Cash management

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007) In United States banking, cash management, or treasury management, is a marketing term for certain services offered primarily to larger business customers. It may be used to describe all bank accounts (such as checking accounts) provided to businesses of a certain size, but it is more often used to describe specific services such as cash concentration, zero balance accounting, and automated clearing house facilities. Sometimes, private banking customers are given cash management services.

Cash management services generally offered

The following is a list of services generally offered by banks and utilised by larger businesses and corporations:

Account Reconcilement Services: Balancing a checkbook can be a difficult process for a very large business, since it issues so many checks it can take a lot of human monitoring to understand which checks have not cleared and therefore what the company's true balance is. To address this, banks have developed a system which allows companies to upload a list of all the checks that they issue on a daily basis, so that at the end of the month the bank statement will show not only which checks have cleared, but also which have not. More recently, banks have used this system to prevent checks from being fraudulently cashed if they are not on the list, a process known as positive pay. Advanced Web Services: Most banks have an Internet-based system which is more advanced than the one available to consumers. This enables managers to create and authorize special internal logon credentials, allowing employees to send wires and access other cash management features normally not found on the consumer web site. Armored Car Services (Cash Collection Services): Large retailers who collect a great deal of cash may have the bank pick this cash up via an armored car company, instead of asking its employees to deposit the cash. Automated Clearing House: services are usually offered by the cash management division of a bank. The Automated Clearing House is an electronic system used to transfer funds between banks. Companies use this to pay others, especially employees (this is how direct deposit works). Certain companies also use it to collect funds from customers (this is generally how automatic payment plans work). This system is criticized by some consumer advocacy groups, because under this system banks assume that the company initiating the debit is correct until proven otherwise.

Balance Reporting Services: Corporate clients who actively manage their cash balances usually subscribe to secure web-based reporting of their account and transaction information at their lead bank. These sophisticated compilations of banking activity may include balances in foreign currencies, as well as those at other banks. They include information on cash positions as well as 'float' (e.g., checks in the process of collection). Finally, they offer transaction-specific details on all forms of payment activity, including deposits, checks, wire transfers in and out, ACH (automated clearinghouse debits and credits), investments, etc. Cash Concentration Services: Large or national chain retailers often are in areas where their primary bank does not have branches. Therefore, they open bank accounts at various local banks in the area. To prevent funds in these accounts from being idle and not earning sufficient interest, many of these companies have an agreement set with their primary bank, whereby their primary bank uses the Automated Clearing House to electronically "pull" the money from these banks into a single interest-bearing bank account. Lockbox - Retail: services: Often companies (such as utilities) which receive a large number of payments via checks in the mail have the bank set up a post office box for them, open their mail, and deposit any checks found. This is referred to as a "lockbox" service. Lockbox - Wholesale: services: are for companies with small numbers of payments, sometimes with detailed requirements for processing. This might be a company like a dentist's office or small manufacturing company. Positive Pay: Positive pay is a service whereby the company electronically shares its check register of all written checks with the bank. The bank therefore will only pay checks listed in that register, with exactly the same specifications as listed in the register (amount, payee, serial number, etc.). This system dramatically reduces check fraud. Reverse Positive Pay: Reverse positive pay is similar to positive pay, but the process is reversed, with the company, not the bank, maintaining the list of checks issued. When checks are presented for payment and clear through the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve prepares a file of the checks' account numbers, serial numbers, and dollar amounts and sends the file to the bank. In reverse positive pay, the bank sends that file to the company, where the company compares the information to its internal records. The company lets the bank know which checks match its internal information, and the bank pays those items. The bank then researches the checks that do not match, corrects any misreads or encoding errors, and determines if any items are fraudulent. The bank pays only "true" exceptions, that is, those that can be reconciled with the company's files. Sweep accounts: are typically offered by the cash management division of a bank. Under this system, excess funds from a company's bank accounts are automatically moved into a money market mutual fund overnight, and then moved back the next morning. This

allows them to earn interest overnight. This is the primary use of money market mutual funds.

Zero Balance Accounting: can be thought of as somewhat of a hack. Companies with large numbers of stores or locations can very often be confused if all those stores are depositing into a single bank account. Traditionally, it would be impossible to know which deposits were from which stores without seeking to view images of those deposits. To help correct this problem, banks developed a system where each store is given their own bank account, but all the money deposited into the individual store accounts are automatically moved or swept into the company's main bank account. This allows the company to look at individual statements for each store. U.S. banks are almost all converting their systems so that companies can tell which store made a particular deposit, even if these deposits are all deposited into a single account. Therefore, zero balance accounting is being used less frequently. Wire Transfer: A wire transfer is an electronic transfer of funds. Wire transfers can be done by a simple bank account transfer, or by a transfer of cash at a cash office. Bank wire transfers are often the most expedient method for transferring funds between bank accounts. A bank wire transfer is a message to the receiving bank requesting them to effect payment in accordance with the instructions given. The message also includes settlement instructions. The actual wire transfer itself is virtually instantaneous, requiring no longer for transmission than a telephone call. Controlled Disbursement: This is another product offered by banks under Cash Management Services. The bank provides a daily report, typically early in the day, that provides the amount of disbursements that will be charged to the customer's account. This early knowledge of daily funds requirement allows the customer to invest any surplus in intraday investment opportunities, typically money market investments. This is different from delayed disbursements, where payments are issued through a remote branch of a bank and customer is able to delay the payment due to increased float time.

