Cash Management and Cash Visibility – Research Report

Reading time: 1 mins

Ogo Nwanyanwu

Research Director

Key Takeaways

⇨ The current financial climate is unpredictable, which makes it crucial for SAPinsiders to understand their organization's cash position clearly. That's why, there is a demand from executives for more accurate, timely, and harmonized cash reporting, which is the top driver impacting their organizational approach to cash management.

⇨ 68% of SAPinsiders view timely global cash visibility and analytics for proactive decision-making as an important or very important requirement for their organization's cash management processes. During uncertain periods, less prepared companies can struggle to achieve cash visibility. With multiple factors driving uncertainty, having a good handle on cash flow is essential for making sound decisions.

⇨ Cash forecasting and procure-to-pay represent the core pain points impacting the cash management process for SAPinsiders. A lack of accurate forecasts and outdated data can often lead to poor business decisions, resulting in increased financial risk.

Cash is the lifeblood of any organization.

This report discusses why cash management is a critical function for any organization. Without sufficient funds, it can be challenging to meet payroll, pay suppliers, and cover other expenses. Therefore, it is vital for organizations to monitor their cash positions regularly and take steps to ensure that they have adequate funding. In addition, accurate forecasting is essential to effective cash management, as multiple factors can impact an organization’s needs like changes in revenue, expenses, and investment activity.

To better understand the state of cash management and cash visibility for SAP customers in the current operating environment, we surveyed 109 members of our community between April and June 2022. The research identified some significant trends in organizational priorities and challenges around SAP Finance, some of which are:

As a whole we see a demand for more accurate, timely, and harmonized reporting as the top driver affecting organization’s approach. This demand is coming from executives who need better visibility of their organization’s cash position for making sound business decisions.
Only 57% of SAPinsiders showed satisfaction with their level of cash visibility from current cash management processes and solutions. The challenges executives face in achieving cash visibility are many and varied, but some common challenges relate to a lack of human capital resources for innovation, lack of stakeholders buy-in, non-integrated data sources, manual processes, and siloed information.
Forecasting and buy-to-pay represent core pain points affecting the management of the cash process for SAPinsiders.
Organizations are prioritizing initiatives to implement efficient E2E cash management processes and automation.