Use case: Data insights and visualisation

"The power of data visualisation: an interactive dashboard based on information from intercompany positions and transactions that contain multiannual trends for a world-wide operating service provider."

Client challenge

A large service organization has the desire to gain more frequent insight into the financial intercompany transactions, payments, receipts and achieved exchange rate results within Europe.

Translating these insights into valuable information will allow the client to identify at an early stage that cash positions are declining or rising excessively high. It is very important for the client to maintain an optimal cash position, as every position is subject to interest and the company in the Netherlands also pays interest on its cash position to the subsidiary in the United States.

Approach

The Smart Automation and Quantitative Solutions team has developed a plan of approach for a visual representation of these transitions and positions, in which even multiannual trends are shown. Accordingly, the client can identify whether or not there are any periodical agreements in transactions and if they should preventively retain cash.

To obtain a detailed view of current cash positions and transactions, an analysis is performed based on an automated data extraction from the client’s ERP system.

Result

The current outcome is the first step towards more real-time insight into cash flows. The client has more control over the quantity of intercompany transactions per entity and related interest amounts. In addition, the client can analyze transactions aggregated per entity and drill down into the dashboard for analyses on a daily basis. Moreover, the data analysis has resulted in an accurate preparation of the corporate income tax return that covers a large part of the interest income and expenses.