General

Payment Approval Workflows & Controls

Sujith Nair — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:17:14 GMT

Treasury Sciences EFT is a web-based multi-bank payment origination system. It allows for custom payment workflows and controls, ability to set per-transactions and cumulative limits at multiple levels, allows free-form and bank independent template based and netted payment originations and supports ISO 20022, SWIFT MT and even custom bank formats for payment transmission to banks. The key differentiator between TS EFT and other systems (bank provided and otherwise) is that most if not all payment approvals processes and controls that are needed to meet an organization's specific needs is accomplished in TS EFT via configuration.

This post looks at couple of typical payment origination processes and controls that can be configured within TS EFT. The first scenario shown below is a typical configuration of TS EFT for an organization that utilizes one payment bank and needs free-form, template based and netted originations with dual approval. Note that TS EFT provides payment controls such as the differentiation of payments users from administrative users - ensuring that a user has permissions to originate or approve the creation of a bank account does not have the ability to originate or approve payments and vice versa.

The second scenario described below discusses a more complex configuration of EFT (note that this is still configuration and not custom development or customization of the product) wherein an organization needs 2 different approval processes - a one step approval process for payments originated from pre-approved templates for the treasury organization (typically for net-funding or concentration wires) and a dual-approval process for all payments from subsidiaries. Also note the connectivity to multiple payment banks as well.

Configuring Centralized & Decentralized Cash Management in TS CMO - Part I

Sujith Nair — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:47:56 GMT

Over the next 4 posts, I will describe the ability of TS CMO to support multiple centralized and decentralized cash management and positioning needs of enterprise organizations. To start, we will look at less complex scenarios and move towards the more complex models.

Centralized Cash Management - Consider an organization head quartered in the US with operations in US and Canada, the US organization managing the treasury (cash and investments) for the entire enterprise.

The centralized cash management scenario is described below - the organization receives BAI files from banks in US and Bank proprietary files for cash and investments in canada and investments in the US, it has one backend GL system that TS CMO synchronizes with. You can read more about the GL integration capabilities of TS CMO here and here.

TS CMO allows for the configuration of this model via the creation of cash operations entities or tags. In this case, since all cash management is done by the central US organization one cash operations entity (tag) called North America is created by the end user. All bank and investment accounts across the enterprise (US and Canada) that are used for cash management purposes (note that accounts can be marked as not used for cash management as well, useful when concentration accounts are used for positioning) assigned this tag. Appropriate users or roles (groups of users) from US treasury organization are assigned this tag as well ensuring that they can position for US and Canada.

Once a US treasury user logs, he or she will be able to position both in USD and CAD for the enterprise without any custom development effort. Exports to the backend GL system can be automated . In the above example the only transformations needed are to transform the proprietary bank and investment formats into TS XML format and transformation of the TS XML GL export to Oracle GL Specific format. Note that these transformations are fairly quick and either the TS managed services team or your internal IT team could do that.

In the next post, we will look at a decentralized cash management scenario.

Free Trials - How we do it

Sujith Nair — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:52:59 GMT

Ideally, you would like to try out the software or application with your data, see if it works for you and then make a purchase decision. We make that option- Free trials of the product - available to any organization that wants to try out our products as well. Over the last few years, many organizations have tried out our products and made purchase decisions after their key users were comfortable with the product features.

Now, more than once we have been asked how we are able to let users try out our products so easily and why deployment of the product for a customer is so quick.

The answer lies in how we built the product, how it is hosted and how the product team has made it easy for us to make an instance available to an organization.

One of my favorite lines when I talk about the product is that "This product was built from the ground up". What that means is that the suite of treasury sciences products were designed and built - every screen, every feature built, every element of the user interface - everything was built by our product team. In other words, no other product or products were modified or customized or tailored to make this suite of products.

Starting from a blank slate gave our product team the opportunity to make the appropriate and best available technology, architecture and design choices for the business problem we were trying to solve. One of the goals we had upfront was to enable organizations to try our product out as easily as possible and adopt very, very quickly. Usability of the product was always critical and was considered every step of the way.

Secondly, everything we offer is web-based. The application is hosted on our datacenter, it can be hosted on the cloud as needed as well.

Finally, I get a notification when an organization registers for a trial and I have one button to click - the system is automatically deployed and emails with credentials are sent out to the organization that registered along with a wizard that helps them get started very very quickly. The product team has set it up such that it is that easy for me to setup an instance for a potential customer. Here is the process in a bit more detail.

