I think Cash Flow management is a neglected area in most companies.
You’d think that with all the tools available, organisations would have a daily cash flow statement listing the cash in and cash outs for the next 30/60/90/180 and 365 days clearly marking days when the company would be cash surplus and cash deficit.
You’d also expect that organisations would have assigned accountability to people within the organisation about the cash ins - like a Sales Person is responsible for collecting the payment for an invoice that is due in 32 days, a delivery person is responsible for ensuring deliveries are complete and the payment is collected for a complex project that is due in 108 days and so on.
When you extend the horizon to 180 or 365 days you need to have a reasonably good fix on the orders you need to close and the collections you will make from those orders.
Similarly, you’d expect organisations to have a good fix on the payments they need to make to suppliers, regulatory payments, bank charges and dues, utilities, rentals, payroll. Etc. Etc.
And then they need to track their stocks and see how they can free up working capital stuck in stocks.
And finally they need to have a plan about how they are going to park their excess funds and how they are going to make up for shortfall of funds on particular days, weeks or months.
Most organisations seem to operate their business with hope in their hearts and a prayer on their lips.
Putting a system like this is complicated but unless organisations try they will not build an organisation that’s profitable, predictable and build an organisation that drives accountability and ownership from the top to the bottom!
What’s my objective of posting this here?
Do we have an organization that thinks that they need to address this? Can they come to the table with a budget? Can I inspire the community to build a complete solution to address this?
Does anybody know which system (SAP, Dynamics, Quickbooks, MYOB, Xero) addresses this the best?
Thanks
Jay