The Business Case Builder: How to Get Your CFO to Approve Better Treasury Tools

Treasury-approved steps to highlight risks, quantify the cost, and pilot a fix.

This playbook is built for treasury and finance professionals who are deep in the day-to-day reporting work and need a better way to show why the current setup isn’t working.

Here for the framework? Jump to the step-by-step guide »

If disconnected systems, manual reconciliations, and delayed reports are part of your normal workflow, you know that fixing it often takes more than extra hours or clever workarounds. It usually requires buy-in—from the CFO, from adjacent teams, and from the broader organization.

That’s where this playbook comes in.

tl;dr: Building a Business Case for Treasury Software

The goal: Prove why treasury needs better tools—and how it supports the business.

What to do:

  1. Define what’s broken
  2. Quantify the impact
  3. Tie it to risk, growth, or transformation
  4. Involve stakeholders
  5. Build a pilot and roadmap
  6. Show ROI with real numbers
  7. Position treasury as strategic

Inside, you’ll find a clear structure for:

  • Mapping where the breakdowns are happening
  • Measuring the time and cost of manual work
  • Connecting operational delays to strategic risk
  • Building a straightforward business case
  • Recommending a pilot that’s realistic, not disruptive

This will help you have a better conversation and not a louder one. One grounded in data, risk, and opportunity. One that moves the discussion from “Why does reporting take so long?” to “How can we make this better?”

You don’t need to overhaul everything. But you do need a starting point. This is it!

 

Your Dashboards May Be Incomplete

Many finance teams rely on dashboards and systems to track activity across accounts, departments, and time periods. But key operational questions like these often remain unresolved:

  • Why does the cash balance fluctuate unexpectedly?
  • Has a large receivable been processed?
  • Which version of the forecast should be considered final?

When these questions require manual intervention, it typically reflects underlying gaps in data integration and process design—not a lack of data or effort.

 

Fragmented Systems Impair Financial Strategy

In most organizations, financial data is distributed across multiple platforms: tax, treasury, accounting, legal, and operations. Each function may maintain its own reports, spreadsheets, and systems. This leads to challenges such as:

  • Delays in identifying trends or anomalies
  • Forecasts that vary depending on the source
  • Internal reporting that lacks consistency or verification

The result is that more time is spent assembling reports than using them to drive decisions.

 

A Larger Stack Doesn’t Guarantee Better Outcomes

Expanding the finance tech stack is often intended to increase efficiency and visibility. However, without centralized data structures and shared workflows, complexity like these increases. For example:

  • Copy-pasting between tools introduces error and inconsistency
  • Multiple versions of the same report make collaboration difficult
  • Ad hoc refreshes and exports reduce confidence in the data

A high volume of tools does not necessarily result in better answers. In many cases, it contributes to confusion and inefficiency.

 

Inconsistent Data Erodes Trust

When the origin of a number is unclear, stakeholders may begin to question the validity of the data. Over time, this affects more than just reports. It can lead to:

  • Delayed project approvals
  • Reduced capital allocation
  • Hesitation in decision-making processes

Ultimately, data that lacks visibility weakens the strategic function of treasury and finance.

Reports CFOs Frequently Need—But Rarely Receive

These are the core reports that CFOs consistently rely on:

  • Cash visibility: Current balances by account and entity
  • Collections: Payment timing and outstanding receivables
  • Cash movement: A statement of actual inflows and outflows
  • Bank fees: Monitoring cost efficiency
  • Forecasting: Anticipating shortfalls or variances

When systems are fragmented, it can take hours—or days—to consolidate this information across entities and platforms. The reporting may exist, but not in a way that enables confident, timely decision-making.

 

How to Build a Business Case for Fixing It

Now we get to the good part—A step-by-step process to help you quantify the impact of disconnected systems and make the case for improvement.

 

Making the Strategic Business Case

Connecting treasury improvements—whether tools, structure, or services—to your organization’s bigger goals isn’t just helpful. It’s essential. A business case isn’t about listing features. It’s about clearly demonstrating how your proposal enables smarter decisions, mitigates risk, supports growth, and strengthens financial control across the business.

