Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, London-based learning provider Pearson realized it needed to update its cash forecasting processes. "We provide educational content and assessments for around 160 million learners in more than 150 countries around the world," explains group treasurer James Kelly. "We offer materials and services for many different facets of education—from public school curricula to language testing for immigration services. Through all our business units, we help learners improve their lives."

It's noble work that results in a business with many moving parts, which complicates forecasting. "There are some businesses where cash flows are super predictable, but at Pearson, our different business units have very different working capital dynamics, and cash flows can be difficult to predict," Kelly explains. "In the medium term, we have a good record of converting profit to cash flow, but on a day-to-day basis, profit and net cash flow are not necessarily correlated."

Historically, Pearson relied on the business units to forecast what they expected their cash flows to be. However, in 2020, as some geographies moved to a shared-services model, the decentralized forecasting became less sustainable. "The people remaining in the business units had less bandwidth for treasury tasks," Kelly says.