Cash & Working CapitalCOVID-19

Cash and COVID-19: A Tale of Two Companies

By July 2, 2020No Comments

One company asks, “Where is the cash?” while another reevaluates operational processes.
 
The economic upheaval unleashed by the pandemic divided the universe of companies at a recent virtual meeting of the Global Cash and Banking Group into two camps: Those with ample liquidity that were able to manage cash and conduct business as usual; and those forced to play defense and go “back to basics,” as one member in the latter camp put it.

  • Two member companies sharing very different perspectives on the pandemic’s impact on their businesses embodied this dichotomy: One, a tech giant, presented opportunities it found for process improvements; the other, a travel and leisure company, described an all-hands-on-deck liquidity crunch involving stress tests and turning over every stone for cash. 

Tech tools. Liquidity was not an issue for the tech company and “we probably weathered the crisis better than other industries because of all the tech tools we have,” the member said, adding that the “crisis has raised opportunities” to improve processes.

  • The company was completely prepared to shift gears to work remotely so the challenge became how to overcome various geographical shutdowns and stay-at-home orders across the globe that affected access to stores, lockboxes and, in some cases, payroll.
  • Another technology company found opportunities on the check issuance side, saying that some vendors wanted to switch to ACH payments to improve their liquidity; but ACHs also made sense because it was pointless to send checks to locations (stores, lockboxes, etc.) that were closed. 

Tokens vs. mobile apps. During the pandemic, the first tech company lifted some restrictions on the use of mobile banking apps; when a token doesn’t work and treasury isn’t “in the building” the ease of a mobile app can save the day, especially since the company’s internal process requires three people to move money across the board.

  • However, future thought must be given to the continued use of mobile banking because in the case of termination or employee’s departure, it is easier to collect a token than disable a feature on their phone.

Are wet signatures a thing of the past? The pandemic also presented an opportunity to see how far banks would go in accepting DocuSign.

  • Members said the answer depends on the bank, with the member from the tech company saying, “We adjust to whatever the banks can support.” That said, many banks have made allowances that members hope will continue when things return to “normal.”

Where is the cash? On the flip side to these operational improvement opportunities, many treasury departments across industries scrambled to get a handle on all cash everywhere as the pandemic squeezed liquidity.

  • Hard hit. The travel and leisure industry in particular has been hard hit by mandated travel restrictions and months of consumer cancellations, resulting in a big blow to liquidity. For one member in that industry, prudent cash management and operations have been imperative to keeping the company’s balance sheet strong.
  • No treasury outside treasury. A centralized treasury department has helped with tackling the liquidity pinch for this member, allowing for global transparency and examination of onshore and offshore cash.
    • Because onshore does not equate to accessibility, her treasury department has re-bucketed cash by availability to determine true cash positions across horizons and established an internal task force with legal and accounting to establish minimum balances required for operations.
  • Scenario analyses and stress tests. Good cash forecasting has never been so important— treasury has been called to turn over models, run various scenario analyses and stress test base cases to safeguard the business. 
    • This treasury team tested base, prolonged recovery and severe impact analyses to consider various economic scenarios and protect minimum operating requirements.

Teamwork. The company formed a global finance task force to explore what more can be done to generate cost savings, defer tax and bolster receivables. The member said she was pleased to have employees volunteering from various departments and teams, coming together to help keep the company strong.

  • Similarly, with working capital management, different approaches are being taken with treasury in mind. Previously, departments would seek approval from the CFO based on anticipated ROI; now these teams are talking to treasury first to see if the use of cash makes sense before seeking sign-off. 

I will remember that. Members in similar boats agreed that some banks have gone out of their way to help them while others have been more strict, pushing back on requests and acting as though treasury was asking too much.

  • That prompted one member to say, “The banks who gave us the hard time—we won’t give them business.”
  • On the subject of accessing money invested in term deposits, she advised peers to always look at force majeure clauses in bank agreements to make sure they are not one-sided—allowing the bank to terminate but not allowing the investor to get money back early.
Antony Michels

Author Antony Michels

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