Cash management is also known as treasury management for businesses. Treasury management through commercial banks helps a company manage their funds through special business bank accounts. All banks have a department dedicated to treasury management that covers trading through bonds, money that can include all currencies and risk management. PNC Bank has many different services that are offered through their cash management programs. One of the services offered are card services. A business can get pre-paid cards that cover payroll, employee rewards, petty cash, per diem expenses and business-to-business incentive programs (PNC, 2010.) Another type of card service offered through the treasury management program is procurement plus travel and entertainment which covers better control over spending limit, establishes separate spending allowances for purchasing and travel and also reports for all company spending (PNC, 2010.) These reports help businesses keep track of all spending and purchases made by any employee who holds a card or who has access to these funds. The cards for travel or entertainment are for medium to large sized companies. According to PNC, these help reduce time and cost. PNC also offers Active Pay. Active Pay helps maximize payment controls, enhance transaction and data management and increase financial benefit (PNC, 2010.) Although PNC’s website does not expand on how this is done they do have a contact number for any business that is interested in opening an account with their financial institute.
PNC also boasts with their cash management programs they help lower fees for payments as well as balance transfers. With businesses transfers and payments off an account may be more than a personal account, so lower costs in bank fees is always appealing to any company. Another bank that offers treasury management services is Wells Fargo. Through this management program Wells Fargo offers an accounts payable and accounts payable services option. This option helps to streamline processes, making them faster and more efficient as well as manage expenses better. Expenses are managed better through services like “E-box” payment. This payment method allows a business or company to send one payment file of electronic payments to many different payment processors and/or billers (Wells Fargo, 2010.) The processing solutions Wells Fargo offers help reduce staff hours by automatically matching purchase orders and invoices with the vendors they are from. This will help reduce staff hours for the company because they will not have to spend valuable time matching these files, when Wells Fargo has software that will do it for them. Another important factor to Wells Fargo’s cash management services is risk management. Every company needs to pay special attention to possible fraud and with Wells Fargo businesses are safe when it comes to their bank accounts. With the risk management service Wells Fargo will identify possible fraudulent transactions prior to them posting to the account, making it a much more efficient way to fight fraud (Wells Fargo, 2010.) Wells Fargo website is packed full of information on their treasury management service. They also offer accounts receivable management as a part of the treasury management. This service allows businesses to deposit near, around the country and even around the world to their accounts. It also speeds up the availability of funds and collections as well as decreases the rate of NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) fees and returned items fees. These fees can add up quickly when a business is dealing with payments and collections. The ability to electronically bank also helps eliminate or lower trips to the bank. Wells Fargo has a service called information reporting and liquidity management. This service allows for e-reports (electronic reports), which will help eliminate paper reports and unnecessary filing. It also includes a CEO workstation which allows the business to get a global view of their position, forecasting tools to help better invest and also trading information (Wells Fargo, 2010,) all without purchasing expensive software personally. The business also has the opportunity to maximize the excess funds to invest and/or pay down debt. This means any money in excess will be used to invest for the business to help the business grow, or pay off debt even faster than anticipated. All of Wells Fargo’s treasury management reports can be viewed from a customer’s smart phone, which helps simplify control through the ability of viewing reports without the hassle of a laptop traveling on the lap of the business employee. Bank of America also offers treasury management services. According to their website, Bank of America Merrill Lynch offers a business the ability to see their money and control it efficiently through their treasury management service. This will help businesses collect, concentrate, pay, invest and optimize return of the money (Bank of America, 2010.) Bank of America website discusses their ability to deliver cost-effective processing and real-time reporting through the day, of balances and detail for e-transactions (electronic transactions) as well as paper transactions (Bank of America, 2010.) Their services span 68 countries and include a global platform that provides integrated multi currency solutions and reports that execute across the globe. Of these three banks, Wells Fargo seems to have the most attractive treasury management service, as well as the most information available to the customer and consumer on their website. Bank of America has little information about their service, but does boast about their awards given by different groups such as Treasury & Risk, Fortune, and Treasury Management International. Although these awards are impressive it is important to have the information in detail available for the customer to read and understand. PNC had information readily available on their website but it was not easily understood with high amounts of jargon. Wells Fargo offers what seems to be the most efficient treasury management service for businesses and companies across the country. With the ability to check reports over the customer’s smart phone they are able to stay up to date with new and immediate information. If a health care organization were to utilize Wells Fargo’s or another banks cash management services they would be able to avoid opportunity cost through the in depth reports, instant reports, risk management, and especially through the use of “E-box” payments. It would be a more efficient way for a health care organization to care for and track their funds.

References

Bank of America, Integrated Treasury Management Solutions, www.bankofamerica.com
PNC, Corporate and Institutional Treasury Management, www.pnc.com
Wells Fargo, Treasury Management Services and Solutions, www.wellsfargo.com