Business Cash Management: A Complete Guide For Controllers And CFOs

Strategic Cash Management (Decision Layer)

Just because cash management has a short time horizon doesn’t mean that your CFO shouldn’t be involved.

In fact, CFOs are responsible for setting top-down liquidity policies and risk thresholds, especially within large or mid-size organizations where cash is spread across many accounts and entities. If these decisions aren’t fully documented, Controllers can’t be sure that their operational policies tie back to the organization’s broader goals. 

Operational Cash Management (Execution Layer)

In most organizations, controllers are the responsible party when it comes to day-to-day cash visibility, forecasting, and working capital. How these responsibilities are carried out is determined by the CFO’s guidelines at the decision layer, and by the organization’s data and tooling capabilities at the enablement layer.

Real-Time Cash Visibility

Today, real-time visibility into cash positions is not an unreasonable expectation. With integrations between accounting platforms, ERP systems, and banks, it’s possible to access a consolidated view of balances and transactions that is real-time (or near real-time). When stakeholders ask, “how much cash do we have right now?”, these integrations empower Controllers to provide a reasonable estimate. Real-time visibility also enables consistent enforcement of cash management policies.

Compare this integrated approach to the status quo of traditional systems which requires accountants to access multiple manual bank login portals and spreadsheets. When your cash position data is fragmented (which is often the case in large or mid-sized organizations), even the most skillful team may need hours to put together a consolidated, up-to-date assessment.

That’s why teams turn to Numeric’s Cash Management platform for speed, accuracy, and increased bandwidth. Hear how Brex accomplished all of the above when they transitioned from using their legacy vendor to using Numeric.

Cash Flow Forecasting And Scenario Planning

One best practice for cash management is to maintain a rolling 13-week cash forecast. Operationally, this forecast window strikes the optimal balance between near-term accuracy and sufficient forward visibility to anticipate liquidity constraints and adjust operating decisions before they become critical.

Here are the core inputs for a rolling 13-week cash forecast:

• AR collections (DSO, pipeline): Expected customer receipts based on invoicing, historical collection patterns, and the current receivables pipeline.
  AP and payroll: Scheduled vendor payments, payroll outlays, and other recurring operating disbursements.
• Taxes and other anticipated cash events: Known or estimated non-operating cash obligations like income taxes, sales or payroll taxes, legal settlements, or one-time payments.
• Debt service: Principal and interest payments on outstanding debt, including revolving credit facilities, term loans, and leases.
• Planned CapEx: Expected capital expenditures and other discretionary investments due to take place over the forecast horizon.

A prudent approach to risk management could involve simple scenario analysis for plausible adverse scenarios. If collections slow by 20%, or vendor payment terms change materially, how would that impact your organization’s cash? A 13-week forecast can help you arrive at answers.

Daily Cash Positioning And Reporting

Zooming in, another effective cash management tool employed by many controllers is the daily cash reporting function.

The goal of a daily cash report isn’t to dive into the weeds, but rather to provide a point-in-time snapshot with sufficient detail to inform stakeholders and surface material variances. Below are some common components that finance teams might include in a daily report:

• Opening cash: Cash and cash equivalents available at the start of the day. Typically equivalent to the prior day’s ending balances.
• Forecasted and actual inflows: Cash expected to come in during the day, and what actually came in (including customer payments, interest, and other receipts).
• Forecasted and actual outflows: Cash expected to leave during the day, and what actually left (including payroll, vendor payments, taxes, and debt service).
• Ending cash: Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the day, after accounting for inflows and outflows.
• Available borrowing capacity: The amount of cash that could be accessed immediately through credit lines or other facilities.

While these are the components that constitute your organization’s cash position, the structure of your organization itself may justify additional segmentation. Delineating your cash by entity, bank, or currency can flag potential constraints and promote stakeholder alignment as a baseline.

Accounting and Data Foundation (Enablement Layer)

It bears repeating: day-to-day operations and high-level strategic decision-making alike depend on clear, accurate data. 

The enablement layer supports the two layers above by delivering timely, auditable data that reflects the organization’s financial reality. Weakness here directly undermines the effectiveness of efforts both large and small, with compounding impact over time if left unaddressed.

Cash Reconciliation And Bank Reconciliations

Whether on a rolling basis or as part of a period-end close, cash reconciliation and bank reconciliation are among the most time-consuming tasks for finance teams. And yet, they’re indispensable for capturing your cash position and delivering an accurate close. 

At a basic level, reconciliation involves comparing internal records with external evidence, and either explaining or resolving discrepancies. In most organizations, reconciliation follows the steps below:

1. Compare balances: Begin by comparing bank-reported cash balances to the corresponding cash balances in the general ledger as of the same date to identify variances. (Note that it’s common to apply materiality thresholds to these variances.) 
2. Review external evidence: Examine bank statements, transaction reports, and cleared items to confirm which cash movements have actually settled with the bank.
3. Review internal balances: Go over internal records, such as the cash subledger, open payments, deposits in transit, and pending journal entries to identify timing or posting differences.
4. Adjust internal balances: Post correcting entries for errors, omissions, or misclassifications so that the general ledger accurately reflects settled cash.
5. Record the reconciliation: Document the reconciliation, including an explanation for each discrepancy and approval. The goal is to create an auditable record that supports the reported cash balance.

