New survey from Kyriba reveals gap between current and target levels of daily cash insight

The majority of corporate treasury departments are falling short of their own targets for daily cash visibility, according to research conducted by Kyriba, the global leader in cloud-based Proactive Treasury Management.

In total, 67.4 percent of respondents said that they want a higher daily level of visibility into their cash, and 55.9 percent wanted to have full, 100 percent, visibility. Even among those respondents that already have very high level of cash visibility (75-99 percent), more than two-thirds (67.1 percent) strive for 100 percent visibility.

The number of treasurers striving for perfect visibility decreases as their current visibility level lowers – 57.7 percent of those with 50-74 percent current visibility want 100 percent visibility, compared with 21.4 percent of those with 25-49 percent current visibility and just 14.3 percent of treasury teams with 0-25 percent current visibility. Of the respondents who currently have less than 75 percent visibility, 37.7 percent set a goal of 75-99 percent visibility, compared to 34.4 percent who strive for 100 percent visibility.

“Effective cash visibility is the fundamental building block of any effective treasury operation, and is critical to make effective decisions about strategic use of corporate funds,” said Jean-Luc Robert, chairman and CEO at Kyriba. “Although it’s reassuring to see that almost 60 percent of treasury teams have daily visibility into at least three-quarters of their organisation’s cash, it’s clear to see that, in many cases, this doesn’t satisfy the requirements of the treasurer or the CFO. In order to reach the visibility levels they are striving for, treasury teams need to ensure that they have best practice processes and tools in place to obtain and analyze data from both internal and external sources.”

Kyriba has developed a white paper, Best Practice Guide on Achieving Maximum Cash Visibility, which provides information for organisations looking to improve their cash visibility. It can be downloaded from Kyriba’s web site.

What percentage of cash do you currently have daily visibility into?        

• 0-24%:                14.7% of respondents
• 25-49%:              8.7% of respondents
• 50-74%:              16.8% of respondents
• 75-99%:              46.2% of respondents
• 100%:                  13.6% of respondents

(n = 184)

What percentage of cash do you want to have daily visibility into?          

• 0-24%                  1.8% of respondents
• 25-50%               3.5% of respondents
• 50-74%               8.8% of respondents
• 75-99%               30.0% of respondents
• 100%                   55.9% of respondents

(n= 170)

The survey was conducted by Kyriba on a webinar of 331 treasury and finance professionals, on December 11, 2014. 153 respondents answered both questions. A complete breakdown of responses is available upon request.