Surveying the Impact of COVID-19 on Treasury and Finance - Week 8 Insights

Treasury And Cash Management

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Germaine Lang

May 20, 2020

The results from the 8th consecutive week of the Global Crisis Monitor survey are in and the optimistic shift in outlook we saw last week appears to be continuing. This global survey, sponsored by the Treasury Coalition, has been tracking the impact of COVID-19 on treasury and finance operations, with over more than 1000 professionals participating from around the world. New questions this week sought to understand how staffing levels have been affected as well as measure the status of fraud.

As Craig Jeffery, Managing Partner of Strategic Treasurer, explains, “Hindsight is often closer to 20/20, but it arrives too late, like the response of ‘watch your head’ after you have bumped it on the overhead bin. We think that it would be far more helpful to see what others are doing, learning and thinking more rapidly, to get closer to real-time when mid-course adjustments are in order.”

From Crisis to Recovery

Next week the survey will have a new look and take a new direction. Introducing the Global Recovery Monitor, which will switch to a bi-weekly cadence, reflects the more optimistic results we’ve been seeing and focus on recovery efforts as the world begins to slowly reopen economies.

Highlights from Week 8:

  • The Road to Financial Normalcy – for the second week in a row, respondents indicated a shrinking expectation in the amount of time it would take to get back to normal. Now at 8 months, it’s dropped from a high of 11.
  • Accounts Receivable Concerns – this week is the first time we’ve seen a significant positive shift in the perception of accounts receivable, which had been living in extremely negative territory since the start of the survey.
  • Staffing Changes – new this week were questions about staffing levels – what percent of organizations are laying off, maintaining or hiring over certain time frames. Over the past four weeks, 21% of respondents reported laying off employees but looking ahead to three months, 26% stated that they’d be hiring.

Each week, the Treasury Coalition will continue to offer insight into what’s top-of-mind in the treasury and financial industries during the pandemic, and how practitioners are viewing the recovery timeline.

View the full results from the 8th week:

How You Can Help

To be a meaningful resource, the Treasury Coalition needs consistent participation week-to-week from those in the treasury and finance trenches. To add your voice to the results, take the survey here.

Bookmark the link and visit every Thursday for a new question set.Check back here weekly, as SmartPayments.com continues this series and provides real-time results of the Global Crisis Monitory survey and the impact COVID-19 is having on the industry.

Read the first article in this series, featuring an interview with Craig Jeffery, Executive Director, Strategic Treasurer.

Check out previous results articles here:

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Germaine Lang

Germaine Lang is the Managing Editor of SmartPayments with a strong creative and technical writing background across many industries. She also works to engage customers and relate their experiences with vendor products and services, positioning them as innovative thought leaders.
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