From Treasury Masterminds
Working capital has always mattered. But with sales growth harder to achieve, margins under pressure and external funding carrying a real cost, companies are looking more closely at the cash already sitting inside their operations.
During the Treasury Masterminds webinar From Analytics to Decision Making to New Liquidity, Jessica Oku, Treasury Masterminds board member and treasury expert, joined Wayne Mills, Chief Product Officer at ETR Digital, and Oliver Berlin, founder and CEO of Calculum.
The discussion moved from working capital ownership and data analytics to artificial intelligence, payment-term negotiations and new digital funding instruments.
The central message was clear: working capital optimisation is no longer simply about measuring DSO, DPO and inventory. It requires treasury, procurement, sales and operations to turn data into coordinated decisions.
You can watch a replay of the webinar below:
The webinar opened by asking participants about their biggest working capital challenge. The available answers were:
Technology integration emerged as the leading answer, followed by access to funding solutions.
For Wayne Mills, that result was hardly surprising.
“The common theme I would observe over certainly the last five years minimum is still an island of fragmented technology solutions.”
Many companies have treasury systems, ERP platforms, procurement tools and financing solutions. The problem is that these systems frequently operate separately, leaving treasury teams to bridge the gaps manually.
Jessica Oku initially expected internal processes and complexity to be the biggest challenge. She argued that technology alone cannot compensate for unclear ownership.
“Even the best technology will not translate into cash optimisation.”
Weak forecasting delays decisions, she explained, while delayed decisions reduce the available liquidity options. Before companies invest in another platform, they need to establish who is responsible for identifying, approving and implementing working capital improvements.
Treasury is responsible for liquidity. That makes working capital a natural treasury priority.
But treasury does not create customer receivables, determine inventory levels or negotiate most supplier contracts. Those decisions sit with sales, procurement and operations.
Jessica described this apparent contradiction clearly:
“While treasury may own liquidity strategy, the business owns many of the operational decisions that ultimately determine liquidity outcomes.”
That means working capital cannot succeed as an isolated treasury project. It needs executive support and cross-functional ownership.
According to Jessica, the most successful organisations are already moving away from treating working capital as either a finance initiative or a treasury initiative. Instead, they are treating it as an enterprise-wide responsibility, with treasury helping to lead the liquidity strategy.
The principal management measure is often free cash flow because it shows whether the organisation is generating enough liquidity to fund growth, reduce debt, invest and reward shareholders.
But free cash flow is an outcome. To understand what drives it, companies must look deeper into the cash conversion cycle.
A shorter DSO, optimised inventory and an extended DPO can release meaningful liquidity. Jessica illustrated the potential with a company generating $1 billion in annual revenue. Improving its cash conversion cycle by a single day could release approximately $2.7 million.
The opportunity is therefore not theoretical. Even small operational improvements can produce material financial results.
Calculum analyses large volumes of supplier and buyer relationships to identify opportunities to optimise payment terms.
Oliver Berlin explained that the company initially expected poor working capital performers to be its most obvious potential clients. In practice, the opposite happened.
Companies already performing well were often the ones most interested in further improvement.
“There’s a reason why the companies which are at the forefront, the best leading organisations, generally focus on working capital.”
These companies see working capital performance as a competitive advantage rather than a one-off cost-cutting exercise.
Oliver also argued that paying suppliers earlier than the market can have consequences beyond the direct cost of capital.
“You’re not only financing your supplier, but you’re also financing your competitors.”
A supplier receiving early payment from one customer may use that liquidity to accept longer payment terms from another. Payment behaviour can therefore influence competitive dynamics across an entire supply chain.
Wayne described a broader change in how companies think about liquidity.
Five years ago, many treasury teams approached liquidity defensively. Their focus was on whether enough cash was available, whether it was located in the right place and whether forecasts were sufficiently accurate.
That conversation is becoming more strategic.
Companies now ask how they can release trapped working capital, create additional liquidity options and improve the balance sheet without automatically increasing leverage.
This shift has moved working capital from the treasury department to the boardroom.
