This article is written by Cobase
Treasury is often described through its outputs: dashboards, payment files, liquidity forecasts, and risk reports. Clean numbers, clear structures, controlled outcomes. From the outside, it can look almost effortless, as if the work simply produces itself. But none of those outputs exist in isolation. Behind every figure on a screen is a person making a decision in real time. Someone deciding what matters most in that moment, what can wait, and what cannot. Someone assessing risk not just as a percentage or a model, but as a real consequence for the business, the team, and the people who depend on that decision being right.
Those decisions are rarely made with perfect information. Forecasts are never complete, markets move, and circumstances change faster than reports can be refreshed. Still, at some point, a choice has to be made. A payment has to be approved. A position has to be taken. A message has to be sent. Treasury professionals make those calls knowing that their work is often invisible when it goes well, and highly visible when it does not. That quiet responsibility sits behind every stable outcome and every smooth day the business experiences.
Treasury has always been human. It has always relied on judgment, experience, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. We just forgot to talk about that part.
Treasury usually tells its story through structure and precision. It shows up in board decks and management updates as rows of neatly aligned numbers, carefully designed charts, and risks that appear quantified and neatly categorized. Everything looks orderly and under control. From the outside, treasury can seem calm, predictable, almost mechanical in the way it presents itself.
In many ways, that presentation is intentional. Treasury is one of the few functions where success is defined by stability. By things not going wrong. By payments being made on time, liquidity being available when needed, and risks being identified and contained before they become visible problems for the wider business. When treasury does its job well, there is no drama to report. The absence of issues becomes the achievement.
What dashboards and reports do not capture is the thinking that happens before those numbers ever appear on a slide. They do not show the moment a treasurer pauses over a forecast that looks perfectly reasonable on paper, yet feels slightly off based on experience and context. They do not show the decision to pick up the phone and speak directly to a bank rather than send an email, because tone, timing, or nuance mattered in that moment. They do not show the hesitation before approving a transaction that technically meets every requirement, but still raises a quiet internal question.
Treasury rarely documents doubt, judgment, or intuition, because those things do not fit neatly into reports. Yet they are present in almost every decision. Behind the clean outputs and controlled outcomes sits a constant process of questioning, weighing, and choosing. Those human elements may be invisible in the final numbers, but they are what make those numbers possible in the first place.
Treasury often becomes aware of issues long before they surface elsewhere in the business. Before operational teams feel the impact. Before leadership starts asking questions. Before risks appear in reports or dashboards. This early visibility is one of treasury’s greatest strengths, but it also carries a quiet weight.
Seeing something coming changes how you experience your day. Once a potential issue is visible, it cannot be unseen or ignored. It sits in the back of your mind while meetings continue and the business moves on as usual. You track it, question it, and think through possible outcomes, knowing that if it materializes, treasury will be expected to have anticipated it.
That responsibility is not always shared in the moment. Often, it is carried quietly until there is clarity or resolution. Sometimes it is discussed openly. Other times it is held alone, managed through careful monitoring and small, deliberate actions that prevent a problem from ever becoming visible to others.
Treasury work does not always fit neatly into standard office hours. Markets move continuously, time zones overlap, and liquidity does not wait for convenient moments. The rhythm of the role is shaped as much by global timing as it is by internal schedules.
There are early mornings spent checking positions before the business wakes up, making sure nothing has shifted overnight. There are late calls to align across regions, clarify exposures, or resolve issues before the next market opens. Decisions are sometimes made with incomplete information because waiting for perfect clarity is not an option when cash and risk are involved.
Much of this pressure is invisible. When treasury does its job well, the result is stability. Payments flow. Liquidity holds. Risks remain contained. And because everything runs smoothly, the effort behind it fades into the background. The work disappears into the outcome.
In many roles, progress is visible and tangible. Growth is celebrated. Innovation is applauded. Success comes with clear milestones and recognition. Treasury operates differently.
In treasury, success often means that nothing happened. No missed payments. No liquidity surprises. No risk events escalating into real issues. The best possible result is that the business continues without interruption, unaware of how close it may have been to a different outcome.
That creates a unique kind of pressure. The pressure to be right quietly, day after day. To make sound decisions consistently, often without acknowledgement. To carry responsibility without applause. Treasury professionals learn early that recognition is not guaranteed, but responsibility always is. And still, they show up, because stability matters, even when it goes unnoticed.
Treasury decisions are often described as technical, driven by models, policies, and predefined rules. On paper, they appear logical and repeatable. But in practice, they rarely work that way. Even the most structured treasury environments depend on human judgment at critical points, often more than people realize.
