Finance is a continuous and rapidly evolving industry. Technology, regulatory requirements, and obligations to our taxpayers or higher-ed stakeholders are at the forefront of policy considerations.
In today’s vlog we discuss the importance of investing in the education of our finance officials. Professional development is vital to the success of your finance office and your entity.
There’s no one way to manage cash. Different banks, investment advisors, and financial advisors have their own approaches and perspectives in the management of short-term cash.
However, there is one essential in managing short-term cash: to manage all cash as a revenue-generating asset. You must keep in mind that cash is not linear, but rather multi-dimensional, with different purposes, both in time and value.
Cash is multi-dimensional, with different purposes, both in time and value.
The ability to capture the ebbs and flows of all cash is in the data. Cash patterns are similar to human behaviors since humans are the ones who are conducting the timing of transactions. The genuine need for cash is often far different than when you thinkyou need it. The patterns detected through the data will show actual needs vs. assumed ones.
The cashvest® platform by three+one® is the first of its kind in the public and higher Ed marketplace. It looks at every individual banking transaction, thus detecting the flows of cash through an entity’s financial systems, and then matches it as the cash flows through your bank’s systems. It’s through cashvest® that patterns surface, enabling unparalleled liquidity management. This level of data puts the power of managing your cash in your hands and the financial institutions that manage your cash.
The strength of liquidity analysis and data leads to a greater precision of knowing when you need cash and how to best maximize its value in the marketplace.
Yes, there are different methods to managing cash. But now there is one definitive way to identify all of your cash’s investment potential. That is cashvest® by three+one®.
It’s already happening! Banks and advisors are setting expectations with clients for more upcoming rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. These will lead to lower deposit rates and yields on short-term cash for next year.
As mentioned in prior blogs, you shouldn’t fall into the trap that lower interest rates mean that the value of cash cannot be a valuable revenue-generating asset.
The right data will enable you to plan on making more interest income next year.
A number of public and higher-Ed institutions keep more cash than necessary on the sidelines, so liquid that the cash becomes dormant. Doing so leads to a lost opportunity in creating or preserving interest income.
There are three steps you should take to make more interest income on your cash, even in a declining interest-rate environment.
First, have a liquidity analysis performed by three+one®. Keep in mind that a liquidity analysis is far different from a cash flow analysis. Looking at all financial transactions from an entity’s perspective—and comparing each transaction that flows through its financial institutions—will lead to valuable data for all parties involved. The more information you have when you actually need cash, not just when you think you need it, will create a level of confidence as you seek to put all cash to work.
Second, the time horizon of short-term cash will allow you to understand the value of cash in the marketplace. All cash has value, whether for a day or for two or more years. Having the confidence to make the decision is a matter of having the necessary information at hand. Our proprietary cashvest® platform can provide you with all the data you need to manage your cash, while also providing a road map to your financial institutions, with sound advice in the management of deposits or investments.
Third, trust the data. While short-term interest rates may rise or fall, the ability to leverage the time value of your cash will allow you to capture or preserve interest income on all cash. In doing so, you should have confidence in what the data is telling you. The ability to have accurate information at your fingertips will allow you to make timely investment decisions with your financial institutions, while always having access to cash when it is needed.
This is the time to start preparing for next year. Let our cashvest® platform provide you with the accurate liquidity data necessary to put all of your cash to work. You’ll be taking advantage of the time value of all cash and preserving your interest income.
Having the right data will enable you to instruct your financial institutions on the steps you plan to take to make more interest income next year. That’s better than having them tell you to expect lower-interest earnings.
cashvest® by three+one® is here to help you demonstrate that kind of confidence.
Across the country, local public entities find themselves in the same predicament: trying to do more with fewer resources, smaller staffs, and greater demands.
In today’s environment, these issues are virtually universal, in cities, towns, villages, and school districts within a given county—and adjacent counties.
On top of these constraints is a steady stream of unfunded federal and state mandates that public entities must implement, with ever fewer dollars to cover day-to-day overhead expenses.
It should come as no surprise that more and more entities are looking to work together to eliminate duplication of services and reduce unnecessary overhead. As a result, shared-services initiatives are gaining popularity, ranging from public works, public safety, self-insured healthcare plans, and cooperative purchasing programs.
The ability to join forces can have an immediate and beneficial financial impact. The one impediment is jurisdiction of control. Entities involved in sharing services should have a long-term perspective of outcome and address this clearly upfront—and in writing.