Treasury Workstation Reporting

Treasury Workstation Integration Capabilities

Sujith Nair — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:05:37 GMT

Several posts earlier, I had described some of the typical challenges that an organization adopting a TMS faces and some of our integration capabilities in detail. A few days ago we created a quick one page chart that provides an overview of all of our integration capabilities. This new chart is shared below.

Integration options outlined above include the ability to integrate with any backend GL or Portfolio Management Systems, almost any internal system that has the ability to send us forecasts (this could be trading systems, debt systems, internal payment systems such as TS EFT etc) and the ability to integrate with banks.

We support payments integration with banks using the new ISO 20022 standard or SWIFT formats and we can connect either directly with the banks or via the SWIFT network . Bank reporting files are typically sent to us via FTP in the BAI2 or SWIFT MT 940/942 formats. Also, do note that we support multiple mechanisms for file based communication including FTP/SFTP (typically for integration with banks, internal systems) and have web services (typically for external systems to send us forecasts) as an option as well. .We also have the the ability to subscribe to web services as well (typically to retrieve up to date currency rates).

So there you have it, a very quick overview of the integration options provided by the TS suite of products.

Treasury Workstation Features - Cash Management Dashboard

Sujith Nair — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:49:19 GMT

As part of our look at product features, todays post focusses on the cash management dashboard that is part of our cash management operations module.

The dashboard provides a consolidated, real time look all transactions across banks and provides you with your cash position at this point in time. Please see below a screenshot of our cash management dashboard that reports on transactions across 3 banks with totals per flow code, grand totals per bank and your consolidated cash position (bottom right).

Flow codes are nothing but groupings of transactions. Banks send transactions with transactions codes that identify the transaction types - for example the BAI transaction codes that are part of a BAI file. Flow codes allow end users to group multiple transaction codes into a readable format.

For example the ACHC flow code above stands for ACH Credit and is mapped to following BAI Codes - 142 (ACH Credit Received), 143 (Item in ACH Deposit), 165 (Pre-authorized ACH Credit), 166 (Pre-authorized ACH Credit), 169 (ACH Credit) and 201(Automatic Transfer Credit). As you can see, all of these BAI transaction codes pretty much mean that these are ACH credits into your bank accounts. You can of course change the flow code to transaction code mapping using the application itself.

Now, the numbers in dashboard are auto-updated on receipt of transactions or forecasts (Note that forecasted transactions are highlighted in bold). Each number listed above is clickable and you can drill down to the transactions screen to view what transactions make up these numbers.

Down below are a series of buttons, ones that let you drill down to view and reconcile transactions with forecasts, view and manage forecasts, ability to access a few reports quickly, originate concentration and net funding wires and of course the ability to Submit - ie. to create a snapshot of the data or create a cash position at this point in time.

In the next few posts, we will look at the transaction reconciliation and forecast management features that a cash analyst would perform before submitting a position.

Thank you for reading.

Electronic Funds Tranfer Module - Key Benefits

Sujith Nair — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 07:17:07 GMT

In a recent product demonstrations, we have been discussing our Electronic Funds Transfer Module extensively with multiple organizations. There are multiple benefits to an organization that utilizes our electronic funds transfer module - bank independence, ability to attach supporting documents, custom approval processes, no per user fees, ability to capture accounting treatment upfront, netting capability from backend A/P systems, our standardized and configurable approach to building systems to name a few.

Now, if you look at the types of organizations that are typically interested in our Electronic Funds Transfer Module there are a couple factors that stand out- key benefits offered by our payments module that make our product extremely useful to these enterprises.

The first being bank independence. If you are an organization that utilizes multiple payment banks (hedge funds as an example with multiple Prime Broker and Custodial relationships) the benefits of adopting a bank independent payments system (a payment system that can originate payments from multiple banks utilizing standards based integration) far out weigh the costs.

The second (not in the order of importance) key factor is internal control requirements and related benefits. i.e. If you are an organization that needs to enforce rule-based netting and controlled origination via payment templates offered by the product or if you are an organization that originates hundreds of payments and need a more configurable system (than what is offered by you bank) to better manage your internal users and processes such as paperless approvals and upfront capture of accounting treatment or as in the case of one of our current customers who utilize custom organization specific approvals and controls for payment approvals and account management for hundreds of users.

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear you thoughts on why you decided to adopt or not adopt a payments system from a third-party vendor and what your reasons were; you can reach me at sujith@treasurysciences.com

Bank Independent Payment (EFT) Templates

Sujith Nair — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 03:58:57 GMT

While originating payments using any EFT system, the most time consuming activity is of course to make sure that all information- especially the beneficiary information is entered correctly. Approval is also time consuming as the approver has to check supporting documents and make sure that the data entered is correct (payment controls). This process of origination and approval for each one-off payment becomes even more painful if you are using multiple bank proprietary systems to originate payments.