However, Wayne also sees misalignment between regions. The KPIs used by an Asia-Pacific treasury centre may not always match those used in Europe or Africa. Without common objectives, global working capital programmes become harder to execute.
Aligning KPIs across the business may sound painfully basic, but basic disciplines have a habit of being overlooked while companies discuss artificial intelligence and digital transformation.
Artificial intelligence inevitably entered the discussion, because apparently no modern treasury webinar is legally allowed to finish without mentioning it.
Oliver described three practical applications being developed around payment-term optimisation.
The first is identifying the most promising negotiation opportunities. A large organisation may have tens of thousands of suppliers. Calling each supplier and attempting to renegotiate terms is neither realistic nor particularly kind to the procurement team.
AI and advanced analytics can help identify the suppliers most likely to accept new terms.
The second application is producing negotiation scripts. These scripts can take into account market practices, existing payment terms, regulations and financing alternatives.
The third is agentic negotiation, where AI negotiates with counterparties on the company’s behalf.
Oliver stressed that data remains more important than the AI label. Calculum uses information taken directly from company ERP systems, including the payment terms currently agreed with trading partners. It is also building private AI models because client contracts do not permit the use of public large language models for these datasets.
“First, the data is the key.”
For Jessica, AI is particularly relevant because treasury teams are usually small. Traditional working capital analysis can involve spreadsheets, invoices, contracts, purchase orders, customer information and supplier behaviour.
By the time a human team has processed the data, identified the pattern and prepared a recommendation, the business environment may already have changed.
AI can shorten the distance between analysis and action.
“We can then use those insights that AI generates to make decisions, take actions and actually optimise working capital.”
The value is not simply faster analysis. It is the ability to move from backward-looking reporting towards predictive decision-making.
Wayne summarised the current data challenge neatly:
“There is absolutely no shortage of data, but there is a very significant shortage of insight.”
Companies already possess DSO, DPO and inventory information. They also have behavioural information about customers, suppliers, payment performance and operational risk.
The challenge is turning that information into better management decisions.
Trust is equally important. A board will not approve a negotiation strategy or financing structure simply because an algorithm recommends it. Decision-makers need to understand the information, trust its quality and see how the recommended action supports the company’s objectives.
This is also where data can help improve collaboration between treasury and procurement.
Treasury may establish a supply chain finance programme, but procurement must usually secure supplier participation. Historically, procurement teams have not always received enough information to execute the strategy successfully.
Shared platforms can provide both teams with a common view of:
As Oliver observed:
“Having a plan is useless if you cannot track it.”
Data can also challenge assumptions. Procurement may believe that a supplier will never accept longer payment terms. Evidence showing that the supplier already accepts similar terms elsewhere or uses receivables financing can change that conversation.
The second major challenge identified by webinar participants was access to funding solutions.
Wayne introduced ETR Digital’s working capital notes: digital versions of bills of exchange or promissory notes.
These instruments can be used in both receivables and payables programmes. According to Wayne, their digital form reduces the paperwork and inefficiency traditionally associated with transferring physical trade instruments.
On the receivables side, they can help reduce dilution risk and release more working capital. On the payables side, they can provide a company with greater flexibility when extending payment terms.
They can also be transferred between financing providers through endorsement, reducing the need for lengthy assignment agreements.
The legal environment supporting electronic transferable records has been developing since the United Nations introduced its Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records. The UK adopted an electronic trade documents regime in 2023, which Wayne said supports the enforceability and broader use of these digital instruments.
Working capital notes can also be tokenised and fractionalised, potentially allowing risk to be distributed to different providers of capital.
But Wayne emphasised that the instrument must be part of an end-to-end process. Data should flow from the ERP system into the creation, holding and potential transfer of the note, supported by a clear audit trail.
Technology is only useful when it solves an actual financing problem.
The panel expects working capital management to become increasingly real-time.
Jessica believes treasury will move from explaining what has happened towards predicting what is likely to happen. Technology could identify payment risks, supplier vulnerabilities, inventory inefficiencies and liquidity opportunities earlier.
That would allow treasury to direct funding strategy more precisely and use external financing only after examining the liquidity available within the operating cycle.
