Treasury Becomes a Management Function
Contents
The treasury department is moving beyond the role of a mere administrator. Anyone who wants to manage liquidity today needs real-time data, a clean database from ERP, treasury management systems, and banks, as well as systems that automatically detect discrepancies. The first installment of our series “Treasury Engineers.”
In many companies, there’s still an Excel file sitting between Monday’s liquidity status and the actual account balance on Wednesday. As long as the markets remain calm, this works. But if supply chains break down, interest rates spike, or a major project is delayed, this gap becomes a risk.
This is precisely where the role of treasury is changing. A function that processes payments and reports balances is evolving into a steering role: one that actively manages liquidity, runs through scenarios, and enables management to make sound decisions. Michael Völkl, Head of Consulting Treasury at BDF EXPERTS, describes this as the evolution toward the “Treasury Engineer” – moving away from reacting and toward shaping the future.
No Data, No Liquidity Picture
The key to this is unspectacular: data. “Real-time integration of cash-related data is the foundation,” says Völkl. Anyone who wants to manage liquidity precisely needs a complete picture from all relevant systems – the ERP, the treasury management system (TMS), and the banks. Only when these sources converge does a cash status emerge on which decisions can be based.
On this basis, automation becomes the second lever. Currency hedging, managing financing structures, bank transfers: processes that are often still done manually today run according to rules, relieving the team of repetitive routines. This frees up time for the questions that require real management.
Planning Follows the Business Model
There is no such thing as off-the-shelf liquidity planning. It must be tailored to the business. A retail company aggregates large amounts of data to respond quickly to seasonal fluctuations. An industrial company with long payment cycles primarily tracks long-term capital commitments.
In mechanical and plant engineering – the sector in which many of our customers operate – project-based business dominates: less detailed day-to-day scheduling, but large cash flows that are closely tied to milestones. If a project is delayed, this information must be incorporated into the planning immediately. This requires particularly agile planning – and tools that connect the different levels: daily planning for the next three days, short-term planning for one to twelve weeks, and medium-term planning for three to 24 months.
The SAP-integrated solutions from BDF EXPERTS are designed precisely for these levels. With the Cash Position Cockpit (CPC), companies maintain a transparent overview of their cash positions. With the Liquidity Planning Cockpit (LPC), they plan liquidity end-to-end: from forecasting in the original currency to hedging, without any system disconnects.
From Reacting to Anticipating
The next step is already in sight: AI-powered analyses and simulations. Treasury professionals identify deviations the moment they arise, run through scenarios, and suggest courses of action based on the company’s own reliable data.
This transforms a reactive treasury into a forward-looking one: one that better manages currency risks, reduces financing costs, and measurably improves the quality of forecasts. This is no longer a topic for the future. It will be evident in the next planning cycle.
Since 2001, BDF EXPERTS has been helping companies make their data and processes future-proof. In treasury, this means turning numbers into control.
This article kicks off our “Treasury Engineers” series. It is based on a guest article by Michael Völkl in the trade magazine DerTreasurer (Issue 1/2026).
The text and graphics were created with AI support and reviewed by BDF EXPERTS.
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