A compelling case doesn’t simply mention strategy. It ties the initiative directly to business imperatives—especially in areas like:

  • Risk Management
    If your FX forecasts are routinely off-target, that’s not just a forecasting issue—it’s a risk exposure issue that can materially impact performance. Missed hedging thresholds, overconfidence in unreliable data, and variance outside your risk appetite aren’t just operational concerns. They’re events that can affect market valuation.
  • Business Growth and Expansion
    If your company is scaling quickly through acquisitions, yet your treasury headcount remains nearly flat, it’s worth showing how modern systems could enable continued growth without adding more people—or compromising control.

Before finalizing your business case, pressure-test it. Bring in outside perspectives—internal leadership, trusted peers, vendors, mentors, or consultants. Their input helps identify weak points and sharpen the messaging. You’ll also benefit from socializing the proposal ahead of time, which increases your chance of a receptive hearing when the time comes.

Now, on to how to actually build it.

 

Build the Business Case: Step-by-StepGuide

 

1. Define the Business Need

Start by identifying what treasury is unable to do today—then link that to broader business impacts.

Examples:

  • Is cash positioning delayed because balances aren’t visible in real time?
  • Are FX exposures poorly hedged due to inconsistent data from multiple entities?
  • Is the team spending more time formatting reports than analyzing trends?

The goal isn’t to highlight operational inefficiencies alone—it’s to show how those inefficiencies affect decision quality, risk posture, and financial agility.

Deliverable: A clearly written Problem Statement + Strategic Impact Brief

  • 1–2 paragraphs describing the operational limitation
  • A short bullet list tying that limitation to business-level consequences (e.g. decision delays, risk exposure, growth friction)

 

2. Quantify Impact Where You Can

ROI still matters. But modern treasury ROI isn’t just about productivity gains. Focus on tangible, value-driving areas like:

  • Cash optimization: Estimate the difference between idle cash earning minimal interest and that same cash being invested, used to reduce debt, or deployed more strategically.
  • FX management: Show how improved visibility and timing in FX execution can reduce volatility impacts on the balance sheet.
  • Bank fee reduction: Demonstrate how visibility into bank account usage and service fees can lead to lower costs or better consolidated banking structures.
  • Working capital gains: Highlight the potential impact of faster, more accurate data on payables, receivables, and internal liquidity decisions.

These are areas where real financial value can be tracked over time—and CFOs will expect those estimates.

Deliverable: An ROI Estimation Model (v1)

  • Spreadsheet with assumptions and estimates for cash optimization, FX improvement, fee reduction, etc.
  • Notes on sources, benchmarks, and confidence levels

 

3. Include Qualitative Benefits—But Frame Them Thoughtfully

Some benefits are harder to measure but still highly relevant. These may include:

  • Stronger fraud controls through centralized data and pattern monitoring
  • Improved compliance with IT and information security policies
  • Greater confidence in decision-making due to reduced errors and rework
  • Closer alignment across treasury, accounting, and FP&A teams

While you may not assign exact dollar values to these areas, explain how they contribute to operational integrity, scalability, and strategic planning.

Deliverable:Qualitative Benefit Summary

  • A slide or short doc outlining intangible but strategic benefits
  • Categories: fraud risk, decision trust, compliance alignment, team focus
  • Where possible, include real anecdotes or internal examples

 

4. Align with Timing and Transformation Initiatives

A strong business case is rarely just about the system itself. It succeeds when it fits into something larger: a company-wide transformation effort, a digital upgrade, a cost-control initiative, or a strategic response to external volatility.

If the company is facing rising interest rates, macro disruptions, or is rethinking its banking structure—position the system as a tool that helps respond with precision. If you’re undergoing internal transformation or expanding globally, highlight how a modern platform supports those initiatives with shared access, standardized workflows, and centralized control.