The long-term ambition is a more coordinated form of enterprise liquidity management, connecting treasury, procurement, sales and operations.
However, reaching that point will require more than installing AI software.
Companies first need reliable data, aligned KPIs, clear ownership and trust in the resulting analysis. They must then connect those insights to negotiations, operational processes and suitable financing products.
The webinar’s final conclusion was therefore refreshingly practical: start with the data, identify the opportunity and improve gradually.
Or, as the closing summary put it:
“Take baby steps. Don’t go big bang. Your procurement won’t like that. Your treasury definitely won’t like that.”
The new working capital playbook is not one product or one system. It is the combination of analytics, technology, negotiation strategy, financing and cross-functional execution.
That may not be as simple as buying another dashboard. But it offers companies something far more valuable: a structured way to turn operational data into decisions, and decisions into liquidity.
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 partner, Embat
Accounting with the best financial team is a critical factor of success for any business, so nothing is more important for the CFO than surrounding themselves with the right people, this is what will allow you to enhance your role and focus on value generation from a much more strategic than operational perspective.
Traditionally, the financial domain was characterised by the mastery and application of a series of technical knowledge, which when well used not only allows one to ‘explain the past’, but also to generate reliable information for business decision making thus minimising the risk of errors.
It is the advance of technology itself, which has allowed them to redefine their role, following the same line of evolution as that of the CFO themselves, that is, towards a vision much more focused on the company’s business and strategy and not merely focused on explaining what has happened and on regulatory compliance.
This reconversion of the area requires the need for professional profiles that not only have a solid “technical” knowledge, but also have the necessary skills to take advantage of the benefits offered by the new technologies available.
It is above all a change in the culture of the area that must accompany and support the evolution of the business itself, adopting new ways of working, based on collaboration, experimentation and continuous learning, while at the same time requiring a rethinking of the operating model, including the automation of tasks and the redefinition of internal processes.
Combining analytical rigor with business intuition, technical precision with the flexibility to adapt to changes in the environment, is essential when it comes to building a financial team, where technical expertise becomes a necessary (and mandatory), but not sufficient, skill.
It is therefore necessary for financial professionals to have a broader understanding of the business they manage, in order to be able to adapt as quickly as possible to changes, which are becoming faster and faster.
The evolution of the CFO in today’s business strategy
Discover the evolution of the CFO and their relevance in today’s business landscape.
Being able to translate and being able to communicate complex information in such a way that it can be used for decision making by the rest of the organisation, which generally speaks a different ‘language’ and does not usually have the same technical knowledge, requires the development and good application of what are defined as ‘soft skills’.
Empathy, proactive attitude, autonomy, thinking critically about how things are done, adapting to new scenarios, interacting with interdepartmental teams, are critical and essential skills that any finance team must have in order to turn data into analysis, business opportunities into results and strategy into profitability for the company.
This is where the CFO takes on a central role, in the sense of being able to integrate the different skills of the financial team, identifying both their strengths and weaknesses, thus ensuring that all members of the team work towards the same common goal.
Therefore, it becomes relevant to promote diversity within the financial team not only in terms of the incorporation of people with different professional experiences, but also with other ways of thinking and approach, in order to encourage the generation of innovative ideas that can become creative solutions to the problems that arise.
A diverse finance team can also be better prepared to meet the challenges of a globalized marketplace. Companies operating in multiple countries need teams that understand the particularities of each region, both from a technical and cultural perspective.
On the other hand, it is necessary to promote a culture of open and ‘bidirectional’ communication between the CFO and the members of their team, where the contributions of each one of them are valued, something that is relevant to strengthen the group and thus tend to achieve the proposed objectives.
Trust is another essential requirement for building a cohesive team, especially when confidential and strategic information must often be managed, which is why it is essential to guarantee its integrity. Likewise, it must be bidirectional, thus generating a climate of security that reinforces open communication, as well as the responsible assumption of risks and the ability to learn not only from the successes achieved, but also from the failures.