Automation can process data, systems can flag exceptions, and frameworks can guide decisions. Still, someone has to decide which assumptions are reliable in the current context. Someone has to determine whether an exception is a one-off anomaly or the early sign of a larger issue. Someone has to weigh the level of risk that feels acceptable, not just according to policy, but according to the realities of the business at that moment.
These choices are rarely black and white. They require judgment that sits somewhere between experience, responsibility, and instinct. That human layer is what turns information into action.
Two treasurers can look at the same data and arrive at different conclusions, and both can be right. The difference often lies not in the numbers themselves, but in the experience behind the interpretation. Past situations, previous outcomes, and learned patterns all influence how data is read and understood.
Context plays an equally important role. A decision that feels reasonable in a stable environment may feel risky during periods of uncertainty. Business dynamics matter, whether the company is growing, restructuring, or navigating external pressure. Timing matters too. The same decision made today or next week can carry very different implications.
This is where the human side of treasury truly lives. Not in spreadsheets or systems, but in the space where frameworks stop providing clear answers and judgment begins to guide the way forward.
Treasury often acts as a buffer between uncertainty and the rest of the organization. It sits at the point where external volatility and internal decision-making meet, translating complexity into something the business can work with. Long before uncertainty becomes visible to other teams, treasury is already dealing with it.
Market movements, changing funding conditions, and shifts in cash flow all arrive first at treasury’s door. These signals are rarely clear or neatly packaged. They come in fragments, trends, and early indicators that require interpretation. Treasury professionals take that uncertainty, assess its potential impact, and decide how much of it the business needs to see and when.
In doing so, treasury carries risk on behalf of the organization. It absorbs fluctuations, smooths out volatility, and creates stability so other teams can focus on operating, growing, and planning. Much of this work happens quietly, without fanfare, but it plays a critical role in keeping the business steady in uncertain conditions.
Treasury operates in a constant balancing act. Move too slowly, and the business risks missing opportunities or becoming constrained by caution. Move too quickly, and exposure increases, sometimes before the consequences are fully understood. Every decision sits somewhere between protection and progress.
Finding that balance cannot be delegated to systems or policies alone. It requires judgment built through experience, confidence developed over time, and an understanding of the broader business context. Treasury professionals are often asked to make calls where there is no perfect answer, only the best possible one under the circumstances.
At times, that means having the confidence to say no when the risk outweighs the reward. At other moments, it means saying yes, even when certainty is limited, because standing still carries its own risks. These decisions are rarely visible once they are made, but they shape how safely and how quickly a business can move forward.
Automation is often discussed as a disruption or even a threat to treasury roles. In reality, many treasurers experience it very differently. For them, automation feels like relief. Not because it removes responsibility, but because it removes friction.
By taking away manual tasks, constant reconciliation, and fragmented processes, technology creates breathing room in the day. It reduces the mental load of chasing data across systems and spreadsheets. It replaces repetition with reliability. What remains is space. Space to think more clearly, to analyze what the numbers actually mean, and to look ahead rather than constantly reacting to what already happened.
Automation does not replace treasurers. It raises expectations for what treasury can contribute. With cleaner data and more consistent processes, the focus shifts from producing information to interpreting it and acting on it.
When systems handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks, people can concentrate on what they do best. Judgment, context, and strategic thinking come back to the center of the role. Decisions are no longer rushed simply because information arrived late or incomplete.
This shift changes how treasury feels day to day. There is less firefighting and fewer last-minute surprises. Preparation replaces constant reaction. Noise fades, and clarity increases. Treasury becomes a function that anticipates rather than responds, supported by technology but guided by human insight.
Over time, this creates a different rhythm of work. One that is calmer, more deliberate, and better aligned with the responsibility treasury carries.
Visibility is often discussed as a technical improvement, something that delivers better data or more accurate reports. In practice, its impact goes much deeper. Visibility changes how treasurers experience their role and how they are perceived by the rest of the business.
When treasurers can see the cash clearly and in a timely way, confidence follows naturally. Decisions become faster because less time is spent questioning the data itself. Conversations shift from explaining what happened to discussing what comes next. Treasury moves away from reporting on the past and begins to actively shape future decisions.
With confidence comes influence. When treasury speaks with clarity and conviction, its voice carries more weight. Leaders listen earlier. Questions become more strategic. Treasury is invited into discussions at the right moment rather than brought in after decisions have already been made.