Treasury Sciences EFT, as you know is a bank independent payments system. We solve it by using generic, bank independent payment templates. Payment templates also go through an approval process and once approved, originators can use the templates to originate payments by entering the value date and amount. Approvers can approve payments originated out of templates faster knowing that the beneficiary details have been approved earlier (while approving the templates). That may be the reason why templates are one of the most used features within the Treasury Sciences EFT Module.

Now, here is a quick walkthrough of templates and payments via templates. See below a listing of templates that lists the beneficiary and transaction type. Templates can be created by originating a new template creation request or by asking a specific payment originated in the system to be approved as a template as well- Approvers can approve the template and once approved, the template will be available for payment originators.

When originating payments from the EFT request tab, users have the option to choose originate with templates or use free form origination. If they choose, the originate with templates option users are asked to select a template (please see below). There are filtering option and a quick search option (you can search by beneficiary as well)

Users would double click to select templates and proceed with origination. All they have to add in this case will be the amount, note that the system is setting a default value date based on the date of origination and the transaction type, it is editable of course.

Thank you for reading, Hope that explains the use of payment templates and related ease of use and control benefits that templates provide.

Payments and Cash Management solutions for Hedge Funds

Sujith Nair — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:43:03 GMT

I have been writing our hedge fund solutions overview and case study this last week and thanks to our creative team's efforts with the pictures and formatting, it is ready for release now. Look for it on our website later this week. Here is a quick excerpt that provides an overview of treasury sciences solution for hedge funds.

Treasury Sciences offers a configurable solution that is tailored to hedge fund specific needs. Key features include:

Centralized configurable payment controls and templates across financial institutions provides one system for all users across operations and management

Multi-currency support for wires, transfers, credit notices, ACHs and forecasts with the ability to systematically capture accounting treatment and supporting documents. Near-real time reporting, automated alerts and notifications

Multi-bank connectivity for payments based on SWIFT and ISO 20022 and automated integration for statement reporting, automatic reconciliation of transactions with payment forecasts and automated application of accounting treatment

STP - End user configurable, scheduled automated updates in transformable XML format that can be applied to backend Portfolio Management System for Straight Through Processing

Best in class reporting capabilities; end users can create rule based reports, share, export into MS-Excel and PDF and schedule automated delivery of reports via email

Cash Position, GL Integration, Hedge Fund Treasury Worstation, Netted Payments, Reporting, Straight Through Processing, Treasury Management , Treasury Management System , Treasury Workstation

Treasury Workstation Value Proposition

Sujith Nair — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 05:38:15 GMT

Over the last few years, we have discussed the configurability of our treasury management system and how that translates into better and faster return on investment for our customers. The picture below compares our approach to Treasury Management Systems to our competitors/typical approach of treasury workstation adoption.

If this were a boxing contest, in the BLUE corner we have our competition and the old school way of treasury management system adoption. In the GREEN corner, we have Treasury Sciences and our approach. We obviously think that GREEN corner wins every contest by a knock out.

Here is why and how...

Note that we understand that the RFP/RFI process may be mandatory for certain organizations - however, we ask if it would it not be better if you could try the product out while you read the multiple checklists, documents, more documents and attached documents that are part of an RFP document?

Thank you for reading, do let me know should you have any questions.

Treasury Management , Treasury Management System , Treasury Workstation

Treasury Sciences -SWIFT Connectivity

Sujith Nair — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:18:51 GMT

This post provides an overview of our support for SWIFT. You may know already that we support the MT and ISO 20022 payment formats for payments, transfers, credit notices etc and SWIFT 940/942 for current and prior day reporting. In addition to that, if you utilize the SWIFT network you could use one channel to communicate with all the banks- this is especially true if you need connectivity to multiple (say more than 8 or 10) of banking institutions.

The key benefit here is that you can utilize our cash management, payments system and integration capabilities - the ability to configure your own payment controls, approvals workflow, forecasting from internal systems and positioning and the ability to push data through (STP) to backend GL Systems along with the ability to utilize SWIFT Network for all bank and financial institution connectivity.

Do note that since we have in-built support for SWIFT payment formats, all you will need to utilize SWIFT is for the SWIFT network. If you would like to know more, please send me a note.

Cash Position, Multi bank payments, Payment workflow implementation, Treasury Management , Treasury Management System , Treasury Reporting