Five Signs Your Business Needs a Treasury Framework

Over the past 25 years, I've seen a consistent pattern in mid-market businesses. They grow to a certain point where the informal, spreadsheet-based approach to cash management starts to crack. Here are the five warning signs I look for. 1. You're Checking Multiple Bank Portals Every Morning If your daily cash position requires logging into three or more bank portals, manually noting balances, and compiling them in a spreadsheet — you've outgrown your current approach. This isn't just inefficient; it's risky. The cash picture you're seeing is already stale by the time you've compiled it. What SLOS recommends: A consolidated daily cash position across all entities and banks, updated systematically and available at the start of each day. 2. Your Board Gets Different Cash Numbers From Different People When the CFO, the FD, and the treasury manager each have their own version of the cash position — and none of them match — you have a “truth” problem. This undermines board confidence and leads to poor decision-making. What SLOS recommends: One version of the truth. A single, reconciled data model that everyone draws from. 3. Cash Surprises Keep Happening If you're regularly blindsided by unexpected cash outflows — a tax payment you forgot about, a supplier payment that came early, a loan repayment that fell through the cracks — your forecasting discipline needs work. What SLOS recommends: A 13-week rolling forecast with weekly updates, mapping every material cash flow with its timing. 4. You Can't Connect Profit to Cash The board asks, “We made £3M profit this quarter — where's the cash?” and nobody can give a clear answer. This disconnect between P&L and cash is one of the most common and dangerous gaps in mid-market finance. What SLOS recommends: A long-term view (12-36 months) that explicitly links P&L performance to cash generation through working capital, capex, and financing flows. 5. Everything Depends on One Person If your cash management “system” is really one experienced person who keeps everything in their head (or their personal spreadsheets) — you have a key person risk that could become a crisis overnight. What SLOS recommends: Governance structures with defined roles, documented processes, and regular cadences that any competent finance professional can step into. The Good News None of these problems require an expensive treasury management system to solve. They require a framework — a structured approach to visibility, forecasting, and governance. That's exactly what the Stonerose Liquidity Operating Standard provides. If you recognise three or more of these signs, it's time to get serious about cash management. Start with a maturity assessment and see where you stand on the SLOS framework.