How do you benefit from a treasury management system (TMS)?
- Maximum transparency for more certainty in decision-making
By including financial and operational cash flows, the TMS continuously provides an up-to-date and complete information base for professional financial management. Learn more
- Comprehensive information through integration of all global financial activities
Global access via internet browsers is secure and easy from anywhere in the world with two-factor authentication. Learn more
- Increasing returns and reducing risk at the same time
A modern TMS incorporates the company's financial activities on a global and currency-specific basis and supports the daily management of bank accounts, the clearing of internal receivables, the identification of internal financing potential and interest rate, exchange rate and default risks. As a result, earnings can be improved and risks effectively reduced. Learn more
- Time saving through digitalisation and automated routine processes
Cash flows become transparent and traceable, routine tasks can be automated and more and more paper-based processes can be digitised. This leads to valuable time savings through secure and simultaneously accelerated processes. Learn more
- Accelerated processing from planning to month-end closing
Seamless integration with surrounding systems enables straight through processing of bank transactions, cash pool transactions, interest calculations, foreign exchange transactions, etc. to automated posting in the ERP. Learn more
- The individually tailored system can grow with your tasks
The modular and scalable system can grow with the company's requirements, both in terms of the number of users and data volume as well as in terms of functional breadth and depth. Learn more
- Audit security through dual control principle, audit trails and verified formulas
Easy to use like a spreadsheet, but only for authorised persons and with higher data and process security. Learn more
You will achieve your benefits most quickly with
- the support of an experienced provider
The treasury management system does not solve liquidity management autonomously. The people who operate the system with the appropriate understanding are very much in demand, especially in SMEs. In this case, a system provider can help by providing advice and support for a fast introduction of the system. Learn more
- a worry-free installation in the private cloud
Hosting the TMS in the Trinity Private Cloud takes a lot of work off you and your IT and stores the data GDPR-compliant (DSGVO and EU directive) in a German high security centre according to certified security standards. Learn more
Maximum transparency for more decision-making certainty
A treasury management system (TMS) creates the necessary transparency in the decision-making process for securing liquidity:
Cash management provides a view of the respective bank accounts for the next few days. Based on value-dated account balances, the TMS suggests account transfers as part of the daily disposition.
Medium- to long-term liquidity planning, on the other hand, is based on company-specific cash flow categories and allows financing and investment needs to be identified at an early stage in the course of the forecast corporate liquidity.
Treasury management systems help to secure the corporation’s liquidity on a permanent basis by providing a reliable picture at any time in aggregated form at the push of a button as a
- Financial status for the day and
- Cash forecast for one to two weeks and
- Medium or long-term financial planning
on all incoming and outgoing cash flows. Numerous filter and selection criteria allow the data to be viewed quickly for specific banks, accounts, currencies, companies and time grids; graphics visualise the future course of account balances, credit lines and the actual liquidity available.
For internationally operating companies, currency-differentiated liquidity planning is also the basis for an effective exposure management of different currencies.
Why do you need a cash and treasury management system?
Cash and treasury management systems (TMS) are used to manage liquidity with the aim of securing the company's solvency.
To determine the current and future liquidity supply, all incoming and outgoing cash flows are concentrated for further processing in the TMS.
If a company cannot meet its mandatory liabilities, it slides into insolvency. Inability to pay is therefore to be avoided in any case.
If there is a shortfall for the period under consideration, cost-effective financing options can be sought at an early stage.
If there is a surplus of liquid assets, investment alternatives can be examined.
While the account balances from the electronic account statements only provide the status quo of yesterday, TMS also bring future cash flows into the consideration. Cash flows from financial transactions such as loans, foreign exchange transactions and interest rate derivatives or even guarantee commissions flow into cash management and liquidity planning with integrated TMS directly after they are stored in the respective TMS modules without being entered again.
Example: when creating a 30-year loan, the TMS calculates a payment schedule with all interest, redemption and fee payments, which are automatically reflected correctly in terms of their value in the corresponding categories in the liquidity planning as well as in the respective accounts.
Internal cash flows and operational inflows and outflows, which are usually taken from accounting, complete the information basis for the best possible decisions on liquidity management.
Comprehensive information through integration of global activities
Trinity TMS as a multilingual browser-based application allows easy and secure use of all modules worldwide. Access to the TMS can be secured by means of two-factor authentication, virtual private network and connection to ID management systems. A detailed inbuilt authorisation system regulates each users data access profiles. Even the menu structure can be adapted specifically so that the operation remains as simple as possible and each user only sees permissible information.
This is an important prerequisite for getting the global users to cooperate. If entering the planned in- and outflows in the TMS is easier than before in the spreadsheet and the new application comes with even more advantages for the subsidiary, everyone benefits. By recording directly in the TMS, central treasury will receive the information from locals immediately and errors that would arise from retransmission from emails, spreadsheets or data communicated by phone can be avoided.
