The evolution of treasury is well underway. In a world where treasury teams are expected to deliver clarity, agility and strategic value faster than ever before, AFP Treasury Connect: Next-Level Treasury Operations, exclusively sponsored by Trovata, showed how treasury can step beyond its back-office boundaries to become a driver of business success.

The five sessions followed a common thread: the critical role of data, technology and alignment with the wider enterprise. What follows are five key insights from the program, from building forecasts on a foundation of solid data to navigating challenges with Know Your Customer (KYC) and treasury automation. The insights below capture how leading treasury teams are redefining their operations to meet the challenges ahead.

Insight 1: Strong forecasts start with strong data

The greatest obstacle to accurate forecasting isn’t a lack of models or tools; it’s unreliable, fragmented data. As the speakers from the first session, “Forecasting and Liquidity Planning,” made clear, forecasts are only as good as the inputs behind them — and all too often, that data is scattered across multiple ERP systems, buried in CRMs or manually compiled from spreadsheets.

“Garbage in, garbage out,” said Jeff Diorio, Managing Director, PMC Treasury. “If you don’t have good data, your forecast is only as good as you can make it.” 

John Paris, CTP, CFO, Full Circle Recycling, shared an experience he had working at a company with seven completely different ERP platforms and different software packages. “They kept making acquisitions, but they never consolidated the ERP systems,” he said, “Accumulating that data at the end of the month was torture for the accounting team.”

The solution, the speakers said, is to build a culture of data quality. That means getting staff across functions — FP&A, sales, procurement, even divisional managers — to engage and give you access to the right information. It also doesn’t hurt to get executive sponsorship. “In order to ensure adoption, I’ve had treasurers and assistant treasurers tell me they made forecasting part of a board-level policy,” said Diorio.

Insight 2: The real KYC challenge is the lack of standardization

The most painful part of KYC isn’t the paperwork itself — it’s the lack of consistency. Every bank, every country and sometimes even every branch requires different forms, definitions and processes. And every bank interprets the requirements differently, leading to endless delays and duplicate requests.

In the second session, “Bank Documentation and KYC,” Trish Fisher, Director and Treasurer, Wafra, recounted her experience opening accounts for the same entity at multiple banks, explaining, “It was so painful because of all the different types of forms.” She went on to say that there is no globally standardized definition of an “authorized person,” which adds significant complexity to the process.

This inconsistency in KYC requirements slows account openings, drags out transitions and, in some cases, even delays revenue — frustrating treasury teams and even creating undue risk. A May 2024 survey from Encompass found that 93% of treasurers in the U.S. and U.K. had been asked for the same information multiple times, with account openings taking an average of 41 days.

“I’ve seen account opening processes have birthdays,” said Seth Marlowe, CTP, Founder and Managing Director, Treasury Whisperer LLC.

Banks being ineffective when performing due diligence, particularly in regard to understanding your organizational structure and how it relates to various regulations, can also cause significant issues. “It's really important to have a bank that understands the business, understands from their perspective what KYC they're going to need as you move into that transition,” said Tom Wolfe, CTP, Manager of Treasury, Third Lake Solutions.

Without master documentation, clear signatory definitions and strong bank partnerships, organizations remain stuck in a never-ending cycle of time-sucking bureaucracy and unnecessary complexity.

Insight 3: Automation is a journey, not a quick fix

In the third session, “Automation of Treasury Processes,” the Under Armour team talked about their path to automation, emphasizing that it’s not a one-off project, but rather a steady, multi-year journey. Brad Costantino, Senior Manager of Global Treasury, Under Armour, explained that the need to take the project on became painfully obvious when “our cash analyst would come in, go through all 15–20 bank portals, download into Excel, and then by noon — about four hours — would have our cash position ready for our treasurer.”

Their first step was to implement TMS and SWIFT reporting in order to centralize cash visibility. From there, they added on cash accounting automation, which included building rules so “90 to 95% of the cash transactions automatically flow to a GL account,” said Constantino. Later, they expanded into robotic process automation for vendor invoicing, Power Automate for FX processes and APIs for hedging and exposure management.

With each step, they reduced the manual workload. The number of spreadsheets went from about 24 to 10-12. And regional teams no longer had to manually collect, email and reconcile reports; instead, they logged in remotely to a centralized system, enabling access to the same up-to-date data. This not only cut the number of hours of repetitive work they had to perform but also ensured everyone was working from a single source of truth.

Offering advice to others, Constantino said, “Start with the low-hanging fruit, the easier fixes, the ones that would save four hours a day. Then move to the ones that are a little more complex, those that you need to be a little more pointed with.”

Lending to the point that automation is not a quick fix, Chris van Dijl, CTP, Founder and CEO of Cugavadi, added, “It’s never a finished project. You keep developing. You can extend it to the next step, to the next step, and then you can refine it and make it better. It’s never really, really finished.”

Insight 4: Treasury is not effectively communicating its value to the organization

In the fourth session, “What Gets Measured, Gets Managed: Key Performance Indicators,” the discussion centered around value, specifically how treasury can more effectively measure its performance to communicate the value it provides the organization.

CFOs need treasury to be a strategic business partner (involved in the financial planning of the enterprise), especially as the CFO’s role shifts from financial reporting to business leadership. “Treasury is well-positioned to provide the CFO with any strategic information they need, whether it's long-term forecasting, related to financing a merger or monetizing the balance sheet,” said Paul DeCrane, Partner, Zanders Group.

Unfortunately, many treasury teams are stuck performing manual, transactional work, preventing them from delivering strategic insights. “We're under increased pressure to transform our function from very operational to value-add,” said Lee-Ann Perkins, Head of Treasury, Ankura.

The speakers talked at length about how treasury needs to focus on measuring the key value indicators that contribute to the corporate objectives. “It all comes down to your corporate objectives, as far as shareholder value creation, earnings growth, margin accretion, operational effectiveness and brand,” said DeCrane. “Being able to align what will be your metrics ultimately to the overall objectives of the organization is really important.”

“We undersell ourselves and our value when we're only cost centers,” said Perkins. “We really need to take the risks and have the courage to prove that we can drive profits just as much as we can protect them.”

Insight 5: Agility in treasury starts with accessible, real-time data

In the final session, “Agile Treasury, Real Results: Cash Visibility at Scale,” the speakers discussed what agility means for treasury and its importance. “Treasury is responsible for keeping the company alive, which means providing the cash needed to run the business,” said Paul Bramwell, Enterprise Treasury Lead for Trovata. “For that, you need real-time data. Treasury has to be ready for anything.”

The transformational urgency isn't merely theoretical. When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, treasurers with real-time visibility were able to act decisively while others scrambled. “You don't need it until you need it,” said Bruce Edlin, Group Director and Assistant Treasurer, Cloud Software Group.

As treasury continues its evolution from back-office function to strategic partner, the ability to implement transformative technology quickly is inarguably a competitive advantage. The real question isn’t whether treasury can achieve real-time visibility and agility, but whether teams are ready to leave behind the lengthy implementation cycles that have defined treasury transformation for decades.