Cash Visibility

A group may have money in several banks but still draw on an overdraft at one subsidiary, so managers need to know not only the consolidated total but who owns each balance and when it can be moved. Cash visibility makes those differences visible before a funding choice.

JPMorgan describes visibility, access and forecasting as distinct parts of liquidity management, recommends current reporting and appropriate buffers in stressed conditions, and explains in its business cash-flow guidance how data collection and forecasting support cash-position decisions. Inventory the accounts by listing banks, account numbers in an internal register, legal owners, currencies and authorised users, including small and dormant accounts if balances or payments can move through them.

Set an as-of time that matches payment risk and bank-feed availability, because yesterday's closing balance may be insufficient for a payroll decision this afternoon. Distinguish booked from available balances, since pending card settlements, holds, uncleared deposits and reserved funds can make a displayed number larger than immediately usable cash.

Separate legal entities, because a parent may see a subsidiary's cash but ownership, tax, creditor or regulatory constraints can limit transfers, and visibility does not itself give authority or access. Check currencies: a euro balance and a dirham bill are not interchangeable without conversion, timing and cost, so show original currency as well as a consistently dated reporting conversion.

Add near-term movements too, since current balances alone do not show tomorrow's supplier debit or next week's expected collection, and combine position reports with dated forecasts. Reconcile feeds, because bank data, enterprise resource planning systems and accounting ledgers update at different times, and investigate unmatched entries before treating an automated dashboard as final.

Label stale data so a missing feed does not silently retain yesterday's balance, and display last refresh time and errors prominently. Classify restricted cash such as security deposits, pledged funds and escrow balances in a separate column, and track committed credit separately, since an available revolving facility can support liquidity yet is not bank cash, and its draw conditions, covenants and expiry must be checked.

Use consistent account ownership, because a joint or client-money account may contain money the business is not entitled to use, and consolidated reporting must not turn third-party money into corporate liquidity. One optional management measure is coverage, defined as balances received by a chosen deadline divided by total in-scope balances, which is only useful when the account inventory and denominator are complete.

Avoid false precision: if a foreign branch report arrives once a week, a daily 100% coverage claim is misleading, so show the missing share and materiality. Set controls so that broad visibility does not give everyone payment authority, separating read access, approval rights and transaction execution, and watch payment cutoffs because a balance may be known but not transferable before a local bank closes.

Consider pooling carefully, since banks, entities and local rules determine what is possible and a report cannot implement a legal transfer; treasury can identify idle cash, upcoming gaps and concentration risk, but decision-makers must still authorise transfers and borrowing. Monitor quality by counting missing feeds, stale data and unreconciled amounts, and document currency rates, timestamps and exclusions so that teams avoid two incompatible 'total cash' figures; for owners, visibility means knowing what is where and what can actually pay the next bill.