By Morne Klynsmith, Head of Treasury Technology
With Excel ruling as King in many organisations and treasury departments, its archaic sceptre cannot compete with cloud-based treasury technology, which is more accessible, user-friendly and cost-effective than ever before. The global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the risks to organisations that did not have centralised, cloud-based systems. Other unexpected pandemic-related challenges included disruptions and delays in the supply chain for hardware requirements, as well as people not being able to gain access to physical data centres when cities were in lockdown.
Treasury teams that had to rely solely on the limitations of Excel as a treasury management system (TMS) were taught valuable lessons regarding the benefits of having access to a cloud-based TMS. Treasurers who spent the time and energy to invest in a TMS were the proverbial “leaders of the pack”. Today, treasury teams can no longer afford to spend disproportionate time collating data across various platforms to make crucial financial decisions. As such, agile teams that work securely from any destination within a SOC-compliant cloud TMS are virtually obligatory in this fast-paced world of change.
When comparing the use of spreadsheets instead of a TMS, there are several drawbacks, such as:
- However well-built the spreadsheet is, it requires a high level of manual intervention, with one treasury team cutting and pasting balances for several hours a day.
- Due to the human element involved, errors can easily creep into large spreadsheets and be extremely difficult to rectify, especially where the staff who first created them are no longer involved in the organisation.
- Excel’s lack of audit trail functionality, ability to do dual administration and varied staff excel skills.
- Managing passwords and security to protect sheets, ranges, or cells could be impossible to edit if passwords were not stored or became forgotten or lost. The risk of ransomware attacks has become more prevalent and can cause havoc in terms of security threats.
During a recent Treasury Dragons virtual round table discussion on Excel vs a TMS, the participating treasurers that still relied on Excel as their TMS were all considering introducing a TMS to reduce risk and to automate many treasury functions. According to the panel, the most significant hurdle in acquiring a TMS was getting Board approval for the expenditure, but so was the diversion of staff and resources to implementing such a change.
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