Over time, this changes the role fundamentally. Treasury stops being the function that reacts too late to manage risk and becomes the one that helps shape the yes responsibly. It provides guardrails without blocking progress and insight without hesitation.
Frameworks, models, and best practices have their place. They provide structure, consistency, and a shared language. But they rarely capture what it actually feels like to carry responsibility in treasury.
They do not teach you how to earn credibility when authority is not automatically given. They do not show you how to sit with doubt when the data is incomplete. They do not explain how to balance risk with opportunity when the answer is not obvious and the consequences are real.
Those lessons are learned through experience. Through listening to others who have faced similar moments. Through stories that reflect the reality of the role, not just its theory. Human treasury stories create connection, recognition, and understanding in a way no framework ever could.
Humans of treasury exists to put people back at the center of the conversation. In a profession often defined by systems, processes, and outputs, it creates space to talk about the individuals who carry the responsibility behind the numbers.
This is not about celebrating perfection or presenting idealized career paths. It is not about promoting tools or highlighting transformation projects. Instead, it is about reflecting the reality of treasury as it is actually lived. A role shaped by responsibility, curiosity, pressure, and pride. A role where decisions matter, even when they happen quietly and without recognition.
Treasury is evolving. It is becoming more strategic and more visible within organizations. Expectations are rising, and the scope of the role continues to expand. At the same time, treasury is becoming more openly human. Judgment, experience, and confidence are no longer hidden behind reports. They are recognized as essential to good decision-making.
The future of treasury is not being built by systems alone. Technology plays an important role, but it does not define the function. What truly shapes treasury is the people behind it. Their choices, their questions, and their willingness to carry responsibility every day are what move the profession forward.
Treasury will continue to modernize. Technology will keep advancing, systems will become more connected, and data will move faster and with greater accuracy. These changes will reshape how treasury work is done and what is expected from the function. Processes will become more efficient, and insight will become more immediate.
But the core of treasury will not change.
Behind every number, there will still be a person making a decision. Someone weighing risk against opportunity. Someone protecting the business while enabling it to move forward. Someone trying to make the right call with the information available at that moment.
No system can replace that responsibility. Models can inform decisions, and technology can support them, but judgment remains human. It always has been.
The future of treasury is not just digital. It is deeply human.
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By Alex Cannon
Across 111 European public tenders for treasury systems, training is named in 47% of notices. The highest-ranked treasury capability is FX and hedging, at 13%.
uropean public bodies have to write down what they want from a treasury system, in public, before anyone can bid.
It all gets published on TED, the European Union’s procurement journal.
I looked at 111 notices, published between May 2018 and October 2026.
Training appears in 47% of them.
After that, the highest-ranked treasury capability is FX and hedging, at 13%.
A product that a qualified professional cannot operate without a course has been designed badly.
This market has stopped treating that as a defect and started pricing it in instead.
Some training is unavoidable. A treasury system touches bank mandates, approval limits and payment files and no amount of good design removes the need to show a new user how a particular organization has set those up.
A degree in the domain, 40 hours of instruction and a consultant on call is not that. That is a product nobody can learn by using it.
The newer products in this category are not like this. You open one, click around for an afternoon and it explains itself.
So why are buyers still signing for dinosaur software and then signing again for somebody to explain it?
Nobody buying a treasury system is new to treasury.
The people who will use it know what a forward contract is, what a cash position is, which balances get swept at the end of the day.
The training in these notices is not teaching them their job. It is teaching them the product.
What they are paying to be taught is where things are, what the screens are called, which order the steps go in and what the system wants before it will let you do the obvious thing.
The European Central Bank bought its treasury management system in 2018 for €16,534,744. Since then it has signed two consultancy frameworks for that same system: €7m in 2020 and €11.7m in 2025.
That is €18.7m to be helped with a system it paid €16.5m for. The advice has outgrown the software, at an institution staffed with some of the most qualified treasury professionals in Europe.
A degree in the domain, a budget to learn the software and consultants on retainer for the parts that stay unclear.
Does nobody else find this strange?
| Share of 111 | |
|---|---|
| Training | 46.8% |
| Cloud or SaaS delivery | 21.6% |
| FX and hedging | 12.6% |
| ERP integration | 12.6% |
| Cash flow forecasting | 10.8% |
| Debt and investment | 10.8% |
| Reporting and dashboards | 10.8% |
| Multi-entity groups | 8.1% |
Nobody writes “this software is confusing” into a procurement document.
