Treasury's most overlooked performance lever

Treasury leaders spend significant time managing liquidity, forecasting cash needs and optimizing working capital. Yet some of the factors that have the greatest influence on those outcomes sit outside the treasury function itself.

How quickly cash is collected, settled and made visible can affect liquidity, forecasting confidence and financial performance – long before funds reach a treasury account. Payments determine how cash enters the business, while treasury determines how effectively it can be deployed once it arrives.

Treasury challenges often reveal themselves through payment processes

The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) 2026 Liquidity Survey* reflects a treasury environment focused on liquidity, risk management and financial resilience. Many treasury challenges are diagnosed within treasury but originate earlier in the flow of money through the business.

In fact, 75% of organizations maintain formal investment policies governing liquidity, risk tolerance and cash management decisions. Because those policies often define how cash can be managed and invested, operational improvements may be one of the most practical ways to strengthen performance without materially changing strategy.

Often, the challenge is not identifying a new liquidity structure. It's understanding why collections are slower than expected, why incoming cash is difficult to track, why reconciliation remains labor-intensive, or why forecasting confidence remains elusive.

While these may appear to be operational concerns, they often have direct financial implications. Delayed collections affect liquidity. Fragmented payment data limits visibility and forecasting accuracy. Manual reconciliation reduces the time available for analysis, planning and risk management.

Connecting payment and treasury strategy

A useful starting point is identifying where friction exists between payment receipt and cash availability, including:

• How quickly customer payments become available for use
• How much manual effort is required to reconcile incoming payments
• How easily receivables can be viewed across channels, business units or locations
• How consistently payment data supports forecasting and cash-positioning decisions
• Where settlement delays or payment exceptions create working-capital pressure

These areas often reveal opportunities to improve liquidity, forecasting confidence and working-capital performance through changes to operations and payments processing – rather than structural changes to liquidity management.

As expectations for liquidity continue to evolve, addressing this friction is becoming increasingly important. The AFP survey* found that 41% of organizations expect 24/7 access to money market funds, reinforcing the importance of reducing delays between payment receipt and cash availability.

A more complete approach to cash-flow management

Collection speed, payment visibility, reconciliation efficiency and settlement timing can all influence cash availability, forecasting confidence and working-capital performance. That’s why it is critical for financial institutions to offer robust solutions beyond traditional banking services. The AFP survey* found that 81% of organizations consider the strength of their banking relationship an important factor when selecting a bank for deposits.

In many cases, improving treasury outcomes does not require a new treasury strategy. It begins with improving the flow of cash before treasury ever takes action.

* By selecting this link, you will leave Elavon content and enter a third-party website. Elavon is not responsible for the content of, or products and services provided by this third party, nor does it guarantee the system availability or accuracy of information contained in the site. This website is not controlled by Elavon. Please note that the third-party website may have privacy and information security policies that differ from those of Elavon.