to 10 additional currencies and transact in almost every single currency in the world, reflecting our global customer base.” Working across over 150 global bank accounts, the treasury team’s activity was highly manual, relying on spreadsheets and multiple banking platforms with various statement formats for reporting. “It was a long turnaround time to assemble the global cash reporting,” reveals Giron. “If the CFO wanted that information, I’d need a day to collect all the data. We wanted to make that information accessible to make data-driven strategic decisions.” Prior to implementation “It was a long turnaround time to assemble the global cash reporting. If the CFO wanted that information, I’d need a day to collect all the data. We wanted to make that information accessible to make data-driven strategic decisions.” Philip Giron, Treasury Manager, Riot Games Drawing up the Plan The Riot Games treasury team set out to implement a TMS for global operations, as well as focus on automating investments in Europe. In 2019, the treasury team of three began the treasury transformation project designed to dramatically close the gap between its limited resources and growing global responsibilities. The goal of the transformation was to eliminate as many manual processes as possible across cash reporting, investments and payments to gain more time for strategic analysis and put its excess, idle cash to work. “We attended a major North American treasury conference that is essentially the whole industry in one place, which was a great way to see all the products out there,” Giron says. “We spoke to many different providers and practitioners working in the space and eventually decided that Kyriba was the best fit for our needs.” Riot Games implemented Kyriba’s cash management, cash forecasting, bank account management, payments, and bank fee analysis modules as a phase one project. They also onboarded the independent investment portal ICD to access a broad selection of short-term investment products and efficiently research, trade and report on European investments with a streamlined, automated workflow. “We knew about ICD and felt it was a no-brainer for what we were looking for as far as a neutral portal with access to many funds goes,” Giron comments. “We also liked that there is no cost to using, setting up, or integrating ICD with our other treasury technology.” Attending the AFP Conference “We attended a major North American treasury conference that is essentially the whole industry in one place, which was a great way to see all the products out there. We spoke to many different providers and practitioners working in the space and eventually decided that Kyriba was the best fit for our needs.” Philip Giron, Treasury Manager, Riot Games Best Practices in Implementation Ensuring a solid project manager was assigned to the TMS implementation was paramount for the treasury team, who engaged Kyriba to shepherd the process and make sure milestones were met on time and on budget. The onboarding of ICD Portal followed a five-step process coordinated by the ICD team, and Riot Games was up and running with the investment portal in days. “These teams have many years of experience doing this, so it’s quite easy,” notes Giron. “The most I had to do was work with the ICD team to provide legal forms, and they handled the rest. The actual set-up process was seamless.” The TMS implementation was split into two phases to help the lean treasury team get set up with the technology in a way that didn’t negatively impact the day-to-day work. “Phase one was all about having the information readily available and uploaded in the TMS,” comments Giron. “While that sounds like a simple step, it was a long process as we have 150 bank accounts worldwide with up to 15 different banking relationships. We couldn’t just flip the switch and immediately have access to information – it was a work in progress.” The global nature of the Riot Games business meant that some of the banks it was onboarding into the TMS, particularly some Asian institutions, were not necessarily using the same banking standards or systems that, for example, its core North American banking partners were. Trying to navigate this inconsistency required delicate handling by the treasury team. “One of our biggest challenges was trying to get foreign banks, specifically China, to be amenable to our process and what we were trying to accomplish,” continues Giron. “Some banks would say that they didn’t operate with SWIFT or couldn’t work with Kyriba, but when we dug deeper and went up the chain of their organization, we found that they did have that capability.” With phase one complete, the treasury team has been able to move on to start phase two of its TMS implementation. This involves expanding the implementation beyond the US to its international subsidiaries and adding three more modules for cash accounting, multilateral netting and in-house banking. “The first phase was purely about getting all our information in one system,” confirms Giron. “Now that we’re entering phase two, we can start to execute on the tools that will help us manage the cash. This is only possible since we achieved realtime, centralized cash visibility.” The ICD implementation was somewhat more straightforward as, following the onboarding process, treasury simply had to switch on the portal. Having initially added two entities for training with ICD, treasury is now adding a third entity. Seizing Immediate Benefits Using Kyriba, month-end reporting for Riot Games has been reduced from three days to less than one hour. The treasury team has reduced excess cash globally, working closely with international finance teams, enabling it to increase its return on cash. On the short-term investments side, ICD Portal has enabled the treasury team to get in and out of trades quickly and easily. This all starts from the user interface experience at log-in, as Giron explains: “When you log in to ICD, I like that it’s streamlined and easy to navigate,” he says. “It gives me easy access to information on all the funds I want to explore. In the current uncertain investment market, having access to all of the fund’s data in one place, including ratings and fund holdings, allows me to make the most informed decision possible, and allows me to ensure compliance with our investment policy.” Having eliminated phone calls with each fund company directly, all trades using the portal are researched and executed in one place, with one ticket through clearing. “When we are executing on redemptions or purchases, I appreciate the ease of execution,” enthuses Giron. “There’s no red tape where you have to contact someone to approve it. For example, in just minutes, we rebalanced our MMF portfolio this morning through ICD. The transformation also benefits the accounting department, which uses the portal’s comprehensive transaction and valuation reports. “With ICD, the quick execution has freed up a lot of our time, as has the interface which allows for fast research of MMFs,” notes Giron. “Being a lean team, time is our most valuable resource. We have freed up more time to spend on cash forecasting, liquidity planning and investment portfolio analysis”. Through its global treasury transformation, Riot Games worked across departments to enhance reporting, eliminate excess cash outside of operational balances, reduce month-end reporting, from three days to less than a half day, and streamline short term investments to save time and optimize its portfolio for the best returns. Phase two of the TMS implementation will see the treasury team support its intercompany activity with technology for cash accounting, multilateral netting and in-house banking in order to optimize global cash balances. Beyond that, Giron can see a path for further integration to drive even greater efficiencies for the company: “Our finance and accounting teams use Oracle, so my vision would be to further integrate Oracle with ICD and Kyriba,” he concludes. “I know that integration is possible because we’ve talked to finance professionals who have done just that. If you can get computer systems and software to work to your favor, it makes life better and gives treasurers the time to focus on more strategic aspects of the job.” Most Valuable Resource “We have freed up more time to spend on cash forecasting, liquidity planning and investment portfolio analysis.” Philip Giron, Treasury Manager, Riot Games This article originally appeared in Treasury Management International (TMI) on November 28, 2022.

Thursday, March 9th 2023 - 7:00 AM (PST) | The economic volatility and downturn has highlighted the importance of cash and liquidity for businesses. It has become critical for finance leaders to have clear...

Thursday, March 9th 2023 - 7:00 AM (PST) | The economic volatility and downturn has highlighted the importance of cash and liquidity for businesses. It has become critical for finance leaders to have clear visibility into their liquidity so that they are able to proactively manage their cash lifecycle to ensure they can support evolving business requirements.

Is Your Business Ready for ISO 20022 Payments Migration? The lack of payment messaging standards around the globe has been a major issue for payment factory or payment hub modernization. The absence of standards...

Is Your Business Ready for ISO 20022 Payments Migration? The lack of payment messaging standards around the globe has been a major issue for payment factory or payment hub modernization. The absence of standards has resulted in expensive cross-border payments, insufficient transparency, increased fraud, and heightened security risks. Many companies have allocated extensive resources to develop local formats, yet still face a complexity that prevents them from harmonizing end-to-end processes, including payments validation and data reconciliation, for domestic and international transfers. Over the years, the adoption of the 2009 version of the ISO 20022 XML messaging standard has represented great progress. It is considered a mature format that is important for corporate payments globally. Nevertheless, companies and banks are still spending a lot of time and money supporting and maintaining local legacy formats–or even worse, proprietary formats–that pose maintenance challenges on a daily basis. Fortunately, under the joint effort of SWIFT, the European Policy Center (EPC), as well as many banks and corporations, the 2019 version of the ISO 20022 XML messaging standard could be the light at the end of the tunnel. What’s New in the Latest Version of the ISO 20022 XML? ISO 20022, first introduced in 2004, is a messaging standard that establishes a common digital language for financial data worldwide. While SWIFT has started the migration towards ISO 20022 XML messages, the standard is widely used beyond SWIFT services. Currently, most real-time payment systems are using ISO 20022, and the standard has been used for more than 10 years for SEPA Credit Transfer and Direct Debit. Additionally, ISO 20022 is used for invoicing, investment fund orders, and foreign exchange activities. ISO 20022 contains many messages and it also has yearly releases. For instance, ISO 20022 release 2009 contains the pain.001.001.03 message, the most commonly used messaging format for payment initiation. In ISO 20022 release 2019, which is the latest version, the same message has been upgraded to version 09, pain.001.001.09. When it gets adopted by a majority of organizations, the 2019 version of the ISO 20022 XML messaging standard will allow for speedy payment transactions, in part because it would eliminate complex layers of legacy payment codes. The new version provides more detailed, higher quality data, enabling better reporting, enhancing security procedures, and driving innovation by allowing financial institutions to analyze customer behaviors and design products that better fit their needs. By November 2025, SWIFT messages will be fully transitioned to ISO 20022 XML for interbank settlements. For this migration, most banks will change their infrastructure and therefore will push their corporate clients to adopt the 2019 version of the ISO 20022 XML over other local standards for payments, such as DTAZV in Germany and AFB320 in France. The process has already started in Switzerland, where SIX is promoting this format as the new Swiss standard and Credit Suisse and the Swiss National Bank are already making it available to their customers. In Europe, the EPC has announced that the new version will become the SEPA Credit Transfer format as soon as November 2023. Common Global Implementation (CGI), an initiative to simplify various payment related corporate-to-bank implementations by promoting the wider acceptance of ISO 20022 XML, has already released its specifications. Globally, this new standard will allow the transmission of rich data in a more structured manner. It will enable end-to-end tracking and reconciliation of payments, which has always been an issue with cross-border payments. Currently, over 70 countries are already in the process of adopting ISO 20022, including China, India, and Japan. Why is ISO 20022 Important to ERP-to-Bank Connectivity & Payments? With the imminent global adoption of the 2019 version of the ISO 20022 XML, organizations need to be aware of its benefits as well as its limitations, as they prepare to add it to their payment mix. For finance and IT leaders, the new standard offers a myriad of benefits in comparison to its predecessors. Adopting ISO 20022 standards helps to prevent fraud, avoid system failures, and expedite payment transactions, large and small. Use case highlights: Instant Payments: The standard enables frictionless, real-time payments by creating a global, open standard that anyone can implement on any network. Rich Data: The rich, consistent, well-structured data enabled by the new standard delivers faster transactions and helps drive innovation by allowing organizations to develop products based on customer needs. Improved Regulatory Reporting: Because the new standard requires identical formats and a higher level of detail, it creates more secure payment information that lends itself to better, faster regulatory reporting. Fraud Prevention: A standard payment format helps organizations identify fraud, including money laundering. The fact that the new format requires structured and complete addresses limits the fraud risks too. Compliance (Security Enhanced): The consistent payment format facilitates compliance with government regulatory requirements. Interoperability: The standard helps to promote interoperability for cross-border payments, improving the ability to easily exchange and make use of information. Payments Hub Upgrade: It meets the need for payment system renewal programs, ensuring alignment with global industry standardization such as SWIFT’s cross-border payments messaging migration where the MT messages will gradually be replaced by XML. Faster Reconciliation: It supports Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference (UETR) with a standardized tag, allowing the transmission of this unique id from any ERP system in a payment file to the bank and back in payment acknowledgement and bank statements. Tracking and Beneficiary Advice: The new standard improves the transmission of information through end-to-end tracking and the payment advice to the final recipients. On the flip side, while the new standard promises improved messaging interoperability between systems for the greatest number of participants, the actual experience is dependent on how individual banks set up the messaging standard internally. In other words, banks will deploy the new messaging standard differently and some workarounds will likely be necessary for seamless payment transactions. Banks* indicate time, resource, and technology constraints as major hurdles to their ISO 20022 migration. 73 percent of banks agree that technology constraints within the bank limit their ability to do more with their migration to ISO 20022.   63 percent of banks agree that budget or resource constraints limit their ability to do more with their ISO 20022 migration. Celent anticipates that the majority of banks will do just enough and be largely on time for the deadline. * Data from 51 banks surveyed across Europe Source: CELENT (2022). Survey & report: The race to ISO 20022. What Does it Mean for Your Organization? With so many tangible benefits the new standard can bring to the corporate payments, organizations should adopt it as soon as their banking partners offer it. However, according to a recent Celent survey, not all banks are equally prepared for ISO 20022 migration. As a result, Celent also found that many corporate clients have not been sufficiently informed by their banking partners on the forthcoming ISO 20022 changes and more importantly, what actions companies would need to take to plan for the changes. This lack of communication is unfortunate as corporations must also prepare their systems to send and receive the new payment format. If not, the opportunity to benefit from the richer data is lost because the extensive data in payment messages could be truncated by the end recipient due to system unreadiness and messaging incompatibility. Based on Kyriba’s experience, we foresee that it will require some effort for enterprises to get their internal systems ready for the new message format. A quick checklist includes: Cleaning up the ERP Database with More Structured Third-Party Information. As more and more countries will only allow structured addresses in cross border transfers, complete information for the beneficiaries (full names, complete addresses and even identification numbers) will become a must. SWIFT initiative, known as CBPR+ (Cross Border Payment and Reporting +), aims to provide structured addresses already in MT messages. Kyriba advised its clients to start completing the structured addresses, at least for city, zip code, and country (and for some countries, also state/province). Harmonizing the Payments Validation Workflow. As part of the workflow design, Kyriba’s recommendation to our clients is to consider implementing a fraud detection system. The rule-based and AI-powered fraud and compliance detection mechanism will remove a lot of time-consuming and error-prone manual steps to validate payments and let all stakeholders get better control over the payments processed. Creating Processes for ERP and TMS Integration and Automating End-to-end Reconciliation. By using a unique import interface, generating unique ids for each imported file, and initiating payments in formats containing these unique ids, the reconciliation process will be transformed. Acknowledgments will be integrated with a specific format (XML Pain.002.001.10) that will allow cash managers to be alerted almost immediately when a payment is rejected. With end-to-end integration, the information can be fed in real time back to ERP for quick action. How Can a Technology Partner Help? After years of working with dedication to create a vast library of proprietary formats, the Kyriba payments team sees the coming changes as a chance to get closer to global standardization. However, as a mission-critical process, any disturbance in payment processes could cause business disruption, supplier dissatisfaction, and late material deliveries. Understandably any major format change or update makes payments and IT teams apprehensive. Therefore, it pays off to understand the subject matter in advance, plan a progressive roadmap to adopt the new standard, and if needed, work with a specialist vendor to manage the whole transformation. Kyriba is always at the forefront of formats and payments innovation, with proven ability to quickly support the latest formats required by the market. Kyriba clients can already seamlessly exchange payment transaction data with Credit Suisse using the new standard. Kyriba also supports SEPA CT XML ISO 20022 version 2019, has developed the CGI standard version XML ISO 20022 version 2019 format, and is ready to support the SWIFT migration from MT to MX messages via SWIFT Interact. To illustrate the efforts it usually takes to develop payment templates, let’s deep dive into the process: All payment templates must be individually developed and tested with each bank Developers must coordinate all testing with each bank’s technical team Format typically fails first test, multiple rounds of testing are required with each format Companies must work on each bank’s timeline and time zone Average timeline from development to production is 3-6 months for a single payment format Kyriba offers its clients a pre-built and pre-tested payment format library with over 50,000 payment scenarios ready for use, covering all major banks across the globe. Based on Kyriba’s Value Engineering Projects with our clients, Kyriba clients are looking at an average saving of $100,000 from this time-consuming and labor-intensive process. If you are in the middle of the ISO 20022 XML migration or about to start the project, contact one of our payment experts today and we look forward to supporting you in your future payment journey. References Common Global Implementation (CGI) Initiative European Payments Council (2022): Guidance on the Migration to the 2019 Version of the ISO 20022-based XML Messaging Standard ISO (2020) Introduction to ISO 20022: Universal Financial Industry Message Scheme SWIFT (2022) UETR SWIFT (2022) What is ISO 20022? Sources CELENT (2022) Survey & Report: The Race to ISO 20022 The SWIFT Standards Team (2020): ISO 20022 for Dummies (5th) John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Watch our on-demand webinar to learn more about Beam Suntory's treasury and payments transformation journey, including using the Kyriba Payment Hub for auto converting ISO 20022 XML format.

Cash is still king — but the value of cash and forecasted liquidity held or planned by the company can only be realized via cash visibility, when the treasurer knows what cash is available,...