To optimise the planning and consolidation process, the TMS provides functions that can be used to monitor input deadlines and completions as well as to block further inputs after the reporting deadline. Internal receivables and payables can be efficiently mapped for both sides via mirroring functions.
Increasing returns and reducing risk
Very few companies are able to forecast the liquidity of the coming days with 100% certainty; some are not even able to gather all the data for the current day in time.
If information is incomplete, outdated or incorrect, measures to secure liquidity can only be taken with sufficient safety buffers. This means that money that could possibly be better invested remains in reserve without interest. Or loans are used to a greater extent than necessary. By concentrating all relevant information in one database, a TMS allows for more precise planning while taking costs and risks into account.
When looking for financing options to bridge liquidity bottlenecks, it is important to first include all available own funds and already agreed credit lines that have not yet been used.
At the same time, funds in accounts without interest may de facto not be available because they serve as "trapped cash", e.g. for hedging purposes, or are not available for internal financing due to legal restrictions. The TMS provides a corresponding overview at the push of a button and helps to determine the liquidity actually available and the self-financing potential.
In cash management, many companies use cash concentration services to clear debit balances on sub-accounts and collect excess balances in a central master account.
If the bank takes over this task, we speak of cash pooling, which bring the sub-accounts to a zero balance on a daily basis (zero balancing) or to a previously defined minimum balance (target balancing). Cash pooling ensures that the liquidity of the construct is immediately visible. In addition, the administrative effort for the sub-accounts can be reduced to a minimum.
Cash managers who know on a daily basis what liquid assets they have at their disposal in the coming weeks or even months can significantly reduce safety buffers and optimise returns by choosing between various alternatives in financing and cash investments at an early stage. At the same time, liquidity risk is reduced to a minimum.
Tip: If the costs of cash pooling do not appear to be economical in relation to the achievable benefits, the TMS can provide support through rule-based disposition proposals.
In order to achieve the desired target balance, it may make sense to include intraday payment advices (e.g. MT942 or camt.052) for planned incoming payments in the calculation.
In Trinity TMS, this function is called "Account Levelling", which can be used for daily intercompany clearing as well as for individual ad hoc transfers.
Treasury Management Systems also provide valuable support in the early identification and hedging of interest rate and exchange rate risks. Currency-differentiated liquidity planning allows foreign companies to record cash flows in their native currencies and shows the head office both the original and the converted amounts in the Group currency.
In Exposure Management, hedging transactions are compared with the underlying transactions and with the specified hedge ratio. In this way, the treasurer knows immediately whether follow-up hedging is necessary to close a gap or whether there is costly over-hedging to be dissolved.
Default or credit risks are anticipated in the TMS through ratings, inclusion of credit risk in market valuations via credit/debit value adjustments (CVA/DVA) or simulated developments of incoming payments. Correctly assessing the risks associated with finance and taking appropriate hedging measures prevents surprises and contributes to improving financial returns by avoiding losses. Lenders may also be inclined to grant better conditions to companies that have their finances under control.
Time saving through digitalisation and automated routine processes
You urgently need a guarantee from your house bank and you are already dreading the paperwork and the barely comprehensible processing time until the desired guarantee is granted? This processing can be improved, as our digital guarantee management solution shows.
Especially in financial management, many formerly paper-based processes have already been digitalised. It began with the introduction of non-cash payment transactions, which have already gone through several stages of optimisation via machine-processable national, euro-related (SEPA) and finally file formats intended for international use (CGI according to ISO 20022). It is the provision of electronic account information, bank charge reports, booking instructions, trade confirmations, the generation of electronic signatures and much more that is already taken for granted today.
Nevertheless, there are many other tasks for which digitalised solutions are still being sought: Electronic Bank Account Management, Know-Your-Customer Registry, AI-based Fraud Detection, Securities Issuance up to autonomous software-driven liquidity protection with integrated financial risk management.
From a corporate point of view, not all offers make sense and are economically applicable for every company; certain fads therefore often disappear after a short time. The fact is, however, that the conversion of analogue information into digital values offers plenty of opportunities for process optimisation.
Find out more about current and future trends in our blog article:
First of all, it is the automation of routine processes, which gives employees in Cash, Treasury and Risk Management more time for the essentials. The import and reconciliation of account turnovers with planned incoming and outgoing payments, the allocation to the appropriate categories in liquidity planning for target/actual deviation analysis, the import of market data, the automatic account assignment of cash flows, interest accruals and deferrals and valuations for the generation of posting instructions for true straight through processing - the TMS can do all this for you. In addition, plausibility checks or, if required, requests for approval can be built into the processes to prevent errors.
