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Building a robust business case for a treasury management system is the first step to challenge a typical current approach that involves opening numerous separate banking portals, downloading multitudes of statements and consolidating them in a spreadsheet that breaks when a bank changes its CSV format.
Which core components a treasury business case should contain
HM Treasury's Five Case Model is the UK's standard framework for appraising public investment. It translates directly to a treasury business case. Is there a compelling case for change? Which option delivers best value? Can it be sourced commercially? Is it affordable? Can the organisation deliver it successfully?
Before building the case, establish a treasury planning framework that aligns technology investment with strategic priorities.
Your case should contain six components:
- Problem: Define the problem with evidence from your own operations, such as manual forecast collection, delayed visibility, spreadsheet errors or audit findings.
- Options: Present options including business as usual, which is continuing with current systems and their associated costs and risks, plus a "do minimum" option that addresses only the most urgent gap.
- Costs: Cost each option over its whole life, covering licence fees, integration, temporary staff cover during implementation, and ongoing support.
- Benefits: Quantify the benefits in cash-releasing and non-cash-releasing terms, assigning an owner to each line.
- Risks: Document the risks and your mitigation plan, including contingency and stage gates.
- The ask: State the ask clearly, with funding amount, decision date and the next review point.
A treasury business case should also show how technology improves cash visibility, lowers borrowing costs through better working capital use, and strengthens financial control. Each of these must be measurable from your baseline data, not borrowed from vendor marketing.
Establishing the operational baseline: how treasury runs today
The baseline describes existing systems, processes, costs, benefits and risks. Without it, you cannot prove that change delivers value.
Manual forecasting effort audit
Start by measuring manual forecasting effort. Studies suggest satisfaction with manual forecasting scores significantly lower than integrated or system-based forecasting. Document how many hours your team spends downloading statements, consolidating positions across banking portals, and reconciling forecasts against actuals.
Quantify spreadsheet reliance
Research suggests a significant proportion of organisations still use offline or homegrown tools for short-term forecasting and reporting. Field studies indicate that spreadsheets can introduce error risk that scales with complexity.
Capture data quality issues
Poor data quality, lack of effective tools, and limited business unit incentives to contribute forecasts are widely reported challenges. If your organisation struggles with any of these, note the symptoms such as late or incomplete forecasts, frequent revisions, or reliance on manual adjustments that one person understands.
Measure exposure capture and payment processes
Many firms still rely on manual steps. For payments, log the time from invoice approval to execution, the number of portals that require separate logins, and any incidents of duplicate payments or beneficiary errors.
Calculate the opportunity cost of cash visibility delays
At a Bank Rate of 3.75%, every £10m of idle cash costs £375,000 a year in forgone returns or avoidable borrowing. If your current process means cash sits undeployed whilst positions are consolidated, that delay has a price.
Where does baseline data come from? Bank statements and fee schedules, ERP payment logs, forecast-versus-actual histories, month-end close calendars, and internal audit findings on treasury controls. Collect it before vendor conversations begin.
Total cost of ownership beyond the software licence
Understanding the true treasury management system cost is critical. Software fees are the most visible element but rarely the largest. A comprehensive budget includes integration between the new platform and existing ERPs, implementation effort, third-party consultancy and ongoing support.
Cloud-based platforms typically bundle support into the regular subscription fee. Full-licence installations usually charge support separately. Treasury staff will spend time in workshops and data validation. If the project disrupts daily operations, budget for temporary cover.
Putting numbers on the benefits
Treasury management system benefits divide into cash-releasing and non-cash-releasing categories. Cash-releasing benefits change income or expenditure directly: lower borrowing costs, reduced bank fees or eliminated headcount. Non-cash-releasing benefits are monetisable but don't change the budget line: reallocating existing staff time from manual consolidation to analysis, for example. Both are valuable, but the distinction matters for financial approvals. These benefits form the core of any treasury management system ROI calculation.