Thus, forming a financial team is a process that requires a certain “science” in the selection of the best talents with the necessary technical knowledge for the development of their functions, as well as the purest “art”, since it must be complemented with the ability to adapt, innovate and collaborate closely with other areas of the company.
In this way, a balanced integration between art and science is what really determines the difference between a financial team that is oriented to the administration of resources, and another that is dedicated to the generation of value through continuous improvement.
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 Nadia Callaghan
Treasury has quietly become one of the most powerful levers for improving financial performance. In many organisations, it is still treated as a protective cost-centre function, focused on liquidity, compliance and risk management. Yet the businesses that outperform today are those that recognise treasury as a value creator. From my experience, optimising finance returns is not only about taking more risk; it is also about tightening the fundamentals that determine how efficiently money moves through the organisation.
The first and most immediate source of value comes from strengthening collections. Cashflow improves dramatically when organisations collect what they are owed, when they are owed, without leakage or delay. Accounts receivable often suffers from fragmented ownership, inconsistent follow‑up and manual allocation processes that slow everything down. Commission collections can be even more complex, especially in industries where revenue is shared across multiple parties. When treasury leads a disciplined approach to collections, supported by real‑time ageing visibility, automated reminders and clear accountability, liquidity improves almost instantly. Faster allocation of incoming cash reduces unapplied balances, improves forecasting accuracy and frees capital that would otherwise sit idle.
Cost discipline is the second major lever. Operating expenses are rarely fixed; they simply feel that way because they are not reviewed often enough. Treasury can materially improve returns by treating bank fees and partner contracts as commercial agreements rather than administrative necessities. Regular fee reviews reveal charges for services no longer used, pricing tiers based on outdated volumes and FX or payment fees that are significantly above market rates. Debt‑side partner contracts often contain renewal clauses, utilisation fees or covenant‑related costs that can be renegotiated when treasury brings data to the conversation. Organisations that review these agreements quarterly typically achieve meaningful cost reductions without changing their operating model.
Once collections tighten and costs come under control, surplus liquidity becomes visible. Idle cash is one of the most common drags on returns, and yet it is also one of the easiest to fix. Treasury can deploy surplus funds into safe, yield‑generating instruments such as money market funds, notice accounts, term deposits or custody accounts for short‑term securities. These options provide daily liquidity, low risk and significantly better returns than traditional operating accounts. Even modest yields create meaningful profit when applied to large balances that previously sat dormant.
Centralising liquidity amplifies these gains. Cash pooling allows organisations to treat group‑wide cash as a single strategic asset rather than a collection of isolated balances. Physical pooling sweeps cash into a master account, reducing external borrowing and enabling centralised investment strategies. Notional pooling aggregates balances virtually, optimising interest without the complexity of intercompany loans. Both approaches reduce reliance on external debt, lower interest expense and increase the organisation’s ability to generate returns from its own liquidity.
The final lever is automation, which is often underestimated in its impact. Manual treasury processes consume time, introduce errors and prevent teams from focusing on value‑creating activities. Automating bank reconciliations, AR allocation, commission matching, payment runs, forecasting and intercompany settlements reduces operating costs and strengthens control. Automation also improves data quality, which in turn improves decision‑making. Treasury teams that operate with clean, real‑time data can model scenarios more accurately, anticipate liquidity needs earlier and respond to market conditions faster.
Optimising returns is not a single initiative; it is a discipline. When treasury strengthens collections, reviews expenses with commercial rigour, deploys surplus cash intelligently, centralises liquidity and automates manual processes, it becomes a profit engine rather than a cost centre. The organisation benefits from improved cashflow, reduced leakage, lower operating costs and higher returns on liquidity. Treasury’s role shifts from safeguarding the business to powering it, creating a financial foundation that supports growth, resilience and strategic ambition.
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, Kyriba
There is a quiet revolution happening inside the world’s most forward-looking finance organizations, and most treasury teams are watching it from the hallway. Artificial intelligence is no longer a pilot program, a buzzword in a vendor deck, or a problem for IT to solve. Treasury AI adoption is actively reshaping how cash is managed, how risk is quantified, and how financial leadership earns its seat at the strategic table.