You can write 40 hours of training into a contract. You can name a number of sessions, a count of on-site days, a trainer’s qualifications. All of it is enforceable, it survives legal review and a bidder can put a price on it.
You cannot write “make it obvious” into a contract.
So the learning curve gets stated in the only currency procurement accepts, which is people and days. Training tops this list not because treasury teams want courses, but because it is the one line where a buyer can put a number on the distance between signing and competence.
Score time-to-competence. Half your peers write training into their requirements.
If “how long until my team runs this without you” is not a line on your scoring sheet, you are scoring a different purchase than the one you are making.
The demo is run by the person who wrote the training. Ask what the fifth week looks like for somebody who wasn’t in the room.
And read a few notices yourself.
Public bodies publish requirement sets at a level of detail corporate buyers keep private, written by people who had to think a whole project through before they were allowed to publish anything.
Public tenders look like an open door. They mostly are not.
A public buyer has to justify the decision in writing, to people who were not in the room.
That incentive produces the oldest reflex in enterprise software: nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.
The notice encodes it, through reference requirements, revenue and insurance thresholds, years of comparable deployments and a scoring sheet that rewards the familiar answer.
Nearly half of the treasury software awards that reported a bid count drew a single bid, which is the sound of a decision made before publication.
Unless you hold something specific, an existing relationship with the buyer, a local presence the notice requires, a capability in the specification few others can meet, bidding is an expensive way to lose.
What is useful in these documents is not the opportunity. It is the requirement set, telling you what the incumbents are being paid to compensate for.
None of this is the consultants’ fault. If a system takes a month to explain, somebody is going to get paid to explain it.
That is real work and there is real demand for it.
What I keep coming back to is how calmly it gets signed off. Nobody at the ECB had to argue that the treasury system was hard to use. The money went through as consultancy, twice, five years apart and the word “confusing” never had to appear in a document.
So if you are building in this category, that is the number to look at.
You do not have to beat them on functionality. You have to be the system a treasurer can open on Monday and use by Wednesday with nobody sitting next to them.
Treasury Masterminds is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click the button below.
This article is a contribution from our content partner, PrimeTrade
I never would have thought, at the start of my emerging career as a trade banker, supply chain financier and potential “Master of the Universe” (per Tom Wolfe), that debit notes would be interesting, and that thirty years later I might be writing a blog about them.
But here we are!
It is quite a long post, but this is a topic that merits a detailed treatment, even if the subject matter is rather dry and somewhat technical.
This post sets out five myths about invoices and debit notes.
These myths can lead to various confusions, complications and inefficiencies when it comes to supply chain finance.
The post aims to set out clearly how things normally work in the real world of general ledgers and corporate ERPs. It also digs into the implications for SCF and for the design of platforms that help suppliers to access supply chain finance.
There are generally three strategies used to deal with debit notes in supply chain finance – and these are covered in the final section.
With the right design and approach, debit note recovery can be automated and fully-optimised – no more spreadsheets, no more manual tracking, and no need to get suppliers to deduct debit notes from future invoices.
A debit note acts as the evidence in the buyer’s books for a reduction in its expenses.
So it is issued by the buyer’s accounts payable team to a supplier when the buyer seeks to pay less than it has been invoiced.
For supplier financing transactions (including SCF), a debit note can be an unwelcome event. If an invoice has been financed and even purchased by a financier, the financier typically relies on the invoice being paid in full.
What if I told you that “invoices always get approved”?
A valid invoice is one that is properly addressed, is from a recognised counterparty (ie: a supplier), has the right taxes on it shown in the right way, and which adds up correctly.
Valid invoices always get approved and there is a good reason.
This is a fundamental part of the way financial controls work. A valid invoice has been received representing a claim for payment from a supplier and it will be posted in full to the general ledger.
If this didn’t happen, we would get in a mess very quickly. Accounts payable teams cannot use their discretion and post valid invoices to the general ledger with whatever numbers on them they decide might be right.
Audits would be failed and financial controls would have broken down.
If the invoice from the supplier is for an amount that is too high (for whatever reason), a debit note is raised by the buyer so the supplier gets less money. The question is “what’s the debit note?” not how much of the invoice should be approved.
Some accounts payable teams will, alternatively, ask the supplier to raise a credit note and the invoice remains pending and not posted until the credit note is received. Here, for ease of explanation, we assume the debit note route is the one that the accounts payable team uses.
In the ordinary course of business, accounts payable teams in corporate clients approve payments and not invoices.
