Companies in the SAP ecosystem need to carefully consider their options and start planning now for the inevitable migration to S/4HANA. While the discontinuance of ECC support has been rescheduled to 2027, it is critical that you not wait too long to evaluate what the best path will be for your company.

It is also important to remember that this will be much more than just a software upgrade. S/4HANA represents a unique opportunity for undertaking truly transformational changes and improvements across the entire enterprise.

Dashboards have become a hot topic across a widening range of application areas over recent years. However, it is important to remember that “dashboard” is much more than just a buzzword.

Just as the dashboard in your car is designed to organize and present a variety of information in a logical, prioritized and easy-to-interpret manner for fast on-the-fly decisions, an effective software dashboard needs to follow similar disciplines.

Among the numerous compliance and regulatory changes over recent years, ASC 606 on Revenue Recognition has been one of the most significant and challenging for companies to implement.

Treasury executives are facing an unprecedented confluence of challenges today, with no reasonable prospect that the massive waves of change will be easing up any time soon.  In addition to the black swan event of a global pandemic that has literally shutdown economic activity in much of the world, companies are also dealing with other high volatility forces, such as the Russia vs Middle East oil production standoff and global currency fluctuations.

These and other related forces are combining to create significant new challenges for Treasury, which in turn is accelerating the already existing trend toward greater integration and interoperability of various treasury-related software applications.  For example, management of cash positions, working capital and hedges against external risk factors are prime focus areas that can benefit from enterprise-wide visibility along with flexible analytics tools and agile response mechanisms.

Overall risk management entails these four key areas:

• Financial: Cash, Foreign Exchange, Commodities, Exposures, Credit
• Geo-political: Taxes, Tariffs, Trade, Political
• Business Continuity: People, Processes, Supply Chain, Equipment, Real Estate
• Security: Data, Systems, People, Property, Brand/Reputation

Security issues span all aspects of a business. For more info, watch the video of this webinar on Risk and Exposure.  In this post, we are focused on three areas, Financial, Geo-political, and Business Continuity, all of which have significant relevance to enterprise-wide treasury integration.

Over recent years, several changes in the compliance landscape, such as ASC 606 / IFRS 15 on Revenue Recognition and ASC 842 / IFRS 16 on Lease Accounting, have radically altered the requirements for what data must be disclosed and how disclosure reporting is handled. 

At the same time, major shifts in business models, such as the rise of the subscription economy and the move from product-focused sales to experience-focused solutions are fundamentally changing the ways that revenue is generated.

In addition, most companies are looking for ways to speed up their closing cycles in order to provide investors and other stakeholders with accurate and timely information in a shorter period of time.

The main functions of treasury include cash and liquidity management, funding and capital management, and financial risk management. These functions are in many treasury environments handled through spreadsheets and manual processes. This creates significant risks and these risks need to be matched to the organization and the board’s objective.

Listen to our latest Podcast on Improving Cash Flow and EBITDA with Active Lease Management. During this podcast, John Froelich, Bramasol VP of Marketing and Strategy, discusses Active Lease Management and explains how it can improve visibility of lease portfolios and cash flow along with enhancing financial performance.

SAP Central Finance (CFIN) offers an excellent pathway to jumpstart your S/4HANA journey by providing an efficient and agnostic platform for integrating visibility and financial reporting across diverse ERP landscapes.  However, if the data isn't accurate and doesn't flow properly you won't achieve the results you want. 

Most companies are constantly looking for new ways to upgrade their finance, treasury, and compliance activities as an on-going commitment to improving productivity, reducing risk, and optimizing overall business agility.