Owning Cash and the Five Os of Treasury

This chapter provides the reason why Treasurers must act as the owners of corporate or entity cash. It describes what owning cash means and provides some prescriptive steps for moving to that position. Being the owner of cash requires clear visibility to cash and all of the influences of cash. This requires appropriate management of bank relationships, structure, and accounts. For many organizations, technology will be required to help achieve this visibility. To effectively manage cash requires the Treasurer and Treasury to understand accounting since they may need to influence recording practices to better control cash. Additionally, the Treasurer must ensure that proper reconciliation steps are performed and controls are established in order to fulfil the responsibility of being a good steward of this most valuable asset.