As the U.S. economy slowly picks up steam, cash and cash-flow forecasting remain critical concerns for finance and treasury operations. More than a fifth (21%) of the senior finance executives who responded to Treasury & Risk's 2012 Strategic Treasury survey say cash-flow forecasting was the area most relevant to making their job more strategic over the past year, up from 14% in 2011. Squeezing more cash out of operations was cited as the top response to the sluggish economy by 66% of senior finance executives, up from 57% in last year's survey. And liquidity management was the top contender in areas where executives expect to realize the most efficiencies in the coming year, cited by 40% of respondents.