How to build a business case for a payment hub?
This article is written by Nomentia Every morning, global treasury teams brace for impact. Payments are scattered across dozens of banks, each with its own portal, passwords, and approval process. One region still faxes payment instructions. Another logs in manually to multiple platforms just to confirm cash positions. No central visibility and no control. Just chaos. The ERP systems. Disconnected. Verifying balances? A manual marathon. The team logs into bank portals one by one, piecing together cash positions across hundreds of accounts. One number is always out of sync. Is it an error? A missing transaction? A delayed payment? Who knows. Meanwhile, costs keep climbing. Bank fees for every account. IT support for every new bank connection. A payment approval takes hours instead of minutes. A simple reconciliation? Days. Then, the near disaster. A single fraudulent payment—disguised among thousands—almost slipped through. Millions nearly lost. A last-minute catch saved the company. This time. The CFO asks: How did this happen? The real question is: Why did it not happened sooner? So, how could you manage this better as a treasury or finance team? Advice from an expert: Daniel Neubauer With over 3 years as a Senior Solution Manager at Nomentia, Daniel Neubauer is a highly experienced professional in the field of financial process automation. His expertise spans multiple areas, including accounts payable (AP), cash management, payments, collections, and document management processes. Daniel’s extensive background in automating and optimizing financial operations makes him an authority on the integration of automated systems in reconciliation. The overwhelmed Treasurer Lena used to love her job. She became a treasurer because she liked solving problems and making things run smoothly. But now, she spends her days fighting fires, as payments keep growing: more countries, more currencies, more urgency. But her team? Same size. Same tools. The bank fees pile up. Every new account means another charge. Another set of approvals. Another login to be sorted out. Regulations tighten and KYC rules demand endless paperwork. A rejected payment because of sanctions in one country triggers a compliance review in another. She’s expected to keep up, but without the systems to do it. Worst of all? She has no real control. The company’s payment landscape is a patchwork of different banks, portals, and regional processes. By the time she sees a problem, it’s already too late. She’s raised the alarm more than once. The risks are clear. The costs are rising. But leadership isn’t listening. Because as long as payments go through, who cares how the job gets done? How to improve your payments set-up? No one questions a system that seems to work. As long as vendors get paid and cash is in the bank, leadership moves on to bigger things. But behind the scenes, Treasury and Accounts Payables are juggling a number of systems built over years and long ago. Acquisitions brought new banks, new accounts, new systems—never fully integrated. Regional teams found their own ways to handle payments. Now, no two processes look the same. It’s inefficient. It’s expensive. It’s a risk. One missed sanction check, and a critical payment is lost for good. A forgotten account in an acquired bank becomes an open door for fraud. A failed payment delays a critical shipment. When something finally breaks, it won’t be small. Treasurers see the cracks before anyone else. But until disaster strikes, no one listens. The misstep: Treasurers selling themselves short Some treasurers see the problem but hesitate to push for change. As this will add to the workload. So, they stay in the weeds. Approving payments. Chasing down errors. Logging into bank portals like it’s still 2009. A great year, but some time ago already. But treasury isn’t about pushing buttons. It’s about managing risk. It’s about optimizing cash. It’s about driving efficiency. A treasurer who fights for a smarter, more controlled payment process is ensuring they can spend their time on more value-adding tasks. They’re proving just how valuable they really are. How to win over the CFO with a rock-solid business case? Step 1: Speak numbers & ROI Decisions at the top come down to costs, risks, and returns, so translating impact into numbers. Want buy-in? Show the math. Estimate savings, calculate ROI, and prove that a payment hub pays for itself. Step 2: Put a spotlight on compliance and risk reduction Regulators don’t care if the treasury is overwhelmed. A missed sanction check that causes payment to be frozen or a fraudulent transaction can cost millions. A payment hub: CFOs don’t like surprises. A payment hub makes sure treasury or accounts payable isn’t the next one. Gaining control: The treasurer’s new reality Lena used to spend her days fighting fires. Too many payments, too many banks, too little control. She saw the risks, the waste, the inefficiencies—but no one listened. Because as long as payments went through, who cared how messy the process was? Now? They listen. But Lena’s job isn’t done. It’s different. Instead of chasing payments, she’s using real-time data to make better funding and liquidity decisions. She’s managing risk proactively and protecting the company from fraud and operational blind spots. She’s driving strategy and helping leadership decide which banks to work with, where to centralize payments, and how to reduce costs without increasing risk. She didn’t automate herself out of a job. She automated the noise so she could finally do the work that matters. The real question is: Are you ready for the work that comes after the approval? Winning the CFO’s buy-in was the first step. Implementing the payment hub was the second. But real transformation doesn’t stop at go-live. Lena’s team isn’t just processing payments faster. They’ve redefined how treasury operates. The biggest shift? Treasury is no longer stuck in execution mode. They’re leading. So, ask yourself: Are you ready to stop fighting fires and start building something better? More Posts from Nomentia Join our Treasury Community Treasury Mastermind is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics…
