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Achieving Real-Time Cash Visibility with Bank Data Consolidation & Normalization Best Practices

Written by Keegan Chamberlin
September 15, 2021

Having real-time cash visibility is critical in today’s digital economy. As seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations who didn’t have a real-time view of their cash had a harder time adapting to the current market situation, leaving many businesses scrambling in an attempt to stop the bleeding of their revenue streams.

Compared to organizations who had contingency plans that addressed a potential recession, many were unable to adapt their cash management strategy quick enough to respond to the unexpected changes that were occurring in the market.

cash visibility


Don’t be an organization that is just flying by the seat-of-their-pants. You can begin to fortify your cash management strategy by digitizing your treasury, amplifying your ability to better automate your cash reporting, analysis, and forecasting through the establishment of a single source of truth. That single source of bank data truth alongside robust cash reporting and forecasting automation tools will enable you to eliminate tedious, manual processes and perform rapid, strategic decision-making with real-time cash visibility. 


By following these bank consolidation and normalization best practices when digitizing your treasury, you can begin to can analyze, report on, and forecast cash faster and more accurately and better cope with economic downturns than your competitors:

  1. Connect Your Cash Management Platform Directly to Your Bank Accounts Through Direct-To-Bank APIs 
  2. Ensure your Cash Management Solution Supports API Metadata
  3. Establish a Single Source of Truth for Cash and Transaction Data
  4. Gain Rich Cash Insights With A Data Lake Updated in Real-Time


1. Connect Your Cash Management Platform Directly to Your Bank Accounts Through Direct-To-Bank APIs 

Consolidating and normalizing your transaction data doesn’t have to be a laborious process. Through utilizing a modern cash management platform built upon open banking APIs, you can establish a big data pipeline for your many bank accounts. No more spreadsheets or manual intervention required to collate your cash and transaction data in one secure platform.


2. Ensure Your Cash Management Solution Supports API Metadata

While many legacy treasury management systems claim to consolidate your data via Direct-To-Bank API connections, they don’t truly utilize APIs to their full potential. Direct-To-Bank APIs provide a wealth of cash intsights with a more complete transaction data set. Legacy TMS’s utilization of file formats hasn’t changed since the 80s, leaving this rich transaction data behind. If you don’t utilize all the data your bank partners provide, you are potentially missing out on cash insights that help you make better business decisions.


3. Establish a Single Source of Truth for Cash & Transaction Data

The more your business grows and scales, the more complex it becomes to manually manage your cash position and cash flow in spreadsheets and other disparate systems. Manual workflows increase the possibility for errors and delays. Working in one secure cash management platform not only eliminates the potential for inaccurate data, it decreases the chance for misinformation between key decision makers as they all have the same visibility into the organization’s cash and transaction data.


4. Gain Rich Cash Insights with a Data Lake Updated in Real-Time

Modern Direct-To-Bank APIs empowers you with up-to-the-hour transactions and cash balance details from all your bank accounts. For the first time ever, treasurers can now leverage high-quality, real-time cash insights on-demand. Pairing API technology with a cash management platform such as Trovata, your organization can now access a data lake that stores all your cash and transaction data. Machine learning algorithms analyze this data and display it in a data visibility layer, empowering you with a comprehensive suite of automated, real-time cash reporting and forecasting functionality.


Establish a Single Source of Truth with Trovata

Trovata, our automated cash management platform, aggregates your cash and banking information into a single dashboard using Direct-To-Bank APIs, empowering you to easily eliminate tedious, manual workflows and begin to better monitor, analyze and automate your cash reporting, forecasting, and workflows. You and your team can feel confident in your ability to drive more informed, data-driven decisions and focus on strategic initiatives that drive value for your bottom line.

Download our Cash Management Playbook to discover how to break free from prescribed reporting and gain real-time, invaluable cash insights with Trovata’s comprehensive suite of automated cash reporting and forecasting capabilities.

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