Cash is still king — but the value of cash and forecasted liquidity held or planned by the company can only be realized via cash visibility, when the treasurer knows what cash is available, where it is held and what flows are expected in the future. However, all too often, treasurers do not have access to their organization’s full cash picture. There are many good reasons for working with multiple banks across different markets, but complex banking structures and sprawling geographical footprints can make it difficult to achieve complete cash visibility into current balances, never mind impacting the accuracy of cash and liquidity forecasting. Luckily, achieving full cash visibility over cash is not an insurmountable goal. This eBook outlines the action plan treasurers can take to gain full visibility over their cash, from gaining a clear view of current bank accounts to increasing the accuracy of the cash forecast. "More than a quarter of global cash is not visible to corporate treasury on a daily basis.” Source: PWC’s Global Treasury Benchmarking Survey   What is Cash Visibility? Cash visibility is critical to making effective decisions. Armed with clear visibility over the company’s current cash position and future liquidity flows, treasurers can: Invest cash strategically Support the CEO, CFO in strategic initiatives with the right levels of cash and liquidity Use cash management structures effectively Minimize debt and interest expense Make better informed hedging decisions Reduce bank fees Bolster treasury’s reputation within the organization Key Vocabulary Cash Visibility means knowing what cash the company currently has and where it is held. It also means being able to predict what cash the company will have in the future. Cash Budgeting generally performed by FP&A, is more focused beyond one year and has an increased emphasis on free, cash-flow guidance. The reconciliation of indirect budget-based forecasts with direct cash flow forecasts are increasingly managed quarterly. Cash Positioning is concerned with today and often the next five business days. The purpose is to manage daily liquidity to ensure shortfalls are covered and surpluses are concentrated to earn some yield on excess cash. Cash and Liquidity Forecasting typically extends cash positioning with horizons anywhere from one week to one year. Forecasting leverages multiple data sources to increase confidence in the projected liquidity balances so that better cash decisions can be made. Why is Cash Visibility Important? Cash visibility is the lifeblood of any organization. A company that has clear visibility can invest or deploy cash strategically while minimizing debt and interest expenses. Accurate visibility also increases the effectiveness of hedging decisions and enables the treasurer to mitigate their organization’s risk to exposures while supplying the CFO with funding in support of strategic initiatives. Conversely, a lack of clear visibility can result in numerous issues, including: Insufficient buffer of surplus cash to absorb unforeseen expenses Idle cash, lower returns on investments Insufficient return on cash Higher than necessary borrowing costs Unnecessary bank fees and costs Inadequate support for CFO strategic decision-making Less competitive results and less effective treasury organization as a partner for finance Related Resource Unreliable cash visibility and forecasting is the treasury issue that causes CFOs the most concern. "The top benefits of using Kyriba are the visibility that it provides, the timeliness with which it provides that visibility, and the ease of use, in that it provides it all in one simple one-stop shop.” TRISH FISHER Director, Treasury Operations, WeWork The Path to Cash Visibility Whether the treasurer is seeking to pay down external borrowing or maximize return on investments, the first step is to know what cash is currently available. But that’s not all, treasurers also need to be able to predict future liquidity flows and keep the right people informed. Achieving cash visibility is possible by using 5 definitive steps to move towards greater cash visibility and flexibility: Identify and Record Without an inventory of your banks and accounts, a complete cash visibility picture is unattainable. Prioritize and Rationalize Identify where to begin, difficult regions or banks, and determine accounts for closure. Automate Bank Connectivity and Reporting Harness the most costeffective and leading connectivity methods to access data from banks in an automated way. Generate and Streamline Cash Positioning with Liquidity Forecasting Accurately predict cash flows over the coming hours and days, and match actuals to forecasts to speed up daily reconciliation and cash application. Enhance and Optimize Future Cash Flow with Liquidity Planning The ability to see a holistic, aggregated view of cash and liquidity sources creates more accurate views and predictable free cash flow. Knowing your predictable liquidity creates a better understanding of any future liquidity shortfalls. Step One: Identify and Record Regardless of the scale and breadth of your organization’s banking and accounts structure, it is important to understand the banking landscape of all business units and subsidiaries. Whether operating in a domestic or international capacity, banking relationships. the accounts, the purpose of those accounts, and the core attributes of the bank, the accounts and their purpose all are necessary to begin a cash visibility project. This has many implications for the success of global cash visibility projects, such as: Establishing a full inventory of managed accounts, ensuring all balances are identified Ensuring the proper scope and prioritization of your project Optimization and rationalization across banks and accounts Effective comparisons and evaluations across banks for technical capabilities for connectivity, tech, regional coverage and other important services An effective bank relationship and bank account management database is the starting point for successful projects, but particularly when it comes to cash reporting. Where cash is rolling up in concentration or pooling structures, how funds are being transferred, purpose of the accounts, and even regulatory limitations all have a say in how you engage with your banking partners and the extent of cash flexibility. Step Two: Prioritize and Rationalize Bank reporting rationalization ensures accounts are identified and open for the right reasons. Often, particularly in international or more complex organizations, accounts are opened in haste to support business development and decisions. This is often necessary for statutory purposes, or to deal with an unforeseen acquisition or reorganization. However, if this situation exists, it’s possible cash and liquidity is not well defined or identified, as well. Organizations must understand and rationalize accounts, prior to moving into the next ‘step’, but this can continue throughout the project in parallel, too. The focus here is on creating a streamlined, but effective banking and account structure that fulfills treasury’s mission of safeguarding and optimizing cash, while still meeting specific business unit or subsidiary’s requirements. Bank improvements in reporting quality as well as the leading application of configuration within leading treasury management systems, creates the scenarios where previously opened, special-purpose accounts are no longer required to serve special purposes such as revenue, collections, treasury, or payables accounts. With banks being able to provide significantly improved quality of liquidity information within bank statements and other special purpose reports, and the speed of that data increasing through APIs, some companies can conduct business with one or two bank accounts per legal entity, business unit or country office. The focus here is on creating a streamlined, but effective banking and account structure that fulfills treasury’s mission of safeguarding and optimizing cash, while still meeting specific business unit or subsidiary’s requirements. Step Three: Automate Bank Connectivity and Reporting Visibility over multiple accounts requires automated bank connectivity. Companies of all sizes are often challenged in finding and implementing the right bank connectivity solution and is a critical driver of lack of visibility into cash. On the surface, bank connectivity is easy, so long as treasury teams prioritize the following: Security Automation Speed and Cost There are a variety of connectivity options to deliver security, automation and cost objectives. Yet, not all connectivity options are alike. Bank connectivity comes in a number of different forms, including: Host-to-host solutions, such as FTP, or leading practice connections using application programming interfaces (APIs) Country or region-specific protocols such as EBICS, Editran, Zengin Global cooperatives like SWIFT , which offer flexibility to manage your own connectivity or use a service provider and fully managed service bureaus The ideal connectivity solution for an organization will actually depend on factors such as bank and payment transaction volumes, bank account structures, and the location of company banks. These characteristics — in combination with what technologies the banks can (and prefer) to support — will drive the ideal connectivity choices. In practice, a combination of connectivity methods is likely the best solution to optimize costs while maintaining automation and security. Without utilizing varying connectivity methods, the company may spend more than necessary and potentially sacrifice information transparency. While managing multiple connectivity methods on your own may seem complex, connectivity-as-aservice models gives organizations faster global access to banks with pre-configured and existing connections. This coverage of the connective landscape for banks saves effort and time spelling big cost savings for the project phase as well as ongoing productive operations. When you select the right vendor to simplify bank connectivity by taking care of everything — from building connections, monitoring availability, and delivering automation all while providing new technology like APIs, organizations win and save money. Step Four: Generate and Streamline Cash Positions and Liquidity Forecasts The goal of cash positioning is to establish a realtime view of cash at any point in time and to be able to reconcile prior-day forecasts to enable the deployment of cash throughout the organization more quickly and accurately. Effective cash positioning reduces idle cash, creating opportunities to earn immediate yield while providing certainty over risk exposures that cash is exposed to. As a process, cash positioning involves gaining a real-time view of the company’s cash position at any moment in the current day(s) by consolidating a number of different sources and replacing old data with more up-to-date information. With today’s APIs gaining the real-time, near-instantaneous view of cash and liquidity is easier than ever. Within treasury technology, building the cash position typically involves combining a number of data sources: Prior-day balance — automatically downloaded from banks at the start of the day Current-day bank reporting — automatically downloaded from banks throughout the day, either at specific times (e.g., 1st or 2nd presentment) or as a constant stream of data via an API Expected payables and receivables — from the organization’s ERP and reported/cleared from bank statement details Treasury financial transactions and settlements — which are integrated within the treasury system Building a cash position is just the start. After building a cash position, it is then necessary to maintain and reconcile it. Maintaining the cash position involves updating and replacing cash flow data with more accurate information via intra-day updates from internal systems and banks. Reconciliation of the cash position is the matching of actuals to forecast flows, which is often done first thing in the morning as a part of typical treasury processes. The goal is to identify and understand surprises — for example, if a transaction did not happen yesterday then it may happen today, meaning the unreconciled variance needs to be rolled into today’s position. For many organizations, this process can be time consuming, so rules-based automation or artificial intelligence can be introduced to simplify the process. Key requirements for cash positioning include interactive dashboards and clear communication within — and outside of the treasury organizations: Interactive dashboards enable cash managers to drill down through multiple levels into any component of the cash position. Positions should be viewable by multiple dimensions in real-time by line item, bank, entity, currency, etc. Communication within and outside of treasury is critical. The treasurer, CFO and finance personnel managing subsidiaries all require cash visibility, so delivering visual and detailed reconciled cash positions is a critical outcome of daily cash positioning. Effective cash positioning and liquidity planning leads to numerous benefits for the finance organization: Keeping the CFO and the Board up to date with reliable and accurate cash position information Mobilizing cash across the organization for funding and investment purposes Enabling cash management processes such as pooling, sweeping and intercompany borrowing Optimizing interest income and expense via better informed borrowing and lending operations Reducing external borrowing by using internal cash resources effectively Step Five: Enhance, Optimize and Predict Cash and Liquidity While cash positioning can be used to predict cash flows in the coming hours and days, cash forecasting with liquidity planning information creates more accurate, longer horizons beyond weeks, extending into months, years. Cash forecasting must not only be accurate, but predictive using more historical and current data to be truly effective. Without complete confidence in projected forecasts, the cash forecast cannot support treasury in improving cash utilization. Cash forecasting is needed to help treasury invest cash over longer maturities, secure borrowing to fund operations and make more effective hedging decisions. And confidence in the cash forecast is the difference between achieving these outcomes and hoping to do so. So why do so many companies struggle to achieve an accurate forecast? Common challenges include a lack of accurate data sources, lost results from past forecasts, ineffective methodologies and a lack of alignment with performance metrics. If a forecast isn’t reliable, treasury is unable to trust it and therefore cannot use the cash forecast to make critical decisions. It is crucial to incorporate data sources from treasury, like financial transactions along with all the normal P2P and O2C cycle flows from the ERP Cash forecasting and Liquidity Planning creates future views of anticipated free cash flow and helps all of finance from FP&A to the CFO better strategic accuracy in decision-making. Identify, Find the Data Consolidate the Information Measuring Forecast Accuracy Predictive Analytics: Optimize Your Forecast Find the Data: Collaborating with Other Teams Forecasting incorporates key data points from elsewhere in the business so that effective collaboration can be administered between AP, FP&A, IT and regional controllers who own valuable forecasts data and/or administer systems to enhance forecast visibility. This collaboration is essential in making sure everyone involved knows what they are expected to provide with executive oversight to ensure that collaboration is prioritized. Consolidating Forecast Data Automating the integration of forecast data into a single system of record is the next critical factor in achieving effective forecasting. In many cases, source data may come from various ERP modules or in some cases other special purpose systems like procurement or revenue recognition/accounts receivable. In the past and in some situations, spreadsheet data to augment or provide coverage for areas or business units without systems could be a source, too. While consolidating data into a single system could be an IT-intensive exercise, best practice is to eliminate the need for internal IT resources, reducing the cost and time required to integrate systems. This can be done by having pre-built connectivity and integration through APIs provided by your treasury system. Measuring Forecast Accuracy The final piece of cash forecasting is to measure the accuracy of the cash forecast at a detailed level. Measuring forecast performance is critical to understanding how effective each line item and source of information was, offering valuable insight into where the forecast can be improved. This analysis must be done at a detailed level. For example, measuring accuracy before and after a 90-day/13- week period can hide many anomalies and offers no meaningful conclusions. Many organizations will measure week over week, while some will drill down at a daily level. Once accuracy is measured, the treasury team must implement a feedback loop to effect meaningful change. Regional controllers, for example, can only improve if presented with detailed facts. Further, standardized KPIs — that ideally would form a component of performance reviews and compensation calculations — go a long way in reinforcing desired forecast behavior. This is where commitment from the CFO will drive effective forecast performance. Optimize: Predictions for your Cash and Liquidity Once the foundation is established for forecasting your liquidity with the prior steps, the next level naturally leads to identifying the technology solution that will offer your organization and team the support and improvements for your liquidity forecasting. Technology can do more to provide value through expanding the horizon of your forecast, depth of insight, accuracy, and enhanced user experience with information already within your organization’s grasp. Through tools that leverage artificial intelligence companies today should be more advanced and be capable of: Create predictive dashboards and enhanced reporting Cash forecasts with risk models built-in Identify optimum cash cushion, draw-down levels, and investment levels Characteristics to look for when evolving and upleveling your forecasting efforts should include looking to solutions using AI-based predictive analytics for forecasting including calculations based on risk models that give treasury and FP&A teams the optimal cash cushion. Additionally, look for solutions giving you: Cash flow by level of confidence Recommendations for optimal investment strategy Predict liquidity requirements To successfully deploy an AI-driven predictive forecasting model, organizations must prepare structured and normalized historical data. Machine learning algorithms will identify patterns within the data to make predictions about when, for example, customers will actually remit payment. This AI-predicted data stream will align with other forecast data sources to deliver a more intelligent cash forecast to predict future liquidity needs. Human interaction remains important to ensure liquidity forecasting and planning aligns with internal risk policies of the team and organization. AI is a tool to complement, rather than replace, treasury teams as they execute more complex tasks and processes. In this role, AI is a critical piece in the drive to towards real-time treasury decision making and the progressions towards 24/7 liquidity management. Optimizing Cash Visibility Benefits Achieving full cash visibility takes time and effort, but the rewards are significant. Armed with a complete, accurate and up-to-date picture of the current cash position and liquidity planning flows, treasurers can: Make timely and confident decisions about activities, including investments, borrowing, cash concentration and hedging Pay down external borrowing with a clearer view of the cash available Invest strategically with a clear picture of current and future flows Reduce bank fees by closing or combining redundant bank accounts or negotiating with banks from a position of knowledge Minimize debt and interest expense by making the best use of internal cash and reducing external borrowing Gain a clearer picture of risk exposures and manage those risks more effectively Optimize planning of borrowing and lending operations Increase effectiveness of hedging by ensuring decisions are based on complete pictures of current balances and planned future transactions Cash Visibility – Final Thoughts The future of treasury technology is here and advancing rapidly; some banks have deployed their own APIs to integrate with their customers’ systems. New platforms are opening new products and services for corporate customers. One of these innovations is the movement towards real-time bank reporting. In many parts of the world, intra-day reporting happens less than twice per day, and in some cases not at all, meaning that daily cash positioning is largely driven by prior-day reporting and expectations of clearings throughout the day. Real-time bank reporting, delivered only by APIs, is the future and will be a game-changer for cash managers looking to achieve instant cash visibility into accounts. Additionally, Liquidity Planning extends the value of real-time treasury with the inclusion of cash, treasury instruments, planning information and liability information to deliver longer range strategic decisions by the CFO. Combined with real-time payments, treasury teams will be in an enviable position of not only having real-time views into bank accounts but also being able to mobilize cash domestically — and eventually cross border — within seconds. The transformation to real-time reporting will further pressure treasury teams to employ the right processes and analysis to effectively manage cash information in real time. It will be a change for those organizations that lack modern treasury technology, but an opportunity for enabled organizations to earn a competitive advantage in the utilization and deployment of cash. How Kyriba Can Help Kyriba can support you in achieving full visibility over cash. Kyriba helps organizations reduce the cost and complexity of bank connectivity — whether a company is connecting via SWIFT, using APIs, leveraging country protocol or using a combination of channels prioritizing security, automation and cost minimization. Organizations can easily keep track of signatories, manage workflows and store documents thanks to the control over all global bank accounts given by Kyriba’s bank relationship management solution. Additionally, companies can maximize the accuracy of their cash and liquidity reporting with Kyriba’s detailed and flexible variance analysis and feedback loop to forecast sources. With a full picture of current balances and future flows, you’ll be better positioned to make confident decisions about cash.   Want to learn more about how to achieve cash visibility for better cash forecasting? Check out this webinar to hear Kelkoo Group, a leading e-commerce company, shares their best practices and the payoffs of superior cash forecasting.

As we leave 2022 behind us, we find 2023 starting with both high volatility and increased expectations for managing risks. What does this vulnerability mean to treasurers? What types of outcomes should we expect...

As we leave 2022 behind us, we find 2023 starting with both high volatility and increased expectations for managing risks. What does this vulnerability mean to treasurers? What types of outcomes should we expect across the domains of credit, FX price volatility, elevated inflation, and increasing interest rates?

The IDC White Paper commissioned by Kyriba validates the emergence of a new practice area in Enterprise IT that includes risk management, payments, real-time connectivity, treasury management and working capital optimization. Download this report...

The IDC White Paper commissioned by Kyriba validates the emergence of a new practice area in Enterprise IT that includes risk management, payments, real-time connectivity, treasury management and working capital optimization. Download this report to understand more about the emerging trends and critical areas of practice that define how leading companies can outperform in operational efficiency, technology adoption, and process maturity. Enterprise Liquidity Management: 51% of leaders can produce a consolidated view of cash and liquidity in under one hour compared to 8% of the less equipped companies; Risk Reduction: 79% of leaders have implemented very effective payment fraud prevention and 69% of them effectively hedge to protect their liquidity; Real-Time Decisions: 93% of leaders leverage real-time insights, while 85% of them have integrated data from partners and third-party members into their enterprise platforms. Situation Overview For CFOs, treasurers, and corporate boards, the COVID-19 pandemic represented a moment of clarity. Seemingly overnight, CFOs were faced with a crisis bigger in many ways than the 2008 financial crisis. In the space of days, treasurers had to shift from managing long-term strategic initiatives of the business to ensuring immediate access to cash to fund basic business operations. Corporate finance leaders long burdened by dwindling IT budgets and limited head count were forced to lean heavily on their treasury and cash management tools. Unfortunately, some treasurers were hampered greatly by their legacy software packages, thwarted by a lack of agility and visibility with their legacy software. Yet, as with all major events, CFOs are often the powerful catalyst for change. The role of the CFO was already changing, but now, because of the past year, the CFO’s environment has changed as well. Corporate finance leaders long burdened by dwindling IT budgets and limited head count were forced to lean heavily on their treasury and cash management tools. Key Pain Points for Today’s Liquidity Management Teams To better understand these changes, IDC conducted a survey of more than 800 corporate finance leaders and practitioners in August 20211 to explore the emerging importance corporate finance leaders are assigning to liquidity management, both during times of crisis and to leverage opportunities for growth. The results of the survey were compelling in many aspects including findings that strongly indicate urgency for CFOs, treasurers, and other financial leaders to design and deploy strategic initiatives to manage liquidity holistically. Effective and efficient liquidity management is among the top priorities for survey respondents2. Here are a few reasons driving increased urgency for liquidity management for treasurers and other financial leaders: Ineffective communication of key treasury/financial metrics to key stakeholders through the company. Many financial leaders struggle to gather the data needed to effectively surface the key metrics to the executive teams and board members. A major part of this issue is the relative lack of real-time access to liquidity data. The survey shows that less than 30% of treasurers can leverage treasury insights in real time. Managing points of revenue leakage including fraud and payment optimization. Given the current environment of uncertainty, financial leaders are doubling their focus on areas of revenue leakage including bank fees/changes and fraud management issues. Only 42% of leaders would characterize their ability to protect their cash/liquidity against fraud as very effective. Given the average company will experience 5–10 fraud incidents per year, the impact on liquidity/cash is immense. Fraud is not the only source of revenue leakage, according to the survey; the reduction of transaction costs and fees paid to third-party payment providers was among the top 5 priorities for treasurers seeking to improve their ability to move cash and liquidity. Managing constant regulatory changes. The regulatory landscape is in constant flux for treasury operations including VAT changes, open banking implementation, and upcoming LIBOR changes. The CFO must have the tools to cope with these regulatory shifts. It seems that CFOs understand the urgency around this as the survey shows that increasing the budget for treasury technology and tools is the number 1 priority over the next two to three years. Liquidity Management Emerges as a Practice Area The events of 2020 have forced CFOs to prioritize business resiliency and continuity by optimizing liquidity management. This will mean a greater focus on working capital management3 including sourcing external funding and providing financing for critical suppliers efficiently. Given the current economic uncertainty, cash and liquidity management have been top of mind for financial leaders. The pressure to maintain liquidity is tremendous as companies of all sizes fight to retain market position and, in some cases, simply stay alive. As a result, businesses have found themselves needing to reforecast their liquidity and cash flow more frequently (weekly or even daily). However, this is a difficult proposition for any company considering the following survey data points, according to the IDC survey of more than 800 corporate finance leaders: Enterprise liquidity management is a “practice area” for 15% of the organizations. Survey leaders are well underway to operationalizing the building blocks of enterprisewide liquidity management (see Figure 1). Only one in eight companies has extensive visibility into the company’s current cash positions (i.e., real-time view of more than 90% of cash). Less than 5% of organizations can reliably forecast cash beyond three months, with most companies being able to only reliably forecast their company’s cash position out to four weeks. Further, less than 20% of organizations can forecast their company’s liquidity beyond one month. Only half (51%) of the businesses were able to build a consolidated view of their cash and liquidity within the same day of the request. In addition to being able to forecast and reforecast quickly and efficiently, financial leaders found that they desperately needed the ability to simulate future what-if scenarios and to create plans based on those what-if scenarios4. The benefit of this capability is that business leaders can remain in lockstep around core business objectives even as the business environment changes rapidly. Unfortunately, many financial leaders don’t have the tools to support scenario planning for liquidity, and as such, they must cope with limited visibility for decision making. The most prominent area of impact is in decision making for treasurers and their executive teams. CFOs with limited visibility are slower to make decisions regarding money movement, internal funding of projects, or M&A activity. Furthermore, a lack of visibility can even impact the bottom line as companies may choose to be less aggressive in moving money into/out of the exchange markets and may opt for expensive external funding sources unnecessarily. Managing Liquidity Enterprisewide Requires Unification More and more, organizations are coming to the realization that liquidity management is not only a critical aspect of functioning in this “new normal” but also a team sport. Organizations must have a unified approach to all data, processes, and human capital related to liquidity management5. Here are the key characteristics of an enterprisewide unified liquidity management process: Centralized liquidity / cash data The centralization of liquidity data streamlines financial operation, allowing for better control for financial leaders. Centralization provides financial leaders with the opportunity to standardize cash management across all legal entities, reduce the number of bank accounts in use, and provide a more holistic view of bank or FX exposures. Deep liquidity analytics Having access to deep analytics provides users with the ability to better predict future liquidity. More importantly, it allows them the chance to find patterns or overlooked items that have business significance (e.g., identifying cash as a revenue-generating asset and monitoring bank fees and deposit rates). Partnering environment Financial line-of-business professionals are often left on an island. This is often the case for finance directors, controllers, and heads of accounting. In fact, only 20% of survey respondents have their CEO as their champion who initiates unified liquidity management initiatives. The key to executive participation goes beyond simply getting the CEO involved in liquidity management decisions. The key here is to develop a partnering environment for all operational decision makers and stakeholders. This can be exceedingly difficult without the proper tools to support partnering and collaboration across business leaders. Dedicated tools to quickly expose key liquidity metrics to all stakeholders within the business are essential. Seamless integration Data must flow between all the relevant cash functions, including treasury, accounts payable, accounts receivable, FP&A, order management, and procurement6. In addition, the data must flow outside of the finance teams as well including investors and lenders, certain government agencies, credit rating organizations, and evens to certain customers and suppliers7. Only then will financial leaders be able to gain a holistic view of the organization’s current cash/liquidity position. Real-time massive data Finance leaders need real-time information to optimize decision making, but often they must wait till the end of day/period/quarter to get an accurate and holistic view of the current state of enterprise liquidity. Today’s liquidity managers need real-time data to build accurate forecasts and market simulations8. Real time is also essential in effective communication of the business cash position between stakeholders. Follow the Leader The process of managing treasury at the corporate level is complex and ever changing. In these cases, it is not unusual for CFOs and their treasury managers to reach out to gather advice from trusted sources. Leader companies, as defined by the survey, are more likely to reach out to their fintech partners and their accounting/audit partners for guidance than their laggard counterparts9. This is an example of how leader companies create a road map for other companies to follow. Here are a few other areas where leaders are blazing a trail for other companies: Involvement of the top management: A unified liquidity management strategy, when done properly, incorporates feedback from all departments. In short, a unified liquidity management strategy demands a unified approach from top finance leaders and even from the broader business leaders. For example, sales and supply chain have a massive impact on liquidity. As such, the leadership in these areas must also move in a coordinated fashion regarding liquidity management for the business. Visibility for financial leaders and decision makers: Leaders are significantly more aware of their real-time cash availability. Over 79% of leaders were able to get >75% visibility of past liquidity compared with <20% of laggards. Over 75% of all firms can predict their cash up to four weeks reliably; however, beyond four weeks is a struggle for all firms. The logistics of cash and liquidity: All (100%) leaders are very efficient at using pooling and sweeping to manage cash and liquidity; almost no laggards are. Leaders are focused on increasing the adoption of new and existing payment systems. Keeping cash and liquidity protected: Close to 100% of leaders are effective at using business continuity and contingency planning, payment fraud protection, and hedging compared with 35–55% of laggards. Leaders are focused on greater digitalization of end-to-end payment authorization. Setting financial operation up to grow cash and liquidity: Nearly all (99%) leaders have adopted business intelligence techniques to make better decisions regarding liquidity compared with 25% of laggards. Close to 100% of leaders are effective at using business continuity and contingency planning, payment fraud protection, and hedging compared with 35–55% of laggards. Benefits of Enterprise Liquidity Management Liquidity and cash management will be important to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment going forward. Importantly, liquidity management is essential amid any rapidly changing business environment, whether it is a global crisis, supply chain disruption, shifts in a competitive environment, or rapid internal growth as seen with many technology companies. Here are the key benefits of a cohesive and unified enterprise liquidity management strategy: Improved visibility: During the height of the pandemic, business decisions needed to be made within a matter of hours. Unfortunately, in the survey, IDC found that about 50% of organizations need more than one full day to build a consolidated view of their cash and liquidity. Decisions like layoffs and supplier payments had to be made quickly, and in nearly half the cases, according to the survey data, decisions were made without a consolidated current view of cash and liquidity. Companies can’t see upcoming shortfalls or dips in cash flow, which limits their ability to invest in long-term business initiatives like digital transformation, expand into a new geographic market, migrate to a new technology platform, or broaden product and service offerings. Better risk management: Today’s financial leaders are swimming in data and are finding FX, with all its moving parts, to be particularly difficult. Speed is another area of concern for treasurers that desire the ability to move money around the clock and in real time into and out of currency markets. However, with increased speed comes the need for more powerful real-time risk management capabilities. To highlight this, liquidity risk and fraud risk, collectively, were the most important strategic commitments, for financial leaders, to pursue over the next two to three years. More effective compliance: The tax and regulatory environment is constantly changing directly and significantly impacting treasury management processes. Today’s liquidity management professionals must be proactive to understand how these will impact treasury and other financial operations today and how they may impact these operations in the future. Greater process efficiency: The role of the average liquidity management professional is rapidly changing. While cash management and cash forecasting continue to be strategic priorities, liquidity managers and CFOs must also now focus on supply chain finance, insurance, and commodities. Even amid a period of expanding roles and responsibilities, many liquidity managers find themselves working with the same number of resources. The need to do “more with less” among financial professionals represents an opportunity for financial management technology vendors. According to the IDC survey, currently, 77% of financial leaders felt they lack either skills, head count, or budget to modernize their financial operation. Greater flexibility in financing: Businesses with an enterprise liquidity operation are better able to take advantage of a wider spectrum of asset-backed debt solutions including invoice financing, lines of credit, and demand loans. The visibility and control provided by unified coordinated liquidity management allow financial leaders greater working capital options. Further, this financing flexibility also provides a boost in business resilience, which is essential in times of uncertainty. As a result, establishing a receivables financing program was the top priority to improve cash and liquidity enterprisewide. The visibility and control provided by unified coordinated liquidity management allow financial leaders greater working capital options. APIs Unify the Practice of Holistic Liquidity Management The benefits listed previously and the road map laid out in the Follow the Leader section are all predicated on the smooth and rapid flow of data between various stakeholders and their corresponding applications. Specifically, unified liquidity management demands that the data from back-office applications be made available for processing and analysis. In many ways, topics such as cash management, liquidity forecasting, and treasury management efficiency all stem from robust data management practices and tools. The importance of data management has put the spotlight on application programming interfaces (APIs) and the promise they hold when deployed properly. The survey reveals that nearly 88% of respondents consider the adoption of APIs as important or very important. Liquidity management applications exist within a spiderweb of adjacent back-office applications and external data sources. Also, the liquidity/cash management process is a collection point for data from other multiple back-office systems/processes. Working capital management is an example of a process where data must be gathered from multiple systems/processes (e.g., ERP, procurement, accounts payable, reconciliation, and inventory). This interdependency places heightened importance on the smooth flow of data between these systems. This is where application programming interfaces become essential for liquidity management teams. The value of APIs can potentially extend beyond the four walls of the organization. APIs can be leveraged to incorporate external data sources to sharpen financial agility in areas such as FX, banking payments data, credit decisioning data, and even geopolitical factors that may impact the global flow of goods. Yet, according to the survey, just three of five companies are using APIs to integrate and optimize their internal system infrastructure (e.g., ERP, TMS). Further, a similar percentage uses APIs to extract/analyze internal data for reporting/management (e.g., dashboards). Leaders are always looking to adopt technology to support efficiency and agility in treasury operations. It is one of the essential differences between leaders and their laggard counterparts. For leaders, APIs are a core element of liquidity management operation. For example, 92% of leaders consider the adoption of APIs important or very important compared with 58% of laggards. APIs from a Global Perspective Major technology and economic hubs in Europe are significantly lagging behind the global average in terms of API adoption, according to the survey data. This represents hesitancy among major European Union (EU) players to adopt APIs (see Figure 2). Data residency and data privacy initiatives within Europe have tempered the demand slightly for cloud-native financial applications. However, this is changing rapidly as initiatives like the EU-funded project Open Clouds for Research Environments (OCRE) continue to grow and aid in accelerating cloud adoption in Europe. APIs Are Only the Beginning APIs, while important, are only the beginning. They are simply pipes that allow data to flow between systems, but it is not until this flow of data is harnessed that the real power of APIs emerges. APIs can potentially form the foundation of a platform where liquidity analysis and insights are harvested and shared with key stakeholders in real time. As such, the API layer must be paired with an additional layer of software that allows for data to be analyzed and structured into actionable insights. In a sense, APIs move financial data to a larger financial operating system where financial leaders get the business-critical information they need to make liquidity management decisions in real time. Future Outlook Liquidity Management Has Changed Permanently in the Past 24 Months CFOs and treasury managers suddenly find themselves facing a new reality where liquidity management is more strategic and more critical to the business than ever before. As a result, there will be permanent changes to the finance department going forward, including: The velocity of liquidity flow data will increase. Over 50 countries have adopted some form of real-time payment schemes in the past few years, with more to come. This has dramatically increased the speed at which treasury payments can move. This increases the need for improved security and enhanced reporting tools to manage enriched data sets from real-time payment platforms. Liquidity management becomes more essential. The pandemic will force treasurers to prioritize business resiliency and continuity by optimizing liquidity management. This will mean a greater focus on working capital management including sourcing external funding and providing financing for critical suppliers efficiently. The role of the CFO continues to expand. The role of today’s CFO is rapidly changing and expanding. While cash management and cash forecasting continue to be strategic priorities, CFOs are also increasing their focus on supply chain finance, insurance, and commodities. However, many financial leaders find themselves working with the same number of resources. Today’s financial management professionals require more advanced and innovative technology to keep up with the challenge. There will be a greater focus on advanced technology. To keep pace with rapidly changing market dynamics, treasurers will require their tools to be powered/enabled by cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning (ML), big data and analytics, microservices, and enhanced application programming interfaces. Digital banking / payments will be a focus area. Payment management was critically important during the pandemic and will remain so in the post-pandemic treasury world. As a result, digital banking platforms and bank connectivity will be a strong focus area for treasurers going forward. Finance departments long burdened by dwindling IT budgets and limited head count were forced to lean heavily on their treasury and cash management tools during the recent uncertainty. Unfortunately, some finance departments were hampered greatly by their legacy technology. But the survey data reveals that this is set to change (see Figure 3). Here are a few key future technology trends that will shape enterprise liquidity management going forward: Artificial intelligence (AI) is highlighted. Financial leaders for product-centric companies often must move quickly to secure supply chain obligations and financing. Many turned to advanced technologies such as machine learning and advanced analytics to help lower the data analysis/management burden and allow for more accurate decisions regarding financial management at speed. Cloud is leading the way. The most obvious takeaway is that organizations are planning on spending more on SaaS versus traditional (on-premises, single-tenant, and managed hosted) software. IDC research shows that organizations are already seeing a shift toward the public cloud for treasury, FP&A, and accounting software, but the survey results also suggest that this trend is accelerating considering recent disruptions. Aim to bridge the gap between finance and IT: For finance leaders, the top hurdle to digital transformation is the friction between often restrictive IT/security policies and the desire of the finance department to move quickly and be more agile. In IDC’s December 2020 Worldwide C-Suite (CXO) Survey, the most common hurdle for finance leaders to effective digital transformation agenda was the IT and security leaders slowing them down. The data reveals that financial leaders feel hampered by an inability to gather and disseminate that business-critical information to the necessary stakeholders at speed. As a result, financial leaders need more tools and features geared toward agility so that they can more quickly respond to rapid market shifts. Rapid payment technologies / initiatives see growth: For liquidity management professionals, time is of the essence when it comes to making payments. As a result, there has been growing momentum around faster payment programs. Recently, several payment initiatives were introduced/expanded, including SWIFT gpi, SEPA instant payment, and same-day ACH. Enterprisewide Liquidity Key Aspect of New Normal In the past, much of the financial leader’s role was to manage rear-facing details like closing the period, reconciling GL transactions, invoice matching, or cash application. While these will always be important, the uncertainty of 2020 put more of a focus on forward-looking activities like forecast, budgeting, and planning. With the pace of change in overdrive post-2020, financial leaders are investing a large amount of time trying to anticipate and plan for the next major change in business dynamics. A larger amount of the CFO’s time must be devoted to trying to develop a financial strategy to anticipate future shifts in market dynamics. For example, prior to the event of 2020, many CFOs and financial leaders would update their cash flow and liquidity plans quarterly or on a halfyearly basis. However, the financial and regulatory landscape is shifting so quickly, due to the shock of the pandemic, that many CFOs and their teams are now updating their cash flow and liquidity plans weekly or even, in some cases, daily. This new normal requires/demands a more unified approach to financial operations to cope with the new hyperspeed pace of economic change. It is more important than ever that financial data flow freely and quickly between key departments and key financial applications. Businesses on the leading edge have heard the call and are already making the necessary changes to thrive within this new normal. In fact, the survey shows that 15% of survey leaders are already operationalizing the enterprisewide management of liquidity as a practice area cross-functionally. Prior to the event of 2020, many CFOs and financial leaders would update their cash flow and liquidity plans quarterly or on a half-yearly basis. Emerging Need of a Chief Liquidity Officer As stated previously, the importance of liquidity has increased dramatically, and the need for an enterprise liquidity management approach has grown in importance as well. When taken together, they reveal the growing need for a dedicated chief liquidity officer. This position will act as a central point of authority and accountability for a unified liquidity management approach. This position would develop, manage, and optimize a holistic liquidity management strategy to ensure alignment with overall business objectives — especially as those objectives change/evolve/shift over time. However, a business looking to add this position must also invest in the tools, skills, and resources to manage liquidity at an enterprise level including forecasting/simulation, data visualization, and dashboarding tools as well as an API-driven platform that leverages automation and artificial intelligence to quickly gather and disseminate business-critical financial data. As the demand for business resiliency and proactive liquidity management continues to grow, so too will the demand for a dedicated chief liquidity officer. As the demand for business resiliency and proactive liquidity management continues to grow, so too will the demand for a dedicated chief liquidity officer. Challenges / Opportunities Ecosystems that must be curated: Liquidity management operations require data flows from many internal and external data sources. These data sources must be constantly curated to make sure that the financial leadership has access to the latest information and cutting-edge technology advancements. Curating ecosystems around the liquidity management solution takes effort and resources from a department that is often lacking in resources. Getting buy-in: Data shows that many line-of-business financial managers (e.g., controllers, accounting managers, and treasurers) don’t have support for liquidity management operation transformation. While this was the case for line-of-business financial managers prior to the pandemic, according to the survey data, this phenomenon is still a reality for many line-of-business financial managers. Data security risks: While APIs have tremendous promise for data integration, they also have the potential to expose sensitive data when not managed properly. API keys, for example, must be handled with great care or risk giving unlimited read/write access to financial information. Conclusion The CFO’s role has evolved into a strategic business partner for the rest of the organization, and the capability that’s required to deliver actionable intelligence downstream to the decision makers at the edge of the business or the lines-of-business leaders is evolving as well. For context, IDC believes the total available market for an enterprise liquidity management software (e.g., treasury, B2B payments, corporate payments, supply chain, and receivables financing) approached $30 billion in 2020. This is a massive opportunity for vendors to step in and help the CFO as their role changes. To access data is just the beginning of the journey to enterprise liquidity management. The ever-evolving remit of the office of the CFO is to be the lightning rod for data within the business and users of that data to power coordinated, data-driven financial business decisions throughout all facets of the organization. This demands a system that is built to aggregate, analyze, and disseminate data. This need is driving the emergence of centralized intelligent financial data platforms built upon APIs and strong data management principles. This new liquidity management platform may also necessitate the emergence of a chief liquidity officer to sit at its helm. In any case, the world of liquidity management is changing rapidly, and a unified enterprisewide liquidity management approach is no longer a luxury — it is a must for today’s business environment. References n = 440 European organizations, $100mil+ revenue. Enterprise Liquidity Management Is a Focus Area for Senior Execs Among Leader Organizations: CFO, CEO, Board of Directors. In 23% of the most advanced corporates, Liquidity Management is a focus area for CEOs, whereas it mainly remains a in the hands of the treasurers for the laggards (23%) Leaders Are Focused More on Integrating Working Capital Data, While Laggards Target Transitioning to Real-time Visibility And Improving Quality of Data Common Priority. They are more focused on integrating working capital data (43% against 27% of the less equipped companies). 80% of Leaders have adopted business intelligence techniques to make better decisions regarding liquidity. Survey Readout slide 40–48% of Leaders Encounter Greater Disconnected Priorities Between Finance and IT Departments. Most Leaders (75%) have transparent and well-connected corporate finance and treasury teams compared to ~30% of Laggards. This is visibly reflected in the adoption rates across APIs for different purposes: • To integrate and optimize their internal system infrastructure – 80% Leaders vs 10% Laggards. • To leverage internal data for reporting – 90% Leaders vs 15% Laggards • To send data to partners and others – 80% Leaders vs 27% Laggards • To receive data from partners and third-party members – 85% Leaders vs 10% Laggards >90% of Corporate finance and treasury teams of Leaders can effectively leverage real-time insights compared to only 33% of Laggards. 39% of Leaders Have a Wider Set of Fintech Partners to Support Enterprise Liquidity Management Initiatives Compared to just 7% of Laggards. Source: IDC Enterprise Liquidity Management Study, sponsored by Kyriba, August 2021. Want to learn more about Enterprise Liquidity Management? You are welcome to join Kyriba's upcoming monthly live demo sessions to see the Kyriba ELM platform in action. An on-demand demo session is available here.