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Innovative approaches to working capital optimization
This article is a contribution from our content partner, Kyriba Working capital is the lifeblood of any successful business, but optimizing it in today’s volatile environment requires more than just best practices. It demands innovation, collaboration, and real-time intelligence. If you caught our first post, you know that amid economic uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, and shifting consumer demands, working capital has become a lifeline for resilient businesses. We explored why optimizing working capital is crucial in today’s unpredictable landscape and shared foundational strategies for getting started. In this follow-up, we move from the “why” to the “how,” highlighting innovative approaches and smart moves companies are using right now to optimize working capital, overcome bottlenecks, and drive business growth. Identifying and eliminating inefficiencies Before you can fully optimize working capital, you need to uncover hidden bottlenecks that are slowing you down. Supply chain volatility, fluctuating shipping rates, and outdated processes can disrupt cash flow and limit flexibility. Common bottlenecks include: The Solution? High-performing businesses are leveraging automation and real-time tools to minimize these challenges. By automating payment workflows, digitizing invoice approvals, and using cash visibility platforms, these companies are freeing up trapped cash, reducing friction, and streamlining their cash conversion cycles. Leveraging data analytics for timely insights In an era of rapid change, intuition is not enough, but neither are manual systems or siloed processes that often lead to disconnected, delayed decision-making. Many organizations still operate with limited visibility into their supply chains, leaving them vulnerable to costly disruptions and concentration risk. A recent CFO Brew article on supply chain visibility highlights just how little awareness some companies have of their third-tier and indirect suppliers, and how this lack of insight can expose them to risks that may not surface until months after an event. Without robust, real-time data, businesses are forced to make “feel-good decisions” that simply don’t work in today’s fast moving, interconnected world. Leading organizations are moving beyond intuition and manual processes by turning to advanced data analytics and technologies that provide deep, actionable visibility across their supply chains. By harnessing big data and predictive analytics, companies can: But visibility alone isn’t enough. The real differentiator for leading organizations is the ability to rapidly and decisively move from insight to action. Forward-thinking finance teams aren’t just identifying cash positions or spotting inefficiencies; they’re empowered to act on those insights in real time. That means having the tools to seamlessly leverage idle cash through payables strategies, accelerate receivables when needed, or dynamically adjust working capital allocations as market conditions shift. Platforms that combine full cash visibility with integrated action, such as enabling payables financing, receivables financing, and dynamic discounting unlock a new level of working capital agility.This holistic approach ensures that finance leaders aren’t just observers of data, but active participants in shaping outcomes. It’s this marriage of intelligence and execution that’s setting new benchmarks for resilience and growth in today’s market. Collaboration across teams boosts efficiency Optimizing working capital is no longer just a treasury responsibility. The most successful companies treat it as a cross-functional challenge, requiring close collaboration between treasury, supply chain, and procurement teams. For example, when tariffs and trade policies shift, procurement must work hand-in-hand with treasury to anticipate the impact on payables and inventory levels. Here’s how collaboration can make a difference: This integrated approach ensures that every dollar invested in inventory, payables, or receivables is working as hard as possible for the business. Rethinking innovation in working capital strategies True innovation in working capital optimization isn’t just about adopting the latest tools—it’s about fundamentally reimagining how people, processes, and platforms connect to unlock value. Today’s most successful organizations no longer treat treasury, procurement, and supply chain as separate, siloed functions. Instead, they are building integrated ecosystems where data flows freely, decisions are collaborative, and action can happen in real time. From my experience, organizations leading the way are: The real breakthrough comes when companies move beyond visibility alone and empower teams to act on insights, turning working capital from a static metric into a dynamic lever for resilience and growth. Innovative CFOs and treasurers are partnering with platforms that offer unified visibility across cash, payments, and working capital, creating real-time command centers for liquidity performance. In summary, working capital optimization is about more than incremental improvements. It means rethinking how teams connect, how data is harnessed, and how technology is deployed to enable rapid, confident decision-making. By identifying bottlenecks, fostering collaboration, and embracing real-time analytics, organizations can unlock new cash flow and build lasting resilience. Read more from Kyriba Join our Treasury Community Treasury Mastermind is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click [HERE] or fill out the form below to get more information. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.