The question is no longer whether AI will transform treasury. It already is. According to Kyriba’s 2026 CFO Survey, approximately 92% of global CFOs are integrating AI into some of their processes and decision-making. The only question is whether yours will be among those driving that transformation, or scrambling to catch up with those who did.
Let’s be honest about what the hesitation often looks like: concern about data security, skepticism about ROI, uncertainty about where to start, and (perhaps most dangerously) the comfort of the familiar. These are understandable instincts. Treasury has always been a function defined by precision and caution. But those same instincts, left unchecked, become an existential liability when the competitive landscape is moving at the speed of AI adoption.
Consider what’s at stake. While your team manually reconciles bank statements and consolidates cash positions across 40 entities, an AI-enabled competitor is receiving real-time global liquidity intelligence before the market opens. While your analysts are building this week’s FX exposure model in Excel, a peer institution’s system has already flagged a correlated risk in a currency pair you haven’t touched yet. The gap isn’t just operational efficiency; it is strategic foresight. And in treasury, the cost of delayed foresight is measured in basis points, counterparty risk, and missed working capital optimization, sometimes in the tens of millions.
Waiting for AI to be “proven” in treasury is like waiting for the internet to be proven in banking. The proof is already in, and the cost is being paid by those still waiting.
Strip away the hype and the financial case for treasury AI adoption is concrete and compounding. Cash flow forecasting, historically the most labor-intensive and least accurate function in the treasury toolkit, is being transformed by machine learning models that learn from ERP data, payment patterns, and external signals simultaneously. According to Kyriba customer data, organizations deploying AI forecasting are reporting 30-50% improvements in forecast accuracy, translating directly into lower precautionary cash buffers and higher yield on deployed liquidity.
On the risk side, AI is enabling dynamic FX hedging programs that adjust in near-real-time to exposure changes rather than quarterly rebalancing cycles, a structural advantage in volatile macro environments. For organizations with complex intercompany structures, AI-powered netting and pooling optimization is consistently surfacing working capital improvements that manual treasury operations simply cannot detect at the required speed or granularity.
Treasury teams deploying AI automation in cash positioning, payment processing, and reporting are reclaiming 15-25 hours per analyst per week, time that elite treasury organizations are reinvesting into capital structure strategy, M&A support, and board-level financial risk advisory. That is not incremental improvement. That is a fundamental repositioning of what treasury contributes to the enterprise.
The AI fears circulating in treasury circles deserve acknowledgment, but not accommodation. Concerns about model explainability are legitimate; the answer is to demand transparency from vendors and build internal AI literacy, not to abstain. Concerns about data security are valid; the answer is rigorous governance frameworks, not a blanket moratorium on adoption. Concerns about job displacement deserve a thoughtful response: treasury teams that adopt AI don’t shrink; they evolve. The analysts who once built cash reports become the strategists who interpret AI-generated intelligence for the CFO and the board.
What is worth examining honestly is whether vague discomfort is masquerading as prudent risk management. Every month a treasury organization delays AI adoption is a month of compounding disadvantage: in forecast quality, in working capital efficiency, in FX risk management, and ultimately in the credibility of finance leadership as a strategic partner to the business.
CFOs and treasurers are uniquely positioned to lead enterprise AI adoption, not just within finance, but as a model for the broader organization. Treasury sits at the intersection of data, risk, and strategy. The function already commands the systems, the governance instincts, and the cross-functional relationships needed to deploy AI responsibly and at scale. The organizations that seize this moment will not simply become more efficient treasury departments. They will become the intelligence engines of their enterprises, providing the real-time financial visibility and predictive risk insight that transforms how the C-suite makes decisions.
That is a future worth leaning into. The technology is mature enough to deliver. The business case is clear enough to defend. The only variable that remains is leadership conviction.
Imagine a treasury team that had fully embraced AI in cash forecasting, FX risk, liquidity optimization, and reporting. How much more would they know? How much faster would they move? And how much more would the business trust them with? If the honest answer unsettles you even slightly… what, specifically, is holding you back?
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.
