Navigating the complexities of high transaction volumes is a daunting challenge for many treasury teams no matter what industry you’re in. Manual handling of data entry, reconciliation, and the need for real-time financial oversight are important pieces of the puzzle for high-volume businesses.
This is where Trovata steps in. Offering a streamlined solution through AI-powered automation, a scalable cloud-native platform, real-time data insights, and enhanced security, Trovata transforms the way treasurers handle high volumes of transactions.
Understanding High-Volume Transactions
High-volume transactions refer to a substantial number of financial exchanges occurring over a given period, often seen in sectors like e-commerce, insurance, hospitality, manufacturing and more. These transactions are characterized by their frequency and quantity, often involving credit cards, debit cards, and bank account movements.
Key features include:
- Large Number of Transactions: Significantly higher than average daily or monthly transaction counts.
- Varied Transaction Types: Ranges from simple credit card payments to complex trading volumes.
- Rapid Processing Needs: Requires quick and efficient processing solutions to handle the volume.
- Diverse Payment Methods: Involves multiple payment gateways, including Mastercard, American Express, and other major networks.
Effectively managing high-volume transactions is key for enhanced efficiency and accelerating business growth.
Data Management Challenges
High-volume transactions generate massive amounts of data, including customer details, transaction histories, and financial records.
Traditional data management tools might not suffice. Many organizations – including some of the world’s largest and, in theory, most technologically advanced companies – rely heavily on spreadsheets to perform a wide range of business functions.
Hence, many treasury departments still use spreadsheets and other manual processes to track their organization’s cash flow and cash position across multiple bank portals. They then spend considerable amounts of their precious time turning this information into reports and forecasts.
As well as consuming vast amounts of time, spreadsheets present other challenges to treasuries. There is the increased chance of error in data aggregation with spreadsheets. Such errors can result in massive financial losses. For example, in 2022 an employee of Crypto.com entered incorrect numbers into a spreadsheet and accidentally sent a $6.6 million USD refund to a customer.
Aside from spreadsheets, treasury teams also leverage legacy TMS software for cash reporting and forecasting. However, these systems, while feature rich, limit treasurers’ ability to be agile and flexible amidst heightened demand for increased efficiency. This isn’t surprising given that the newest TMS on the market was originally built over 20 years ago, which makes it difficult for them to compete with emerging solutions with better tech infrastructure.
Furthermore, core TMS functionalities are not equipped with the scalable computing resources needed to analyze big data sets and
provide visibility into a company’s global cash transactions.
Businesses require advanced processing solutions that can handle large datasets, provide real-time metrics, and ensure accurate data reconciliation.
Properly managed data leads to informed decision-making, better customer experiences, and efficient transaction processing. It also aids in identifying trends, forecasting future transaction volumes, and optimizing overall business strategies.
Essential Strategies for Managing High Transaction Volumes
Automation
Automation involves using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to handle repetitive tasks like data entry, transaction matching, and reconciliation.
This approach minimizes human error, speeds up the processing time, and allows staff to focus on more strategic tasks. It’s particularly effective in managing the large-scale and repetitive nature of high-volume transactions.
Automated systems can flag anomalies for human review, process regular transactions without manual intervention, and provide real-time updates on transaction statuses.
Payment Processing Optimization
Payment processing optimization involves evaluating and selecting payment processors and gateways that offer the best combination of fees, security, and service for the specific needs of high-volume transactions.
Businesses should seek payment processing solutions that can scale with their growth, handle the types of transactions they process (such as international payments), and integrate seamlessly with their existing systems.
Importance of Real-Time Data Insights and Metrics
Real-time data insights allow businesses to make informed decisions quickly. In the context of high-volume transactions, this means being able to respond promptly to trends, anomalies, or issues as they arise.
Key metrics such as transaction speed, success rate, error rates, and customer satisfaction scores are essential for assessing the efficiency of transaction processing systems.
Advanced data analytics can predict trends and potential issues, enabling proactive measures to optimize performance and prevent problems.
