Global markets are volatile. Currencies fluctuate daily, and commodity prices spike without warning. Yet, in the high-stakes environment of corporate finance, a surprising number of enterprises are managing millions—sometimes billions—of dollars on a tool built in the 80s: the manual spreadsheet.
There is a massive disconnect in the modern CFO’s office right now. While leadership teams discuss how Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize their industry, the “engine room”—treasury management—is often stuck in manual drive.
The Spreadsheet Trap
Here is the typical workflow for many corporate treasuries: Teams execute trades on sophisticated platforms like Bloomberg or Reuters. Then, they stop. They manually type that data into a spreadsheet. Finally, they manually post accounting entries into an ERP system.
This creates a dangerous gap. You have critical financial data sitting in isolated silos, dependent on human data entry to move from point A to point B. In an era where speed is a competitive advantage, this latency is a liability.
AI Is Not a Magic Wand
Many founders and executives view AI as a plug-and-play solution. The desire is to “turn on” AI to solve liquidity risks or forecast cash flow instantly. However, technology leaders from Infosys and IBS FinTech recently highlighted a hard truth during a discussion on corporate treasuries: AI cannot function on fragmented, manual data.
If your underlying data set isn’t digitized and automated, AI has nothing to work with. You cannot build a skyscraper on a foundation of sand.
Build the Pipeline First
To actually leverage the power of modern automation, the focus must shift from “adopting AI” to “fixing the plumbing.” A truly resilient financial system requires a connected ecosystem where your Treasury Management System (TMS) speaks directly to:
- Your ERP (Oracle, NetSuite, etc.)
- Trading Platforms
- Banking Institutions
When these systems are integrated, data flows in real-time. There is no manual entry, and consequently, there are no copy-paste errors.
The Bottom Line
Global volatility isn’t going away. Geopolitical factors will continue to impact equities and foreign exchange. If your finance team is still relying on manual entry between platforms, your high-tech initiatives will fail due to poor data quality.
The takeaway for leadership is simple: Audit your data workflows today. If you want financial resilience, you need to stop treating data entry as a necessary evil and start treating automated data quality as your most valuable asset.
