Streamline Your Cash Management with Automation: Benefits & Strategies

When evaluating your cash handling technology, what are the problem areas? Do cash management and cash flow reporting take too long, or risk too many mistakes? It’s important to be in full compliance with local, state, and federal laws. How secure is your cash management system?

Technology can’t solve every business problem, but it’s great with automation: making certain tasks and aspects of business automatic or mechanical, so you can focus on the hopefully less repetitive activities of management.

You can improve the efficiency and accuracy of your business with cash management automation, and that’s just the beginning of what you can do. Learn about the key benefits of automating your cash management processes today.

The Benefits of Cash Management Automation

The first benefit of cash management automation is increased efficiency in handling and processing transactions, the importance of which cannot be overstated. The easier and faster those transactions are handled, the less you end up paying and the lesser effect they have on the system as a whole.

Accuracy in reporting is another natural consequence of automating your cash management—computers don’t make mistakes unless we give them bad data, and hardware similarly only does what it’s told. By using more sophisticated forms of cash management, you limit the ways in which mistakes or fraud can occur because the automation takes out some of the guesswork.

Forecasting cash flows can seem impenetrable once you’ve reached a certain level of business. Complications arise with every bank account, credit account, and other financial concerns that your business requires. That means more stakeholders, off-kilter reporting, and sometimes difficulties in getting systems to talk to each other. Automating your cash management, even in small ways, can help you get a better picture of your cash flow and its future.

You can enhance your security and fraud prevention with cash management automation in the same way. Limiting the touchpoints for each routine transaction to as few players as possible is a great way to cut down on fraud as well as mistakes—and with the added benefits to reporting and forecasting above, you will know exactly what to expect, and what to look for if you notice inefficiencies or costs creeping back in.

Compliance with regulations is much easier to do and to prove when you automate your cash interactions. Think about cash management in dispensaries, for example: compliance is the name of the game for staying in business. In tandem with the other benefits mentioned, again you see fewer mistakes and opportunities for fraud when you’re automated.

Improve your customer experience by automating this part, too: there’s no need to show every second of the nuts and bolts of every transaction when automation can help you show your customers exactly what they need to see.

Strategies for Implementing Cash Management Automation in Bank Branches

When approaching bank branch transformation, some of the greatest improvements can come from the automation of cash handling. It’s more than just a fresh coat of paint—it’s a whole new way of looking at business, and that should get everyone excited.

• Selecting the right hardware and software solutions are the central concern of any change management or tech upgrade, and cash handling is no different. Gather quotes and compare the details and perks to ensure you’re making the best decisions for your business and its future.
• Training staff on the use of automated systems doesn’t need to be a time-consuming or frustrating process. Managing change is always a matter of attending to the details. It may seem hard to believe at first, but you can find a way to demonstrate how automation will make their jobs easier and possibly more interesting.
• Integrating automated systems with existing processes and systems is a not-so-simple matter of translating one language into another or finding a sensible workaround for misalignments. It would not be surprising if the majority of your time and even cost are spent on this part of your transition.

Ensuring a smooth transition to automation is a combination of these factors, united by your mindful attention. By paying attention to the needs and requirements of your cash handlers themselves, you can see more clearly which solutions and arrangements will suit them best. Sometimes it may even be best to outsource to a treasury management services provider to help streamline your strategy.

Case Studies of Successful Cash Management Automation in Bank Branches

The benefits of cash management automation aren’t limited to banks, but they are important in the functioning of every bank that deals in cash—which is to say, all of them. In Euromoney’s Cash Management Survey 2022, representatives of three banks talked about automating their cash handling.

HSBC’s head of global payments solutions, Manish Kohli, describes focusing on cost efficiencies and the flexibility of work itself as a sign of things to come. “Treasury centralization and modernization is extremely popular, and we have made significant investments in real-time payments, APIs, and cross-border payment solutions,” all of which fall under the heading of cash management automation. These advancements have allowed for introducing new wallets, QP functionality, and currencies.

Citi’s annual tech budget for 2023 is around $1 billion and will include priorities like improving the payment pipes that already exist, building out their instant-payment infrastructure globally, and investing in APIs and client experience. “We are thinking like a technology company rather than a traditional bank,” says Steve Elms, global head of corporate and public-sector sales.

This includes their CitiDirect offering, which uses customer biometrics to log in while a mobile token silently generates passcodes without a network, reducing payments to a single screen, including pre-populated fields when the user has paid this beneficiary before and asking for only required info.

Ole Matthiessen, the global head of cash management at Deutsche, says he’s expanding its range of B2C and B2B solutions. In 2022 the bank introduced “banking as a service,” a digital payment gateway, and a marketplace solution Matthiessen says will make payments “cheaper, more efficient and more secure.”

He also makes an important point that would be well-considered by any business, from the smallest to the largest companies: “Beyond market leadership, our service excellence continues to be recognized.” It’s not worth making a major change if it drives off customers, which is why every bank transformation must weigh the customer service cost carefully.

From these three major banks, who of course have significant experience in cash handling, we learn a few key takeaways:

• Using customer experience as your guide may give you the clarity you’d otherwise be missing
• All companies are tech companies now, and it’s important to allow for that perspective
• Customer service is nothing without people, which is why automation should help people do their jobs more efficiently, leading to greater business efficiency
• Noting and removing redundancies should be a core part of leadership
• As banking options and payments systems proliferate, cash management is increasingly a problem that only technology might be able to administrate properly
• Regulatory compliance and digital security concerns can and should help guide your transformational efforts as much as efficiency and customer experience

It’s crucial to stay up-to-date with the latest automation solutions in the competitive banking industry. In this case, that means cash management automation, which takes several forms but can be applied successfully to any business that requires greater transparency, efficiency, or speed. Your cash flow can be more accurately tracked and forecasted when your systems are automated, and part of the process is making sure your software and hardware are compatible with the systems they’ll be in contact with.

Curious if cash management automation is right for your business? Contact us! We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Cash Management Automation FAQs:

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about this trending topic:

What is cash management automation?

A currency management system that relies upon automated tasks, in this case, performed by a combination of software solutions and currency management devices such as cash counters or counterfeit detectors.

What are the benefits of implementing cash management automation in a business?

The benefits of automating cash management for your business are:

• New efficiency in handling cash transactions and forecasting cash flow
• Accuracy in reporting and knowing where your cash is at any given time, revealing any fraud
• Compliance with local, state, and federal laws regarding cash management
• Enhanced customer experience thanks to the streamlined and simplified flow of business

How can I determine if cash management automation is right for my business?

Cash management automation is right for you if your company needs to handle managing and dispensing cash—there are solutions for almost every level of cash handling, from a single-owner small business to a multimillion-dollar bank branch.

What are some common strategies for automating cash management?

Automating your cash management can take many forms. You might add cash counters, cash discriminators, or counterfeit detectors to your cash processes, to start. You can also update your payments systems, redesign your customer interface and work on communications between your systems and those outside the company or those you plan to bring on board.

How do I choose the right cash management automation system for my business?

Choosing your cash management automation system requires being clear on your technical, customer, efficiency, and practical requirements. All stakeholders should have a say since the people with the most insight into these processes are those who deal with cash all day.

Can cash management automation help my business save money and reduce costs?

Cash management automation can save money and reduce costs in a few ways. It saves precious hours spent on repetitive duties, locates and shows you inconsistencies and mistakes, and makes your customer interactions more efficient.

How does the automation of cash management support compliance with audit and regulatory requirements?

Streamlining your cash management with automation is a great way to keep correct and unblemished records—even a single source of truth, in some instances—which makes audits and regulations a lot easier to manage.