| Benefit | How to measure | Formula | Hard or soft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest on surplus cash or lower borrowing | Average idle balances and borrowing before and after improved pooling and visibility | Reduced balance x relevant rate. At Bank Rate 3.75%, £10m redeployed = £375,000 a year gross | Hard if physically redeployed, otherwise non-cash-releasing |
| Process time saved | Hours spent on statements, reconciliations and reporting | Hours saved x loaded hourly cost | Hard only if headcount or overtime is cut; otherwise non-cash-releasing |
| Forecast accuracy | Variance between forecast and actual, measured at 13-week and 12-month horizons | Variance reduction x buffer cash held x funding cost | Soft to hard depending on cash deployment |
| Error and fraud exposure | Incident log, near misses, manual payment steps | Expected loss x reduction in probability | Soft |
| Audit and control cost | External and internal audit hours spent on treasury | Hours saved x audit rate | Soft to hard |
| Bank fees | Fee analysis across accounts and product types | Fee reduction | Hard |
Automation cuts processing time and manual errors. Treasurers who frequently use AI or machine learning for forecasting report higher accuracy rates at both 13-week and 12-month horizons. The architecture is specifically designed to act as an assistant. This ensures the human stays firmly in control and all transactions remain fully auditable. Research suggests many treasurers believe automated cash forecasting would add significant value.
Track these benefits against your broader treasury KPIs to ensure alignment with strategic objectives. Each benefit must carry a named owner. Accountability frameworks increase the likelihood that projected returns materialise.
Addressing stakeholder and expert objections
Expect objections from five groups, each with different concerns and evidence requirements.
| Who asks | Objection | What answers it | Evidence to bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| CFO | "Is the return real, and what if it overruns?" | Risk-adjusted NPV or IRR against the organisation's hurdle rate, with a benefits owner per line, a contingency and stage gates | Cash-flow principles and evidence of realistic cost estimates with appropriate contingency |
| IT | "Security, integration and another system to support" | A documented assessment against the NCSC cloud security principles and an integration plan with the ERP and banks | NCSC principles are designed to help choose a provider whilst recognising you must still configure securely |
| Procurement | "Why this vendor, and is it value for money?" | A structured, competitive selection with reference checks, hands-on workshops using your own data, and weighted criteria | RFP, references, workshops, decision matrix that demonstrates value for money |
| Internal audit | "Does it improve control, or add model and vendor risk?" | Workflows, segregation of duties and an auditable trail, mapped to the company's material controls | UK Corporate Governance Code Provision 29 requires board monitoring and annual review of material controls |
| Treasury team | "Will this replace us, or just add work?" | A redeployment plan that makes time savings explicit and gives staff a role in design | Automation frees capacity for strategic work such as analysis and forecasting |
Fraud context: UK Finance reports £1.28bn was lost to payment fraud in 2025. Fraud should be framed as a control argument, not merely a headline saving. Payments data: The CHAPS migration to ISO 20022 on 19 June 2023 enables richer payment data, strengthening the IT reconciliation argument.
Project timelines, implementation risks and the final ask
Structure the approval process in stages. An initial decision on the problem should be followed by funded approval after vendor selection. A structured treasury management system comparison across vendors will surface the best fit for the organisation. Selection timelines typically run from requirements definition to a formal RFP, reference conversations and a final decision matrix. Budget three to six months for selection. Implementation timelines depend on ERP complexity, but six to twelve months is common for a multi-entity rollout. State the ask clearly. Specify the total funding requested, broken down by licence cost, integration, contingency and internal resource allocation. Name the benefits owners who will be accountable for realising each line. Set the review points at which the board will assess progress.
A final checklist before CFO submission
Run through this list before submitting the project pitch to your CFO:
- Problem and objectives stated, with a baseline measured from internal data.
- Options include business as usual and a do-minimum alternative.
- Costs cover software, integration, interfaces, contingency and support.
- Costs and timeline are adjusted for optimism bias.
- Each benefit is classified as cash-releasing or non-cash-releasing.
- Valuation uses NPV or IRR against the organisational hurdle rate.
- Risk register draws on evidence from similar projects.
- Control impact is mapped to the organisation's material controls
- Security is assessed against recognised standards.
- Selection plan includes a competitive RFP and hands-on workshops.
- Benefits realisation plan is in place.
- The ask is explicit regarding funding amount and timeline.
A disciplined case sets realistic expectations and assigns accountability. When treasury teams shift from manual consolidation to real-time visibility, they recover hours every week that can be redirected to to working capital optimisation, quarterly cash flow reporting and strategic cash deployment. See how Embat works as a treasury management system to understand how these capabilities apply to specific operations and banking relationships. A structured demonstration will answer questions a standard presentation cannot.
