Cash is King. In many articles, this well-known sentence often arises. Many companies are in trouble due to the current crisis. Often because there is too little cash in reserve. For many companies, it is currently unclear whether they can keep their heads above water. It is therefore not surprising that a lot of attention is paid to how important cash is to an organization. This was a trigger for me to see how easy it is to build a cash flow overview in SAP Analytics Cloud.
Real-time insight into your cashflows with SAP Analytics Cloud
Excel vs. SAP Analytics Cloud
You can of course also quickly put together such a cash flow overview in Excel. But because the cash flow is fed from the entire company and therefore often depends on many different people, I made the choice to build this entirely in SAC. SAP Analytics Cloud offers the possibility to look beyond a simple list of plain numbers. It takes into account all the different departments. The figures used in the overview come directly from those plan models. This makes the overview a lot more dynamic. When an expectation is adjusted at the department level, the impact on cash flow is immediately apparent.
Scenario planning in SAP Analytics Cloud
In SAC it is possible to work with different versions. This makes it easy to put the best and worst-case scenario side by side. It is also possible to compare how the sales forecast and reality differ from each other. This makes the analysis of underlying causes easier. It may of course be the case that problems with a supplier mean that they have to switch to more expensive semi-finished products. Which of course has a direct impact on margins and cash out.
Below I show you how to quickly make an adjustment to purchasing. More expensive materials than usual must be used. The costs per bicycle will therefore increase. By means of the “Data Action Trigger” in SAP Analytics Cloud, these new figures are processed directly in the cash flow model. You are immediately able to analyze the impact on net cash flow from the business results.
A clear overview in SAC
The image below shows the results of the action performed.
Due to the various crisis measures taken by the government, the cash flow model must also be adjusted accordingly. We also remove the calculated taxes from the cash flow, as the payment can be delayed until a later time. The only thing we have to do is to fill in the current bank account position or upload it from your system and then have the bank positions calculated over the upcoming weeks. We can conclude that this company is not in a very good cash position.
More information about SAP Analytics Cloud or how to get started hands-on?
Are you also curious about the possibilities for cash flow planning or business planning in general in SAP Analytics Cloud? You can register for our workshops or other knowledge events about SAC. View our agenda for the most up-to-date schedule.
