Strategic Treasurer FAQ Sessions Shed Light on Common Treasurer Queries

It is no secret that the realm of treasury has become a complicated environment to operate within. Gone are the days when treasury’s primary focus was simply executing payments; today, there are a number of considerations, including in the areas of compliance, technology, security, and risk, that treasury must account for when making decisions. In fact, there are over a dozen specific areas, such as bank account management, funds transfers, and cash forecasting, that over 50% of treasurers regularly perform as part of their ongoing responsibilities1. All this has culminated in an environment where treasury is strapped for time, and a significant portion (31%) do not have time to perform all the responsibilities they are entrusted with2. Factor in the reality that many departments are operating with just a few employees, and you have a very real and ongoing dilemma that continues to manifest itself within corporations in the U.S. and across the globe.

Although this challenge represents a massive challenge for treasurers in their day-to-day operations, there is a side-effect to this hectic schedule that has proven particularly problematic. That is, if there ever is a new component or “unknown” issue that treasury is not familiar with and must address, they have very little time to perform their own research. In fact, a recent Strategic Treasurer survey uncovered that almost two-thirds of practitioners (65%) find less than one hour a week to digest treasury-related research, media, and resources3. And although practitioners would certainly find time to any serious issue on their radar, the reality is there are many questions treasury professionals have that ultimately go unaddressed. However, this is something that Strategic Treasurer is seeking to change.

While Strategic Treasurer has been receiving and responding to questions from practitioners since our inception, the number of questions we receive has skyrocketed over the past 3-4 years. This is primarily due to an open-ended question we have included in our Treasury Technology Use Survey, which asks respondents to input one treasury-related question they’d like to know the answer too. This question was first asked in the 2015 edition of the survey. Fast-forward to today, and we now have hundreds of questions provided by practitioners that we are hoping to provide guidance and insight on as we find time to do so. However, in analyzing these responses, there are a number of similar or standard queries submitted by practitioners that we have identified and grouped together to form a list of “Frequently Asked Questions.”

In 2017, Strategic Treasurer first began providing quick, convenient responses to these queries in the form of “FAQ” videos uploaded to our YouTube channel. However, we have furthered our commitment to addressing these submissions in 2018 with the introduction of our FAQ podcast sessions, which cover 5-6 questions per episode and offer a more conversational and easily digestible approach to breaking down complex treasury topics. The first FAQ episode was released in July, which can be found here. This particular episode covered topics such as whether a TMS or ERP is a more effective solution for treasury, if blockchain will ever become a standard treasury tool, and what sort of impact the newly issued Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will have in America and abroad. However, we still have plenty of questions left to answer, and will continue to gather submissions from respondents, clients, and industry professionals for responses in subsequent episodes.

If you’d like to view our already-developed FAQ episodes, you can visit our YouTube channel here or listen to our FAQ podcast episode here. Remember to check back regularly, as new podcasts and videos are regularly released! Also, for anyone wishing to submit a question that could be featured in a video or podcast, you may submit a query to our company directly at ask@strategictreasurer.com

 

References

1 2017 Strategic Treasurer & TreasuryXpress Technology Use Survey

2 2017 Strategic Treasurer & TD Bank Treasury Perspectives Survey

3 2017 Strategic Treasurer & TreasuryXpress Technology Use Survey

 

Isaac Zaubi

Publications Manager, Treasury Analyst
Isaac Zaubi has been with Strategic Treasurer for over 2 years as a treasury analyst before coming into his current role as Publications Manager. Isaac’s contributions center primarily around the development and management of publications, including fintech analyst reports, survey results reports, e-books, and whitepapers.