A few key points:
This makes supply chain finance and supplier financing tricky – since bankers and lawyers like to think in terms of transactions rather than balances.
Bankers purchase invoices not balances.
Debit notes do not conveniently fit into this model.
Whilst the corporate client may be settling a balance that is due to a supplier (invoices less debit notes),
bankers want the invoices that they have purchased to be paid in full to them.
This is also one of the two main reasons why many corporate clients operate an all-or-nothing model with suppliers when it comes to supplier financing.
These two reasons mean SCF programs can lose a lot of agility. There’s no easy way to move suppliers between financiers, and no easy way to have dynamic management of funding, switching suppliers between financiers whenever needed (even daily) to optimise the use of limits and mix in own treasury funds as a funding source.
I made a statement earlier about “valid invoices always being approved”.
The key question for the accounts payable team when they are deciding what the supplier might be owed is not how much of the invoice to approve.
The key question is: how big should the debit note be?
Yes, that’s right. The full amount of a valid invoice is always posted to the ledger but if there is a reason to pay less than the full amount, then a debit note needs to be raised.
The questions being answered by the accounts payable team reviewing purchase orders, delivery paperwork and the invoice (ie: the 3-way match) are (a) whether a debit note should be raised and (b) how much it should be for?
For example, the invoice face value is 100, but there is a shortage on the delivery of value 5. So that means the invoice of 100 is posted to the ledger, and a debit note of 5 is created and posted – and 95 is the balance on the supplier account, which is what will be settled in due course.
As stated above, the general ledger is an account-based (ie: balance-based) system.
The supplier account is credited with the full amount of the invoices and debited with debit notes to reach the correct amount that should be paid to the supplier when a payment run is operated.
So what is the bank buying when it provides supplier financing?
Is it an “approved payable” (an invoice that is net of specified debit notes) or is it an “approved invoice” (due at face value without deduction)?
This is a key documentary point and one which might not always be clear in the paperwork used to support supply chain finance. On the one hand, the bank wants to buy invoices free and clear of any debit notes. On the other hand, the corporate client may well want the ability to net pre-existing debit notes (at the time of financing) against those invoices.
Is the IPU for the same amount as the invoice? What exactly is the claim that the bank is buying and relying on here – the invoice or the payable amount (at IPU creation-time) in relation to each invoice? If the supplier financing is documented on the basis that the bank is buying the IPU (and not the invoice) – query the accounting treatment and whether the arrangement might then become financial indebtedness in the books of the corporate obligor?
Debit notes “sort of” relate to invoices – but this is an artificial construct and not one that is required in the ordinary course of business.
Companies typically want to collect claims (debit notes) against suppliers immediately. Why wait?
Invoices are posted with a due date (in the future) that reflects when the amount claimed by the supplier should be paid.
Debit notes are often posted with an immedate due date.
That means debit notes are usually collected by set off against the next amount due to be paid to the supplier – ie: as soon as possible. There’s no waiting.
That would be the case even if the debit note might relate to a delivery where the invoice(s) for that delivery are not due to be paid for many days.
And debit notes may also arise that are wholly unconnected with individual deliveries – for example, where there are volume rebates or programme-wide discounts to be recovered.
As mentioned above, settlements clear the due portion of the balance outstanding on the supplier account.
The settlement is calculated by adding up all the transactions that are due and ignoring future-dated transactions. The debit note is always due immediately and is included as soon as possible in any payment that is made to the supplier. The invoice may be due in the future and has to wait.
The idea that this specific debit note goes with that specific invoice is typically a myth when it comes to the practical reality of payables and settlements.
Most platforms ignore debit notes. These are “someone else’s problem”.
That’s why many accounts payable teams don’t like supply chain finance and specifically prefer to limit the size and scope of programs to a handful of large suppliers.
And many SCF platforms ignore debit notes completely.
Corporate clients are expected to provide them with a nice and tidy file of “approved payables” which are guaranteed to be paid in full no matter what else may be going on.
This makes life easy for the platform and easy for the bankers and lawyers involved.
But this also makes life complicated for the corporate accounts payable team.
If clean “approved invoice” or “approved payable” files are to be provided to the SCF platform, this typically means that:
This can mean that many clients end up failing to collect all the debit notes that they might claim, or end up having to track debit notes manually in excel and away from the general ledger. This all leads to extra work for everyone, compromising financial controls and adding costs and complexity.
Yes – it requires a modern approach to the way that the supply chain finance platform is developed and operates.
There are three approaches:
Treasury Masterminds is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click the button below.
