![Paul Gilmartin at the ACT Cash Management Conference]](https://www.treasurers.org/ACTmedia/Knowledge%20Hub/Cashman_Technology_web_0.jpg)
That was the message from Paul Gilmartin (above), an interim corporate treasurer who has recently been supporting Group Treasury at Kantar, at the recent ACT Cash Management Conference. He explained how Kantar had transformed its global cash forecasting through the implementation of a TIS CashOptix cloud-based software platform, replacing the Excel spreadsheet-based system that had been the basis of its cash flow forecasting since the company was spun out from parent WPP in 2019.
Kantar has businesses in 76 countries, customers in more than 100 territories, 26,000 employees and EBITDA of around US$700m. Its spreadsheet system delivered weekly reports from 30 teams from across its top 21 countries to the group CFO and key stakeholder. However, although providing valuable insights, it was a time-consuming process, complex, reliant on individuals and subject to inconsistent local processes.
Having agreed its business requirements and established its business case, funding for the upgrade project was secured in Q1 2023, with the first tranche of the firm’s largest most complex international units going live with the TIS-based system in Q4 2023, the rest following in March 2024.
Gilmartin explained: “The real value that we see from this tool is our own central ability to see what has happened.” The system takes data feeds from most of the business’s 800-plus bank accounts via MT 940 and FIDES into the TIS solution. Central treasury discusses and identifies other categories of transactions, with local teams, and writes the rules for the central system that captures the nature of payments. These include:
A good forecast is like a homemade cheesecake – start with a good base (sales invoices) and then you can layer on top more fruity elements (the less certain inflows)
These are further refined over time to enhance accuracy, while some of these elements are input locally rather than using automatic data feeds, if they work better for the overall system, Gilmartin says.
In essence, the system:
This enables a granular view of cash-flow forecasts, which can be refined and drilled down into with much greater visibility and transparency, Gilmartin says. “It adds a level of transparency over the cash-flow forecasting process that we’ve never had before,” he explains.
Summing up the lessons learned on the project, Gilmartin referenced the ‘walk-run-fly’ philosophy around staged development. He said: “A good forecast is like a homemade cheesecake – start with a good base (sales invoices) and then you can layer on top more fruity elements (the less certain inflows).”
He suggested: “The full answer probably doesn’t live in any system. So, our design aims to pull together all the useful information that is known and available, and then we ask our colleagues to layer on top the extra bits.”
He said that one of the challenges was understanding how to build/prepare the data feeds that they decided to provide to the tool. “This will take longer than you think, but it provides helpful visibility on working capital metrics that you can leverage.”
Keeping it simple was important, too. “Don’t assume that an automated data feed is best, just because the technology department says that is the route.” And, he advised: “People don’t like change – so make it as easy for them as possible.”
Phil Lattimore is a business and financial freelance journalist