Working capital is the lifeblood of most organizations and, as such, it needs to be watched closely and managed in a comprehensive, real-time, and proactive manner.

All finance departments must manage working capital to keep their business operations running, while maintaining the agility to support the strategic goals and growth objectives of their business. Working capital management and optimization are key to assuring a business can maintain production, cover the cost of wages and supplies – and also have enough liquidity on hand to service their short-term credit obligations.

Any gaps are likely to be filled by external capital – usually at a higher cost than internally available funding. Being able to accurately measure and manage working capital, and avoid expensive external financing, can provide companies with an important competitive advantage.

Most CFOs use working capital as a key indicator of the operating health of the business. They focus on questions such as: Are we collecting our bills in a timely manner? Are we taking all the discounts that we are entitled to? Are we carrying too much inventory in our warehouses?

These basic metrics all have a direct impact on liquidity. However, the answers to these key working capital questions are inherently dynamic and constantly changing.

According to the Big 4, over 50% of companies experienced a delay in compliance with ASC 606 and 842 due to accounting issues. Those same companies struggled to produce their disclosures and reporting. Underlying this are the technical accounting expertise and disciplines needed for success.

As we move into Fall, there are a number of important events coming up for CFOs and other finance leaders, where you'll get a chance to network with colleagues and talk with experts in creating and implementing solutions for treasury, compliance, disclosure reporting and other related finance management issues.  Bramasol is proud to be a participant and in some cases an enabling sponsor for the following key conferences.  Please plan to join us.

Treasury functions are not easily isolated from the rest of operational applications that are typically spread throughout an organization – nor should they be.  In fact, almost all treasury processes can benefit greatly from becoming more integrated with other business processes. 

However, all too often, companies are enticed by the promises of standalone treasury and risk management applications that claim to be inter-operable but fall short of providing true seamless integration with core ERP business and finance applications.

The strategic importance of treasury has been increasing steadily in recent years, thereby leading to a proliferation of new capabilities from both standalone application vendors and broad-based ERP/finance systems providers.

Companies are also coming under more pressure from shareholders and regulators to increase their transparency and improve financial performance. These expectations are leading to significant changes to the treasury functions as activities are increasingly being centralized. 

At the same time, most companies are experiencing more complexity with regard to changing compliance requirements, diverse global operations, regional and local regulatory mandates, international trade and foreign currency issues, geographically diverse banking relationships and escalating risk factors in the financial arena.

Two Fortune 500 companies recently reported saving between 5 and 10 percent on inventory carrying costs while others gained millions in cash flow from a focus collections and payables.

The latest Association for Financial Professionals^® (AFP) 2019 AFP Risk Survey - The Evolving Treasury Ecosystem, examines the challenges that companies are facing regarding their treasury operations, with an emphasis on how they are looking to leverage new technologies.

The future of real estate management is here. Learn how SAP's Cloud for Real Estate solution combines leading edge visualization tools and animation with deep Real Estate and Leasing functionality to bring you the world's best solution.

As public companies have worked over the past two years to comply with new ASC 842 and IFRS 16 leasing standards, they have taken a variety of paths to achieve the initial compliance requirements. Depending on each company’s specific requirements and the extent of their lease portfolios, their journey to compliance may have been comprehensive or might have taken a limited approach with a “path of least resistance” philosophy to minimize disruptions. 

However, those companies that took a limited approach using standalone solutions or spreadsheets are now discovering they’re stuck in a dead-end with regard to integrating and optimizing lease compliance within their overall business operations.

As the leading experts in SAP Leasing Solutions for ASC 842 and IFRS 16, we've seen it all and we know what works. Integration can be hard. Data validation is required far more than you expected and reporting is anything but a snap, especially if you need data from your ERP as well as your leasing solution. 

Imagine the power of an ERP based Treasury Solution combined with the scalability, flexibility and security of a cloud based solution. It is here! Join experts from SAP and Bramasol as we explore the latest features of the SAP Cloud for Treasury Solution.