You need a robust, efficient and effective treasury function to manage a wide variety of financial risks. However, because of its nature and complexity, treasury often receives insufficient governance attention and investment.

BDO's Treasury Services bring you a network of treasury specialists with the diverse skills to assess, advise on and support the full range of treasury functions. We help you to assess and manage risks, clarify and define treasury responsibilities, reflect on governance framework and verify whether internal controls are aligned with organisational strategy and benchmark its performance against best practice. We can also assist with treasury transformation - or simply with improving agility so treasury has the capability to adapt to the evolving risk environment as needed.

Benefits of our treasury services

• Powerful, customised solutions using proven methodologies
• Integrated services offering
• Rapid, sustainable knowledge transfer
• Solid process integration
• Holistic perspective
• Benchmarking policy and procedure at an industry, peer or aspirational level
• Insights from BDO’s global network.

How BDO can help

Governance and organisational operating model

Using a gap analysis of your current treasury structure, compared to the requirements of your strategic objectives, we recommend an optimised organisational structure with clear roles and responsibilities. Benefits include:

• Realise synergies and efficiencies by optimising treasury processes
• Improve communication and reporting processes
• Remove process duplication and redundancies
• Avoid overlapping competencies.

Performance and maturity assessments

We will assess your treasury operations against global best practice and recommend potential improvements to all elements of the value chain, including internal structures, processing methods, polices, control and the relationship between treasury and other stakeholders. Benefits include:

• Assessment report comparing your firm against best practices
• Identification of any significant risk issues
• Recommendations for potential improvements
• Prioritised action plan for implementation – where appropriate.

Financial risk management

We will review and, if necessary, support you in implementing appropriate risk management strategies and methodologies to make sure treasury is equipped to manage its full risk universe. We will also help you prepare for liquidity crisis management, interest rate risk and commodity risk where applicable. Benefits include:

• Recommendations for how to improve or refine current practices to better manage all aspects of risk
• Develop risk management strategies and measure outcomes
• Treasury policies and procedures
• Clear and concise reporting to key decision-makers
• Monitor performance.

Cash and liquidity forecasting and management

We will test your liquidity model, optimise your liquidity management processes and explore additional methods for efficient liquidity risk management. We will also help you adjust your assets to achieve more efficient use of working capital. Benefits include:

• Improve accuracy of cash-flow forecasting
• Enhance cash visibility and release trapped cash
• Cash sweeping 
• Be better prepared for future liquidity events
• Strengthen liquidity risk management
• Robust liquidity crisis management strategy.

Financial instruments valuation

We will help you with scenario analysis and stress tests to look inside your risk structure and make sure your results are useful and effective. We can also model and value financial instruments on your behalf, including inequities, foreign exchange, interest and commodities. Benefits include:

• Valuation security and assurance
• Solid results from powerful valuation methods
• Cuts through the complexity to obtain a technically and materially correct commercial outcome.

Financial instruments accounting

We will help you to apply and interpret the new hedge accounting rules under IFRS 9 to better manage all your financial risks. Beyond hedge accounting, we can support you right across your IFRS 9 program of work, drawing on our experience of implementing IFRS 9 across the globe.

We understand the opportunities and threats inherent in these programs – and the complexities of the standard – having supported the first global adoption of the full standard. Benefits include:

• Practical planning for implementation and stakeholder management
• Receive specialised reports relating to your planning options
• Address issues in accounting
• Address questions to partial close-outs or adjustments of hedging transactions.

Treasury technology

We can help you decide when and how to adopt digital innovation in your treasury systems, including providing technology transformation support. Benefits include:

• Optimal alignment of the treasury system to your company’s requirements
• Fast and efficient integration of the treasury system into business processes
• Independent advice on the best system provider
• Support for your treasury team during a time of major disruption, allowing them to focus on your core business.
• Sustainable knowledge transfer.

Audit, assurance and compliance

We will help you to build appropriate monitoring and control systems that balance the demands of regulatory compliance, efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. We will also do a walkthrough of your current operations to confirm whether e can also support the available auditable-unit in planning, audit preparation, audit performance, reporting and development while taking into account current and future risk trends. Benefits include:

• Better compliance
• Minimise operational risks
• Active use of your control system as a management tool to increase efficiency and effectiveness of processes
• Enables the audit committee to demonstrate good governance relating to the strength of your control environment.

Outsourcing

We will help you to manage your treasury operations under an agreed Service Level Agreement (SLA) where we help you to manage day to day operations, develop internal processes and controls, provide month-end accounting and reporting and prepare financial year-end reports and accounting journals. We can authorise payments, provide instructions to banks or financial institutions and manage investments or cash drawdowns all within an agreed SLA and with delegated authority. Benefits include:

• Manage resources or interim gaps in resources
• Effect daily operations without the need for building a treasury team
• Cost-effective replacing FTE staff 
• Complete non-routine tasks to board or executive deadline.

Find out how we can support and enhance your treasury function, contact us.