The need to consider or expand shared services may not be desirable, but rather an absolute necessity to survive. This is especially true for smaller entities within larger jurisdictions. In the minds of taxpayers, a proper business attitude is to be applied, rather than an emotional wrestling match over control.
Under a shared-services agreement, the concern of lost identity should not be raised; the initiative is a joint effort in providing/receiving services for the participants’ mutual benefit. In general, the initiatives should focus on saving money and/or generating revenue.
Here are 5 financial shared-service initiatives to consider:
1. Conducting a universal banking services Request for Proposal. A banking RFP would create a large volume of buying power to use in negotiating competitive pricing on bank fees and deposit rates. A collaboration like this could include villages, towns, cities, school districts, and the county government, all at once. The end result could lead to hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars in savings and or additional interest income. rfpPrep® by three+one® is the first-ever electronic banking RFP (Request for Proposal) service, entirely online and specifically designed to facilitate the bidding of banking services. Visit our rfpPrep site for more resources.
2. County governments can be a source of purchasing the short-term paper of related entities as they come to market. As local villages, towns, and school districts issue Bond Anticipation Notes (BAN) or Tax Anticipations Notes (TAN), a county could be a bidder of such notes, as allowed by legal statutes, for investment purposes. As such, the county can be an additional bidder, helping to lead to lower rates and greater competitive pricing on cash for investment.
3. Counties can provide additional resources and expertise through their finance offices in helping smaller local entities identify and manage their cash. It would still be expected that associated entities would control their cash, but alleviate the stress associated in identifying and investing cash.
4. Combining technology efforts can be effective and beneficial both in financial and banking transactions, especially in the flow and protection of collections and payments.
5. Finally, consider consolidating tax collection. In the future, all tax collections will be automated. The need to have a counter or have the control of check collection will become obsolete. Having one point of contact for tax payment and options payment can lead to major personnel and banking cost savings.
Sharing services can be pathway to strengthening the financial well-being of all those involved. Let three+one help you in setting up and managing your shared-services initiatives. What may seem as a major undertaking can be simplified with through our proprietary liquidity analysis and modeling capabilities.
As always, our mission is to help public entities to do more in serving their communities.
While we have seen increases in interest income since the Fed started raising (or normalizing) the Federal Funds rate since late 2017, this period of normalization has many public finance personnel searching for the right cash allocations. Between 2008 and 2015, the Fed kept rates at essentially zero, so the current environment of relentless rate movement is new and brings new opportunities, new questions, and new challenges.
Here are six ways to maximize the value on your entity’s cash no matter what the Fed does:
1. Leverage the ability to take advantage of what the yield curve has to offer today. Count on what can be counted. If you play the market, you risk making an inaccurate move. Counting on data and the opportunities the market holds today preserves interest income. For example, identify the time-horizon opportunities on every dollar deposited at each of your banks. Once those durations have been time tested, take advantage of the time-deposit and fixed-income opportunities available to you in order to preserve interest income no matter what the Fed does.
2. Know what cash you need to be liquid but, more importantly, know what cash you don’t need to be liquid. Liquidity is a vital part of public-financial management, but keeping all funds in a demand-deposit account, money-market fund, or the like, can prevent the public from realizing the benefits liquidity data can bring in interest for the next five years. Many remember what happened in 2008 when the Fed lowered rates and the value on cash that had been kept with 100% liquidity dwindled to nil.
3. Know your options and understand where you fall with your peers. Depending on your state’s laws, you could have many options: deposit placements (ICS, CDARS, etc.), fixed income, cooperative investments, CDs, money funds, and more. One opportunity does not fit all. Knowing how your entity’s cash performance stacks up against your peers is invaluable to knowing that you are creating additional value off the value the public creates through tax dollars.
4. Do not separate a cash-management (treasury-services) plan from an “investment plan.” In 2019, your entity’s investment plan and treasury-management plan should be heavily integrated, even more so as rates fluctuate. This will differ depending on your bank, your budget size, the time horizon of your cash, and the availability of your staff.
5. Maximize the value of your banking relationships. Understand the benefits your entity’s cash provides to your banks, your investment managers, etc. Even in a plateauing rate environment, your cash has considerable value!
6. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Considering all the responsibilities public servants have to juggle, it’s impossible for them to undertake every accounting, financing, budgeting, treasury, and human-resources challenge by themselves. It is also not always possible to add additional personnel to lessen the burden on yourself or your current staff. Bring your staff together and have a frank conversation about what is possible to undertake, what is not, and what outside experts you can bring in to help.
Lastly, if you have questions on any of these points, please reach out to the team at three+one®. We’re here to help—and always welcome hearing your questions and concerns.