Corporate liquidity management involves ensuring that a company has enough cash to meet its financial obligations. It also helps the company capitalize on business opportunities and grow faster. Liquidity management is an art and a science. It requires a clear view of upcoming obligations, debts, short-term investments, and spending.
Cash Flow Analysis
Performing cash flow analysis is an essential part of corporate liquidity management. It helps businesses understand where money is coming in and going out, which can help them plan for the future. The analysis is based on line items in a company’s financial statements, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll.
Some factors can influence how a company manages its liquid assets, including the priorities and expectations of leadership and the overall culture of the organization. The level of treasury control and the robustness of internal communication are also important. Using software solutions for cash flow analysis can streamline the reporting process, saving time and resources. It can also reduce the risk of human error. In addition, a centralized database can provide accurate data and faster responses to questions from top leaders.
Financial Statement Analysis
Liquidity analysis is an important part of treasury management. It helps companies gain visibility into financial resources, spend, and liabilities so that they can make strategic decisions quickly. It also allows them to see how well they can afford future debts, short-term investments, and obligations. Using horizontal and vertical analysis, which compares line items in a statement, can help you improve liquidity. Horizontal analysis involves selecting a few years of data, and then comparing the growth in each account against the previous year. This creates a percentage that shows which accounts are growing (hopefully revenue) and which are shrinking (hopefully expenses).
Proper liquidity management is vital for any business to survive. This includes ensuring that you have enough cash to pay debt repayments and salaries, as well as invest for growth. To do this, you need to have a clear picture of your financial situation, and that means regularly reviewing the company’s cash position.
Cash Pooling
With cash pooling, the individual accounts of a group company are consolidated into a “pool” and used to manage the company’s overall liquidity position. This allows the company to more easily manage its cash flow and take advantage of available interest income. It can also reduce the risk of trapped cash. There are several different ways to set up a cash pool, including zero- or target balancing. In this form, surplus and deficit balances are transferred automatically to or from the top mother account on a daily basis. This method is more efficient than using internal booking entries.
However, it is important to ensure that the cash pooling system benefits the individual company. This requires clear intercompany loan documentation and that the rates applied are arm’s length.
Interest Offset Pooling
Interest offset pooling is a common tool that can be used to improve a company’s liquidity. It involves consolidating a group of cash management in corporate banking accounts into one master account. This allows the company to reduce its interest expense by offsetting debit and credit balances on a daily basis. However, it is important to understand the risks associated with this technique. Effective liquidity management requires visibility and transparency of cash inflows and outflows. This can be achieved by using a solution like Agicap, which tracks your liquidity automatically. It can also help you anticipate future payment difficulties.
Other ways to manage your company’s liquidity include negotiating terms with customers and suppliers. This includes defining the right payment terms and implementing discounts and penalties. This can significantly improve a company’s cash flow and reduce the risk of insolvency.
Hybrid Method
One of the most important things for businesses to do is maintain a liquid position that allows them to pay their creditors. This can be difficult when unforeseen events disrupt the business. For example, a reduction in credit lines or a change in prices can significantly affect liquidity. Liquidity measurements can be broken down into three categories: asset liquidity, market liquidity, and financial liquidity.
Banks offer liquidity management tools to corporate customers, including a pooling method that allows surplus cash from various accounts to be shared among group entities with an interest offset. This method is especially useful for multi-national corporations that are in different stages of their product lifecycles. This way, the company can avoid having to borrow money or sell assets in unfavorable terms.
Conclusion
Tracking cash flow helps your corporate customers optimize interest on their accounts and manage daily liquidity in a consolidated way. Whether it’s sweeping or pooling, physical or notionally concentrating balances, our specialists can help you design account structures to meet regional needs.