APIs offer a lifeline for CFOs and treasurers who are looking for both innovation and cost improvements. Although many CFOs think of APIs for finance as an expedited pathway for bank connectivity, bank connections...

APIs offer a lifeline for CFOs and treasurers who are looking for both innovation and cost improvements. Although many CFOs think of APIs for finance as an expedited pathway for bank connectivity, bank connections are just the tip of the iceberg. APIs open integration to a variety of systems, including capabilities that vastly improve cash forecasting, liquidity management and payments. APIs offer an information and processing gateway to realizing digital transformation. Unlike FTP, APIs do not require files to be sent or downloaded. Data is exchanged point to point between systems immediately, allowing for instant data transmission and eliminating substantial risk. They enable the development and use of faster, pre-built connectors to reduce implementation times and facilitate real-time payments and security. In this whitepaper, we'll explore: What APIs are and how they work for finance The different types of APIs that are available How APIs can revolutionize ERP connectivity, cash management, liquidity management, payments and more.   CFOs Are Investing Billions CFOs are investing more than ever on enterprise platforms, with organizations spending an estimated $675 billion in 2022, according to Statista. Much of this investment is for organizations to move their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to cloud platforms, such as SAP S/4 Hana Oracle Cloud, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 leading the large corporate market. For CIOs looking to effectively support their CFO business partners, connectivity from ERP to internal and external systems and data sets remains a costly challenge, often delaying go-live dates and driving significant cost overruns. APIs open integration to a variety of systems, introducing capabilities and process automation that had not previously been possible. APIs offer an information and processing gateway to realizing digital transformation. What Is an API? An API is a program that allows mulitple pieces of software to “talk” to each other. Applications on your phone and embedded widgets on a website all use APIs to request or deliver information. Why APIs for Finance Matter Gartner research revealed that nearly 50 percent of financial leaders will incorporate a “composable financial management system” by 2024 “to deliver capabilities and outcomes that keep up with the rapid pace of business change.” APIs are enabling that change. They are transforming the way finance leaders consume data and are allowing a coupling of multiple applications that was previously impractical to support, creating a gateway to real-time business intelligence and digital solutions. Unlike file transfer protocol (FTP), APIs do not require files to be sent or downloaded. Data is exchanged point to point between the systems immediately, allowing for instant data transmission and eliminating substantial risk. They enable the development and use of faster, pre-built connectors to reduce implementation times and facilitate real-time payments and security. "With APIs for finance, your platforms evolve from being systems of record to systems of engagement,” said Bob Stark, Global Head of Market Strategy at Kyriba. “Your platform is connected with any number of internal and external systems to be continuously up to date.” Open API Platforms APIs facilitate open networks. Using developer portals, technology providers can build applications on top of the API provider’s platform. Open banking is a perfect example. The Revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2) in 2018 helped to make APIs even more relevant for corporate treasury and finance. The EU Directive requires banks to open their platforms to payment technology providers – with APIs being a leading solution to manage this compliance. Although PSD2 only applies to the European Union, similar initiatives in other regions also quickly emerged as banks in the United States and throughout APAC have recognized the opportunity to offer real-time, data-driven services to corporate clients. "The PSD2 movement has really encouraged banks to start to open APIs for corporates.” —Felix Grevy, VP of Product, Open API and Connectivity for Kyriba A common frustration among treasury and finance leaders is a lack of centralized visibility across multiple departments, liquidity and payments. Open API platforms act as a conduit between disparate teams and systems, allowing for real-time connections to apps, data, and new products and services. Open API platforms reduce manual processes, and deliver composable technology solutions, enabling corporate and bank users to inject data-driven decision-making into every financial operation. APIs for Bank Connectivity It’s important to note that banks and technology solutions providers that are managing open platforms are not replacing legacy formats like FTP and SWIFT with APIs. Instead, they are offering APIs as a complement to these formats. Following the advent of PSD2, European banks have begun using “premium” APIs, which are APIs with greater functionality. "The difference between the PSD2 APIs and premium APIs is that premium APIs are more powerful,” Grevy said. “You can retrieve balances and do instant payments. And they are much more secure, and much more appropriate for integration with an ERP or treasury management system (TMS).” Banking services optimized via API vary, some examples include: Bank Groups Branch Reporting Bank Account Groups Cash and Cash Flow Reporting However, the rollout has been slow. Most banks are not using APIs in live production yet, and many of the ones that do use APIs only offer them for certain real-time services—meaning that multiple connectivity options are needed to fully support a treasury and finance team. Furthermore, most technology vendors only offer no functionality beyond bank connectivity and can only connect one ERP to a bank. Nevertheless, API connectivity brings key advantages over a file-based approach, such as immediate response from banks, and the ability to receive new data and notifications in real-time. So while adoption may be slow and gradual, the advantages to the end user are clear. ERP Connectors ERP platforms like SAP, Oracle and MS Dynamics have major efforts to develop and embed APIs into a wide array of functions and workflows. Luckily, for IT and Finance functions arent’ required to do the heavy lift; these APIs are plug-and-play and enabling more and more core integrations and reporting capabilities. Cash Management APIs offer organizations the ability to manage cash continuously and in real-time. Rather than relying on batch reporting that is constrained to pre-determined times throughout the day, treasury teams can now access reports as needed. Receiving un-batched, real-time liquidity information greatly improves cash reconciliations, cash application, and accuracy of liquidity overall. This will, in turn, change the mechanics for best-practice cash forecasting and lead to the production of intraday liquidity products, such as hourly investing. Allowing treasury professionals to access their cash outside of previously “normal” hours not only expands the scope in which organizations can leverage their liquidity, but also allows treasury to make greater strategic contributions. APIs also allow treasury and finance to track sufficient movements in and out of the accounts throughout the day. That visibility can help organizations to make significant intraday decisions instead of end of day or overnight. Payments APIs for finance can also streamline the entire payment journey. Instead of relying on batch processes that transmit at several pre-determined times each day, APIs allow payments to be initiated from treasury management systems and ERP systems as needed—even in real time. In fact, real-time payments sometimes require APIs. Simply put, if you want payments to settle instantly, file transfers may not be the best connectivity option to choose. Using File Transfer, bank files are extracted, reformatted, encrypted, and downloaded by the treasury platform—a process that takes five to ten minutes at least. Once balances are known, the process to send and confirm a payment is another five to ten minutes at minimum. APIs, in contrast, can query a bank balance and then send a real-time payment instantly without the transfer of any files. With the rapid increase of both domestic real-time payment systems (The Clearing House’s RTP and FedNow in the U.S.) and cross-border platforms (SEPA Instant, SWIFT Go, and Nexus) APIs are a necessity for businesses who want to deliver instant payments. Leveraging APIs to utilize real-time payments not only revolutionizes the initiation and acknowledgement process, but also the ability to mitigate fraud. While the 2022 AFP Payments Fraud & Control Survey found that business email compromise scams have decreased recently, they are nevertheless still a persistent threat. Since real-time payments don’t afford users the opportunity to identify fraudulent transactions after transmission, fraud mitigation strategies must now be included in the approval process. Building APIs into the payment platform allows users to fully automate bank account validation and payment policy screening, identifying exceptions. Outliers can be flagged and set aside for review, while all other payments travel seamlessly as intended. Creating Flexible Reporting and Information Systems APIs are far more than just connectors to banks and ERPs. APIs can revolutionize the ways in which treasury and finance operate both internally and holistically. APIs offer the ability to create a flexible, custom, data warehouse that could exist within your TMS, as some treasury systems can act as a single source of record. When other systems have limited functionality, your data warehouse can fill the gaps through provision of market data, financial transaction specifics such as portfolio, project or risk-related information to deliver a quick, flexible source of weekly treasury reporting. Regardless of where your data is stored, APIs establish the means to integrate various data sources within a single repository or warehouse. Second, APIs allow treasury and finance to automate beyond task automation, which streamlines the organization’s own capabilities. APIs enable process automation, which simplifies and entire workflow like the entire payment journey. Entire systems and processes can be brought together more easily via APIs. Both automation and the extent of the functional coverage facilitate composable financial management systems. When networks of personalized systems, reports, dashboards, and efficient workstreams are enabled and integrated by APIs, treasury and finance teams can then focus on accelerating innovation and cost-reduction projects. ERPs, while critical, are not the only system requiring strong integration and the exchange of information for stronger decision-making. APIs are the glue that holds all of these components together and APIs change the efficiency and real-time capabilities for treasury and finance leaders. "CFOs and CIOs, hand in hand, are recognizing that we need APIs to bring everything together to accelerate the innovation,” Stark said. “Before APIs, the way that you’re making a composable financial system is by using custom interfaces, manual clicking and logging into systems and, if you’re lucky, a little bit of RPA. APIs are perfectly suited to improve process automation, linking multiple systems and workflows together, because they allow finance teams to build a system of multiple components.” Figure 1. Progression of Hyberautomation Initiatives Source: Gartner 2021 References Information technology (IT) spending on enterprise software worldwide, from 2009 to 2023 2022 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Gartner Identifies the Top Technology Trends That CFOs Should Address Today   Interested to learn more about how APIs for finance will change the way leaders consume and act on information? Check out this webinar where Alex Yang from Bank of America, David Miller from Hunt Companies and Bob Stark from Kyriba demystify APIs' value for payments, intra-day liquidity, ERP integration, fraud detection, cryptocurrencies and more.

A Quarterly Report Assessing the Impact of Foreign Exchange to North American and European Corporate Earnings About the Report The January 2023 Kyriba Currency Impact Report analyzes the reported effects of currency volatility to...

A Quarterly Report Assessing the Impact of Foreign Exchange to North American and European Corporate Earnings About the Report The January 2023 Kyriba Currency Impact Report analyzes the reported effects of currency volatility to North American and European companies’ earnings during the third quarter of 2022. To obtain this information, Kyriba analyzed the earnings calls of 1,200 publicly traded North American and European companies as part of a continued effort to provide insight into how foreign exchange impacts organizations. The companies included in this data set are large multinational firms doing business in more than one currency with at least 15% of their revenue coming from overseas.     Currency Impact Report - Overview Kyriba Currency Impact Report -Key Findings The collective quantified negative impact reported by both North American and European companies totaled $47.18 billion in Q3 2022, a 26.6% increase from Q2 2022. 24% of corporates studied (289/1200) quantified +/- impacts totaling $64.22 billion ($47.18 billion headwinds), ($17.04 billion tailwinds). The euro was the currency most mentioned as impactful by North American and European companies, the Argentine peso was the most volatile currency. 256 North American and European companies reported currency headwinds in Q3 2022. Of those companies, 244 companies quantified their FX impacts. Total Quantified Currency Impacts by North American and European Companies (Billions) North American Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) European Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) Top 5 Volatile G20 Currencies Top 5 Volatile Currencies as Weighted by GDP Percentage Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to North American Companies (Billions) Average EPS Impact Reported by North American Companies *Industry Standard MBO of Less than $0.01 EPS Impact Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings North American companies reported a $43.15 billion impact in Q3 2022, 26% larger than the impact in Q2 2022.1 The average earnings per share (EPS) impact reported by North American companies in Q3 2022 was $0.05, five times greater than the industry standard MBO of less than $0.01 EPS impact. 1 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by North American Companies as Impactful The euro was the most mentioned currency, a continuation from the prior quarter. The Canadian dollar was the second most-mentioned, followed by the Russian ruble, the Chinese renminbi, and the yen. The euro was the most volatile currency weighted by GDP (page 6). Number and Percentage of North American Companies Reporting and Quantifying Negative Currency Impacts Average Negative Impact to North American Companies (Millions) Percentage of North American Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q3 2022 earnings calls, 22 percent of North American companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted North American Industries Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to European Companies (Billions) Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Increasing from last quarter, European companies reported an 33% percent increase in negative currency impacts, with companies reporting $4.03 billion in FX-related losses.2 Of the 350 Europe-based multinationals analyzed, 1.7% reported headwinds in Q3 2022. Of those, 100% quantified their negative impacts (see page 15). 2 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by European Companies as Impactful The euro was the most mentioned currency in earnings calls for Europe, followed by the Swedish krona and the US dollar. The Danish krone was the fourth most mentioned, followed by the Russian ruble. The ruble was the fourth most volatile currency as well (page 6). Number and Percentage of European Companies Reporting and Quantifying Negative Currency Impacts Average Negative Impact to European Companies (Millions) Percentage of European Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q3 2022 earnings calls, 3 percent of European companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted European Industries Comparison of Currency Impact to North American and European Companies Average Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Millions) Size of Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions) Number of Companies Reporting Currency Impacts Percentage of Companies Reporting Impacts That Fielded Analyst Questions Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions) Number of Companies Reporting Negative Currency Impact   FX Risk Management is one of the most difficult objectives handed to a CFO’s organization. Kyriba has a team of experts to offer extensive FX Advisory Services to our clients. Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

Tuesday, 24 January 2023 - 2pm GMT | 3pm CET | 9am ET | TMI showcases topical, pragmatic solutions and strategic insights for all treasury practitioners, from experienced treasurers and CFOs to those new...

Tuesday, 24 January 2023 - 2pm GMT | 3pm CET | 9am ET | TMI showcases topical, pragmatic solutions and strategic insights for all treasury practitioners, from experienced treasurers and CFOs to those new to treasury. As TMI are organising this webinar, please just add this text: Instant payments enables treasury to hold on to precious liquidity for longer, while real-time collections offer significant working capital advantages. In this webinar, Eleanor Hill (TMI) will moderate a panel including Rishi Munjal (Kyriba) and a special guest corporate speaker, who will discuss recent developments in real-time payments and what they mean for corporate companies.

"We selected Kyriba thanks to the track record they have working with fast growing tech companies that made it a safe bet. We’re implementing an advanced treasury system that can handle all our requirements...

"We selected Kyriba thanks to the track record they have working with fast growing tech companies that made it a safe bet. We’re implementing an advanced treasury system that can handle all our requirements in a scalable way, regardless of how quickly we grow." Mahmoud Iskandarani, Director, Group Treasury, Bolt — Building the Future of Mobility The Challenge: Scalability: Ranked one of the fastest growing companies in Europe, Bolt needed a scalable treasury driven by technology to support the acceleration of the company. Mitigate Financial Risk: Reaching unicorn status in just 5 years, proper treasury management was required to mitigate financial risks and create an efficient working capital management. Strategic Decisioning: Needed a system to navigate and act on the opportunities arising from the current macro environment. The Solution: With Kyriba’s Open Format Studio, Bolt can manage the payment format process themselves to integrate new payments as expansion continues, along with: End-to-end FX management Connectivity to Bolt’s Bank via API Integration across Bolt’s internal systems – including Workday Managing intercompany lending Positive business outcomes expected from this project: Efficiency equivalent to 2 Full Time Employees. Hard and Soft cost savings of millions of Euros per year due to financial risks mitigation, automated FX, improved yields on cash, and efficient working capital management. "Kyriba’s forecasting module, their APIs and connections, as well as their partnerships will make all this possible and smoother!" About Bolt The 1st European mobility super-app, fighting for better cities and against private cars, offering a better alternative to private car ownership with flexible urban mobility – including ride-hailing, shared cars and scooters, and food and grocery delivery.

By any measure, 2023 is shaping up to be a challenging year for businesses both in the U.S. and across the world. As the FOMC raises interest rates another 50 basis points in December 2022, expectations on continued rate increases persist. FX rates and commodity prices continue to experience heightened volatility, driven by the threat of recession and ongoing supply chain problems. Beneath these headlines, the treasurer’s environment continues to evolve, with ongoing innovations across treasury offering opportunities to improve treasury's role and effect on overall financial management.

