Imagine trying to forecast liquidity or mitigate fraud risk with only part of the picture – and no clear way to communicate or collaborate with the rest of the treasury and finance team.  That’s the daily reality for many finance departments.  This poor communication is putting organizations at risk.

According to the 2025 Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) Treasury Benchmarking Survey, nearly every treasury professional agrees that communication is essential.  But a significant gap exists between the perceived importance of communication and how effectively it’s happening.  Treasury leaders, managers, and staff are all falling short – and the consequences are growing.

Why the urgency?  Treasury’s role is more critical – and more visible – than ever.  With rising interaction with the CFO, increased responsibility for risk mitigation and forecasting, and mounting pressure to do more with less, treasury can’t afford communication breakdowns.  It’s time to face a hard truth: manual processes and fragmented systems are holding treasury and finance back. 

Treasury automation is the way forward.  This article explains why.

The Communication Challenge in Treasury

The 2025 AFP Treasury Benchmarking Survey lays bare a serious disconnect between communication expectations and reality:

• 96 percent of treasury professionals believe communication is a critical skill.
• Nearly 50 percent of treasury professionals have yet to experience increased collaboration with accounts payable (AP) and the CFO/C-suite in the past two years.

Treasury is playing a larger role in projects tied to payments fraud, liquidity forecasting, automation, and transformation – yet it’s struggling to communicate effectively with the stakeholders who rely on its insights.  Without strong communication, treasury risks misalignment, operational inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.  As the pace of change accelerates, even small miscommunications can snowball into costly errors or stalled initiatives that set the entire organization back.

How Manual and Fragmented Systems Undermine Communication

Treasury and finance teams are too often stuck using outdated, disconnected tools that make it difficult to share accurate data, collaborate efficiently, or respond quickly to new demands.  

Here’s how these systems are getting in the way:

• Siloed data.  When treasury operates in different systems, data becomes fragmented across platforms.  This creates version control issues, slows decision-making, and erodes trust in the accuracy of reports.  Teams spend more time chasing and reconciling data than analyzing it.
• Delayed insights.  Manually collecting and manipulating data in spreadsheets takes time – and by the time forecasts or reports are ready, the data may already be outdated.  Delays like these prevent real-time collaboration and make it harder to respond to market shifts or business needs.  Worse, delayed insights can lead to decisions based on stale information, undermining treasury’s ability to guide the organization with confidence.
• Fragmented tech.  Many organizations still rely on a patchwork of legacy tools with limited integration.  For example, bank and investment data often reside on separate platforms, forcing staff to manually consolidate information. Without connectivity, treasury can’t easily communicate insights, share forecasts, or collaborate on initiatives with other stakeholders.
• Email and ad hoc communication.  When there’s no centralized system for task management and workflow, treasury and finance professionals rely on emails, chats, or shared drives.  Important updates get buried in inboxes, responsibilities become unclear, information is lost, and miscommunication thrives – especially across distributed teams.
• Limited auditability and compliance oversight.  Manual processes and disconnected systems make it difficult to track who did what, when, and why – creating gaps in audit trails and increasing the risk of non-compliance.  Treasury teams often struggle to ensure alignment with internal financial and investment policies, especially when documentation and approvals are scattered across emails or spreadsheets.  This lack of visibility increases regulatory and reputational risk.  Without a clear and centralized record of activity, responding to audits or demonstrating policy adherence becomes time-consuming and error prone.

Unless treasury breaks free from these fragmented, manual processes, communication failures will continue to erode trust, delay decisions, and put the organization at financial and operational risk.

How Treasury Automation Bridges the Communication Gap

Modern treasury automation platforms – like Treasury Curve – are purpose-built to improve data visibility, collaboration, and communication across the treasury and finance function.  Here’s how:

• Real-time access to data.  Automated treasury platforms consolidate bank account and investment data into one centralized dashboard.  Everyone – from treasury staff to CFOs – can view the same up-to-date financial data, eliminating confusion and aligning decisions.  Integration with banks, ERPs, and custodians ensures that data flows smoothly and securely, reducing the need for manual uploads and minimizing the risk of errors or omissions.
• Automated workflows.  Treasury automation standardizes approval processes, task routing, and information sharing.  Structured workflows make it easy for treasury and finance to coordinate efforts, assign responsibilities, and stay aligned – without relying on email. 
• Standardized reporting and dashboards.  Automation treasury platforms deliver real-time, customizable reports that present key metrics in a consistent, visual format.  Dashboards eliminate the guesswork and reduce back-and-forth by ensuring all stakeholders are seeing the same story – instantly and clearly.  Executive dashboards give finance leaders a high-level view of the organization’s financial standing, enabling faster, more informed decisions.
• Faster, more accurate forecasting.   Automated data aggregation and modeling tools speed up the creation of forecasts while improving accuracy.  Treasury teams can spend less time gathering and validating data, and more time communicating strategic recommendations and partnering with finance leaders on the next steps.  With seamless access to real-time cash and investment data, teams can generate rolling forecasts that are continuously updated – ensuring decisions are based on the most current and complete financial picture.
• Greater compliance and audit readiness.  Automated treasury management systems ensure that all actions, approvals, and communications are logged and traceable.  This not only reduces risk but also promotes transparency and accountability – critical elements for strong interdepartmental communication and effective leadership.  Built-in controls and audit trails help treasury and finance teams enforce policies, monitor exceptions, and meet regulatory and internal compliance requirements with greater ease and confidence.

Organizations at the top maturity level in the AFP survey – those considered “strategic/optimized” – are embracing automation at scale.  These organizations don’t just work more efficiently – they communicate more effectively, collaborate more frequently, and drive greater value across finance.

Stop Letting Poor Communication Derail Strategic Treasury

The gap between the importance and effectiveness of communication in treasury is unsustainable.  With growing expectations and increasing complexity, treasury can’t continue to rely on spreadsheets, email threads, and outdated technology.  Automation transforms the way treasury teams communicate, collaborate, and drive strategic outcomes.  It’s key to breaking down silos, improving insights, and empowering treasury leaders to speak the same language as finance and the C-suite.

If your treasury function is struggling to communicate, Treasury Curve can help.

Contact us now to get started on your journey to safer, more reliable treasury management.