ADVISORY Manage your cash to drive business performance In the challenging environment of the past several months businesses have focused on managing costs and generating and preserving cash. As the outlook becomes more positive, now is the time to lock in sustainable cash management practices to provide a platform for growth. External pressures continue to impact Australian businesses across all industries. Refinancing remains challenging, suppliers maintain tight credit terms and customers take longer to pay. Key stakeholders are more demanding and less tolerant. More than ever they are looking to management to identify and make the most of value creation opportunities. The challenge is to balance costs, cash generation and conservation against the need to invest in and grow the business. Now is the time to be looking within your business for sustainable opportunities to accelerate and release cash. While most companies are cash conscious, competing strategic priorities can often absorb senior executive attention. The result can often include insufficient visibility of cash movement across the enterprise, difficulty in forecasting and a reactive approach to managing cash and costs. Establishing and embedding a ‘cash culture’ throughout the organisation is essential to placing cash and cost control at the core of decision making processes so that it becomes second nature at all levels within your business. With an effective cash culture, your business can be better positioned to reduce financial risks, improve liquidity, fund strategic investments and outpace industry peers. Effective cash flow management can enhance financial performance and competitiveness, create greater strategic flexibility, reduce reliance on external finance and minimise vulnerability to adverse events.
Transcript
advisory
Manage your cash to drive business performance
In the challenging environment of the past several months businesses have focused on managing costs and generating and preserving cash. As the outlook becomes more positive, now is the time to lock in sustainable cash management practices to provide a platform for growth.
External pressures continue to impact Australian businesses across all industries. Refinancing remains challenging, suppliers maintain tight credit terms and customers take longer to pay. Key stakeholders are more demanding and less tolerant. More than ever they are looking to management to identify and make the most of value creation opportunities.
The challenge is to balance costs, cash generation and conservation against the need to invest in and grow the business. Now is the time to be looking within your business for sustainable opportunities to accelerate and release cash.
While most companies are cash conscious, competing strategic priorities can often absorb senior executive attention. The result can often include insufficient visibility of cash movement across the enterprise, difficulty in forecasting and a reactive approach to managing cash and costs.
Establishing and embedding a ‘cash culture’ throughout the organisation is essential to placing cash and cost control at the core of decision making processes so that it becomes second nature at all levels within your business.
With an effective cash culture, your business can be better positioned to reduce financial risks, improve liquidity, fund strategic investments and outpace industry peers.
Effective cash flow management can enhance financial performance and competitiveness, create greater strategic flexibility, reduce reliance on external finance and minimise vulnerability to adverse events.
Using our proprietary Total Cash methodology, we work closely with you to obtain greater visibility and control over your cash flows to deliver cash improvements. Most importantly, we can work with you to make them sustainable and an embedded feature of your organisational culture.
We start with an understanding of cash drivers and best practice in your industry. We apply the disciplines required to identify and achieve quick wins and improve and maintain your cash position. You enjoy early benefits and a clear path is established to build a cash culture within your organisation through the steps below.
Gain visibility and control• Enhance control and
strategic planning through greater visibility of your cash performance, providing the information required for effective decision-making.
• Deploy tools to improve cash forecasting, scenario testing and budgeting.
• Introduce target metrics and incentives, linked to strategy that benchmark and drive cash performance against your own best practice and industry peers.
How we can help
Our structured approach to cash management – Total Cash – extends beyond the traditional levers of working capital. It offers a ‘whole of organisation approach’ to the management of cash and costs across your P&L and balance sheet.
Deliver cash improvements• Use cash driver analysis to
focus on the most promising initiatives to reduce working capital lock up.
• Launch and drive short-term campaigns and longer-term programs to systematically reduce costs and release cash across operations, finance and treasury, tax and surplus or under utilised assets.
Sustain your performance• Develop a cash culture that
better aligns operational activity with strategic imperatives.
• Improve executive communication, raise awareness and understanding of the need for and benefits of cash management, gain organisational ‘buy-in’ and promote continuous improvement.
Why select us
KPMG’s Total Cash team offers you:
• a single point of contact.
• a blend of financial, operational and commercial skills supported by extensive industry experience.
• access to a range of support specialists skilled in financial and operational restructuring and improvement, receivables and supply chain management, financial risk management, capital management, debt procurement, cost optimisation, tax, technology and information systems, internal controls and people and change management.
We start with a careful analysis of key cash drivers underlying your business operations and performance. We introduce cash management programs and techniques employed across a range of industries and commercial structures. We utilise our global network bringing to bear best practices, knowledge and experience from our teams in Europe, the Americas and Asia.
We understand the importance of effective cash management. We know how to identify and realise cash opportunities quickly and we can work with you to achieve sustainable improvements.
We have worked with a wide range of Australian and overseas businesses to identify and realise cash opportunities and implement lasting improvements across cash and working capital management, forecasting, budgeting, reporting, funding, cost rationalisation, rapid cash generation and stakeholder and change management.
Whether you need support addressing a short-term cash or working capital issue or you are interested in improving longer-term cash management, contact us for a discussion in confidence about how our Total Cash team may assist your business.
The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavour to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation.
