As a manufacturer, cash flow is a critical part of running your business. You need to get paid, so you can maintain inventory for raw materials, pay your vendors and meet payroll.
To move and manage your cash assets quickly and efficiently, your community bank has cash management solutions that can help you get more accounting done in less time. Also known as treasury management, these tools help you streamline your accounting, speed up your payables and receivables and eliminate manual tasks. These save time and effort so your finance team can focus on a financial management strategy that can help you meet your growth goals.
What are cash management services?
Cash management services offer a plethora of sophisticated solutions to help you manage the inflow and outflow of your money.
“The core benefits of cash management tools are they let you work more efficiently, reduce your risk and improve cash flow for business,” says Annette Wanchena, Vice President of Commercial Deposits and Cash Management at Minnwest Bank.
Otherwise, the time spent on manual processes can add up to hundreds or thousands of hours a year. A recently released survey cited by CPA Practice Advisor shows that 72% of finance teams spend up to 10 hours a week on accounts payable tasks that can be automated, while 28% devote up to 20 hours a week.
By adopting cash management tools, you’ll take the first step toward making your finances run just as efficiently as your manufacturing line.
Here are some of the most common cash management services, and what they can do for you:
Automatic Clearing House (ACH): Set up direct transfers from one bank account to another. This service includes payroll, enabling you to make direct deposits into your employees' accounts, which can save your team a ton of time, and help employees get access to money faster.
Remote Deposit Capture (RDC): Simply scan a paper check, and the bank will process the payment using the data it captured. With same day credit, you can speed up cash flow. To save time on reconciling and payment processing, most accounting systems can extract the payment information and update your books automatically.
Positive Pay: Deter check fraud, and rest assured knowing the information on every check presented for payment (e.g., check number, dollar amount) is matched to the information you provided. If any details are incorrect, the bank withholds payment and notifies you.
Sweeps: Let your money work harder. When accounts reach a specific dollar amount, it automatically transfers that excess to a high interest account (such as money market) or investments.
Tools like these can help your manufacturing firm's financial team eliminate several time-consuming, repetitive accounting processes and get streamlined.
How do you set up cash management services?
Accessing treasury management services at your manufacturing company can be done with the help of a cash management specialist at your community bank.
When they meet with you and your finance team, they’ll ask many questions, review your statements, and determine the capacity of your staff, Wanchena explains. The services can be customized to meet the specific needs of your business, and keeps you in control of who can access what. Once the bank activates these services, each user gets information and training on how to use and access what they need.
Discover the community bank difference
Choose a community bank for all your treasury management needs. Not only would you get access to many of the same tools and services available at a big bank, you also get personal, proactive service, Wanchena says. The community bank mindset is all about developing relationships so businesses in the community can achieve their long-term goals. It’s no different at Minnwest Bank.
“We love to provide additional resources and referrals, and ideas for improvement,” Wanchena says. “We’re not just looking at where you are today as a business. We want to be there for you as you grow, and as your needs change.”
Get streamlined and safe with Minnwest Bank’s cash management system tools. Talk to one of our helpful cash management specialists in your community to learn how you can start doing more with your money.