By any measure, 2023 is shaping up to be a challenging year for businesses both in the U.S. and across the world. As the FOMC raises interest rates another 50 basis points in December 2022, expectations on continued rate increases persist. FX rates and commodity prices continue to experience heightened volatility, driven by the threat of recession and ongoing supply chain problems. Beneath these headlines, the treasurer’s environment continues to evolve, with ongoing innovations across treasury offering opportunities to improve treasury's role and effect on overall financial management. For companies with a small number of key customer accounts, monitoring individual DSO levels will also highlight potential problems with key customers and allow early intervention to take place.

Backed by strong incentives and market-leading technology, Kyriba delivers one of the strongest and most comprehensive partner programs in the industry. Treasury and Finance Technology: An Expanding Market PartnerSURGE is a program designed to...

Backed by strong incentives and market-leading technology, Kyriba delivers one of the strongest and most comprehensive partner programs in the industry. Treasury and Finance Technology: An Expanding Market PartnerSURGE is a program designed to let Kyriba’s strategic partners share in the rapidly expanding market for world-class treasury and finance technology. The first step in that process is enrolling in Kyriba’s Partner Sales Enablement program, which offers sales certification and in-depth training to help partner teams quickly build pipeline, close their first deals, and sustain long-term success. Kyriba’s Partner Sales Enablement program helps sales professionals understand: The unique needs and challenges of cash, liquidity and risk management The business value offered by Kyriba’s market leading solution Sales Certifications Platinum Sales For sales professionals who need to understand a prospect’s core business challenges in Treasury and Payments and Kyriba’s associated value to generate leads and grow revenue. Platinum Plus Sales For sales professionals who want a deep understanding of the entire Kyriba portfolio, including Risk Management and Working Capital, as well as a prospect’s business challenges associated with Enterprise Liquidity Management. Gold Pre-Sales For pre-sales professionals who need to demonstrate the value and associated functionality of core liquidity and present Kyriba’s value proposition to separate Kyriba from the competition and win new business. Platinum Pre-Sales For pre-sales professionals who need to demonstrate the value and associated functionality of the advanced liquidity modules of Kyriba’s solution. Platinum Plus Pre-Sales For pre-sales professionals who need to demonstrate the value and associated functionality of the working capital market modules of Kyriba’s solution. Sales Onboarding and Certification Following the Certification, sales professionals will be able to identify prospects with the requisite business needs, provide a brief elevator pitch of Kyriba’s value, and successfully introduce a solution specialist to continue the sales process. Sales Certification Content Platinum Sales Certification: 3-day instructor-led training (virtual) Product focus: Treasury and Payments Topics: Domain and industry business challenges selling to the economic buyer, primary customer business drivers, competition, pricing, Kyriba’s differentiators Product focus: Treasury and Payments Platinum Plus Sales Certification: 5-day instructor-led training (virtual) Product focus: Risk and/or Working Capital Topics: Domain and industry business challenges, selling to the economic buyer, primary customer business drivers, competition, pricing, Kyriba’s differentiators Role play and hands-on exercises 15-min pitch by partner participants 1-hour demonstration of Kyriba (upon request) Prerequisite Optional; access to e-learning onboarding curriculum on market conditions and market drivers Resources As part of the partner sales certification, sales professionals will receive access to Kyriba’s: Partner Portal: Access to CRM to create and view new opportunities/contacts Content Library: Access to key sales enablement content Sales University: Knowledge base of self-paced, on-demand training courses Pre-Sales Onboarding and Certification Following the Certification, sales professionals will be able to identify prospects with the requisite business needs, provide a brief elevator pitch of Kyriba’s value, and leverage tools to demonstrate product capabilities and drive deeper discovery with prospects. Gold Pre-Sales Certification 1.5-day instructor-led training (virtual) Product focus: Treasury and Payments Demo topics include cash and liquidity management, payments 45-min demo led by partner attendee to include all modules listed above Platinum Pre-Sales Certification 3-day instructor-led training (virtual) Product focus: Treasury and Payments Demo topics include cash and liquidity management, bank relationship management, payments, payment fraud 90-min demo led by partner attendee to include all modules listed above Platinum Plus Pre-Sales Certification 5-day instructor-led training (virtual) Product focus: Treasury, Payments and Working Capital Demo topics include cash and liquidity management, bank relationship management, payments, payment fraud, debt and investments, supply chain finance 120-min demo led by partner attendee to include all modules listed above Prerequisite Optional; access to e-learning onboarding curriculum on market conditions and market drivers Resources As part of the partner sales certification, sales professionals will receive access to Kyriba’s: Partner Portal: Access to CRM to create and view new opportunities/contacts Content Library: Access to key sales enablement content Sales University: Knowledge base of self-paced, on-demand training courses Recorded Demos: Access to tool to manage customer facing demos of product capabilities Demo Scripts: Proven demonstration scripts to guide the perfect demo for each solution area

Regulatory Requirements Created Unique Challenges At the onset of the pandemic, Xcel Energy embarked on a mission to upgrade out of legacy systems and spreadsheets and into a cloud-based treasury management system to modernize...

Regulatory Requirements Created Unique Challenges At the onset of the pandemic, Xcel Energy embarked on a mission to upgrade out of legacy systems and spreadsheets and into a cloud-based treasury management system to modernize and automate its operations. “We have benefited immensely from centralization and uniformity. For the first time ever all external debt instruments are managed in the same system. It’s been nice to not have to maintain huge spreadsheets now that we transitioned to Kyriba.” Eric Gray, Director of Cash Management for Xcel Energy Goals of the Modernization Included: Reduce manual processes across treasury and finance Embrace system automation and centralization Enhance fraud protection Leverage consistent data across all entities and positions Create automated reporting that automatically feeds to general ledger Physically move cash through wire transfers This last goal fulfilled regulatory constraints that utility companies face in having to move actual cash from one entity to another as opposed to a common practice of using a virtual banking structure. This was just one of many unique requirements of Xcel Energy’s transition to operating in a regulated environment with multiple entities. Another unique requirement was Xcel Energy’s reporting needs. It was necessary to see each company’s net position both day-to-day and monthly. Kyriba enables Xcel to view each entity’s cash position inclusive of forecasted payments, fulfilling another regulatory requirement. “Xcel Energy’s treasury function has never been more centralized and automated, and there’s now a structure to scale. Modernization shouldn’t stop with an implementation; it should evolve.” Kevin Koeneman, Treasury Manager at Clearsulting Kyriba Implementation: 14 Kyriba Modules 15 integrations 4 connected reporting banks 1 connected payment bank 100+ bank accounts Big Bang Approach to Implementation With the guidance of implementation partner Clearsulting, Xcel Energy went live with Kyriba for all modules and entities on March 1, 2022. This ‘big bang’ approach enabled a simultaneous embrace of Kyriba as the system of record and the official replacement of three legacy systems. Thanks to a three month parallel implementation, Xcel Energy has performed six month-ends and two quarter-ends without issues across multiple facets of treasury. Debt and Investment Management Maintained five types of required external instruments in a centralized system: 5 commercial paper programs with authorized issuances of $3.1B USD 5 syndicated credit facilities at $3.1B USD 76 long term bond issuances at $24B Short-term bank loans Short-term investments – overnight sweep accounts and money market funds for investment of excess cash Leveraged the relationship between Kyriba and ICD to streamline management of all money market investments under one portal Reduced the need for human intervention and eliminated the risk for human data input errors through automation and reporting Intercompany Management, Payments and Customer Rebates Established 2 types of intercompany borrowing structures: In-House Banking and Utility Money Pool (UMP) Enabled seamless and compliant borrowing between holding and operating companies as well as between operating companies Leveraged multiple payment templates in Kyriba to reduce repetitive data entry and automatically sync new payments to specific intercompany positions Automated reconciliation of more than 500,000 vendor payments and customer rebates each year across five payment systems and seven different integrations Facilitated the escheatment of thousands of uncashed check payments each year as required by law About Xcel Energy Xcel Energy is a holding company that owns and operates 4 regulated utility companies, a service company, and numerous nonregulated entities, servicing 3.7 million electric customers and 2.1 million natural gas customers across 8 states in the Midwest, Southwest and Western United States.

Kyriba Analytics delivers integrated visual dashboards and pre-built data analytics for cash flow management, liquidity management, treasury and risk management, payments management and supply chain finance management modules. Kyriba Analytics goes beyond traditional reporting...

Kyriba Analytics delivers integrated visual dashboards and pre-built data analytics for cash flow management, liquidity management, treasury and risk management, payments management and supply chain finance management modules. Kyriba Analytics goes beyond traditional reporting by offering on-demand drill down, dashboard editing, and a transformed visual experience for presentation-ready information sharing. Data visualization, reporting and insights into more cross-functional information are key areas where CFOs need treasury to improve its technology solutions to match industry best practices.   Strategic Insights into Liquidity and Risk Kyriba Analytics provides treasury analytics to enable predictive decision-making in the hands of finance with AI. Dashboards for scenario analysis, apply trends, market data and past criteria to drive improved insights: Visualize cash and liquidity across your entire organization Forecast debt with flexible scenario analysis on both cash inflows and outflows for clarity against future shifts Visualize debt and risk level impacts to your profitability Support CAPEX spend and strategic decision-making for optimal ways to fund acquisitions or support funding international subsidiaries Know where debt load is and across types of instruments   Featured Highlights Interactive Analysis Dynamic visualization and drill-down analysis Uncover data relationships and trends through graphical exploration Ready to Go Instant access to standard reports and formulas out of the box Leverage pre-built KPIs, visualizations, and calculations Self-service Dashboard Build your own interactive dashboards Share your customized dashboards with your teams Fully Integrated Fully secure within Kyriba’s cloud Complete data segregation by user Empower team collaboration Treasury Analytics: Use Cases Liquidity Analytics What is my net debt and my liquidity? How and when best to pay down my debt? How many “days of survival” do I have? Cash Analytics Do I have enough cash? Is my cash forecasting reliable? What is my activity with banks? Payments Analytics Where is my biggest concentration of payments? Are we sending too many wires? Which users execute payments and who approves them? Treasury Risk Analytics How much is available on my credit lines? What is my borrowing profile? What is the value of my financial assets? SCF Analytics What is my supplier participation rate? How many documents have been uploaded? Which invoices are financed? Compliance Analytics Who are the users and where are they located? Which modules can they access with which rights? What data can they access? Why Kyriba Analytics? Traditional Reporting Analytics Advanced data visualization Self-service dashboard creation Data drill-down Variable change on-the-fly Large data volume handling Empower better collaboration across the organization

Kyriba’s Liquidity Management Solution offers Cash Management, Cash Forecasting, Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics modules for CFOs and treasurers to predict cash and liquidity requirements and make data-driven liquidity decisions. The practice of cash...

Kyriba’s Liquidity Management Solution offers Cash Management, Cash Forecasting, Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics modules for CFOs and treasurers to predict cash and liquidity requirements and make data-driven liquidity decisions. The practice of cash forecasting has changed post-pandemic. CFOs and boards demand increased free cash flow necessitating greater precision in forecasting and planning. Liquidity planning has emerged as a new practice that extends beyond cash forecasting to make more informed and efficient decisions to increase the generation and preservation of cash on the balance sheet and to support the CFO plan for growth, expansion, acquisitions, and EBITDA improvement. The Kyriba Liquidity Management Solution supports integrated cash and liquidity practices with three pillar components. Cash Management For daily cash positioning and reconciliation of prior day bank transactions, including bank reporting, bank transaction tagging, and target balancing of accounts. Kyriba module: Cash Management Cash Forecasting Projecting cash surpluses and requirements days/weeks/months into the future. Forecast data is captured from internal and external sources with the ability to model simultaneous forecasts in parallel and stress-test against multiple business scenarios. Kyriba module: Liquidity Planning Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics Surrounding the forecasting with investment and borrowing data to make more informed liquidity decisions. The Liquidity Plan makes the cash forecast actionable, demonstrating the impact of investing, and borrowing decisions with real-time data insights. Kyriba modules: Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics The combination of these modules give treasury teams and finance leaders in treasury, FP&A, finance, procurement and accounting the platform they need to proactively manage the cash lifecycle end-to-end. The Liquidity Planning module supports cash forecasting while the Liquidity Analytics module surrounds Liquidity Planning with data and insights to make data-driven liquidity decisions. Clear identification of target liquidity levels and flexibility in reporting: To learn more about Kyriba’s Liquidity Management Solution, request a demo today.

This CFO Podcast discusses free cash flow strategies and business leadership with Dan Gardner, CFO at DT One.

*Accepting cookies will allow the podcast player to be displayed. Free Cash Flow Strategies and Business Leadership This CFO Podcast features an interview with Dan Gardner, Group CFO at DT One, an international network of non-cash micropayments and digital pre-pay partners that delivers digital connectivity solutions.   Editor's Note In this episode, Dan explains the importance of cash forecasting, or liquidity planning, how to drive value across the organization through empowering teams, and data driven business leadership. Financial technology and AI solutions are empowering finance leaders to increase efficiency and optimize growth with new data analytics. He explains how to monetize insights from data and minimize risk. When it comes to business leadership, Dan says that embracing technology unlocks results, especially for finance teams and streamlining treasury processes. “Give them the tools and the resources and the courage to be challenged by it,” he says, to “better the environment, the decision making, [and] create value for the enterprise.” Dan has a 12-year track record of creating enterprise value as a CFO. At DT One, he’s responsible for the global oversight of all finance, treasury, risk and compliance functions. He’s built smart, agile finance organizations and transforms core data into revenue generating intelligence. This CFO podcast is an excellent guide for finance leaders and CFOs who embrace thought leadership from their peers. Listen to examples of how other CFOs manage risk, drive growth, and take-on the expanding, strategic role of the CFO.

Modernizing Cash Forecasting and Liquidity Planning Cash forecasting has changed post-pandemic, with new practices emerging to predict free cash flow and liquidity more accurately and at greater speed. Kyriba has responded with a completely...

Modernizing Cash Forecasting and Liquidity Planning Cash forecasting has changed post-pandemic, with new practices emerging to predict free cash flow and liquidity more accurately and at greater speed. Kyriba has responded with a completely modernized solution to confidently extend forecasting horizons and support data-driven liquidity decisions. Reduce Reliance on Spreadsheets Treasury teams have often turned to spreadsheets for their forecasting needs to model both simple and complex reports and scenarios. Kyriba’s Liquidity Planning module is designed to be as easy as a spreadsheet with the flexibility to model forecasting complexity. Flexibility and Precision Kyriba Liquidity Planning is a new cash forecasting module to help treasury and finance make more accurate decisions for days, weeks, months and years in the future. Liquidity Planning supports cash forecasting and – when combined with Liquidity Analytics – also support liquidity planning practices. Key Features Flexibility and Configurability Model forecasts the way you want with as many iterations as you like, including top down or bottom-up presentations to support different types of forecasting in your organization. Formula-based Construction Include or exclude the data you want in each line item and summary total. Multiple, Parallel Forecasts Run multiple cash forecast cycles at once, designed with different data and assumptions. What-if Scenarios Model forecasts against various liquidity and risk scenarios. Excel-like Entry On-demand single click editing and copy/paste directly into the forecast. Submission and Review Workflow Collaborate with other users including notifications and comments. Variance Analysis Combine with Cash Analytics for detailed and drill-down on forecast variances. Load Data from anywhere Unify forecast data from ERP, spreadsheets, data lakes and other sources via API or file interface. AI-Enhanced Cash Flows Combine with Cash Management AI or other AI apps to include data-driven forecasts as part of your cash flow planning. Liquidity Analytics The Liquidity Planning module combines with Kyriba’s Liquidity Analytics module to fully support liquidity planning practices. Liquidity Analytics surrounds the cash forecast with liquidity data from the Investments and Debt modules in Kyriba, presenting through pre-built dashboards to make your forecast actionable. Together, the Liquidity Planning and Liquidity Analytics modules unify cash and liquidity data, so you have the data and insight to optimize liquidity decisions.

"Align Technology, along with Kyriba and Refinitiv FXall, has created a simplified hedging program with rock solid analytics. Senior Management is again confident with the FX hedging program." Laura Fisher, Financial Risk Management Challenges...

"Align Technology, along with Kyriba and Refinitiv FXall, has created a simplified hedging program with rock solid analytics. Senior Management is again confident with the FX hedging program." Laura Fisher, Financial Risk Management Challenges Data visibility, collection, and analysis were very difficult Daily Rate Environment caused complexity in analyzing results Regionalized approach resulted in multiple iterations of accounting principles and platforms, preventing visibility into FX exposures FX trades done manually over the phone, leading to rate loss and non-competitive bids Solution Moved from a daily rate to a monthly rate environment for the FX Program Integrated Kyriba FX with SAP ERP and implemented Data Integrity Analysis to validate exposure and identify inconsistencies Began scorecards for regional accountability based on actual vs. forecasted analysis Introduced trading partner FXall to provide market-best rates for trades Outcomes Streamlined data flow end-to-end and gained confidence in data, decision-making, and the FX hedging program Monthly Rate Environment with refined forecast methodology and visibility into true exposures Eliminated spreadsheets and manual input with automation and ERP integration Reduced overall cost of hedging with best-rate availability

Kyriba is a fully SWIFT-certified Application for Cash Management and Payments, offering multi-bank Connectivity-as-a-Service integrated within Kyriba’s leading liquidity management cloud platform for treasurers and CFOs. This Factsheet explains how your organization can use...

Kyriba is a fully SWIFT-certified Application for Cash Management and Payments, offering multi-bank Connectivity-as-a-Service integrated within Kyriba’s leading liquidity management cloud platform for treasurers and CFOs. This Factsheet explains how your organization can use different Kyriba services to leverage SWIFT bank connectivity.  SWIFT Alliance Lite2 for Corporates Kyriba has fully integrated SWIFT Alliance Lite2 with Kyriba’s cloud platform, enabling complete automation and straight-through processing for corporate payments. No internal IT effort is required for bank reporting, payments and other SWIFT messaging. Who Should Consider this Service? Clients who wish to maintain the administration of BICs, users and RMA keys, but also want to outsource bank format transformation and maintenance, as well as the monitoring of bank connections. SWIFT Service Bureau With Kyriba’s SWIFT Service Bureau, clients have their own SWIFT BIC fully managed by Kyriba. While the initial investment may be slightly higher on a monthly basis than Alliance Lite2, the total cost of ownership may be much lower, depending on your connectivity profile. Kyriba also provides a unique service for corporates to migrate from any other vendor to Kyriba’s SWIFT Service Bureau. Who Should Consider this Service? Clients with higher volumes of banks, transactions, payments, and bank accounts Clients who want a complete managed SWIFT service 22% of SWIFT Corporate BICs are managed by Kyriba 25% of Kyriba clients are using SWIFTNet Kyriba’s MT Concentrator Service For clients who want to have a quick start with bank reporting, Kyriba’s MT Concentrator service allows organizations to utilize a SWIFT BIC11 specifically provisioned for Kyriba clients. The service is priced per account, offering flexibility, cost benefits and quick onboarding for bank reporting with potential access to all SWIFT member banks. A few hundred Kyriba clients have already signed up for this service. SWIFT gpi for Corporates* SWIFT gpi improves the customer experience in cross-border payments by increasing their speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking. Hundreds of thousands of cross-border payments, are sent every day using the new SWIFT gpi standard. Kyriba is certified for SWIFT gpi for corporates. Reduce Payment Investigations With end-to-end tracking and confirmation of credit, SWIFT gpi gives you full visibility into the journey of a payment. Improve Supplier Relationships By attaching the unique tracking reference to each payment, you can provide transparency on payments and keeping the flow of trade moving. Speed Up Invoice Reconciliation Payment data carried via SWIFT gpi is unaltered, making reconciliation much easier. Achieve Greater Capital Efficiencies With money moving faster and with greater transparency, you can improve your cash forecasting and optimize your liquidity. *Source: SWIFT gpi “Naval Group is committed to maintaining the highest standards in compliance, and the new Kyriba SWIFT gpi offering helps our team to strengthen payments transparency and traceability so we can expand our position as the European leader in naval defense.” David Livi Vice President of Treasury and Financing at Naval Group

Kyriba provides treasury management solution for mortgage industry to realize greater centralized cash visibility, real-time treasury reporting, improved audit results, and regulatory compliance and control. Current Industry Challenges Cash & Capacity Finance & Treasury...

Kyriba provides treasury management solution for mortgage industry to realize greater centralized cash visibility, real-time treasury reporting, improved audit results, and regulatory compliance and control. Current Industry Challenges Cash & Capacity Finance & Treasury departments in the mortgage sector depend upon multiple banking relationships and data metrics in order to operate – those for warehouse capacity, warehouse cash, servicing lockboxes, escrow deposits, etc. This typically involves manually logging into multiple banking sites to gather reports, reconcile loan activity, compile a cash position and determine cash concentration. Market Opportunities Treasury and Capital Markets must be tactical partners in the organization and need to be prepared at all times to shift strategies and “pivot on a dime” as market opportunities or risks arise. This requires real time data that can be quickly analyzed, something that is lacking in a manual environment. Loan Level Cash & Accounting At any time, there are likely tens of thousands of loans to monitor, between funding, settlements and the servicing portfolio. Each of these loans have the potential of multiple different cash transactions – each transaction breaking down into multiple parts requiring separate journal entries. Deadlines Whether you are working against lock expirations, borrowers receiving keys for their new property, month-end timelines or bank cutoff times, there are multiple varying deadlines that need to be met on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. These deadlines need to be integrated in order to successfully maintain adequate customer service levels while also minimizing unnecessary interest expense or banking fees. Regulation The mortgage industry is highly regulated. Multiple audits can likely occur at a single time between warehouse renewals, investor due diligence, state audits and regulatory examinations. The ability to quickly reference archived data, authority levels, etc. is imperative in conducting an efficient audit. How Kyriba Can Help Kyriba's treasury management solution empowers organizations in the mortgage industry, including several Fortune 500 companies, with the capabilities to optimize cash and liquidity, reduce operational regulatory risk, and streamline management reporting to capitalize on market opportunities. Cash/Capacity/Deadlines Kyriba provides centralized, real-time visibility into cash, as well as detailed transactional activity across all bank relationships in a single, secure platform. This enables effortless cash positioning and concentration decisions, intraday and across any time horizon. Streamlined Accounting Processes Kyriba's treasury management solution automates cash and loan-level accounting across many levels, simplifying generation of journal entries, while introducing structured, reportable audit and controls to the accounting process. This saves countless hours and offers a single source of record for accounting inquiry, as well as seamless journal posting into any underlying ERP/accounting platform. Regulations Kyriba’s treasury management solution also offers standard controls and workflows concerning entitlement and authorizations, which are configurable based on internal customer policies and guidelines. Kyriba provides the ability to enforce, as well as fully report on, any modifications. Time stamps, transaction-level documentary attachment, and fully reportable audit trails enable the ability to reference current state as well as historical information. Kyriba Analytics for KPI Reporting Kyriba provides a fully integrated business intelligence solution to ensure on-demand, drill-around, data visualization to find meaningful insights within high data volumes, while delivering on KPI reporting needs.

2022 was a year to remember, with extremes in every discipline: price volatility, unabated inflation, increasing borrowing rates, new forecasting demands, and the looming hope of real-time bank reporting. As you prepare for the...

2022 was a year to remember, with extremes in every discipline: price volatility, unabated inflation, increasing borrowing rates, new forecasting demands, and the looming hope of real-time bank reporting. As you prepare for the coming year, learn what your peers are putting into practice to make their treasury more financially resilient in 2023.

The speed with which you as a seller convert receivables into cash is critical for your organization. Accelerate a cash injection into your company with Receivables Finance—Kyriba’s new working capital solution. Turn Accounts Receivable...

