Topic
Corporate Cash & Liquidity Management Guide
The operating side of treasury: seeing and controlling cash day to day and planning it over time. Cash positioning vs forecasting, physical vs notional pooling, in-house banks and payment factories, and how to get global cash visibility.
These are the decisions the systems exist to support — written from real treasury-transformation work, with the trade-offs and the things that usually go wrong.
Cash Forecasting
Cash Positioning vs Cash Flow Forecasting: What's the Difference?
Cash positioning tells you the cash you have now; forecasting projects what you'll have. Two different jobs — and why confusing them costs treasury teams.
Direct vs Indirect Cash Flow Forecasting for Treasury
Direct forecasting builds cash bottom-up from expected receipts and payments; indirect derives it from projected financials. Which to use, over what horizon.
How to Measure Cash Forecast Accuracy
Measure cash forecast accuracy by comparing forecast to actual per period and category — variance, MAPE, bias, hit rate — so you know where it's reliable.
Forecasting
The 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast: A Practical Guide
A rolling, week-by-week projection of cash in and out over the next quarter, on a direct receipts-and-disbursements basis. Why 13 weeks, and how to build one.
Cash Forecast Operating Model & Ownership
A cash forecast is a process, not a spreadsheet. Who owns it, who contributes, at what cadence, and how the forecast-to-actual loop is run — the operating model behind a forecast people trust.
Liquidity Risk
Working Capital and Cash: The Cash Conversion Cycle
Working capital — cash tied up in receivables and inventory, less payables — is a big driver of a company's cash. The cash conversion cycle (DSO, DIO, DPO).
Supply Chain Finance and Dynamic Discounting
Supply chain finance (reverse factoring) pays suppliers early via a bank on the buyer's credit; dynamic discounting uses the buyer's cash. When to use each.
Liquidity Risk Management
Liquidity risk management: not having cash when needed is the one risk that fails companies, even profitable ones. Forecasts, buffers, lines, stress tests.
Corporate Funding and Credit Facilities
Corporate funding secures cash beyond operations — facilities, commercial paper, short-term debt — and the committed-vs-uncommitted distinction.
Bank Guarantees and Letters of Credit
Bank guarantees and letters of credit are a bank's promise to pay if a counterparty fails or documents are presented — and both consume credit lines.
Positioning
How to Build a Daily Cash Position
A daily cash position is a consolidated view of the cash available today across every account and currency — prior-day vs intraday, actuals vs expected.
How to Achieve Global Cash Visibility
Global cash visibility is seeing all the group's cash — every account, currency and bank — in one timely view. Mostly a data problem: full statement coverage.
Liquidity
Intraday Liquidity Management: The Operating Model
Cash isn't a daily number — it's a moving position through the day. How to run intraday liquidity: opening position, inflows and outflows, payment queues, cut-offs, intraday credit and alerts.
Liquidity Escalation Framework
When liquidity tightens, improvised decisions cost the most. How to build an escalation framework — thresholds, tiers, actions and owners — so a liquidity squeeze triggers a plan, not a panic.
Structures
Trapped Cash and Cash Repatriation
Trapped cash is money the group owns and can see but can't freely move to where it's needed — here's why it gets stuck and how treasury frees it.
Treasury Operating Model: Centralized vs Decentralized
Centralized, decentralized or hybrid — how treasury is organized across a group, the trade-offs, and why the trend runs toward centralization.
Bank Account Rationalization: How to Cut Account Sprawl
Bank account rationalization cuts the number of bank accounts to the minimum a company needs. Why sprawl is expensive, and how to run and govern it.
What Are Virtual Accounts?
Virtual accounts (virtual IBANs) are sub-accounts over one real account — each with its own number, all cash in one place. How they cut reconciliation.
Electronic Bank Account Management (eBAM)
Electronic bank account management (eBAM) handles opening, closing, mandates and signatories digitally, not on paper. Why account admin is broken.
Bank Relationship Management
How a company deliberately manages which banks it uses, for what, and the value exchanged both ways — because the bank relationship is two-way, not one-sided.
What Is a Payment Factory?
A payment factory centralizes payments for many entities through one channel, often with payments-on-behalf-of (POBO). Why, how, and the intercompany catch.
Intercompany Netting: How It Works
Intercompany netting offsets what group entities owe each other so only net positions settle, cutting payments, FX and fees. Bilateral vs multilateral netting.
Operations
Liquidity Structures
Physical vs Notional Cash Pooling: How to Choose
Physical pooling moves funds to concentrate cash; notional pooling offsets balances for interest without moving money. The trade-offs, and when to use each.
Cash Concentration: Sweeping and Zero-Balancing Accounts (ZBA)
How cash concentration physically sweeps balances into one header account via ZBA — and the intercompany loan positions those sweeps quietly create.
What Is an In-House Bank? A Treasury Guide
An in-house bank is a central treasury acting as a bank for the group — internal accounts, intercompany funding, on-behalf-of payments and netting.
Optimization
Managing Surplus Cash: Short-Term Investment Basics
Putting surplus cash to work safely, governed by a policy that ranks security, then liquidity, then yield. The cardinal rule of corporate cash investment.
Money Market Funds for Corporate Treasury
Money market funds pool short-dated, high-quality instruments to give treasury same-day liquidity and a yield on cash — inside policy, not chasing return.
Debt and Investment Management in Treasury
Debt and investment management records and tracks a company's instruments through their life — interest, schedules, rollovers and covenants.
Bank Fee Analysis: How to Stop Overpaying Your Banks
Bank fee analysis reconciles what banks charge against agreed pricing, catching errors and overcharges. Bank fees are opaque and often wrong.
Measurement
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