Trovata: A Scalable Solution for High-Volume Transactions
At Trovata, we understand the intricacies and demands of managing high-volume transactions. Our platform is meticulously designed to meet the unique challenges faced by businesses dealing with large-scale transaction processing. We are committed to streamlining the complex world of financial transactions, making it more manageable, efficient, and secure for our clients.
1. Open Banking APIs Automate Bank Reconciliation
Many treasury practitioners spend up to 10 hours a week logging into multiple bank portals to download data, then manually collate that data into a spreadsheet. After rigorous quality assurance checks, they then have to use those spreadsheets to manually build reports and forecasts. Often times, this labor-intensive process limits how far into the future they can plan for. That’s if the data is even accurate.
Consider this, according to a survey from Blackline, nearly 40% of CFOs around the world do not completely trust the accuracy of their organization’s financial data – creating challenges for strategic decision-making at a time when global business leaders are confronted with a wide range of external challenges.
Open banking APIs connect your banking portal directly to a centralized platform, like Trovata, and provides a data feed that is updated in real time. This automated process removes the chance of errors vastly reducing financial risk. Trovata’s dashboard offers treasurers a comprehensive, up-to-date view of the company’s cash position, facilitating data-driven strategic decisions.
Moreover, open banking facilitates consolidated payments, enabling treasury teams to transact individually or in bulk directly through Trovata.
2. Real-Time Payments with APIs
This streamlined process is particularly beneficial for treasury teams managing transactions with multiple vendors and staff payments, significantly reducing transaction review times and enhancing security by limiting direct access to banking portals, thereby simplifying credential management.
You probably know what batch payments are (and the challenges they come with such as if even one payment is rejected, the whole file could be rejected resulting in more work for you).
Bulk payments, enabled by APIs, offer a streamlined alternative to batch payments by consolidating numerous individual payments into a single file. Unlike batch payments, APIs treat the entire collection as a single payment, eliminating bank processing fees and simplifying the transaction process.
Automation capabilities allow for seamless reconciliation, as transactions are automatically tied to corresponding entries, closing the books without delay once the payment is completed.
From an accounting standpoint, bulk payments are represented as a single line item, akin to batch payments. Moreover, the real-time delivery of payments ensures immediate access to funds for staff or suppliers, marking a significant disruption in traditional payment timelines.
3. AI-Powered Automation for Accurate Cash Reporting and Forecasting
One of the cornerstones of our platform is the AI-powered automation we provide. Our platform leverages machine learning to automate cash reporting and forecasting. This level of automation is not just about speeding up processes; it’s about enhancing accuracy and reducing the margin for human error.
Trovata’s API gathers bank data from various portals, which machine learning then processes within Trovata, ensuring standardization and normalization for comprehensive viewing of accounts, balances, and transactions. Through our tagging capabilities, cash inflows and outflows can be categorized into specific datasets, allowing your treasury team to efficiently search and filter transactions based on key vendors and institutions. Moreover, these tags serve as valuable assets for future cash reporting and forecasting endeavors.
Machine learning also empowers treasurers to generate cash forecasts instantaneously.
Thanks to Trovata’s API bank reconciliation is automated. As your data updates in real-time in Trovata, it also automatically updates your data in cash flow forecasts, saving countless hours each month and ensuring your team always has access to the latest figures. This capability proves invaluable, particularly during periods of uncertainty, enabling swift decision-making and maintaining agility in response to changing business dynamics.
By automating these fundamental tasks, your team has more time to focus on more strategic aspects of your business, thus maximizing your overall efficiency.
4. Real-Time Data Insights for Proactive Decision-Making
In the realm of high-volume transactions, having access to real-time data is invaluable. At Trovata, we provide comprehensive visibility into your transaction flows, giving you the power to monitor your financial activities closely. This real-time access allows you to identify trends, spot potential issues early, and make informed, proactive decisions.
It’s a crucial component for any business operating in a high-volume transaction environment, where timely insights can make a significant difference. Trovata has combined the power of open banking APIs, AI, and machine learning to create a data lake environment that gives finance teams access to all of their financial data in one place. Not only is it accurate and up to date, but Trovata also provides treasurers with a wide range of powerful tools to analyze that data.
To find out more about how Trovata can facilitate multi-entity finance operations in your business, book a demo today.
