Why Banks Have to Use Top-Notch Software for Cash Management

You definitely can not skimp when it comes to cash management software for banks. Banks are the places where people all over the world keep their money and trust that it is safe there. Imagine using a type of software for banking that was full of flaws, holes, and security deficiencies. Every piece of currency in the world would be at risk of disappearing.

What is Cash Management?

The term “cash management” is a broad term that can man a multitude of things depending on the context of the subject. An individual practices cash management when they carry around cash to purchase items and get change back from uneven transaction amounts. The person using the cash keeps track of what they have and what they spent by keeping it in a wallet or a purse.

When it comes to cash management on an enterprise level, it is a bit different. When multi-faceted companies with branches that are located all over the world manage their entire cash flow it can be extremely meticulous and daunting.

The way banks work is that they have a certain amount of cash that is liquid to them at any given moment, and they have assets that can contribute to the whole value, but are not liquid in the sense that they can go out and pay rent or bills with it.

Banks have large amounts of currency flowing into and out of them throughout the day and night. There is the liquid cash and other assets that are physically present, then there are other assets that are present in the snapshot of the cash that is available but can not be accessed without contacting a third party and initiating a physical delivery of the assets as they are.

Since banks are such dynamic entities it is extremely important to keep a meticulous record of every transaction that takes place in real-time. As money ebbs and flows from account to account the entire worth of the bank can move to and fro as well.

Since banks are backed by their own worth by the amount of gold or cash that is in the vaults they have the ability to flow with the activity of the customers from one moment to the next. If every person that banked in the establishment went in and closed their accounts the bank would be responsible for giving them their money without hesitation.

When the establishment keeps track of all of the financial activity that happens within the organization they are managing the cash of the place. Cash management is simply managing the cash of the organization.

Cash Management Software

It use to be at one point in time that bankers had to keep track of the money that was in the bank with bank registrars and pens. Every transaction, every penny that came in and out of the bank, every person, and every piece of information were all kept track of by simply writing the information down in a log book.

Back then, cash management was all done manually with pen, paper, and an adding machine. Needless to say, keeping track of a bank’s finances was not an easy task. However, the technology that is available to us today gives us the power to keep track of each and every transaction upon a large network and know what money is coming and going at any time of the day merely by implementing a query in the software.

Cash management software can do things such as:

• Manage the bank’s vaults
• Manage transactions
• Manage cash forecasting for management optimization
• Manage reports and utilities

The people that develop software of this magnitude have an exquisite talent for compiling code that will have the ability to run an application that controls millions of client applications and keeps track of all of the activity within the network.

Managing cash with technology leaves much less room for mistakes because of human error by using artificial intelligence with learning capabilities to help with the function of the software.

Much more than one person taking notes and using a calculator of sorts to count money, the software uses code that is crafted by geniuses to not only count and keep track of every penny that goes into and goes out of the system but to also be able to make decisions based on what customers have done and how money has moved in the past.

Since every step of the way is recorded and kept track of it is easy and plain as day to see if there are any issues and where the issues could have originated from.

The Central Hub of Information

Where all of the software that manages banks is used from a cloud-based structure there is a virtual platform that is a hub that centralizes the entire establishment’s activity. Administrators will log into a platform that has a user interface that allows access to information regarding specifics of the entire network.

It is not as if the entire source of the bank is located in one specific place where it can sit around and be vulnerable, but the cloud-based information can be accessed by an interface that centralizes the information and commands.

Each branch will have its own area for management, but the entire bank can be accessed through one portal that connects all of the branches together and paints a picture of the total assets combined within all of the branches, everywhere.

When a bank in California has a withdrawal of one million dollars, the bank of Spain will automatically be synced regarding the number of assets that are available at any given moment within the entire network. The software will not only keep track of all of the money in all of the accounts, but it will also keep a real-time record of everything that goes on throughout all of the transactions.

Watching Out for Criminals

Since banks are the place where the money of the world is kept they are very much targeted by criminals on a daily basis. It is safe to assume that every bank that is in existence on the planet earth is continually, relentlessly being attacked and tried by hackers from all over the world. The scary thing about that is that there is a possibility, at all times, that the hackers will be successful in their endeavors and get all of the money that they can possibly squeeze away from the institution.

The software that the banks use to manage the cash needs to be smarter than the criminals that are trying to get into it. Developers and administrators always need to stay one step ahead of the criminals that work every day to steal money from the banks.

The software that a bank counts on for the safety of the money in the bank has to be strong and sophisticated enough to keep criminals out of the system and prevent them from ever draining anybody’s account.

Developers install several methods of security while creating the software. In addition to the overall structure of the software, there are a number of additional physical aspects of security as well.

Conclusion

Needless to say, software that banks use has to be built by professionals that know what they are doing but are trustworthy enough not to create a backdoor to the program that allows them free reign over the banks that use the software. When it comes to this kind of application there is no reason for skimping or trying to cut corners. Cheap solutions can result in expensive problems down the road.