The speed with which you as a seller convert receivables into cash is critical for your organization. Accelerate a cash injection into your company with Receivables Finance—Kyriba’s new working capital solution. Turn Accounts Receivable into Cashflow Kyriba’s Receivables Finance is natively integrated with all other Kyriba Working Capital solutions, like Dynamic Discounting and Supply Chain Finance. It enables CFOs to unlock funds tied up in outstanding accounts receivable (AR), converting those assets into cash quickly. Sellers can centralize and simplify all receivables finance programs into one portal, without having to change online funding providers in order to draw down from their credit facilities. This receivable solution allows you to remain in control of the utilization and availability of receivables finance programs, yet obtain the most efficient funding sources for your receivables on a single, funder agnostic platform. How Does AR Financing Work? Kyriba provides companies with greater cash visibility, as well as the capability to finance AR in an easy, fast, and scalable manner via a multi-funders platform. Using APIs, the platform automates connectivity with the seller’s ERP system via certified ERP connectors, providing analytics on AR. The platform allows sellers to sell the receivable automatically to the associate funders and finance automatically or manually selected receivables through a direct connection with a multi-banking approach. How Does Kyriba Integrate Data? Kyriba does not aim to substitute any banks or funders into the receivables finance program from a funding perspective. Instead, we facilitate integration of data from your ERP to multiple funders’ backends, making those programs scalable. This approach aggregates all sellers’ programs into one single platform and provides our customers with a single dashboard to help them make better decisions based on their real-time positions. Full Visibility into Working Capital Management Kyriba’s dashboards provide you with a bird’s eye view of your Receivables Finance results and performance. Additionally, they can simultaneously provide you with visibility into any other discounting or trade payables programs (Dynamic Discounting, Supply Chain Finance, Confirming, etc.) managed within Kyriba. Key Features Kyriba’s Receivables Finance technology supports both pool financing and selective invoice financing programs. Companies can manage the end-to-end journey of the program, including extraction of relevant information, updating the ERP and providing detailed reporting to manage risk. The following is a breakdown of the key features of Kyriba Receivables Finance: Program set-up: Set-up is quick and painless. Receivables Finance easily adds sellers, funders and debtors, as well as credit limits, payment rules, and pricing profile. Ledger data upload/validation: Using APIs, Receivables Finance connects to the seller’s ERP to upload documents (e.g., invoices, credit notes) and update status in real time. Eligibility check and early payment processing: Receivables Finance can perform eligibility and limit checks prior to processing documents or early payment requests towards the funders. Kyriba completes the workflow by connecting to the funders and retrieving status from the drawdown requests. Payment and reconciliation: Once reconciliation of the collections is completed, Kyriba can automatically settle payments to the funder on due date, based on new ledger data. Dashboards, reports and advices: Receivables Finance features a landing page widget that makes drawdowns, early payment status, collections, limits and other functions readily available. Users can also quickly access reports and receive advice and notifications on demand or automatically, through emails or Kyriba dashboards. Seamless Integration Kyriba’s Receivables Finance solution is natively integrated with all other Kyriba Working Capital modules, as well as Kyriba Treasury, Payments, Risk Management and Connectivity. Kyriba’s Working Capital solutions provide you with access to business intelligence and reporting dashboards to drive quick and easy deep analysis of your overall financing programs.

As the world's most connected treasury platform, Kyriba has been revolutionizing the treasury and risk management landscape for the past two decades. It has established itself as the go-to authority in the field of...

As the world's most connected treasury platform, Kyriba has been revolutionizing the treasury and risk management landscape for the past two decades. It has established itself as the go-to authority in the field of treasury management systems (TMS), with a cloud-based SaaS platform and liquidity network that are unrivalled in their breadth and depth of capabilities. In this unpredictable economic climate, CFOs and Treasurers need to be able to rely on their treasury management solutions to provide stability and liquidity assurance. Kyriba facilitates this by offering its customers secure, cutting-edge enterprise connectivity solutions. Taking into consideration the challenges and the amount of resources required to build its own ERP bank connectivity , many companies have chosen to work with a technology vendor who specializes in providing Connectivity-as-a-Service. Kyriba has been trusted by over 2000 clients globally and offers the following options for connectivity: Bank Connectivity Bank APIs to world leading banks such as Bank of America, CITI, J.P. Morgan (check out Kyriba Marketplace for the full list) Direct bank (FTP) connections to over 1000 banks SWIFT Connectivity (gpi compliant) SWIFT Service Bureau SWIFT Alliance Lite2 Extensive coverage of networks (ACH, Fedwire, EBICS, BACs, EDITRAN) Statement Concentrator Regional and Country Protocols Bank Format Transformation Enterprise Connectivity Pre-built and tested connectivity for SAP, S/4HANA, Oracle ERP Cloud, Workday, MS Dynamics, NetSuite Real-time integration: cash, forecasting, payments, reporting Real-time integrations for new bank reporting Master data and GL synchronizations Eliminates batch processing Proven ROI with Kyriba Clients KKyriba’s Value Engineering team is committed to ensuring that every client derives the maximum benefit from their investment in our products and services. Our team works in close collaboration with our clients to fully comprehend how our products and services are utilized to generate value. Drawing on our extensive experience working with clients across various industries, we have developed cutting-edge tools and processes to evaluate the return on investment for each client. Our team has conducted thorough research to determine the benefits of using Connectivity-as-a-Service, and we have found that it consistently provides tangible returns on our clients' initial investments. We have found that, in most cases, the choice to use Connectivity-as-a-Service generates tangible return on investment and our clients, who choose to use Kyriba to connect to their banks instead of doing it by themselves, have seen up to 80% reduction in integration time. For example, Adobe has 125 global users manually logging into 10+ banking portals on a daily basis to process payments and statements. By choosing Kyriba’s Connectivity-as-a-Service for bank connectivity, Adobe has achieved: Centralized repository of 24 signers tracked and 8 bank letter templates maintained 4 Banks connected for bank fee statement reporting and proactive fee management FBAR reporting information generated from Kyriba Learn More about Connectivity-as-a-Service If you're interested in learning more about Connectivity-as-a-Service and the benefits it can bring to your organization, we invite you to participate in Kyriba's monthly live demo sessions. During these sessions, our team of treasury experts will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the Kyriba platform and demonstrate how it can help your treasury and finance teams optimize corporate cash and working capital, manage financial risk, and ultimately drive strategic growth and value by activating enterprise-wide liquidity. If you're unable to attend one of our live demo sessions, we also offer an on-demand demo session that you can access at any time. This session provides a detailed overview of the Kyriba platform and its various capabilities, including Connectivity-as-a-Service. At Kyriba, we are committed to providing our clients with the tools and resources they need to succeed. Request a demo today to learn more about how Kyriba can help your organization achieve its financial goals.

Kyriba Payments Solution for Insurance empowers insurance firms with a scalable connectivity and payments solution to tackle back-office system complexity, lack of workflow unification and increased fraud risk. Insurance companies are traditionally challenged by...

Kyriba Payments Solution for Insurance empowers insurance firms with a scalable connectivity and payments solution to tackle back-office system complexity, lack of workflow unification and increased fraud risk. Insurance companies are traditionally challenged by a high volume of payment activities and complex liquidity pooling structures. Such complexity becomes more challenging over time when the business expands with international or domestic mergers and acquisitions. Despite it (including claims and accounts payable) being such a business-critical process, payment processing remains inefficient, often due to siloed and obsolete home-grown back-office systems. Imagine a Typical Payment Scenario of an Insurance Firm A request is initiated in System A It is sent to System B for review and approval Next, it is sent to System C to be further processed Finally, it is uploaded to a banking portal to be executed Payment confirmation and bank statements are to be downloaded and manually transferred to multiple systems of record Multiply that scenario by thousands of payments on a daily basis, insurance companies find themselves in the following payments complexity due to a lack of end-to-end automation and visibility: Outdated back-office systems requiring extensive and costly IT support Unavoidable errors and oversights Potential money loss from undiscovered duplicate payments Increased operational risks due to potential fraud and non-compliance Lack of unified cash and account visibility with high bank fees Missed cost-saving opportunities due to reliance on wires instead of lower-cost payment services Missed yield-generating opportunities from idle cash Unable to leverage faster payment rails (e.g., RTP®) or other nascent payment methods (e.g., Zelle) to support customers’ evolving business needs Kyriba’s Payments Solution Answers to Your Challenges Kyriba is the preferred connectivity and payments solution provider by some of the largest insurance companies in the United States, including AIG, MetLife and Brighthouse Financial. Kyriba has designed a modern solution with the features insurance companies require to address their growing business needs. PAYMENTS SOLUTION PRODUCT FEATURES HIGHLIGHTS Payment Factory One centralized payments hub to manage workflows across all your back-office systems End-to-end integration with all your banking partners Straight-through processing, fraud detection (AI-powered), smart routing Bank API and real-time payments ready Bank Connectivity-as-a-Service Over 1,000 pre-built bank connectors, eliminating the need for IT to build, test or maintain bank connections A format library with over 45,000 payment scenarios ready for use API-Ready System Integration Kyriba Developer Portal with API catalogue and use cases Pre-built ERP and other real-time connectors Curated Marketplace Apps, e.g., ICD for investment, Copper for digital assets Cash Visibility and Mobility Bank account management (BAM), bank fee analysis, in-house bank/netting Cash forecasting with AI capability Interactive business intelligence dashboards A Future-proof Payments Solution for Insurance Kyriba’s awarding winning connectivity and payments solution centralizes payment workflows, automates manual tasks, enhances controls, and connects back-office systems to banks to create real-time cash visibility. To learn more, please contact us or request a demo. Our experts are ready to show you how Kyriba's connectivity and payments solution for insurance companies is the right one  for your organization.

This episode features an interview with Ravi Narula, Chief Financial Officer of FinancialForce.

*Accepting cookies will allow the podcast player to be displayed. A CFO's Guide to Building Business Goals, Relationships, and Managing Risk This episode features an interview with Ravi Narula, Chief Financial Officer of FinancialForce, a cloud-based applications platform that accelerates business growth with customer-centric ERP, Professional Services Automation (PSA), and Customer Success solutions. Ravi has over 20 years of CFO experience, and he's helped turn several technology startups into large, mature, public companies. On this episode, Ravi describes the growing role of the CFO, company risk management, and the future of AI technology.   Editor's Note Our guest, Ravi Narula describes the growing strategic role of the CFO, how to be a better business partner to his peers, how he tackles risk management, and the future of AI technology, especially during today’s volatile economic times. Ravi’s growth mindset is simple: connect actions to goals. “Having a clear line of sight to what our long-term goals are and then connecting our short term actions to long-term goals becomes very critical,” he said. Ravi sees the value of technology adoption as a critical enabler to his finance team, and reveals the rigor behind technology investments. It’s not just about showing the value at the time of purchase, it’s also having a clear business case and roadmap to show ROI across multiple milestones for the business in the future. Ravi said, “How do we justify technology adoption and get some real hard ROI and benefits out of it? It's important that we connect some of these actions and data we get. And not only at the time of decision making, but after implementation. [We should] do an annual assessment [to look at] what can we do differently to adopt this thing even more? And not only looking at technology that is live. How many users are using it? How well accepted within the organization?” Ravi has over 20 years of CFO experience, and he’s helped turn several technology startups into large, mature, public companies. On this episode, Ravi describes the growing role of the CFO, company risk management, and the future of AI technology. This CFO podcast is an excellent guide for finance leaders and CFOs who embrace thought leadership from their peers, and who are looking for examples of how others CFOs are managing risk, driving growth, navigating the complex and expanding role of the CFO.

Kyriba is pleased to offer Platinum Support for our Treasury, Payments and Supply Chain Finance clients in need of our most advanced level of support, designed for companies that require a more tailored approach...

Kyriba is pleased to offer Platinum Support for our Treasury, Payments and Supply Chain Finance clients in need of our most advanced level of support, designed for companies that require a more tailored approach based on size, complexity and geographical footprint. Kyriba Platinum Support offers everything clients can expect from a platinum service package, including access to our Client Support Portal, a designated support account manager (SAM), monthly review meetings, and access to Kyriba’s global support centers with support provided in multiple languages. In addition, a selection of highly tailored services are offered, including dedicated advanced monitoring, functional assistance and user training, twice-a-year onsite visits, and a yearly Platform Utilization Study (PLUS) session. Enhanced Support And Case Management Kyriba Platinum Support subscribers benefit from a designated Support Account Manager (SAM), an experienced and highly-trained resource with advanced knowledge of the Kyriba application and the client’s individual Kyriba environment and processes. Every SAM provides: A higher level of proactive monitoring of their environment, including the Kyriba platform and the delivery of bank statements and payments Monitoring and proactive management of all support requests, coordinating case escalations to ensure the quickest possible resolution (cases are simultaneously submitted to the SAM and Kyriba’s general support queue for fastest possible resolution) Comprehensive KPI reports and a yearly overview of new features and enhancements Dedicated Advanced Monitoring Kyriba Platinum Support provides subscribers an invaluable service for companies wishing to outsource their monitoring functions and optimize internal resources. Dedicated Advanced Monitoring includes: Monitoring the delivery of bank statements, bank connection status and cash balance variances Payment monitoring to ensure that payments are sent and processed successfully by the banks Customized Inbound and Outbound file monitoring from/to ERPs (payments, currency exchange rates, etc.) Personalized monitoring schedule, adapted for each organization, providing proactive alerts each time a potential issue is detected, with comprehensive investigation and recommended resolutions Functional Assistance / User Training Platinum support comes with up to eight hours a month of functional assistance and/or user training, making this package particularly valuable for companies that regularly add new users. Options include: training sessions delivered via conference sharing same-day training for high-priority issues consultation via setup assistance and process documentation optimization of existing functionalities or module Bank Calls When facing issues with bank statements, Kyriba Platinum Support will call the banks on behalf of the clients and accelerate resolution (subject to thirdparty agreements). Onsite Visits Platinum support includes two onsite visits per year. These include a recap meeting and discussions of any changes required. Platform Utilization Study (PLUS): Kyriba Platinum Support includes an annual PLUS session to address your organization’s evolving structure and needs. Kyriba product experts analyzes the company’s existing configuration and provide specific recommendations to create additional workflow efficiencies. The PLUS session includes: Preliminary Q&A conference call Onsite meeting to examine current use case and any associated pain points, noting touch points with other departments and systems Detailed reporting of with findings and recommendations Why Kyriba Platinum Support? Kyriba Platinum Support addresses the specific needs of companies using Kyriba for our award-winning Treasury, Payments and Supply Chain Financing solutions, and looking for a more tailored support package, from customized monitoring and user training to an in-depth evaluation of the existing configuration: Obtain tailored support to suit the company’s specific requirements Outsource monitoring functions and optimize internal resources Access functional assistance and/or user training, ensuring that new users are fully equipped to use Kyriba effectively Benefit from recap meetings and personalized presentation of new release notes Receive annual recommendations to improve the existing configuration and increase workflow efficiency

Wednesday, November 30 | 9:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 2022 and forecasts for 2023 reflect continued, pervasive threats to profitability and overall financial performance. The effects of higher prices, rising operating costs and...

Wednesday, November 30 | 9:00am PST | 12:00pm EST | 2022 and forecasts for 2023 reflect continued, pervasive threats to profitability and overall financial performance. The effects of higher prices, rising operating costs and FX volatility are impacting profits and the financial health of companies of all sizes and industries. Finance leaders need insights and confidence in developing mid and longer term forecasts that are more accurate, allow greater collaboration, and more flexible scenario analysis. Join Kyriba’s Thomas Gavaghan for a demonstration of Kyriba’s new, revolutionary Liquidity Forecasting solution.

Kyriba’s Currency Impact Report (CIR), a comprehensive quarterly report which details the impacts of foreign exchange (FX) exposures among 1,200 multinational companies based in North America and Europe with at least 15 percent of their revenue coming from overseas, sustained $49.09 billion in total impacts to earnings from currency volatility.

A Quarterly Report Assessing the Impact of Foreign Exchange to North American and European Corporate Earnings About the Report The October 2022 Kyriba Currency Impact Report analyzes the reported effects of currencies to North American and European companies’ earnings during the second quarter of 2022. To obtain this information, Kyriba analyzed the earnings calls of 1,200 publicly traded North American and European companies as part of a continued effort to provide insight into how foreign exchange impacts organizations. The companies included in this data set are large multinational firms doing business in more than one currency with at least 15% of their revenue coming from overseas.   Currency Impact Report - Overview Kyriba Currency Impact Report: Key Findings The collective quantified negative impact reported by both North American and European companies totaled $37.27 billion in Q2 2022, a 126% increase from Q1 2022. 24% of corporates studied (284/1200) quantified +/- impacts totaling $49.09 billion ($37.27 billion headwinds), ($11.82 billion tailwinds). The Russian ruble was the currency most mentioned as impactful by North American companies, as third most by European companies. 243 North American and European companies reported currency headwinds in Q2 2022. Of those companies, 229 companies quantified their FX impacts. Total Quantified Currency Impacts by North American and European Companies (Billions) North American Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) European Companies’ Quantified Currency Impact (Billions) Top 5 Volatile G20 Currencies Top 5 Volatile Currencies as Weighted by GDP Percentage Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to North American Companies (Billions) Average EPS Impact Reported by North American Companies *Industry Standard MBO of Less than $0.01 EPS Impact Currency Impact on North American Corporate Earnings North American companies reported a $34.25 billion impact in Q2 2022, 133% larger than the impact in Q1 2022.1 The average earnings per share (EPS) impact reported by North American companies in Q2 2022 was $0.10, ten times greater than the industry standard MBO of less than $0.01 EPS impact and the highest spike in average EPS recorded by this report. 1 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by North American Companies as Impactful The ruble was the most mentioned currency, a continuation from the prior quarter. The Canadian dollar was the second most-mentioned, followed by the euro, the Australian dollar, and the yen. The euro was the most volatile currency weighted by GDP (page 6). Number and Percentage of North American Companies Reporting Negative Currency Impacts Average Negative Impact to North American Companies (Millions) Percentage of North American Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q2 2022 earnings calls, 8 percent of North American companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted North American Industries Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Negative Currency Impact to European Companies (Billions) Currency Impact on European Corporate Earnings Increasing from last quarter, European companies reported an 68% percent increase in negative currency impacts, with companies reporting $3.02 billion in FX-related losses.2 Of the 350 Europe-based multinationals analyzed, 2.3% reported headwinds in Q2 2022. Of those, 100% quantified their negative impacts (see page 15). 2 Impacts are likely underestimates as most companies with currency headwinds generally do not report them. Top Currencies Referenced by European Companies as Impactful The euro was the most mentioned currency in earnings calls for Europe, followed by the US dollar and ruble. The krona was the fourth most mentioned, followed by the pound. The ruble was the most volatile currency as well as most mentioned in North American earnings calls (page 6). Number and Percentage of European Companies Reporting Negative Currency Impact Average Negative Impact to European Companies (Millions) Percentage of European Companies That Fielded Analyst Questions In Q2 2022 earnings calls, 5 percent of European companies that reported impacts fielded analyst questions. Most Impacted European Industries Comparison of Currency Impact to North American and European Companies Average Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Millions) Size of Quantified Negative Currency Impact (Billions) Number of Companies Reporting Currency Impacts Percentage of Companies Reporting Impacts That Fielded Analyst Questions   FX Risk Management is one of the most difficult objectives handed to a CFO’s organization. Kyriba has a team of experts to offer extensive FX Advisory Services to our clients. Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

This episode features an interview with Manish Sarin, CFO at Sprinklr.

*Accepting cookies will allow the podcast player to be displayed. The Holy Grail of Finance: Real Time Data, Sustainable Growth and a Solid Bottom Line Manish brings to the table more than 20 years working with high-growth technology and cybersecurity companies. Previously, he was CFO at Exabeam, EVP of Finance at ProofPoint, and led Software Strategy and Corporate Development at Hewlett-Packard. On this episode, Manish talks about collecting unstructured data from Twitter, Facebook and Reddit to grasp the public narrative around Sprinklr, using AI to predict what will happen in the quarter, and achieving the holy grail of finance, of real time data, sustainable growth, and a solid bottom line.

As market volatility and economic uncertainty continue, corporate treasurers are forced to write a new playbook for 2022 and beyond. Strong currency headwinds, continued interest rate increases, unabating inflation, a highly mobile labor market,...

As market volatility and economic uncertainty continue, corporate treasurers are forced to write a new playbook for 2022 and beyond. Strong currency headwinds, continued interest rate increases, unabating inflation, a highly mobile labor market, and the threat of supply chain disruptions are driving an unprecedented set of risk scenarios for treasury teams to manage.

This episode features an interview with Nitesh Sharan, CFO at SoundHound.

*Accepting cookies will allow the podcast player to be displayed. How to Design a Growth Narrative with AI, Technology and Talent This episode features an interview with Nitesh Sharan, CFO at SoundHound. Soundhound is the innovator in voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies. Nitesh has over 25 years of experience in financial leadership roles. He spent nearly 15 of those at Hewlett Packard where he rose to be Vice President and Assistant Treasurer. And prior to Soundhound, Nitesh served as Nike’s CFO of Global Operations and Technology. Editor's Note In this enlightening episode of "How to Design a Growth Narrative with AI, Technology, and Talent", we get the privilege of hearing from Nitesh Sharan, the current CFO at SoundHound, a frontrunner in voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies. With over two decades of experience in financial leadership roles, including significant stints at Hewlett Packard and Nike, Nitesh brings a wealth of knowledge to the table.One of the main topics Nitesh addresses is the challenge of preparing a company to go public, particularly during a pandemic. This process is inherently complex, but the added layer of uncertainty from the global health crisis has made it even more so. Nitesh shares his experiences navigating SoundHound through these uncharted waters, providing valuable insights for other leaders facing similar situations. Nitesh underscores the importance of comprehensive and realistic financial forecasting, especially when considering an IPO during such unpredictable times. A deep understanding of the company’s financial health and the potential market volatility is crucial. By developing a robust financial model that takes into account various scenarios, SoundHound was able to create a clear roadmap for going public, despite the challenging backdrop. Additionally, Nitesh shares his strategies for safeguarding a company’s finances during periods of uncertainty. He emphasizes the necessity of maintaining a strong balance sheet and having contingency plans in place. A careful balance of cost optimization and strategic investment is key, allowing a company to weather financial storms while still nurturing areas of growth. Nitesh also discusses the role of innovation and technological transformation in shaping a company’s growth narrative. As a leader in a company that thrives on innovation, he has unique insights into how technology, particularly AI, can be a game-changer across various sectors. In SoundHound's case, their focus is on voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies. Nitesh highlights how these technologies have the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries, from education to the food industry. He envisions a future where these technologies become an integral part of our daily lives, enabling seamless interactions and transforming the way we engage with services. For instance, in education, voice AI could facilitate personalized learning experiences, with intelligent systems adapting to individual learning styles. In the food industry, voice-enabled AI could streamline ordering processes, customize food recommendations based on dietary preferences, and even aid in managing inventory and supply chains. Behind all these promising use cases is the lifeblood of any technology company - talent. Nitesh believes that attracting and retaining the right talent is crucial to stay competitive and innovate continuously. He shares his strategies for fostering a culture of innovation and engagement, where every member of the team feels valued and motivated to contribute to the company's growth. In times of uncertainty, it’s about striking a balance between financial prudence and strategic investment, embracing transformative technologies, and nurturing a talent pool that is prepared to innovate and adapt. These elements, as Nitesh highlights, are key to driving sustainable growth in the modern business landscape. Return to The Invisible Vault

Clear Need for Better Control over FX Exposures and Fees Wahl Clipper saw the opportunity to expand the value of their Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP investment by integrating with Kyriba to support more complex...

