The responsibility for making sure that this strategic money management is carried out effectively falls to the business’ treasury department (which could be outsourced), who must plan, organise and control the cash assets in order to meet the financial goals of the business, whatever they may be.

• Cash and Liquidity Management – One of the most important sub-functions of treasury management, cash management aims to maximise available cash and minimise shortfalls as quickly as possible.
• Liquidity and Risk Management in Treasury – The assessment and management of risks to liquidity to ensure that the business can always meet its financial obligations.
• Corporate Finance – Concerned with making both short and long-term financial and investment decisions to maximise value to the shareholders.
• Cash Flow and Advanced Forecasting – Identifying cash deficits and surplus in future months to help you to plan ahead.
• Treasury Management Systems and Software – The automation of important financial operations using systems which facilitates communication between treasury departments and their banking partners.
• Trade Finance Software – Software designed to help businesses find trade finance solutions and deal with accounts receivables, factoring payments and assets.
• Trade Financial Supply Chain Management – Financing for all phases of the supply chain.

Treasury management is an umbrella term which encompasses several functions involved in managing an enterprise’s holdings. The ultimate goal of treasury management is to optimise financial liquidity, minimise risk, and drive value creation.

In a nutshell, treasury management is there to ensure that the business always has access to the cash required to operate, and uses surplus cash efficiently.

For more information on the specific sub-functions of treasury management, see our information pages using the links above.

Treasury management and cash management are two terms which are sometimes used interchangeably – particularly by smaller enterprises – but do, in fact, perform separate functions.

Cash management is narrower in scope than treasury management and only deals with maximising the amount of available cash at any given time. Treasury management includes several other functions beyond this.

Centralised and decentralised treasury departments refer to the level of autonomy each regional branch of an enterprise has in handling its own treasury operations.

In a centralised model, all of the treasury operations of the different regional branches of a multinational company are controlled by a central location – usually the headquarters of the business.

In a decentralised model, each branch has its own treasury department and controls its own finances. Each model has comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. This article provides some more insight on these advantages and disadvantages.