In the past, other services have been offered the usefulness of which has diminished with the rise of the Internet. For example, companies could have daily faxes of their most recent transactions or be sent CD-ROMs of images of their cashed checks. Cash management services can be costly but usually the cost to a company is outweighed by the benefits: cost savings, accuracy, efficiencies, etc.

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Working capital
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Domestic credit to private sector in 2005

Working capital (abbreviated WC) is a financial metric which represents operating liquidity available to a business, organization or other entity, including governmental entity. Along with fixed assets such as plant and equipment, working capital is considered a part of operating capital. Net working capital is calculated as current assets minus current liabilities. It is a derivation of working capital, that is commonly used in valuation techniques such as DCFs (Discounted cash flows). If current assets are less than current liabilities, an entity has a working capital deficiency, also called a working capital deficit. A company can be endowed with assets and profitability but short of liquidity if its assets cannot readily be converted into cash. Positive working capital is required to ensure that a firm is able to continue its operations and that it has sufficient funds to satisfy both maturing short-term debt and upcoming operational expenses. The management of working capital involves managing inventories, accounts receivable and payable, and cash.

Contents

1 Calculation 2 Working capital management o 2.1 Decision criteria o 2.2 Management of working capital 3 See also

Calculation
Current assets and current liabilities include three accounts which are of special importance. These accounts represent the areas of the business where managers have the most direct impact:

accounts receivable (current asset)

inventory (current assets), and accounts payable (current liability)

The current portion of debt (payable within 12 months) is critical, because it represents a shortterm claim to current assets and is often secured by long term assets. Common types of shortterm debt are bank loans and lines of credit. An increase in working capital indicates that the business has either increased current assets (that is has increased its receivables, or other current assets) or has decreased current liabilities, for example has paid off some short-term creditors. Implications on M&A: The common commercial definition of working capital for the purpose of a working capital adjustment in an M&A transaction (i.e. for a working capital adjustment mechanism in a sale and purchase agreement) is equal to: Current Assets Current Liabilities excluding deferred tax assets/liabilities, excess cash, surplus assets and/or deposit balances. Cash balance items often attract a one-for-one purchase price adjustment.

Working capital management

Corporate finance

Working capital

Cash conversion cycle Return on capital Economic Value Added Just-in-time Economic order quantity Discounts and allowances Factoring

Capital budgeting Capital investment decisions The investment decision The financing decision Sections Managerial finance Financial accounting Management accounting Mergers and acquisitions Balance sheet analysis Business plan Corporate action Societal components Financial market Financial market participants Corporate finance Personal finance Public finance Banks and banking Financial regulation Clawback

v t e

Decisions relating to working capital and short term financing are referred to as working capital management. These involve managing the relationship between a firm's short-term assets and its short-term liabilities. The goal of working capital management is to ensure that the firm is able to continue its operations and that it has sufficient cash flow to satisfy both maturing short-term debt and upcoming operational expenses.

Decision criteria

By definition, working capital management entails short term decisions - generally, relating to the next one year period - which are "reversible". These decisions are therefore not taken on the same basis as Capital Investment Decisions (NPV or related, as above) rather they will be based on cash flows and / or profitability.

One measure of cash flow is provided by the cash conversion cycle - the net number of days from the outlay of cash for raw material to receiving payment from the customer. As a management tool, this metric makes explicit the inter-relatedness of decisions relating to inventories, accounts receivable and payable, and cash. Because this number effectively corresponds to the time that the firm's cash is tied up in operations and unavailable for other activities, management generally aims at a low net count. In this context, the most useful measure of profitability is Return on capital (ROC). The result is shown as a percentage, determined by dividing relevant income for the 12 months by capital employed; Return on equity (ROE) shows this result for the firm's shareholders. Firm value is enhanced when, and if, the return on capital, which results from working capital management, exceeds the cost of capital, which results from capital investment decisions as above. ROC measures are therefore useful as a management tool, in that they link short-term policy with long-term decision making. See Economic value added (EVA). Credit policy of the firm: Another factor affecting working capital management is credit policy of the firm. It includes buying of raw material and selling of finished goods either in cash or on credit. This affects the cash conversion cycle.

Management of working capital

Guided by the above criteria, management will use a combination of policies and techniques for the management of working capital. These policies aim at managing the current assets (generally cash and cash equivalents, inventories and debtors) and the short term financing, such that cash flows and returns are acceptable.

Cash management. Identify the cash balance which allows for the business to meet day to day expenses, but reduces cash holding costs. Inventory management. Identify the level of inventory which allows for uninterrupted production but reduces the investment in raw materials - and minimizes reordering costs - and hence increases cash flow. Besides this, the lead times in production should be lowered to reduce Work in Process (WIP) and similarly, the Finished Goods should be kept on as low level as possible to avoid over production - see Supply chain management; Just In Time (JIT); Economic order quantity (EOQ); Economic quantity Debtors management. Identify the appropriate credit policy, i.e. credit terms which will attract customers, such that any impact on cash flows and the cash conversion cycle will be offset by increased revenue and hence Return on Capital (or vice versa); see Discounts and allowances. Short term financing. Identify the appropriate source of financing, given the cash conversion cycle: the inventory is ideally financed by credit granted by the supplier; however, it may be

necessary to utilize a bank loan (or overdraft), or to "convert debtors to cash" through "factoring" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_capital http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_management