Clear Need for Better Control over FX Exposures and Fees Wahl Clipper saw the opportunity to expand the value of their Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP investment by integrating with Kyriba to support more complex treasury functions. With the guidance and help of RSM US, Wahl implemented Kyriba and 360T’s FX trading solutions to provide critical insight into FX spreads and trades. “Using Kyriba’s BCaaS allowed Wahl to consolidate global cash visibility into a single platform and gain control of regional cash balances previously unavailable. This provided the backbone for implementing Wahl’s physical cash settlement processing for their multilateral netting centers.”Logan Wacker, Director of RSM US “Centralizing FX at HQ has allowed us to get improved spread compression and leverage larger, fewer FX trades. The former decentralized process did not provide cost transparency resulting in additional spread, time, and other costs equating to a very inefficient process.”Director of Treasury and FP&A, Wahl Clipper Multiple Goals Increased Efficiency: Provide structure and automation to lessen time spent on manual tasks, leaving more time for strategic work. Accelerated Netting: Automate multilateral netting to reduce disconnected FX settlement processes and deliver significant visibility gains to management. Robust Controls: Strict roles and responsibilities, segregation of duties, and IT general controls to reduce errors and fraud. Lower Processing Costs: Centralizing the buying/selling of currency globally reduces trade execution price and bank fees and consolidates FX exposure reporting into a single platform. “It’s like going from a horse and carriage to a rocket ship. The key is getting buy-in. We took baby steps, and the more management sees it working, the more they are willing to scale.”Director of Treasury and FP&A, Wahl Clipper   The Solution Multilateral Netting and Treasury Automation With multilateral netting in place, Wahl business units have agreements with other business units that allow for intercompany transactions. Once these transactions are booked and exist within a regional ERP application, that’s when the netting process begins with Kyriba. On a mid-month basis, intercompany payables and receivables are collected from each business unit and matched and settled, and disputes are resolved. It is then reported - exactly what is needed to buy, exactly what is needed to sell, and what the overall currency needs are across the globe for those participants. “The visibility that Kyriba provides senior management at Wahl for making decisions on our global cash position is phenomenal. Each sub updates their cash forecast via Kyriba on a weekly basis. HQ can make timely decisions to accelerate collections, delay disbursements, and better manage cash as a corporate resource.” What’s New at Wahl Clipper Cash Forecasting Fall 2022: Launched a 13 week global rolling cash forecast through Kyriba. The data is made available from Kyriba into PowerBI, which is used by Wahl Headquarters to make strategic decisions on balances, collections and disbursements. About Wahl Clipper A world leader in professional and personal hair clipping products, Wahl does business in 165 countries and operates six manufacturing facilities and 11 sales offices around the world.

Wednesday, November 9nd | 9:00am PT | 12:00pm ET | FX volatility has hit major global currencies, rather than just a handful of emerging markets, which is resulting in the largest magnitude of FX...

Wednesday, November 9nd | 9:00am PT | 12:00pm ET | FX volatility has hit major global currencies, rather than just a handful of emerging markets, which is resulting in the largest magnitude of FX related headwinds ever seen since global FX impact data has been tracked.

“As a health IT company, we go through extreme efforts to be in compliance and protected. Upgrading and maintaining our own SWIFT BIC would be a continuous drain on IT resources, and our executives...

“As a health IT company, we go through extreme efforts to be in compliance and protected. Upgrading and maintaining our own SWIFT BIC would be a continuous drain on IT resources, and our executives quickly approved the Kyriba solution.” Leonard Nick, Assistant Treasurer, Oracle Cerner Out of Compliance and Running Out of Time Cerner’s Treasury built an in-house, custom solution to manage the company’s large data volumes, and they implemented SWIFT Alliance Lite2 to support all bank communications, including prior and current-day bank statements, payroll, and vendor/expense payments. Late in 2021, Cerner Treasury uncovered that their IT infrastructure was out of compliance with SWIFT’s Customer Security Control framework. Financial systems were at risk, with the large M&A deal with Oracle, Cerner Treasury needed a reliable and efficient solution to move global payments. Key Challenges Immediate and urgent need to comply with SWIFT standards and reduce reputational risk and threats of financial impact and loss; costs of maintaining SWIFT AL2 would drain IT resources 410 hours per year on maintenance, token management and the lengthy certificate renewal process $4B Payments bottleneck with a lack of a scalable, payments hub for the extensive network of partner banks Limited capabilities for enhanced bank reporting and accelerated visibility to cash Highly manual and redundant tasks with more costly operations, creating potential challenges to M&A activities, Day 1 readiness, and the Oracle acquisition closing Solution: Migrate to Kyriba Service Bureau & Transform Treasury’s Role The Cerner SWIFT BIC was migrated to the Kyriba Service Bureau, and the Cerner Treasury team focused on creating a unified Treasury and Finance Liquidity reporting environment with: Faster bank connectivity through Open APIs. A Payments Hub to consolidate and create a consistent and automated file and payment instruction pathway. ERP integration for reporting to and from related systems. SWIFT BIC / Kyriba automation facilitates bank communication via the Service Bureau while having the full SWIFT BIC functionality option to expand to additional bank transactions, vendor and client real-time secure communication. In this new, fully connected environment, full SWIFT Alliance Lite2 and continuous automation is still available and not sacrificed while data flows from ERP, Payroll, HR and Treasury solutions. All integration points established with Cerner’s ERP are still in place, facilitating the current payment automation and new investment capabilities. Productivity Gains of 930 Hours and ROI Payback in less than 9 Months Positive business outcomes expected from this project: Protected and continued $4B/350k in annual payments value/volume with capacity to grow Protect free cash flows and low operational costs, key to Oracle acquisition 5 year ROI and IRR is 31.9% and 70.3% respectively, payback in less than 9 months 930 IT hours saved annually (410 hours of SWIFT AL2 maintenance, 520 hours of bank connectivity maintenance) About Oracle Cerner For 40+ years, Cerner, a leading Electronic Health Record platform, worked at the intersection of healthcare and information technology to connect people and systems around the world, using the latest technology to create solutions that let communities and people engage in their own health. In June of 2022, Oracle acquired Cerner for $28B to further couple technology and healthcare innovation.

Global Economic and Geo-Political uncertainty brings new risks to business continuity. We can qualify by known risks and unknown risk. There is no task more challenging than planning for the unknown. Business continuity can...

Global Economic and Geo-Political uncertainty brings new risks to business continuity. We can qualify by known risks and unknown risk. There is no task more challenging than planning for the unknown. Business continuity can be impacted by several challenges from personnel to cash-flow and credit worthiness. As finance professionals, being able to measure the risk can help strengthen your scenarios as you navigate through uncertainty.

Discover new technology solutions and strategies designed to help you be more cash-smart. Given the growing enterprise exposure to inflation and potential recession, rising interest rates, and skyrocketing currency volatility and hedging costs, CFOs...

Discover new technology solutions and strategies designed to help you be more cash-smart. Given the growing enterprise exposure to inflation and potential recession, rising interest rates, and skyrocketing currency volatility and hedging costs, CFOs and their treasury teams are rethinking strategies to optimize their finances. And treasurers in particular are experiencing new challenges when it comes to managing cash and liquidity as once again ‘Cash is King’.

Kyriba supports derivative and hedge accounting for ASC and IFRS compliance, including mark-to-market for valuations and automated posting of derivative & hedge accounting entries to your ERP.

Kyriba provides comprehensive solutions for FX exposure management, mark-to-market, and  derivative and hedge accounting to support corporate hedging programs and facilitate regulatory compliance. The solutions allows fast, automated valuation postings across your entire portfolio, saving you time and speeding up your financial close. Kyriba's Risk Management solution offers regulatory compliance for FASB, IAS, ASC, and IFRS derivative accounting standards. With a team of FX experts, Kyriba offers FX Advisory Services to help you navigate complex regulatory standards with ease. Kyriba's solutions are built to meet the depth and complexity that modern organizations require for hedging and accounting. Kyriba's FX Risk Management solution also seamlessly integrates with its cash management, liquidity forecasting, payments and analytics with global bank connectivity coverage. With Kyriba, you no longer need to rely on multiple systems to achieve your hedging goals. The cloud-based SaaS platform simplifies the support for your hedging program, but offers premium product performance, managed upgrades and eliminates IT dependencies. Kyriba's in-house developed accounting engine generates structured accounting entries, full audit trails, and automates financial reporting and controls. This ensures that your accounting processes are efficient, accurate, and comply with regulatory standards. Kyriba automates the mark-to-market process to calculate valuations for all derivatives. The valuation engine allows clients to run valuations across their entire portfolio whenever needed during the month. Valuations use market rates and curves from Kyriba’s Market Data service, while market information can also be accessed from third-party platforms. Kyriba’s audit logs and information storage offer complete transparency to the valuation process. Watch this video to get an overview. If you are interested to learning more about how to automate seamlessly across your FX management process? Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.

After the announced divestiture, Exelon and Constellation Energy each required a modernized Treasury Management System to run their businesses autonomously, reduce cost and transform operations.

After the announced divestiture, Exelon and Constellation Energy each required a modernized Treasury Management System to run their businesses autonomously, reduce cost and transform operations.

“With ICD and Kyriba bringing real-time treasury to the next level, our organization is able to make investment decisions based on up-to-date account data, fund availability and market data. From one platform we can...

“With ICD and Kyriba bringing real-time treasury to the next level, our organization is able to make investment decisions based on up-to-date account data, fund availability and market data. From one platform we can then complete fund transfer to any accounts, creating efficiency like never before.” David Miller Treasurer & SVP, Hunt Companies Constantly challenged with new data and reporting requirements to support the business, treasury organizations are turning to modern technologies for greater visibility, accuracy, and speed. By leveraging Kyriba’s API, ICD creates a seamless, end-to-end workflow for clients to gain control over their liquidity management and investment processes. Key Challenges to Treasury Multiple platforms and logins to manage investments Lack of unified view of cash positions Separate reporting and analysis based on unsynchronized data Operational risks from manual trade and payment processes Manual processes to fix issues Benefits of Real-time Treasury SSO connectivity from Kyriba’s workflow map as part of treasurer’s day to day Enhanced decision making with real time data Automated trade settlement to reduce manual processes Reduced operational and financial risks through process automation Daily automated sweeps to maximize return on surplus cash ICD is treasury’s trusted, independent portal provider of money market funds and other short-term Investments. Its exceptional service and intuitive technology makes it easy for organizations to access and participate in the money markets. “Ensuring efficiency, security and streamlined workflows have been the cornerstone of ICD’s commitment to our clients. With single sign-on and deep integration with Kyriba, our joint clients limit risk and add efficiencies to their cash and liquidity management processes.” Sebastian Ramos EVP, Global Trading and Products, ICD To find out more, visit here to learn more about the ICD and Kyriba integration. Lastest update: Hunt Companies was recognized in December 2022 with a 2023 Alexander Hamilton Award for liquidity management, using ICD Portal for its short-term investments, and the ICD and Kyriba API integration for real-time visibility into liquidity.

Kyriba’s clients in the oil and natural gas industries range from production equipment manufacturing, exploration, and extraction to pipeline transportation. We help these companies through our industry expertise and leading solutions. While no two...

Kyriba’s clients in the oil and natural gas industries range from production equipment manufacturing, exploration, and extraction to pipeline transportation. We help these companies through our industry expertise and leading solutions. While no two companies are the same, many of our clients in the sector share many common treasury and finance requirements. Kyriba provides the capabilities to effectively manage liquidity, debt, investment, cash, payments, and FX risk, enabling executives to make more informed decisions. Enterprise Liquidity Oil and gas companies need comprehensive views of their liquidity. Kyriba enables clients to achieve 100% cash visibility and reduce reliance on borrowing, transforming liquidity into a strategic asset. Managing Multiple Entities Kyriba’s oil and gas clients commonly have multiple subsidiaries and business lines across the globe, often in emerging markets with limited banking infrastructure. This drives cash pooling, netting, in-house banking, and intercompany requirements. Kyriba fully supports multi-entity businesses, offering a host of services for parent and subsidiary treasury management. Our clients seamlessly connect automatically to their relationship banks, ERPs, and other systems, eliminating file uploads and manually-generated reporting and reconciliations. Cash Flow Forecasting Increasing cash forecasting horizons and improving accuracy is a key requirement in the oil and gas sector. With typically tight profit margins and volatility across many areas, minimizing idle cash and getting the surplus invested or available has become increasingly important. Kyriba consolidates forecast data and measures forecast accuracy to increase confidence in your cash projections. FX Risk Management Operating in many different countries means handling many currencies. Kyriba’s FX Risk Management, creates confidence in expanding identification and aggregation of FX exposures and risk mitigation capabilities to manage impacts to earnings. Kyriba gives support to a full end-to-end solution for exposures, trading and post-trade activities. Global Payments Commanding so many operations also places a heavy burden on oil and gas treasury departments in terms of payments. Kyriba’s Payments Hub manages AP and AR payments, while maintaining robust format transformation for communication with banks and other institutions. Debt and Interest Rate Hedging Higher debt loads are common in the industry. With interest rates on the rise, treasury teams must enable effective interest rate hedging programs. Kyriba supports debt and interest rate derivative position keeping, automates mark to market, and delivers regulatory compliance including hedge accounting support. Efficiency and Productivity As with other industries, CFOs and treasurers in oil and gas are focused on improving the efficiency and productivity of the treasury function. From optimizing bank accounts, to bank relationship management, and through automation of manual tasks to improve operational controls, Kyriba delivers productivity to the financial team, enabling less time spent on treasury and more time allocated to business intelligence and strategic insight.

Kyriba clients and Liquidity Excellence Award winners tell all, and it is clear: Organizations around the world have experienced a revolutionary transformation with Kyriba, constantly evolving and modernizing treasury processes and systems. And we...

Kyriba clients and Liquidity Excellence Award winners tell all, and it is clear: Organizations around the world have experienced a revolutionary transformation with Kyriba, constantly evolving and modernizing treasury processes and systems. And we are not close to being done.

For companies with complex funding, procurement, FX, or cash and liquidity management activities, managing these without technology is challenging to say the least. Kyriba’s In-House Banking solution gives organizations the control to create optimal...

For companies with complex funding, procurement, FX, or cash and liquidity management activities, managing these without technology is challenging to say the least. Kyriba’s In-House Banking solution gives organizations the control to create optimal concentration, pooling, inter-company, and netting arrangements to access more liquidity faster and more cost-effectively. With Kyriba's In-House Banking solution, you are able to provide internal banking services to all your business units. Our flexible data structure allows you to customize your accounts, entities, structures, and workflows based on your business needs. We give our clients efficient cash concentration, cash pooling with support for multi-currency pools, regulated and non-regulated structures, and multi-tier netting hierarchies. Benefits of Using Kyriba In-House Banking Solution Kyriba allows you to increase cash visibility and control with a full-featured In-House Banking module that creates greater access to cash pools and reduces costs overall in the procurement and receivables cycles. Our clients transition from point-in-time and end-of-month balances to real-time visibility into liquidity. This allows for better forecasting and more informed decision-making. Our In-House Banking solution delivers efficiency through reductions in physical bank accounts and consolidated reporting across regional treasury or finance transactional centers. Whether your pooling or cash concentration is managed directly by the bank or in-house, Kyriba’s application automatically posts and tracks in-house banking movements from physical and notional pooling structures. Key Features of Kyriba In-House Banking Solution Pooling and Concentration Our capabilities increase visibility and benefits of centralized cash in real-time, creating a streamlined, efficient dashboard with views into all your global cash. In-house banking transactions are created from cash or non-cash transactions. POBO (payments-on-behalf-of) Arrangements: The in-house bank executes makes payments for operating companies and debits to those companies’ intercompany accounts. ROBO (receipt-on-behalf-of) Arrangements: The in-house bank’s bank account receives payments for operating companies and credits to their intercompany accounts. Real-time Reporting and Tracking View all in-house bank’s balances by subsidiary and currency pair, when applicable. Affiliates can inquire on their internal and external balances, account and interest statements, and internal deals.

You're invited to attend How Can Companies Prepare for Economic Volatility?, a free webinar hosted by the Financial Times, in partnership with Kyriba. This virtual panel will bring together the following business leaders and...

You're invited to attend How Can Companies Prepare for Economic Volatility?, a free webinar hosted by the Financial Times, in partnership with Kyriba. This virtual panel will bring together the following business leaders and speakers to explore how companies can reduce exposure, optimise financial operations, and utilise technology to prepare for a potential recession: Lena Komileva, Chief Economist and Managing Director, (g+)economics Lorne Vary, Chief Financial and Business Development Officer, Brompton Bicycles Ltd Samuel Guillon, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Kyriba Moderated by the Financial Times' US Investment and Industry Editor, Brooke Masters, our panel of experts will discuss the following topics: What are the biggest concerns for businesses regarding today’s challenging economic outlook? What can corporate finance professionals learn from these challenges? Why is it critical for companies to better manage their liquidity flows across their ecosystems? How can this be achieved? How has the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and treasurer changed in recent years? How can they help to better manage enterprise liquidity flows? How do they anticipate their role developing in light of the economic uncertainty ahead? How are companies leveraging new technologies to enhance their financial performance and navigate regulatory changes? More details on the programme can be found at www.economic-volatility.live.ft.com. This webinar is free to attend.

Kyriba delivers the industry’s most advanced currency risk management solutions with extensive business intelligence capabilities for easy identification and understanding of foreign exchange (FX) risk. We use extract toolkits to collect complete and accurate...

Kyriba delivers the industry’s most advanced currency risk management solutions with extensive business intelligence capabilities for easy identification and understanding of foreign exchange (FX) risk. We use extract toolkits to collect complete and accurate data from ERP systems and spreadsheets for in-depth visibility into exposures, reliable analysis and informed risk mitigation. The Cloud-Based Business Model Advantage: Quick ROI and Low TCO By leveraging the Cloud-based business model, Kyriba creates two advantages: speed and low cost, without sacrificing the safety and security of your data. Kyriba is committed to keeping your confidential data safe and secure, and our processes and controls are audited annually. The cloud-based model frees your IT personnel from the need to manage and maintain the product and updates typically associated with installed and licensed software products, and enables Kyriba to rapidly and continually add product innovations to the market. Kyriba customers experience quick returns on their investment. Up and running quickly, we provide almost immediate visibility to exposure and risk data, and access to analytics and decision support capability. Confidence in your decisions allows you to take actions to manage risk, reduce costs and gain operational efficiency. Kyriba’s cloud-based application also provides low total cost of ownership. Because Kyriba is hosted, it requires little or no redeployment during upgrades, and no IT development. You know the subscriptionbased outlay at the time of purchase; you also know that the cost of ownership will not spike due to upgrades, redeployment, or support during the subscription term. The Kyriba SAP Extract Toolkit: Facilitating Set-up and Ongoing Data Aggregation Using proprietary technologies, Kyriba aggregates raw General Ledger data from SAP, as well as other ERP systems, databases and spreadsheet data sources. To facilitate the process of data collection for initial enrollment and ongoing exposure management, Kyriba created an SAP Extract Toolkit, Kyriba Extract 3.0, which has been certified by the SAP® Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) as powered by the SAP NetWeaver® technology platform. The Kyriba SAP Extract Toolkit consists of instructions on how to run native SAP utilities to retrieve account/ entity configuration information and a program that captures summary monetary asset and liability or revenue and expense balance data. After initial enrollment, only the general ledger report is used to periodically extract the balance data. DATA CATEGORY FIELD / DETAILS REQUIRED Entities Company code, name and functional currencies Accounts Account code, description and account type (optional) General Ledger Balances Life-to-date balances showing current value at a specified point in General Ledger Balances time, or period balances, typically post-closing at period end Hedge Information Includes amounts, company codes and currencies During the enrollment process with Kyriba, certain information will be needed from SAP to assist with configuration of Kyriba in preparation for exposure analysis. This information is typically retrieved using the SAP Data Browser to gather information from the account definition tables, SKA1 and SKB1, as well as company information from the T001 tables. This is a one-time effort and Kyriba will provide documentation for the specific fields requested. The Kyriba G/L Extract Program for SAP is a report written in ABAP and delivered via transport. The transport contains all the objects required to execute and run the program. The program does not create any database objects nor does it write or update any database tables or objects. The program will read balance data from the SAP general ledger, referencing account configurations to optimize performance, resulting in summary balances by company, account and document currency. In a generalized use case, a functional user will navigate to the Kyriba program in SAP and select a variant or enter variant parameters to suit their situation. The program can be run in foreground or in background with output sent to the ALV or spooled for later download. Once the program has completed, an authorized user will download the result file in Excel format to their desktop, login to Kyriba and subsequently securely upload the file to their client staging area in preparation for exposure analysis. To further maximize efficiency, frequency, time savings, error reduction, and security, while minimizing support required from IT, the extract process (both the execution of the extract query and the encryption and upload of the resulting files) can be automated. An automated extraction, encryption and upload process is particularly beneficial if you have multiple data source instances or systems. For each instance of SAP, your IT team will deploy and maintain the Kyriba G/L Extract Program. The extract program is the only Kyriba software deployed and maintained in your environment. Kyriba Application Security Kyriba understands and appreciates the importance of keeping your highly-confidential f inancial data safe and secure, and simultaneously available to your authorized users on demand. We have passed the scrutiny of our discriminating customers and ensure that our standards for security and confidentiality are the maximum possible. Here are some of the elements that built confidence for our customers: Strong encryption to protect sensitive G/L data both in motion and at rest Annual SSAE 18 Type 2 audits for the Kyriba application and company processes and controls ISO 27001 certification Internet firewalls and an additional level of access protection around the production databases Application layer separation from data with application-only access Role-level access and idle disconnect IP Whitelisting, guaranteeing client access from only specific Internet addresses Continual monitoring through port scans and network intrusion detection systems Complete audit trail in application and data back-up Application hosting with AWS and Microsoft Azure Full redundancy in daily operations for Internet connectivity, failover and load balancing Disaster recovery plan and capabilities provide for full redundancy and a production system recovery objective of 6 hours Annual third-party penetration testing and security audits Employee, contractor and data center personnel background checks Enrollment: A Simple Process The Kyriba Professional Services team will lead your IT and treasury staff through three simple, well-defined steps including set-up, resulting data validation, and an exposure presentation, to achieve ongoing, on-demand SAP data aggregation and Kyriba FX exposure management. A final step automates the file extraction, encryption and upload process. On average, it takes 8-10 hours of an IT generalist’s time per ERP system enrolled in the Kyriba service. Typical enrollment resources include: An SAP Basis resource to install the program from the transport A developer or functional person with access to retrieve configuration data using the Data Browser A functional person who can run the program and verify balances with the Kyriba Professional Services team using native SAP general ledger reports. PROCESS CONTRIBUTOR ROLE DURATION Set Up & Configuration IT or Other Resources Download Kyriba SAP Extract Toolkit; Run SAP utility to get configuration data; Execute test and live G/L Extract Program 10 Hours Extract Result Validation Treasury / Accounting Resource Included Accounts and Sample Data Validation 2 Hours Exposure Presentation Treasury Resource Demonstration of Kyriba and discussion of current and future workflow 2 Hours Optional: Automated File Extraction & Upload IT Resource Configure standard utilities from Kyriba- provided scripts 2-4 Hours Total Project Timeframe: 2 to 4 Weeks During Enrollment, your IT personnel will install the Kyriba SAP Extract Toolkit, run SAP utilities and execute the G/L Extract Program. The toolkit provides detailed instructions for IT, or other personnel with access rights, to run native SAP utilities to retrieve detailed account/entity configurations, a chart of accounts table and functional currency information. Next, you execute the Kyriba G/L Extract Program to produce a test exposure data set for validation. Once the data is validated, you may be asked to re-run the program to produce a final data set to be used for exposure management. This process generally requires approximately ten hours of IT time/effort. During Query Result Validation, your treasury and/or accounting team members will review the sample data generated by the Kyriba G/L Extract Program to verify monetary asset and liability or revenue and expense account information. The Kyriba Professional Services team will produce a sample data set for your review to ensure the data is consistent with G/L balances in SAP. You may also provide data on outstanding hedges, and the validated balance and hedge data is uploaded to Kyriba to calculate FX exposure and support timely, data-driven risk mitigation and cost reduction decisions. This step requires approximately two hours of time/effort. During Exposure Presentation, treasury and Kyriba Professional Services review your current workflow and systems landscape, progress to date, the future vision for the end state of rollout, and workflow and process improvements. A demonstration of the Kyriba software with your live exposure data and a discussion of how exposure visibility can help you optimize your risk management decisions complete the review. This process requires at least two hours of treasury time/effort. Automated File Extraction, Encryption and Upload Automated File Extraction, Encryption & Upload is supported through standard protocols HTTPS (e.g. via cURL) and SFTP (Secure FTP) for automating the transfer of files to a secure staging area within the Kyriba application. Kyriba has customized these protocols with syntax to enable users to transfer files to, and trigger processing within, the Kyriba application. You can deploy scripts (samples provided by Kyriba) based on the needs of your environment, which retrieve the output generated by the Kyriba G/L Extract Program, and encrypt the file(s), before transferring them over 128-bit HTTPS or SFTP to Kyriba. During your Kyriba enrollment, our Client Services team will supply scripts as part of the toolkit and work with you to configure them for your environment. The level of effort required to automate the file transfer is subject to the complexities of your environment but is typically measured in hours, not days. The process requires a Systems Administrator, Developer and/or DBA with privileges to create or modify shell scripts to automate the process or integrate with existing processes.   Benefits of Automated File Encryption and Transmission Data encrypted at rest and in motion Creation of a straight-through process from business systems/ERP to Kyriba Automates transfer of the extracted data files directly to Kyriba increasing efficiency and time savings, and reducing errors Enables more frequent processing and analysis cycles Allows coordinated transfer of files from multiple business systems Additional security through PGP encryption and IP Whitelisting Uses industry standard utilities and protocols: HTTPS file transfer and SFTP Less operational and IT overhead Supported Versions SAP R/3 4.6c, 4.7 ECC 5.0, ECC 6.0 S/4 HANA SAP, SAP ERP and SAP R/3 are the trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.   Want to learn more about how to automate seamlessly across your FX management process? Check out Kyriba's latest demo session and see how Kyriba helps its clients mitigate the effects of currency volatility and reduce hedging costs.  