This article is written by our partner, Cobase
Oracle NetSuite is a cloud-based ERP platform designed to bring core business processes together in one environment, spanning financial management, reporting and consolidation as well as areas such as billing, projects, CRM and operations. Its multi-entity and multi-currency capabilities make it particularly relevant for organisations whose financial complexity increases as they expand internationally.
Around the core ERP sits a broad ecosystem of implementation partners, technology providers and integrated applications. As companies scale, this ecosystem becomes increasingly important. The ERP may sit at the centre of the finance architecture, but it also needs to connect effectively with the wider financial landscape, including banks, payment providers and other specialist applications.
One of the partners operating in this ecosystem is Novutech, a European finance transformation and NetSuite specialist supporting growing and international organisations with ERP implementation, integration and optimisation.
We spoke with Marta Obrador, Director, Business Transformation Practice & UK Lead at Novutech, about the type of companies NetSuite is best suited to, what makes ERP transformations successful and why bank connectivity should be considered as part of the wider finance architecture.
What type of companies are the best fit for NetSuite, and what makes the platform stand out from other cloud ERP solutions?
“For me, the best fit is really a company in motion: a business that is scaling quickly, expanding internationally or simply dealing with increasing financial complexity.
As organisations add entities, markets and currencies, finance needs more structure without creating more fragmentation. That is where NetSuite is particularly strong. It gives companies a single cloud-based foundation for financial management, consolidation and broader operational processes, while still giving them room to grow.
What matters is that finance teams gain the structure and visibility they need without having to redesign the whole environment every time the business changes.”
As an implementation partner, where do you add the most value and what do successful ERP projects tend to get right from the start?
“Our value lies in connecting people, processes and technology. An ERP project is never only about implementing a system. You also need to think carefully about how people will use it and how the processes around it should work.
The strongest projects usually get a few fundamentals right early on: clear ownership, good-quality data, the right integrations and, importantly, clear priorities.
I also think focus is critical. Companies sometimes try to solve everything at once. The better approach is to focus on what really matters, make good use of best practices and build a realistic path to adoption. That creates a much stronger foundation for the transformation.”
How are customer expectations around finance and treasury changing, and what does that mean for the role of the ERP?
“Finance is moving away from simply recording what happened in the past. Teams are increasingly expected to provide insight, support decisions and help shape what happens next.
That changes the role of the ERP as well. It needs to become a trusted platform for decision-making, not just a place where transactions are recorded.
At the same time, the ERP cannot operate in isolation. If you want finance processes to become truly efficient, it also needs to connect well with banks, payment processes and the wider finance technology landscape. That is where the conversation increasingly moves from ERP alone towards a more connected finance architecture.”
Where does ERP-to-bank connectivity typically become challenging, particularly for companies operating across multiple banks and countries?
“The real challenge is not usually connecting to one bank. Complexity starts to build when a company has several banks, entities, countries, accounts and payment formats, but still wants one consistent process.
Without the right connectivity layer, that complexity often ends up with the finance team. People are moving between bank portals, uploading or downloading files, fixing exceptions and reconciling transactions manually.
As the organisation grows, that becomes increasingly difficult to scale. You may have implemented a strong ERP, but if the banking side remains fragmented, a lot of manual work still remains. Ideally, you want to abstract that complexity away from the finance team.”
What does a strong ERP-to-bank setup look like to you, and what should companies consider when designing it?
“For me, a strong setup creates one trusted flow from payment creation in the ERP through to bank execution and then back into reconciliation and reporting.
Automation is obviously important, but it should never come at the expense of control. You still need clear visibility, the right approvals and enough flexibility to support how the organisation operates.
Companies should also think beyond the situation they have today. If you know you are likely to add entities, countries, banks or accounts, the architecture needs to support that. It is much better to design connectivity as part of the overall finance architecture than to keep adding separate bank interfaces over time.”
Why do you like working with Cobase, and what does combining your ERP expertise with Cobase’s banking connectivity bring to customers?
“What we like about the combination is that it extends the value of NetSuite beyond the ledger and into the day-to-day banking and treasury processes.
NetSuite provides the financial core, while Cobase creates a consistent connection between that core and the banking landscape. For internationally growing companies, that is particularly relevant because the number of banks, accounts and entities can increase quite quickly.
Customers should not have to choose between having a strong ERP and having strong banking connectivity. By combining our NetSuite and transformation expertise with Cobase’s multi-bank connectivity, we can help create a finance architecture that is much more connected and scalable.”
Treasury Masterminds is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click the button below.
