Treasury decision making is getting better, aided by reports that key on real drivers and present actionable analyses. However, a survey of practitioners shows the most useful reports are not necessarily high-tech, vendor-delivered or graphically sophisticated, but homegrown and highly tailored.

Using a Kyriba treasury workstation and several applications built in-house, $1.5 billion Fifth & Pacific (formerly Liz Claiborne) in New York now tightly manages borrowings under its asset-backed line of credit, reports John Engeman, assistant treasurer and vice president. Separate cash, debt and borrowing base forecasts are combined into a "borrowing base availability forecast that predicts how much we can borrow without jeopardizing availability covenants," he says. "This report is reviewed regularly with the CFO and used to plan the amounts and timing of cash flows."

At $1.8 billion REI in Kent, Wash., a homegrown and largely manual compilation of vendor terms and discounts influences key decisions, says corporate treasurer Russell Paquette. With information scattered in multiple files, formats and systems, a holistic strategy and consistent application of policy was impossible. The tool at first relied on manual input into a spreadsheet but has been semi-automated by a new ERP system. One result, Paquette says, was to enable REI to "negotiate for early payment discounts where we found vendors already had accelerated terms and [to] standardize terms and discounts across multiple departments purchasing from the same vendor."