Kyriba’s Commodities Risk Management solution gives finance organizations the ability to track, value and generate accounting entries for commodities exposures and transactions, alongside FX and interest rate positions already supported in the platform. Kyriba...

Kyriba’s Commodities Risk Management solution gives finance organizations the ability to track, value and generate accounting entries for commodities exposures and transactions, alongside FX and interest rate positions already supported in the platform. Kyriba supports a full end-to-end workflow with Position Keeping, Market Valuations and Hedge Accounting. Position Keeping Kyriba supports position keeping for spot, forward and swap commodity instruments —and includes the ability to split swaps into forward strips for both manual and automatic hedge designations. Structured swap schedules, Asian fixings methods and approval workflows are also supported for commodities instruments. Kyriba Commodity Risk Value-driven Features Kyriba’s Position Keeping features include using Business Intelligence to create views of exposure forecasts and related hedges. Fixing application and approval, in addition to cash settlement approval with payment generation are supported. Forward curves are provided for valuations, mark to market and position reporting. Kyriba offers automatic hedge designation features, including support for partial-hedging. Valuations Kyriba supports automatic mark to market valuations, calculated from integrated market data within the solution, or imported from outside sources. Market Data Kyriba supports a variety of market rates and curves in partnership with Refinitiv. Commodity curves include futures strips and optional spot points. Interest rate curves are used to discount future flows. Commodity fixings, spot and futures rates are also used for calculation of settlement amounts and forecasting of future settlement amounts to support cash forecasting. Redistribution of contributed rates from Refinitiv can be optionally subscribed. Hedge Accounting Kyriba supports derivative and hedge accounting for IFRS9 and ASC 815, with automated automated postings to your ERP or general ledger. Commodity hedges can be assessed and designated at a macro level—or using Kyriba’s new partial-term hedging feature. Users have the option of manual designation or have the system automatically match exposure items with deliveries within the strips of the derivative hedging transactions. This supports the assessment and management of hedge assignments at a granular level while allowing tracking of derivatives at the strip level by front office users. Kyriba Analytics and Dashboard Reporting Flexible and easy-to-customize reporting, analytics, and visual dashboards deliver end-to-end insight about exposures and designated hedge activity and performance. Kyriba supports market data integration from within the solution or from outside sources.   Learn more about Kyriba's solutions for commodities, valuation, and hedging. REQUEST A DEMO

This episode features an interview with David Quinn, CFO at BlueVine.

*Accepting cookies will allow the podcast player to be displayed. Untrap Your Liquidity Through Data and Technology This episode features an interview with David Quinn, CFO at BlueVine. BlueVine provides small and medium-sized business owners with the working capital they need to run and grow their businesses. David has more than 25 years of global experience in banking and finance. Prior to BlueVine, David served as Commercial Bank Chief Financial Officer at Silicon Valley Bank. He also served as Executive Vice President and Consumer Bank Chief Financial Officer at Bank of the West. David has held senior leadership positions at Citibank, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman Brothers in the UK. On this episode, David discusses modernizing your technology to work for you, the benefits of using third party software instead of building in-house, and making your business unattractive to fraudsters.

In the current environment of rising interest rates and inflation, treasurers are increasingly focused on cost reduction. Learn how Walker & Dunlop reduced payment costs and improved productivity through their payment hub. Get first-hand...

In the current environment of rising interest rates and inflation, treasurers are increasingly focused on cost reduction. Learn how Walker & Dunlop reduced payment costs and improved productivity through their payment hub. Get first-hand tips from Walker & Dunlop who figured out how to maximize the benefits of the payment hub and rapidly implement a solution with minimal disruption to legacy payment infrastructure. 3PO Consulting will also offer strategies that will help you design and optimize a payment hub to channel payments through a single point of access with all partners from initial design to go live sign-off.

Kyriba’s FX Advisory Services delivers customized solutions to implement and optimize global FX risk management programs. From execution to accounting, FX risk management is a complex, ever-shifting responsibility, which is difficult for organizations to...

Kyriba’s FX Advisory Services delivers customized solutions to implement and optimize global FX risk management programs. From execution to accounting, FX risk management is a complex, ever-shifting responsibility, which is difficult for organizations to fully staff the necessary level of in-house expertise. Lack of FX business intelligence leads to costly mistakes due to currency and market volatility. Whether your company has been hedging foreign currency risks for decades, or feeling material impacts from FX volatility for the first time, Kyriba’s FX Risk Advisory Services will design the best path forward to create, or revitalize your FX risk management program. We can serve as an extension of your team or take the lead managing projects. FX Advisory Services Differentiating Benefits Broad Based FX Expertise Kyriba’s FX team carries a wide range of experience with backgrounds in corporate treasury, FX risk software, financial institutions & traders, and public accounting firms. We will bring our breadth of experiences to you. Large and Diverse Client Kyriba Base Kyriba’s growth and diverse client base ensures that the FX Advisory Services team is continuously learning. We get exposed to and have a hand in developing best practices in the market. Bridge Between Treasury & Accounting We have backgrounds focused on treasury and accounting and will find solutions that delivers the economics for treasury while ensuring accounting is cared for with efficient processes, accurate entries, and compliance. Project Management Approach We will drive projects from start to finish, keeping key milestones on track. Flexible Solutions Every company has unique challenges and circumstances, along with endless variables in the world of FX. We strive to find a customized best-fit solution for all clients and will not box companies into a one-size fits all recommendation. Detail Focused The devil is in the details when it comes to FX transactional risk and derivative accounting. We advise clients on designing processes that yield the most effective results, which requires digging in deep from multiple angles. FX ADVISORY SERVICES MATRIX FX RISK ADVISORY SERVICES DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES & ACTIVITIES REPRESENTATIVE DELIVERABLES FX Strategy Discovery Sessions Working sessions led by FX Advisory to conduct deep dives into current hedge objectives, risks, and hedging strategies to consider. Kyriba develops summary reports and roadmaps of suggested next steps and opportunities for optimization: • Recommendations report • FX Risk Management Roadmap and Strategic Plan FX Risk/Exposure Analysis Deep assessment and analysis on risk and exposures. Kyriba Advisory Services aggregates exposure data, validates data, quantitatively analyzes risk, assesses key timing aspects of transactional exposures, and discusses opportunities for natural or operational hedging. Management presentation summarizing FX risks, which includes: • Summary of independent and aggregated exposure positions • Detailed overview of key risks and timing • Quantitative analytics on FX risks • Identified natural or operational netting/hedging opportunities FX Hedge Program Implementation Services The Hedge Program Implementation package gives Kyriba clients the expertise and support required to start a new hedge program from scratch. Kyriba Advisory Services is an extension of your team to identify risks, develop the most appropriate risk management objectives and design a custom hedge program. Designed hedge strategies are prepared to go-live with: • Draft FX Risk Management Policy (operational policy) • FX Hedging Procedures Document • Summary document of hedge strategies • Draft Hedge Accounting Policy • Draft designation documentation and quantitative effectiveness assessments FX Program Review & Revitalization Kyriba Advisory Services designs customized work plans, tailored to review existing policies and practices, and diagnose issues. Clients will be left with insight to what is driving ineffectiveness in their hedge program and actionable ideas to make improvements. Variable, and customized for each engagement. Commonly involving a scorecard analysis of existing processes with go forward recommendations. Custom Consulting Commonly used to review client/existing hedge programs, review functional currency determination, review rate setting methodology, conduct peer analysis, M&A due diligence and integration. Confirmations/recommendations of reviewed processes. Can have customized deliverables agreed upon with client/prospect. Examples include: • FX hedging strategy design and blueprinting, policies and procedures, hedge documentation, disclosure review • Analysis of functional currency, FX exposures, hedge results • Review of underlying FX transaction accounting • Effectiveness testing guidance and setup • M&A due diligence and hedge strategy integration • Benchmarking of FX hedging approaches or results Learn how to transform FX Risk Management processes to deliver more predictable and effective results with Kyriba’s leading FX Risk Management solution and our FX Advisory Services Team today. Reach out to our team of FX Risk Management professionals at: [email protected]

Adobe is experiencing substantial growth with a goal of creating a world-class treasury organization and to build a platform that would sustain it throughout the next decade. “This was a very open-minded collaboration where...

Adobe is experiencing substantial growth with a goal of creating a world-class treasury organization and to build a platform that would sustain it throughout the next decade. “This was a very open-minded collaboration where we said, ‛let’s not think about what we have been doing for the past 15 years, but let’s think about what is absolutely needed and how can we design it to be the best system.’” Susan ChanDirector of Treasury Operations for Adobe Key Challenges Before Kyriba With no TMS in place, Adobe managed Treasury —$5.5B in cash through 138 bank accounts —through spreadsheets 125 global users manually logging into 10+ banking portals daily Digital and hard token logins created a heavy administrative and security burden Reporting entailed downloads in varied formats and manual customized reporting Treasury Transformation Objectives One-stop shop for all banking activities with a full cash and liquidity view Centralized payments platform fully integrated into ERP (SAP) Scalable solution that is able to absorb new businesses and scope Secure system that provides full audit trails “We embarked on a journey to look for a TMS, and we ended up selecting Kyriba because it met our requirements… and it has a user-friendly UI, as well as a robust product roadmap. Having one, centralized system for everyone—for all the bank accounts especially—is quite a dream.” Susan ChanDirector of Treasury Operations for Adobe Adobe Treasury Wins with Kyriba Positive Business Outcomes 12 Functional Teams at Adobe Engaged Throughout the Project Liquidity Management Retired Accelerate workbook and automated daily management reports Created a consolidated view for 100% visibility into global cash and liquidity Eliminated manual tracking and settlement process of investments and debts Automated Intercompany funding process for time saving and enhanced control 180 bank and investment account balances integrated ICD Integration for money market trades and settlements details SAP integration for daily FX and AP forecasting Payments Achieved payment processing via one system Real-time fraud detection applied to payments processed in Kyriba 5 banks connected for a secure, automated process for ad-hoc payments Ad-hoc wire requests routed from ServiceNow ticketing workflow 300+ payment scenarios globally tested and live 50 SSIs and 116 repetitive payment templates maintained Accounting Reduced risk of errors by replacing most of BOT and wire forms with Kyriba daily GL export Increased number of accounts reconciled through Blackline integration, with bank statement forwarding from Kyriba Centralized and streamlined the process for Treasury transactions accounting entries Month-end accounting entries for investment and debt are auto-generated and sent to SAP Bank Account Management Centralized repository of 24 signers tracked and 8 bank letter templates maintained 4 Banks connected for bank fee statement reporting and proactive fee management FBAR reporting information generated from Kyriba

ELM is one of the most critical areas for any organization. It spans Cash & Liquidity Management, Capital Markets & Risk Management, Payments & Fraud, and Working Capital, all of which are paramount to organizational vitality.

This paper examines best practices for how to diagnose your Enterprise Liquidity Management (ELM) processes, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to determine what you are doing well, what you need to improve, and how to drive additional value for your organization. To objectively assess where you stand, where you need to go, and how to get from here to there, liquidity benchmarking is a perfect weapon for you. How often have you wondered about how your organization is truly performing in comparison to your competitors? “What would it take to identify the best practices leading organizations in your industry have adopted?”, or “Do we know what changes are required for a transformation initiative or a technology investment?” If you have asked yourself these questions, answering them can be difficult. Although these are critical questions, many organizations take shortcuts and bypass them thinking they have sufficient information to implement change. Alternatively, some companies opt for contracting with a third-party to perform such assessments to determine what process and technology changes are required to achieve a desired business outcome. These engagements are, however, not cheap and can be very theoretical, especially when it comes to treasury and ELM practices. There is little in terms of detailed financial metrics and codified best practices available in the marketplace. ELM, as an organization function, is in its infancy. Ownership of its key operating processes has typically been split amongst many stakeholders with sometimes conflicting interests. It is, however, a critical enterprise function. One of the key performance indicators of any for-profit enterprise is its ability to generate cash. Gaining control of sources and uses of cash and strategies to maximize those are what encompasses the discipline of ELM (ELM). In Finance speak, ELM crosses several finance business processes: Cash & Liquidity, Payments, Risk Management, and Working Capital Management. It is the multidisciplinary nature of the discipline that has made it difficult to garner holistic and historical data and best practices about underlying processes. What is ELM Benchmarking and Why Does it Matter so Much? Finance can benefit from leveraging benchmarking to evaluate and then improve financial performance and competitive advantage. Effective and optimal benchmarking comes from having the ability to use large and diverse data sets giving finance organizations a better understanding of both historical performance and industry trends and rankings. Questions such as “How has my organization performed over the past years?” “Is performance truly improving?” or “How are we doing against our industry peers?” are paramount to objectively assessing both success and improvement opportunities. Furthermore, a more dynamic view of historical data and benchmarking against the right peer group has a significant added benefit: identify best practices that need to be established or emulated. Finance professionals have long used financial benchmarks such as the S&P 500 or Dow Jones indexes to see how they are doing. Many have also compared themselves to key competitors against specific financial metrics such as Revenue Growth, Profit Margins, EBITDA, DSO (Days Sales Outstanding), and EPS. Many have also evaluated their current performance against historical benchmarks. What few have done is truly gone one level below and pinpoint the root cause of their performance. In other words, they have used lagging indicators to determine the “What” of performance. Too few have taken the next logical step of establishing and comparing their performance against leading indicators. The role of leading performance indicators is to answer the “Why” question. What is objectively causing performance to be what it is? What could be inferred in terms of remedial action to further drive results? Having both views, lagging and leading indicators, along with statistically relevant performance data samples are the secret to sustainable financial performance improvement. Comparative data with statistically significant historical data spanning operating geographies, industries, and sectors, and based on entity sizes add even more insights to drive business improvement decisions to the next level. ELM Benchmarking Relevance for Finance Organizations Finance organizations typically focus their benchmarking efforts on lagging indicators. One of the best practices many organizations follow is the use of both historical performance and peer group comparisons. Historic & Lagging Indicators: Historical benchmarks can be very insightful in seeing how an organization is performing over time. Has the company’s revenue growth, profit margin and net income increased or decreased compared to the past few quarters or years. Having this type of financial information can inform key decision makers to undertake strategic initiatives. They will typically start with an observation and try to hypothesize on what needs to be done to drive further improvements. This type of approach, albeit common in many companies, relies heavily on tribal knowledge and expertise drawn from either past observation or emulating competitors’ behaviors, real or ascertained. Leading Indicators: There are two missing links, not one. The first is the ability to tap into and leverage leading indicators to understand what a business process is capable of, and, why performance levels excel or lag. The second, and most difficult to achieve, is to leverage statistically significant and comprehensive sample data to aid in the decision-making process. Kyriba’s Value Engineering team has been hard at work for the past five years to build such a Benchmarking database with both leading and lagging performance indicators. The database currently has 1,600+ organizations that can be segmented by revenue, industry, geography, and business process. Let’s assume your organization is embarking on a digital transformation of its finance and treasury management processes. Furthermore, it knows it needs to start right away, but has not yet done all the due diligence to identify where to start, the sequence of change, or the benefit it could realistically expect to achieve. The Kyriba Value Engineering team would collaborate with your organization to identify what’s working well and what needs to be improved upon, as well as the prioritization of the steps based on objective criteria. Benchmarking Your ELM Processes ELM is one of the most critical areas for any organization. It spans Cash & Liquidity Management, Capital Markets & Risk Management, Payments & Fraud, and Working Capital, all of which are paramount to organizational vitality. As such, and given the mounting uncertainty, rising inflation, global pandemics, and geo-political instability, it should be benchmarked regularly. Initiating a comprehensive and rigorous liquidity benchmarking would not only help to identify internal gaps, but also, help an organization garner and adopt industry best practices to weather the storm and even thrive. We believe that enabling organizations to objectively take necessary steps to benchmark their performance would improve organizational resilience and boost efforts to drive enhanced competitiveness and value creation.  Gathering the required information from scratch can be a monumental task, especially if there is no benchmarking foundation, established methodologies, long data history and peer comparison groups across both leading and lagging indicators.   The dilemma many organizations face is acknowledging the importance of the insights that can be derived from benchmarking yet recognizing the daunting task of building a practice by themselves. This often leads to deferring benchmarking initiatives. To overcome this challenge, organizations partner with liquidity management and industry experts/advisors to perform this critical strategic step.   Here at Kyriba, we made the decision five years ago to build performance benchmarking to support our clients and prospective customers need to assess themselves against peer groups to determine 1- what’s working well, and 2- what needs to be improved upon.   The Kyriba liquidity benchmarking database has 1,600 organizations across multiple industries, sectors, revenue sizes and geographies, making it the largest ELM benchmarking repository in the world. The database is also growing at 500 to 600 per year.  With the only dedicated practice around ELM benchmarking, Kyriba uses finance and treasury practitioners and executives to conduct client assessments. Furthermore, to streamline the process and make it efficient, the Kyriba Value Engineering Team uses collaboration tools to collect, validate and refine the data it collects from clients. Client organizations are critical to the success of the program. The Kyriba team collaborates with our clients to identify the right improvement opportunities they need to pursue based on factual empirical data. We use our benchmarking findings as a blueprint for value creation, monitoring, and realization. This full value lifecycle approach allows clients and Kyriba to forge a value-based, outcome-focused partnership.  The Kyriba Value Engineering team has recruited the best in the business. Each Value Engineer has over 15 years of field, treasury and finance experience, and hundreds of assessments under her/his belt, and are relentlessly focuses on client satisfaction. Each Value Engineer will collaborate with your team to create the compelling case you need to secure the required investment to support your treasury transformation. See Where Your Organization Stands Compared to Industry Leaders GET YOUR ASSESSMENT

Xcel Energy had outdated legacy treasury and reconciliation systems that challenged the organization to keep pace with its regulated electric and natural gas delivery business needs. With Kyriba as the catalyst, Xcel Energy embarked...

Xcel Energy had outdated legacy treasury and reconciliation systems that challenged the organization to keep pace with its regulated electric and natural gas delivery business needs. With Kyriba as the catalyst, Xcel Energy embarked on a full treasury transformation spanning 15 integrations to drive consolidation across three legacy finance systems, dozens of legal entities, and seven user groups.

Digital transformation continues to occupy front and center stage across all areas of finance and banking. The pandemic and geopolitical shocks have amplified the need for real-time insights enabling confidence in financial decisions, especially as they relate to liquidity.

Establishing a Compelling Value Proposition for Liquidity Transformation: What, Why and Why Now? Digital transformation continues to occupy front and centre stage across all areas of finance and banking. The pandemic and geo-political shocks have amplified the need for real time insights enabling confidence in financial decisions, especially as they relate to liquidity. These events have caused companies to adapt their business models, ensure the availability of sufficient liquidity even in the worst-case scenarios and further accelerated existing digital transformation initiatives. Treasury & finance organizations are being called upon to provide more reliable and timely insights in support of executive strategic decisions. However, for those organizations with existing legacy manual processes and tools providing such real-time insights to executive boards proves quite challenging. We find that organizations across all sectors in the treasury space are looking for digital solutions to help improve the maturity of their processes and elevate treasury to a more prominent role in the organization. Despite the urgency in acting, many Treasury organizations are challenged with successfully securing funding for digital transformation. Unlike many of their sister finance organizations, Accounting, FP&A, who have had a long tradition of justifying significant investments to support corporate objectives, treasury has struggled to get priority for its investments. Too often, a treasury business case is developed to address tactical operational needs and does not address how the investment will benefit the entire organization. Chief financial officers typically receive requests from multiple departments for project funding. The challenge is that they can only approve a fraction of these projects. Funding is scarce. Projects are approved based on meaningful, measurable, and provable business outcomes. Historically, treasury departments have not been heavily invested in, and operated with rudimentary offline tools. This makes it even more critical to produce a comprehensive case for change that clearly articulates all the positive business outcomes of the project and further links these benefits to the strategic objectives of the organization. The good news is that this struggle is not unique to treasury. A recent Gartner survey of 2,500 business leaders in 25 countries, “Gartner Digital Markets: “Global Software Trends and Buyer Behaviour Insights 2022”, published in May 2022, states that the most valuable information in “the final decision” of technology buyers is the “Value Assessment”.1 In this whitepaper, we will share best practices garnered through 1,600 client engagements to assist in improving the formulation of a case for change that addresses both treasury needs and corporate goals. In other words, what is required to create a compelling Value Assessment to support technologyenabled transformation. When building a case for change, Kyriba Value Engineering has identified three best practices to secure funding for any technology-led initiative. Properly articulating the business outcomes and value of a technology investment will structure an appealing and credible value proposition and greatly improve the chances that a project gets approval from the executive team. Here is what we believe to be your must do list: Process Analysis: Understand what processes are working well and what processes offer an opportunity for improvement. Solves for the “What” question. Build a financial business case that will provide a meaningful and actionable return for the enterprise. Takes care of the “Why” question. Perform a Risk Assessment to understand the vulnerabilities and threats from the existing status quo, identify impact and develop mitigation strategies. While this return is hard to quantify, the impact can be very detrimental to an organization. Addresses the “Why Now” question.  The Kyriba Value Engineering team has assisted over 1600 companies, across all sectors, revenue sizes and geographies, to perform the right process diagnostics, develop ironclad, board-ready value assessment, and provide risk and threat profiles with implications and mitigation strategies. To conduct this level of analysis, the Kyriba Value Engineering team has recruited the best in the business. Each Value Engineer has over 15 years of field, treasury and finance experience, and hundreds of assessments under her/his belt, and are relentlessly focuses on client satisfaction. Each Value Engineer will collaborate with your team to create the compelling case you need to secure the required investment to support your treasury transformation.  See Where Your Organization Stands Compared to Industry Leaders GET YOUR ASSESSMENT

Cash forecasting is an art that is difficult to perfect. Every organization talks about forecasting more effectively, but few allocate sufficient people, time, and technology to build an effective program. Understanding the importance of...

