Despite most enterprises adopting a TMS, or a cash forecasting module, cash forecasting remains to be the biggest issue across industries.
According to the surveys at HighRadius, it has been noticed that Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable are the toughest cash flow categories to forecast, but they are also the most important cash flows since they measure a firm’s revenue.
Since the forecasts have been inaccurate, treasury managers need to take remediation steps such as:
These challenges can be minimized by high margins by adopting robust and scalable technologies like Artificial Intelligence.
The AI-based approach simplifies cash forecasting subprocesses:
1. Data Gathering: Using a cash forecasting tool, data is extracted directly from the sources and systems, and presented as a single source of truth.
2. Consolidation: The system automatically consolidates data into regional and global views.
3. Decisions: Accurate data leads to accurate forecasts, which support finer decision-making.
4. Variance Analysis: Variance analysis can be carried out more frequently over multiple time horizons, hence performance can be measured frequently, and improved accordingly.
5. Scenario Analysis: Running scenario analysis is easier by changing multiple parameters and checking how they impact cash flows to take precautionary/ recovery steps in cases of distress.
AI-powered cash forecasting is not just time-saving but also foolproof as it guarantees a higher degree of accuracy.
With more forecast accuracy, richer reporting, and better decision-making through automation, the treasury manager is seen as a process specialist, who performs high-value tasks and is seen as a highly valued employee.
Technology transforms these KPIs into higher value KPIs that helps in closely keeping an eye on the future by handling manual tasks. The most common KPIs of a treasury manager involve:
The HighRadius™ Treasury Management Applications consist of AI-powered Cash Forecasting Cloud and Cash Management Cloud designed to support treasury teams from companies of all sizes and industries. Delivered as SaaS, our solutions seamlessly integrate with multiple systems including ERPs, TMS, accounting systems, and banks using sFTP or API. They help treasuries around the world achieve end-to-end automation in their forecasting and cash management processes to deliver accurate and insightful results with lesser manual effort.