But also the settlement of foreign exchange transactions via internet trading platforms, intercompany financing, the consolidation of hierarchical liquidity plans, the multilateral clearing of intra-company receivables and payables as well as the creation of reports and evaluations can be accelerated through automation.
Accelerated process from liquidity planning to month-end closing
Most companies already use systems for bookkeeping and electronic banking. For the matching of account turnovers with the planned receipts and payments of the accounting department, another software may be in use and liquidity planning is solved in a controlling tool or via spreadsheet.
The networking of the systems mix is often in need of optimisation and the inclusion of all worldwide accounts is not given. Spreadsheets are also widely used to manage foreign exchange transactions traded on the phone, interest rate hedges or sureties and guarantees. The transfer of resulting cash flows into an overview for liquidity management is rarely complete, up-to-date and error-free with sufficient lead time.
A company that only has a few financial transactions and foreign currencies to manage may get by with such a solution. The more transactions and the greater the resulting financial risks, the more worthwhile it is to purchase a TMS that not only combines the isolated solutions into one system, but also enables data transfer completely, without delays and typing errors, through integrated modules.
There are numerous options for integration of Trinity TMS into your existing system landscape in order to implement an automated and secure data exchange.
Externally, the TMS can be perfectly integrated between accounting and electronic banking. Especially if several versions of one or even different financial accounting systems are in use in the group, the TMS can be quickly set up as an information hub. It takes plan data from all suitable sources and compares them with the turnover from the electronic bank statements, assigns them to the various categories in the planning and can generate instructions for automatic posting in the ERP via the rule-based account assignment of the cash flows. Such postings can of course also include valuations and interest accruals and thus accelerate the period-end closing many times over
Scalable system configuration with individually tailored design
Businesses are very different and so are the requirements for financial management. A modular TMS allows you to start with the system configuration that suits you best. If, for example, the management of interest rate derivatives does not play a significant role, you can simply dispense with the licensing of the respective software module. If the need becomes acute later, the module can simply be added then.
Furthermore, the individual modules can be narrowed down individually for each user in terms of, for example, companies, financial transactions, functions and workflow steps. In addition to limiting the permitted actions, this improves the overview and makes it easier to get started with the new system. If required, the users' authorisations can be extended at any time in compliance with the dual control principle.
Another advantage: If you are familiar with the Trinity TMS, you can do most things without our involvement. You don't need an expensive specialist who rarely has time for you.
Technically, Trinity TMS is backed by a powerful ORACLE database that can also handle very large amounts of data. In the case of the private cloud installation, Trinity offers its customers individual installations in ISO-27001 certified data centres based in Germany, which are also used by credit institutions. This means particularly high security standards with 99.5% availability.
As your company's financial management needs grow, Trinity TMS grows with it.
Audit security through dual control principle and audit trails
In many cases, treasury departments still rely on spreadsheets. Individuals have often created masterpieces over the years that others have difficulty seeing through. If the creator is on holiday or has even left the company, no one really dares to work on the spreadsheet or changes lead to errors. Sometimes even the masterpiece itself already has inconsistencies and rounding errors that elicit wrong decisions. Whether the formula applied is the right one and who entered what and when is difficult to trace.
By contrast, a treasury management system uses recognised and tested formulas, keeps an audit trail for the data and sometimes even histories that show the author, the changed values and a time stamp.
The TMS assigns different authorisations to users who can work in the system in parallel and allows the creation of audit-proof workflows with internal releases and authorisations ("segregation of duties").
Personal service from an experienced and independent provider
Treasury systems offer many, some with more, some with less functional breadth and depth. For users, it is important that they get the right solution for them and that it really brings them a noticeable benefit over the years.
However, the treasury management system does not (yet) solve liquidity management on its own. As a rule, several people are entrusted with various tasks to manage and analyse financial transactions and planning data. Especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), however, not only the monetary budget but also the available human resources are limited.
An experienced provider recognises how much "treasury management system" makes sense for the financial management team in each individual case at the beginning of an implementation project and in which sequence the implementation quickly leads to success. Learn more
Regardless of the size of the company, all future users must introduce the TMS alongside their normal day-to-day work. A simple and "easily digestible" introduction is therefore important for an efficient process. Small successes at the beginning motivate everyone involved. Trinity experts also relieve you of some preparatory tasks, so that you will find yourself in the familiar environment with your companies and accounts during the first training.
The international roll-out must also be well prepared. The first step is to look for "friendly users" who support your project and can communicate the advantages of the new TMS to other subsidiaries maybe better than the head office.
Trinity does not leave you alone when implementing Trinity TMS and is not satisfied until you are. Our support department knows you and your installation. In addition, we continue to develop Trinity TMS on a permanent basis and can even carry out customised programming if required.
In any case, we act according to our motto:
Your Treasury – Your Way – Our Software