When payment operations aren’t efficient or rely heavily on manual processes, CFOs can’t manage their accounts as effectively or gain immediate insight into their financial state.
Almost half of finance leaders (48%) at companies with 500 to 5000 employees say it is hard to get a complete financial view of their company with their current finance and payment operations systems, a recent Harris Poll found.
This often occurs because they don’t have a consolidated portal to get that information, especially because companies have multiple bank partners and use multiple systems to manage payments.
Payment operations include the full life cycle of money movement, from when a payment is initiated, to whether it gets completed or fails, to when it reconciles. Most companies don’t have the right software to get a full view into finances, or they use disparate tools and even manual systems. The resulting lack of real-time insight into finances affects a broad array of issues, including:
Cash management. Sometimes, companies will keep too much cash on hand to cover payment settlement risks. Other times, they’ll keep too little. Neither is optimal, but companies are well acquainted with delays in payment operations. Nearly 1 in 2 financial decision-makers (48%) say their company experiences reconciliation issues at least half the time when making or receiving payments. The disconnect between available cash and payment obligations multiplies if companies partner with numerous banks.