Depending on the organization for which he or she works, a treasury manager may have a variety of responsibilities, but the primary one is to manage the organization’s finances. Designing and executing comprehensive financial plans for an organization, raising capital, making budget forecasts, managing funds and investments, directing the treasury department, preparing financial reports for the management team, and more are typical treasury manager responsibilities. In order to stay current with any developments in his or her field, the treasury manager’s job may also require him or her to travel on a regular basis to meet with customers and attend meetings of finance associations.
Organizations, in general, require money to help finance their activities in order to function. As a result, many financial matters may be handled a treasury manager in a typical organization. He or she will be in charge of ensuring that the organization follows a sound financial plan. The plan’s main goal is to lay out how the funds will be raised and how they will be used to achieve the organization’s goals.
The financial plan addresses issues such as the source of funds and their intended use. Borrowing from a bank, for example, could be one of the options. In this case, the manager may be responsible for a variety of tasks in order to secure the bank loan, including negotiating with bank managers about the amount to be borrowed, the interest rate, and the length of time.
Stock and bond issuance are two other options for raising capital. Those who purchase a company’s stock essentially own a piece of the company. Those who purchase bonds are lending money to the company in exchange for a fixed rate of interest and the promise of receiving the principal back after a set period of time. Issuing stocks and bonds, in particular, may necessitate the treasurer working with investment banks to figure out the best way to do so. The treasury manager may also devise risk-management strategies in order to reduce risk in a variety of investments made the company.
A typical financial plan will also include a budget forecast for a specific time period. After that period, the manager, for example, will compare forecasted and actual results, and there may be discrepancies between the two. If the differences are unfavorable, he or she will typically need to determine what is causing the disparity. Following the identification of the causes of the discrepancies between forecasts and actual results, the manager may be better equipped to make better decisions for the following period in order to improve performance.
The treasury manager’s job description in large organizations, for example, may require the manager to use his or her team leader skills to supervise an entire treasury department that is responsible for many financial operations. A team leader could also be a certified treasury manager with industry certification. To earn a professional certification, the treasury manager will have undergone extensive training in virtually every aspect of treasury management.