When performed as part of the month-end close, reconciliation is focused on correcting internal records and identifying variances that may suggest issues with vendors, collections, or posting accuracy. When performed on an ongoing or daily basis, the purpose of reconciliation shifts toward early detection of errors and fraud. In both cases, reconciliation is a foundational control that supports accurate, near-real-time cash data for downstream processes. 

Integrating Cash Workflows With ERP, Banks, And Other Systems

Even well-considered policies at the decision and operational layers risk losing effectiveness when their execution depends on manual exports, reconciliations, or copy-and-paste workflows. If your team finds themselves stretched thin by repetitive manual work, data quality suffers and the value of cash management erodes.

Unified finance data platforms like Numeric address the risk of data fragmentation directly. Numeric automatically ingests bank and ERP data on an ongoing basis to support cash operations, reconciliations, and reporting using a single, trusted foundation. This not only strengthens those workflows, but also establishes a shared financial reality across the organization that’s grounded in consistent, reliable data.

How Modern Tools like Numeric are Transforming Cash Management

Most finance teams still reconcile cash accounts the same way they did a decade ago: manually matching transactions one-by-one in NetSuite, uploading bank statements as CSVs, and scrambling to post journal entries before close deadlines. Monthly bank reconciliations alone consume hours during the most stressful period of close—and by the time they're complete, the data is already outdated.

Modern platforms like Numeric are changing this reality. With automated bank feeds, AI-assisted rule building, and intelligent matching engines, leading accounting teams now automate 90%+ of their reconciliations—reaching day one of close with cash accounts already reconciled and freeing their teams to focus on analysis rather than manual matching.

From Batch Processes To Real-Time, Unified Data

The traditional approach to cash reconciliation is inherently backward-looking. Teams wait until month-end to pull bank statements, then spend days reconciling activity that's already in the past. By the time the work is done, the insights have limited value for forward-looking decisions.

Modern platforms eliminate this bottleneck with automated daily bank feeds that pull data directly from financial institutions. Rather than waiting for month-end to begin reconciliation work, your matching engine runs continuously—processing transactions as they occur and maintaining a real-time view of your cash position.

These platforms integrate deeply with both external sources (banks, payment processors) and internal systems (your ERP, general ledger, and subledgers) to generate a reconciled, up-to-date picture of accounts in a fraction of the time. The result isn't just faster reconciliation—it's a fundamental shift from "reporting what happened last month" to "understanding your cash position right now."

For teams practicing continuous accounting, this means cash accounts are already reconciled by BD1 rather than becoming a bottleneck that delays close.

Automating Cash Matching And Reconciliations

Modern reconciliation platforms use rules-based and AI-assisted matching to automate the bulk of reconciliation work. You can create rules like "match transactions that align on amount and date," or build more sophisticated logic based on reference numbers, fee variance patterns, or date ranges.

What separates leading platforms from legacy tools is the ability to handle complex many-to-many matches—where multiple bank transactions correspond to multiple GL entries across different dates and amounts. These scenarios traditionally require manual work, but modern engines can resolve them automatically using flexible matching logic.

Numeric's cash management platform, for example, automates 90%+ of bank reconciliations—including complicated many-to-many matches—three times the industry standard of 30%. For context, Brex previously used legacy software that automated only 30% of their reconciliations, requiring a five-person offshore team to manually match daily transactions. After implementing Numeric, they now automate 95%+ of reconciliations across 100+ bank accounts and thousands of daily transactions.

When 9 out of every 10 matches are taken care of before your accounting team even touches a reconciliation, the impact is real. You can expect fewer manual tie-out, significantly faster close cycles, and more time for your team to focus on investigation, analysis, and partnership with business units.

Evaluating Cash Management Tools And Platforms

For teams evaluating modern cash management tools or platforms, it’s useful to apply a handful of criteria:

• Integration depth with ERPs and external evidence sources (the deeper the better)
• Match rates in practice (measured on real data, not demos)
• Exception-handling capabilities (clear workflows and ownership)
• Built-in audit controls (logs, approvals, and traceability)
• Time to go-live (weeks, not months)

Depending on your organization’s complexity, it’s also advisable to ask vendors for specifics on multi-entity and multi-currency support. And when covering the implementation and configuration process, determine the process for creating or changing rules (i.e., whether consultants or engineering support staff are required).

Numeric’s platform is designed to meet the needs of modern accounting teams with AI-native capabilities and deep integrations that create efficiency and lead to accurate, actionable outputs. Rather than repurposing legacy banking or treasury tools, we built a new set of products from the ground up.

