Learning hub
Explore the fundamentals of treasury and finance
Welcome to the Atlar learning hub, where you can find straightforward explainers of essential topics in treasury management, payments, and finance.
Treasury Management
Treasury management involves managing a company’s financial resources and the associated financial risk.
Treasury management is the act of overseeing a business’s financial resources and associated risk, ensuring finances are managed strategically and risks are mitigated effectively.
Liquidity management ensures you have enough cash to meet financial obligations, respond to market changes as they occur, and support your company’s growth objectives.
A treasury management system (TMS) is a platform that companies use to manage their cash positions, coordinate financial operations, and reduce financial risk.
Working capital management is about monitoring a company's assets and liabilities in order to ensure sufficient liquidity and the efficient use of capital.
Cash Management
Cash management manages the inflow and outflow of cash to maintain enough liquidity to cover short-term obligations.
A crucial function within treasury management, cash management manages the inflow from sales or receivables, and outflow for expenses, payroll, and other operational costs.
Cash pooling consolidates cash from all accounts and entities into a single account, and is a common practice at companies with multiple entities.
Financial reporting is the process of compiling and sharing financial information with internal and external stakeholders.
Cash flow analysis examines the inflow and outflow of cash to see if your business has enough cash to maintain day-to-day operations.
Cash visibility lets you track, monitor, and understand the movement of cash at your organization.
Cash positioning involves assessing a company's current liquidity to determine its financial health and the immediate availability of funds.
Cash Flow Forecasting
Cash flow forecasting projects the movement of cash into and out of your business, helping you plan for surpluses or shortfalls.
Cash flow forecasting projects cash inflows and outflows into the future in order to predict your cash position and plan for potential surpluses or shortfalls.
The 13-week cash flow forecast is the most popular short-term forecast, projecting inflows and outflows over a 13-week period using the direct method.
Forecast categories—also referred to as headline classifications—are a key dimension of a cash flow forecast that define the data presented.
Direct and indirect forecasting methods are two approaches to estimating future cash flow: direct forecasting relies on actual cash movements, while indirect forecasting is based on accounting statements.
Unlike a static cash flow forecast, which only covers a fixed time frame such as a fiscal year, a rolling cash flow forecast continuously extends to ensure that it covers a consistent time horizon (e.g., 12 months or 13 weeks).
In a forecasting context, scenario planning involves creating different projections to simulate potential cash flow outcomes (e.g., best-case, worst-case, and baseline cases).
Variance analysis compares forecasted cash flows with actual cash flows to measure the accuracy of the forecast and improve its reliability over time.
Bank Connectivity
Bank connectivity concerns how a company exchanges information with its banks and is a prerequisite for most financial operations.
Bank connectivity is key to many financial operations. Major connectivity methods include host-to-host, EBICS, SWIFT, and open banking.
Host-to-host is one of the most established methods by which companies can connect to a bank. It is a direct communication link between two systems that enables files to be transferred securely.
Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a variant of host-to-host connectivity. It is a secure and reliable method of connecting to a bank and supports a wide range of financial operations.
EBICS is a standard protocol that lets companies connect directly to a specific bank and is widely supported in Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland.
SWIFTNet is the name of a platform and messaging system provided by SWIFT, a global cooperative network of over 11,000 banks and financial institutions.
Corporate banking APIs are proprietary APIs that banks offer to their corporate customers to enable programmatic, real-time access to banking services.
Open banking started to gain momentum after the introduction of PSD2, requiring banks to grant licensed third parties access to their customers' accounts.
Payment Operations
How companies initiate, manage, and reconcile payments made to other businesses, suppliers, employees, or entities.
Corporate or business-to-business (B2B) payments are payments made by a business entity and include accounts payable, treasury, salary, and tax payments.
Treasury payments are made in the course of a company’s treasury management activities, including cash and liquidity management.
Tax payments are payments made to tax authorities to fulfill a company's legal tax obligations and are a crucial part of a company's operations.
Salary payments are the compensation a company provides to its employees under agreed-upon terms in exchange for their job performance.
Accounts Payable
The amounts a business owes to its suppliers for goods and services received but not yet paid for.
Accounts payable refer to the money a company owes to suppliers, vendors, or contractors for goods or services that have been received but not yet paid for.
An account payable (AP) payment refers to the payment of an unpaid invoice or bill, which usually has payment terms of 30, 60, or 90 days.
Payment Schemes
The schemes, payment types, and rails through which money moves in different countries around the world.
Bacs Direct Credit is one of the main payment schemes in the UK and is used to make regular payments like those for salaries, pensions, and state benefits.
Bacs Direct Debit is the most common way to pay on a recurring basis in the UK and is a pull-based bank payment method.
Bankgirot is a giro service for regular mass payments in Sweden. It is one of the main bank payment methods in Sweden and offers same-day settlement.
PlusGirot is giro payment service available in Sweden. It's not a payment system in the traditional sense but a specific type of account used to manage payments.
Faster Payments is a real-time payment scheme launched in the UK in 2008, offering near-instant settlement 24/7, 365 days a year.
CHAPS is a same-day sterling payment system based in the UK that specializes in high-value payments.
FedNow is a new instant payment service launched in the U.S. by the Federal Reserve in July 2023.
Fedwire is a real-time gross settlement funds transfer system operated by the Federal Reserve Banks in the U.S. that specializes in large-value payments.
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a European Union initiative that allows businesses and customers to make and receive cross-border euro payments.
SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT) was the first SEPA scheme to be introduced in 2008 and facilitates credit transfers in euros throughout the SEPA zone.
Introduced in 2017, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) is a real-time payment service intended to make instant payments available throughout the SEPA zone.
SEPA Direct Debit B2B (SDD B2B) is a payment service available throughout the SEPA zone that is used for transactions between businesses, including loan repayments or large purchases.
Introduced in 2009, SEPA Direct Debit Core is a pull-based payment service available in the SEPA zone that is used widely for consumer and business payments.
Accounting
Accounting is the process of recording, summarizing, analyzing, and reporting on your financial transactions.
Accounting is the process of tracking all of your financial transactions. It’s the language of business, the backbone of your financial decision-making.
Auditing is the process of examining your organization's financial records to verify that they are accurate and comply with accounting standards and regulations.
Continuous accounting refers to the tracking and reconciling of your financial activity on an ongoing basis.
The general ledger (GL) is the comprehensive record of all your financial activities.
The month-end close is the process of reviewing, reconciling, and adjusting financial data in order to prepare financial statements such as a balance sheet.
Accounts receivable (AR) represent the money that a business is owed by its customers for goods or services that have been delivered but not yet paid for, and are recorded as an asset on the company’s balance sheet.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is the process of comparing records, such as internal records and external statements, to ensure that they match and are accurate.
Bank reconciliation is the process of reconciling your bank statements with your internal financial records.
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