Cash forecasting is an art that is difficult to perfect. Every organization talks about forecasting more effectively, but few allocate sufficient people, time, and technology to build an effective program. Understanding the importance of an accurate cash forecast that can be relied upon for key financial decisions is critical to making the right investments in forecasting. While there are many reasons to forecast, such as protecting against currency volatility and the need to mobilize cash globally, there are a few key areas that should be addressed to help CFOs and treasurers further make the connection between accurate cash forecasting and bottom-line financial performance. In this new reference guide, we will outline why organizations should forecast, and discuss best practice methods for perfecting the cash forecast. Key Stat CFOs and boards are prioritizing better forecasting. Fully 84% of respondents to the Strategic Treasurer 2021 Technology Survey indicated that forecasting is very important for treasury. What is Cash Forecasting? Cash forecasting is a key component of corporate cash management. When performed accurately, forecasting enables: Greater certainty of projected cash balances Longer term investing Reduced borrowing costs More effective hedging programs Better mobility of global cash Key Vocabulary Cash positioning is concerned with today and often the next five business days. The purpose is to manage daily liquidity to ensure shortfalls are covered and surpluses are concentrated to earn some yield on excess cash. Cash budgeting is performed by finance teams such as FP&A and is more focused beyond one year – although with increased emphasis on free cash flow guidance, the reconciliation of indirect budget-based forecasts with direct cash flow forecasts is increasingly managed quarterly. Cash forecasting typically extends cash positioning with horizons anywhere from one week to one year. Forecasting leverages multiple data sources to increase confidence in the projected cash balances so that better cash decisions can be made. The value of forecasting is based upon the value of those better decisions. Why Forecast? Cash forecasting drives financial performance. It is critical for CFOs and treasurers to understand the link between effective cash forecasting and bottom line financial performance. Excuses such as “we’re cash rich” or “interest rates are too low” no longer satisfy hungry investors who demand that cash be deployed or returned to them. Without adequate visibility of forecast cash and where cash needs to be deployed to meet growth targets, CEOs and CFOs risk looking foolish in front of shareholders and analysts. Fixing Cash Balance Issues Post Basel III, banks must hold collateral to offset the potential runoff of a corporate’s deposits, meaning that it now costs them more to hold corporate cash. The higher the possibility of withdrawal, the more collateral banks must maintain. Effective cash forecasting allows companies to segregate operational and non-operational cash into time buckets, as well as deliver the needed accuracy to allocate cash to longer duration investment strategies. This will help preserve previously realized investment returns or help to find an alternative for cash balances that are no longer wanted by your bank. Ineffective Cash Forecasting Costs the Company Money and Impacts Shareholder Value A poorly executed cash forecasting program drives a number of negative consequences, including: Earnings per share losses from unexpected and unhedged currency impacts Difficulty in maintaining (let alone increasing) return on cash in a post-Basel III environment Challenges in securing adequate and / or cost-effective borrowing to fund operations – increasing operating costs The frequent need for expensive emergency borrowing (e.g. via bank overdraft) to cover an unexpected cash shortfall – also increasing operating costs Inability to efficiently fund strategic projects and programs Difficulty in providing accurate earnings and free cash flow guidance, affecting credibility with the investment community Forecasting FX to Avoid Unnecessary Losses The volatility in global currencies shows no signs of abating, meaning that the pressure on CFOs to maintain the value of foreign cash inflows and outflows persists. USD-based Companies The relative strength of the USD vs. all other foreign currencies challenges CFOs because a strong USD means that foreign revenues will be lower, and unless foreign markets are cash flow negative, earnings will suffer. If projected cash inflows can be accurately predicted, treasury teams can hedge, protecting the value of incoming cash flows. UK-based Companies British enterprises have faced significant currency volatility arising from Brexit and other macroeconomic conditions. While currency rates are not easy to predict, CFOs simplify their job and minimize exposure if their teams can more accurately project foreign cash flows. This allows treasurers to hedge exposures and maintain value of incoming and outgoing cash. EMEA and Markets with Depreciating Currencies For those CFOs that count USD, GBP or other appreciating currencies as foreign cash flows, then they will have seen a roller coaster of exchange rates, making the task of forecasting certainty near impossible. Stakeholders demand earnings predictability, which can only be achieved by first perfecting the forecast and then hedging the foreign components. Forecasting is the Key Cash forecasting is required in order to make effective hedging decisions to protect the value of projected foreign cash balances. Understanding the gross inflows and outflows will help determine net cash flows by currency. To be effective, it is critical to know the amount and timing of cash flows so that treasury teams can maximize protection of net cash flows. Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) improved its forecasting capabilities and was able to reduce working capital holdings by nearly $4 billion. The health insurance company was then able to make more strategic investment decisions earlier in the day, resulting in a 5% increase in investment returns. Short-term returns grew by $40 million, while long-term returns have seen an increase of $140 million. Effective Liquidity Forecasting for Strategic Enablement Certainty in projected cash balances drives the CFO’s ability to anticipate and prepare for corporate actions and strategic investments. Without Confidence in Cash Forecasts, One of Two Things Happen: CFO and treasurer are not relied upon to contribute to key organizational decisions The CFO ends up being volunteered for commitments that treasury has to react to – often times inefficiently and without maximizing business value With an effective forecasting program, the CFO, supported by the treasurer, can be an effective strategic partner. Future Acquisitions If the board is considering mergers and acquisitions, the CFO is asked to provide guidance on the components of cash/debt/equity to calculate a total acquisition cost. With an effective cash forecast, CFOs can be confident in delivering this insight – and perhaps do so proactively. Share Repurchases or Dividend Increases When cash is held globally, share buybacks or dividend hikes are a challenge. Often CFOs find it cheaper to borrow cash domestically than repatriate funds – yet this analysis requires certainty into projected cash balances. Confidence in the cash forecast is critical to optimize business value. Reinvestment of Cash into the Business CFOs need an effective cash forecast in order to make commitments on how to reinvest cash to meet organic growth targets. Lack of confidence will lead to unnecessary borrowing or equity financing. Treasury Opportunities in Strategic Cash Forecasting CFOs are placing a higher priority on strategic cash forecasting in recent years. But they’ve mostly been relying on FP&A departments for this task, while treasury is typically left to handle short-term cash forecasts. However, there are some key ways that treasury can get involved and ensure that it is a significant contributor to company strategy. Working with FP&A CFOs turned to FP&A largely due to the upheaval at many organizations in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. CFOs generally needed more forecasts, scenario planning and stress-testing information and relied broadly on FP&A because investors and shareholders were demanding answers. To become involved in the strategic forecasting process, treasury departments need to be proactive. They should reach out to the CFO and to FP&A to see how they can help, and they should feel emboldened by the fact that they have been consistently reliable. Treasury has an overall proven track record of creating accurate forecasts—sometimes more so than FP&A in many respects. FP&A typically makes longer-term projections that hinge on different data sources, such as assumption-based, top-down projections. Treasury should pursue opportunities to work cross-functionally with FP&A and contribute to these 12-18-month forecasts, thereby cementing the department’s status as a strategic contributor. Treasury is well-suited for strategic cash forecasting because the function understands overall financing plans and the associated costs. FP&A, in contrast, needs to get that info from treasury to model it. In terms of setting up new subsidiaries in different countries, we head the cash needs and requirements. FP&A typically looks at historical scenarios to predict future needs and treasury typically forecasts the needs for future state.” —Lee-Ann Perkins, CTP, FCT, Assistant Treasurer for Specialized Bicycle Components Perfecting the Cash Forecasting Consolidation Consolidating data is about finding the right information and determining the most efficient (i.e. automated) way to integrate it into a consolidated forecast system. While automation is important, data quality is also paramount to success. When building the forecast, each line item may be sourced in different ways. The source of the information will determine the best way to build the forecast for each line item. For example, many treasury teams prefer to import accounts payable data directly from the ERP while for receivables information they may wish to extrapolate historical data and model using a linear regression. For treasury teams to be effective, it is important that all methods be fully automated and secure so that initial setup, maintenance, and daily execution to build the forecast are easy and can be maintained by the user (and not require reprogramming). Collaboration Making decisions on the best data to build the forecast also requires determining who to collaborate with to smoothly access that key information. In many cases, treasury does not have direct authority over the people that own systems and/or business responsibilities that offer that data. Yet, treasury relies upon this outside information to build a comprehensive forecast – so good internal communication skills are often critical to receiving quality information in a timely way. Examples of teams to collaborate with include: Accounts Payable – for payables trends or supply chain finance updates FP&A – for budget and free cash flow projections IT – automated imports from the ERP Regional Controllers – forecast projections for decentralized organizations Many treasury teams plan, with their CFOs, a top-down collaboration model that builds effective cash forecasting into the team’s objectives and compensation. This draws attention to the forecasting objectives and motivates each team to fulfill their roles. Measurement The most important – and often overlooked – step is the measurement of forecast accuracy. Implementing a process to measure forecast accuracy at a detailed level to identify the source of variances is critical to improving quality and ultimately reducing forecast variances. Equally important is implementing a feedback loop – to systems and to people – that ensure that forecast data is improved based on variances that were identified. And people need to be held accountable; the entire organization needs to be committed to accuracy. A high variance should perhaps be reflected in the bonus payout for the employee that is responsible. The feedback loop is especially important when non-treasury resources are contributing to the forecast to ensure that the right behaviors and cash forecast numbers are positively reinforced while opportunities for improvement are well communicated. This is especially effective when feedback is aligned to KPIs and quarterly objectives of those outside of the treasury team. A forecast variance analysis should be detailed with multiple ‘snapshots’ taken. If only a summary picture is reviewed (e.g. how effective was forecasting over a three-month period) then a lot of the variability is hidden within that timeframe. Measuring daily, weekly, or bi-weekly will help uncover the ups and downs between forecast and actuals that might otherwise go unnoticed. Fortunately, the business intelligence features of a TMS offer the data visualization and analytics required to provide this level of detail. The key to forecasting is flexibility so that you have many options to model the different streams of forecast data. The accuracy of your data will determine if importing, regressing, extrapolating, or other methods of calculations are needed to build your forecast effectively. Without measuring forecast accuracy, it is impossible to know how well you are forecasting. Data visualization helps focus on important variances – whether by category, time bucket, or geography – and isolate what data needs to be improved for future forecasting. ROI of cash forecasting is very high. Key to Success A forecast variance analysis should be detailed with multiple ‘snapshots’ taken. If only a summary picture is reviewed (e.g. how effective was forecasting over a 3-month period) then a lot of the variability is hidden within that timeframe. Measuring daily, weekly, or biweekly will help uncover the ups and downs between forecast and actuals that might otherwise go unnoticed. Fortunately the business intelligence features of a TMS offer the data visualization and analytics required to offer this level of detail. The Role of Technology Taking on strategic cash forecasting may require treasury to adopt new tools, including APIs and artificial intelligence. These tools can rapidly gather copious amounts of data, enabling treasury teams to quickly build global cash forecasts and extend the accuracy and horizon of those forecasts. APIs While many organizations view APIs as connectors that allow companies to access their banks and real-time payments, they have much greater potential. They can unify data, bringing information together into one, composable system. They can take a company’s system of record (the ERP), merge it with a treasury management system, and also bring in data sets from other internal and external sources, such as purchase requisitions, purchase orders, invoices, sales forecasts, etc. With such expansive capabilities, it’s easy to see why APIs are the perfect tools for cash forecasting. A survey of over 800 finance executives by IDC and commissioned by Kyriba revealed that 88% of them are prioritizing APIs this year. That’s because CFOs understand that APIs can unify forecast data across their organizations so that they can make better decisions. They are demanding more precise cash forecasting and liquidity planning. And they are right to demand it, because at the moment, they don’t have the insights they need. The IDC survey also revealed that currently only 15% of finance leaders leverage real-time data to drive insights, and only 25% of finance teams reliably forecast cash and liquidity beyond one month. AI Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can greatly enhance cash forecasting. AI-based tools can evaluate variables and errors found in historical data, allowing them to better estimate cash inflows and outflows in the near future. In the near future, as these tools accumulate more data, they will be able to make predictions on mid- and long-term horizons. Of course, with predictions, there’s always a question of accuracy. Fortunately, some tools allow users to track the accuracy of their projections by comparing estimations with historical actuals. If you don’t have access to that real-time data, then you’re not utilizing the most up-to-date information. Then how could you be as accurate as you could be going out further than four weeks?” —Lisa Husken, Value Engineer, Kyriba Advance Your Cash Forecasting Many Reasons to Forecast Cash forecasting is important whether your company is cash rich or debt-laden. If you have a high percentage of non-operational cash deposits, you need to know whether you can eventually release some of those holdings. Conversely, organizations with large amounts of debt need to know when they can afford to make payments. And multinationals with significant foreign revenues must forecast better, so they can hedge effectively and deliver cash predictability to their stakeholders. Creating the Cash Forecast The key to forecasting is flexibility so that you have many options to model the different streams of forecast data. The accuracy of your data will determine if importing, regressing, extrapolating, or other methods of calculations are needed to build your forecast effectively. Many Reasons to Forecast Measurement is the most important part of forecasting. Without measuring forecast accuracy, it is impossible to know if you are good at forecasting. Data visualization helps zero in on important variances - whether by category, time bucket, or geography - and isolate what data needs to be improved for future forecasting. ROI of Cash Forecasting is Very High The value of forecasting is driven by what your organization can do with additional cash. The value of cash can be measured by investing longer with higher returns on cash, repaying debt, earning yield from early supplier payments, or investing in new organizational projects. Perfecting the cash forecast means freeing up cash from working capital and directing towards these higher value uses. Collaboration is Key Treasury and FP&A should be working closely together on strategic cash forecasting. Rather than one department taking it on in its entirety, both functions should take on aspects that play to their strengths. Technology Makes the Difference Organizations have more data than ever before, and they need realtime access to it to make strategic decisions. And the only way to facilitate that is through technology like APIs.

Cash flow hedge programs are generally longer term in nature. Positions due to mature were locked months or years ago, and new positions may not impact the P&L for months or years down the road. Despite the longer time horizons, there are still opportunities to make your hedge program more effective when volatility strikes.

Kyriba FX Advisory Brief – Cash Flow Hedging in Volatile Markets Cash flow hedging programs are generally longer term in nature. Positions due to mature were locked months or years ago, and new positions may not impact the P&L for months or years down the road. Despite the longer time horizons, there are still opportunities to make your hedge program more effective when volatility strikes. Kyriba Cash Flow Hedging Best Practices Focus on Forecasting Improvements Missing hedge targets restricts the program from achieving stated objectives and targeted effectiveness, even if positions are underhedged and not at risk of losing hedge accounting treatment. Forecast inaccuracy does not directly show in FX Gain/Loss like with balance sheet hedging, but that does not mean it should be overlooked. Treat forecasting with the same rigor as balance sheet hedging. Track variances and work to perfect forecasting. Improve forecasting processes and standards, so that hedge targets are more consistently achieved. The hedge program was established to provide economic protection in a specific way, and this benefit cannot be delivered with poor forecasting. Revisit OCI Timing and Allocation Assumptions The high-level objective of all cash flow hedge programs is to align hedge results with the same P&L timing and GL geography as the underlying exposure. Many practical expedients are made to ease the administration of this. During less volatile times, a company can live with looser assumptions, but these mismatches can get amplified in volatile markets.Release and allocate hedge results more precisely by analyzing data monthly rather than quarterly or annually. Hedge results will then more effectively align with the intended protection of the documented hedged item and assist all business segments. This will improve hitting hedge program objectives. Develop Robust and Clear KPIs Improving a hedge program requires analysis to pinpoint the areas that command the most attention. Consistently meeting hedge program objectives requires establishing performance reporting metrics.Create an objective-based performance reporting package every month and quarter. There are not one size fits all reports. Whether the objective is locking into budget, protecting margin, fixing project expenses, or smoothing rates, there are ways to report hedge results. Once established create feedback channels to make improvements. Incorporate VaR and Cost of Hedging Efficient frontier concepts can be used effectively for balance sheet hedging as a short-term portfolio decision making tool. Cash flow hedging is more nuanced due to the objectives and the P&L timing variances between different transaction types. Analysis suited for nimble repositioning is not always a fit for long term cash flow hedging. But when cost of hedging is high, it can be a good time to use quantitative analysis as a guide to adjust layering strategies. Conduct VaR and Cost of Carry analysis on cash flow forecasts. A thorough analysis helps make intelligent, rather than emotional, decisions outside of the normal routine policy. If cost of hedging certain currencies is unusually high and analysis shows those currencies have natural economic offsets, there could be an opportunity to temporarily shift policy while not exposing the company to exurbanite economic risk. React to Metrics, not Emotions Nobody can predict with certainty where the market is heading. Today may not look like the best time to lock into EUR revenue hedges, but what if you shutter the hedge program doors completely and EUR goes well below parity? It may be time to add flexibility to hedge targets based on quantitative analysis, but overreactions could derail a hedge program and lead to poor long-term decisions.Treasury can steer discussions back to objectives and reduce the emotional or knee jerk reactions that senior management may have in volatile markets. Proactively prepare analysis to support ideas that prudently adjust to market conditions. This prevents the c-suite from making short sighted decisions based entirely on “taking a view” on the markets. In lieu of analysis and thought leadership from Treasury, temporary emotions from the top will completely hijack the program. Kyriba’s FX Advisory team helps multi-national companies optimize their cash flow hedging programs and evaluate FX risk holistically to complement a full end to end FX Risk Management solution. Reach out today to our FX Advisory team to learn more. Also, visit Kyriba Risk Management product page or FX Risk Management Solution page or schedule a demo with the team.

Treasury organizations and CFOs have the dual objective of managing risk to an acceptable level while also containing the cost of hedging across their portfolio of currencies. Several best practices stand out that separate the hedge programs that show cracks (or fall apart) under stress, from the best performing hedge programs.

Kyriba FX Advisory Brief – Balance Sheet Hedging in Volatile Markets Treasury organizations and CFOs have the dual objective of managing risk to an acceptable level while also containing the cost of hedging across their portfolio of currencies. Several best practices stand out that separate the hedge programs that show cracks (or fall apart) under stress, from the best performing hedge programs. Kyriba Balance Sheet Hedging Program Best Practices Automate Exposure Capture with Dynamic Queries Companies using static queries to capture exposures commonly miss new exposure activity, and only catch it after it becomes a P&L problem. Capture data using automated dynamic queries. If dynamic, any new monetary asset/liability activity in the source data will get reported from the start. Monitor Exposures with Increased Frequency Waiting for month-end actual exposure data just once a month (and usually several days delayed) may not cut it during volatile times, where the market is less forgiving on unhedged and over-hedged positions. Leverage technology to monitor positions daily (especially, but not limited to companies in daily rate ERP environments). Monitor weekly, if daily is not possible. Monthly is not enough. Revisit Hedge Adjustment Thresholds Higher thresholds reduce administrative burdens of a balance sheet hedging program, but leave more risk exposed. The cost-benefit equation of threshold levels changes during volatile markets and should not be static. FX policies are drafted such that the thresholds express the mandated max level but leave flexibility for discretionary adjustments at lower levels. Adjust levels during volatile periods, or on a per currency basis. Reconcile FX Gain/Loss Remeasurement Reconciliation highlights any exposure visibility issues or underlying transactional accounting issues that may have developed since last time it was thoroughly reviewed. Reconcile remeasurement results daily to monthly and quickly work with accounting on potential issues. Kyriba clients leverage our Daily FX Gain/loss Analytics tool, to accomplish this even in daily rate environments. Analyze Hedge Performance Further analyzes FX Gain/Loss as it pertains to hedge program P&L impacts. Highlighting the key drivers or FX noise, whether that be forecasting issues, execution timing, or cost of hedging.Derive clear explanations of the key drivers to hedge program noise as quickly as possible each month end. Leading companies can pinpoint issues and address them before they repeat themselves in subsequent periods and distribute performance KPI reports. Clean-up Exposures Erroneous material exposure positions on the GL are common. Intercompany balances, incorrect manual JEs and phantom balances can skew exposure reports and remeasurement results.Continuously identify and monitor growing intercompany balances and opportunities to net exposure positions or naturally hedge. All outlier transactions creating FX exposures are understood. Make Cost-Effective Decisions with Portfolio VaR or Aggregation Various levels of sophistication exist to make hedge coverage decisions more efficient and cost effective. Forward point markets are currently costing companies significantly more money than months ago, and this shows in the FX Gain/Loss line.The rising trend is incorporating portfolio VaR with Cost of Carry to make portfolio-based hedge decisions. At a minimum, companies must be capable of aggregating exposure positions globally to minimize numbers of trades required. Evaluate Back-to-Back Hedging A spin-off of efficiently aggregating hedge positions is formally pushing down internal hedges to subsidiaries. This can improve internal reporting or can assist in keeping subsidiaries accountable for their hedge results.When it makes sense from accounting and tax perspectives, back-to-back hedging is a common balance sheet hedging approach as an extension of making efficient aggregated topside hedge decisions. Kyriba’s FX Advisory team helps multi-national companies optimize their balance sheet hedging programs and evaluate FX risk holistically to complement a full end to end FX Risk Management solution. Reach out today to our FX Advisory team to learn more. Also, visit our FX Risk Product page or schedule a demo with the team.  

This is a special episode featuring Kyriba’s Senior Vice President of FX Sales and Advisory Services, Andy Gage.

*Accepting cookies will allow the podcast player to be displayed. How To Optimize Your FX Risk Management Program and Stay Ahead of the Curve This is a special episode featuring Kyriba’s Senior Vice President of FX Sales and Advisory Services, Andy Gage. For nearly 20 years, Andy has been helping multinational companies automate and optimize their currency risk management programs. Prior to his current role, Andy served as VP of FX Risk Management Solutions at Kyriba. On this episode, Andy discusses how to harness automation and smart analytics to run an effective corporate risk management program, the effects of inflation on markets globally, and being better prepared for the next crisis.

Inefficient payment processes inhibit supply chains, cash flow and profitability. The need to optimize cash and working capital, combined with the increasing threat of cybercrime and payments fraud, amplifies the need to centralize and...

Inefficient payment processes inhibit supply chains, cash flow and profitability. The need to optimize cash and working capital, combined with the increasing threat of cybercrime and payments fraud, amplifies the need to centralize and standardize corporate payments. A payments hub consolidates payment streams from ERPs, finance, treasury, legal, capital markets, and decentralized teams, transforming disaggregated processes into a single source of record for all outgoing payments. Kyriba’s Payments Hub centralizes payment activity, automating unnecessary tasks, enhancing controls through superior fraud detection and error handling, all while giving finance full control and visibility into the status of AP, treasury and other ad hoc payments. "It was simply unsustainable to continue logging in to each individual e-banking platform in order to approve payments. Kyriba offers us a single, consolidated point of access across all our bank accounts, [giving us] the ability to set up payments, define different payment types and to receive notification of pending approvals." — Andrew Nicholson, Graff Diamonds Benefits of a Payments Hub Implementing a corporate payments hub delivers a wide range of value, simplifying and streamlining payment processes so treasury and finance leaders can focus on other strategic initiatives. The following examples are just a few of the benefits that a robust payments hub can offer treasury and finance teams: Controls & Visibility Centralizing payments enables complete visibility of outgoing cash flows so treasury can optimize cash balances and effectively deploy cash and manage liquidity. Enhanced Security Payments hubs can ensure a standardized set of controls, extra layers of authentication, audit trails and payment status reports. A payments hub can also offer AI-enabled, real-time screening. Format Transformation Via automation, payments are reformatted based on bank channel, payment type or receiving location. Cost Reducing the number of systems that connect to a bank eliminates substantial bank service fees and software costs. Global Bank Connectivity Payments hubs connect to all global banks with choices for communication protocols, including direct connection, country banking networks and SWIFT. Payment Routing When routing payments, flexibility matters. Payments hubs can support blind routing of preapproved, preformatted payments, and intelligent routing for payments that require additional approvals or format transformation. The Future of Payments Hub Multi-channel payments hubs are the way of the future, with corporates soon to be presented with greater choice in B2B and B2P payment technologies. Kyriba’s is pushing the envelope with its Payments Hub, offering users all the latest capabilities: Payment workflow and controls to ensure that manual payments activities align to the organization’s payment policy and controls. APIs that require no files to be downloaded, enabling instant data transmission, including real-time payments and screening/fraud detection. A pre-built format library to meet the needs of every global bank, which require thousands of format variations. Integrated global bank connectivity to deliver out-of-the-box, API, SFTP/H2H and proprietary connections. Kyriba embeds our SWIFT Service Bureau capabilities in our banking connectivity. Two-way communication to include the receipt of payment status reports, acknowledgements, payment tracking, and bank statement reporting for status reporting and payment visibility. Payments intelligence reporting and easy, user-friendly dashboards to give you analytics, status, and data visualization for all payments. AI-driven Payments Fraud Detection to automate and digitize payment processes and detect anomalous transactions

Corporate treasury groups are being challenged with unprecedented scrutiny when it comes to the accuracy and quality of their forecasts. In this session, you will learn about many of the difficulties that organizations are...

Corporate treasury groups are being challenged with unprecedented scrutiny when it comes to the accuracy and quality of their forecasts. In this session, you will learn about many of the difficulties that organizations are facing both internally with process and data constraints, and externally with current market conditions and volatility.