Implementation Roadmap: Elevating Cash Management In 90 Days

The move from fully manual to mostly automated cash management is transformational. But that doesn’t mean it has to be painful, or that it needs to happen all at once.

Below, we’ve designed a flexible, pragmatic roadmap for organizations who want to move away from traditional processes and towards modern, platform-based workflows. Note that this roadmap is designed to support a gradual implementation of modern tools alongside a deliberate change management framework.

Assessing Your Current Cash Management Maturity

Before planning any changes or evaluating any tools, the first step in the process is to assess your current cash management process. Try asking questions around:

• Visibility: Do we know cash by entity on a daily basis? Can we distinguish restricted, operating, and excess cash in real time?
• Process: How often are bank reconciliations done? How long does it take to resolve unreconciled items or exceptions?
• Tooling: How much of our cash management is done with spreadsheets? How many handoffs exist between bank portals, ERPs, and spreadsheets?

As you find answers to these and other related questions, the pain points in your broader system will begin to emerge. To gauge their impact, consider mapping your current cash management workflows from end-to-end, from bank feeds through reconciliations, reporting, and forecasting. Locating the pain points at each stage of the broader flow will help you identify the lowest-hanging fruit and start to formulate a transformation plan.

Quick Wins For The First 30 Days

The ingestion of external evidence is often one of the most common and addressable frustrations in a traditional cash management process. Look for tools that will enable you to implement automated bank feeds, and set up cash matching with your main operating accounts. This simple step may create outsized benefits in terms of alleviating your team’s manual workload.

Next, you may be surprised by the organizational benefits of a simple daily cash position report. Such a report can offer stakeholders a clean snapshot of where the organization’s cash stands today, as well as segmentation by entity, currency, and restriction status. It’s acceptable to build this report using your existing tools first; if and when you move to a more automation-friendly platform, the report should be relatively trivial to generate using real-time data feeds.

Finally, remember that with fully integrated platforms, reporting and forecasting can be greatly streamlined. Preempt this opportunity by aligning stakeholders on cadence. What should a daily or weekly cash report include? What are the most pressing questions that could be answered by a 13-week forecast? Develop a wishlist and use it to advocate for procurement of the tools that can make it a reality.

Scaling To Multi-Entity, Multi-Currency, And Advanced Use Cases

If you see success with a pilot set of accounts and entities (for example, cash matching with one of your main operating accounts), expanding to full coverage across the organization is just a matter of communication and planning.

The next easiest improvements may involve setting up automated exception handling rules, standardized JE templates, or integrated variance analysis on cash movements. Look back to the pain points you identified in your maturity assessment to understand which pain points are most urgently in need of addressing.

As you implement solutions, you’ll unlock further strategic opportunities. A mature set of cash management workflows means you can introduce continuous accounting, for example. This approach distributes accounting tasks and leverages automation to make them easier and faster to accomplish. The benefits are numerous: faster closes, less manual work, more real-time insights, and more. But practices like continuous accounting are only effective if built on a solid foundation of data practices.

Change Management And Cross-Functional Alignment

Finally, implementing technology to create transformational change is only as effective as your team’s willingness to adopt, apply, and refine the tools.

If your finance team includes  various departments like AP, AR, or FP&A, it’s critical to involve those teams in the transformation initiative from day one. New processes will only stick if institutional buy-in is broad-based, and that requires each team to understand how the changes afoot will benefit their specific function.

As you develop a new cash cycle that leans on automation, AI, and data integrations to deliver superior insights and reports, identify which teams and team members own which parts of the cycle. If the new, modern model looks significantly different than what your team did previously, it’s likely that roles and responsibilities will also change. It’s important to communicate this fact and cultivate readiness across the organization.

In the end, however, automation and platform-based accounting don’t replace a talented team. In fact, modern tools make routine, uninteresting work take much less time. This liberates teams to focus on strategic areas where their talents can make a difference.

Next Steps Towards Better Business Cash Management

Business cash management doesn’t have to be a narrow operational task. 

In modern organizations, cash management spans clear decision-making at the CFO level, disciplined execution by controllers and finance teams, and a reliable accounting and data foundation. When these layers work together, cash management becomes a proactive system for protecting liquidity and managing risk.

The shift from reactive scrambling to proactive, data-driven cash strategy doesn’t start with more frequent forecasts or reports. It actually starts with strengthening the accounting and data foundation to ensure that cash positions are accurate, timely, and trusted. Without that foundation, even the soundest policies and workflows can break down. 

Platforms like Numeric make this transition practical by automating reconciliations, unifying bank and ERP data, and giving finance teams a real-time view of cash. Mid-market finance organizations can achieve the same level of visibility and control as large teams with dedicated treasury functions by modernizing the enablement layer and building upward from there. 

If cash has become a board-level topic in your organization, the next step is to ensure your tools and workflows can support changing expectations. To see what modern cash management can look like in practice, schedule a demo with Numeric.