Deliverable:Strategic Alignment Map

  • A 1-page timeline or slide showing how this project supports other initiatives (e.g. ERP rollouts, cost reduction programs, global expansion, etc.)

 

5. Involve Cross-Functional Stakeholders Early

Treasury rarely operates alone. Connect with accounting, FP&A, IT, and your banking partners to ensure the business case reflects broader needs and requirements. Their input will help you:

  • Validate system integration needs
  • Surface security, compliance, or data-sharing concerns
  • Strengthen the case with operational pain points outside of treasury

It also shows the CFO that this isn’t a narrow request—it’s a coordinated improvement.

Deliverable:Stakeholder Input Summary

  • List of contributors (accounting, IT, etc.)
  • Short summary of input or concerns from each
  • Any support or quotes you can later reuse in your case

 

6. Be Specific About ROI Measures

When calculating ROI, prioritize benefits that can be tracked and verified post-onboarding. Common examples include:

  • Reduction in days required to complete cash forecasting
  • Cost savings from streamlining banking relationships
  • Yield gains from improved investment timing
  • Error rate reductions or reconciliations completed in less time

Avoid over-relying on general productivity metrics like “X hours saved per month.” Instead, describe how time saved will be repurposed—for example, to conduct deeper variance analysis or run more timely investment scenarios.

Deliverable:Refined ROI Model (v2)

  • Updated spreadsheet with final assumptions, added metrics, and clarification on time vs hard-dollar ROI
  • Section showing how post-implementation ROI will be tracked (e.g. before/after KPIs)

 

7. Build a Pilot and a Blueprint

Instead of pitching a full system overhaul, propose a focused rollout. This could include:

  • Consolidating global cash visibility across entities
  • Automating FX exposure reporting
  • Streamlining bank fee analysis or cash forecasting

Pair the pilot with a broader roadmap: current state → desired state → actions required to close the gap. Use that roadmap to define milestones, timelines, and who needs to be involved. Make it easy for the CFO to visualize how this scales—and what early success looks like.

Deliverable:Pilot Plan + Treasury Blueprint Slide

  • A brief pilot scope doc (objectives, timeline, who’s involved)
  • A simple visual map of current state to future state with system touchpoints and process changes

 

8. Position Treasury as a Strategic Function

Treasury’s role has evolved. In many organizations, it’s shifting from cost center to strategic partner. The business case should reflect that.

  • Show how better data access supports enterprise-level planning
  • Link treasury visibility to board-level risk oversight
  • Demonstrate how system improvements reduce dependencies on legacy infrastructure and manual workarounds

This is about enabling smarter, faster, and safer decisions—across the business, not just in treasury.

Deliverable:Strategic Messaging Slide

  • 3–4 bullet points that translate treasury outcomes into C-level priorities (e.g. improved board reporting, better investment decisions, risk mitigation)
  • Designed to drop into your pitch deck

 

9. Support with Benchmarks and External Data

Context strengthens credibility. Include industry benchmarks where possible to show how your organization compares on KPIs like DPO, cash visibility, or FX efficiency. If you’re lagging, that’s a clear gap. If you’re on par, the investment can become a competitive advantage.

Where in-house data or resources fall short, consider partnering with a vendor, consultant, or value engineering group to help validate calculations and fill in the gaps.

Deliverable:Benchmark Snapshot + Peer Comparison

  • 1-page summary of key benchmarks (DPO, trapped cash, FX efficiency, etc.)
  • Highlight where your company sits today and what “best in class” looks like

 

10. Treat the Business Case as a Living Document

The business case isn’t just a one-time presentation. It sets the foundation for system selection, stakeholder alignment, implementation planning, and post-launch evaluation.

Make sure it includes:

  • A phased implementation plan
  • A timeline for measurable benefits
  • A resource plan and stakeholder map
  • A mechanism for tracking ROI post-launch

This not only helps win approval—it ensures that everyone involved stays aligned throughout the project.

Deliverable:Final Business Case Packet

  • Includes: Executive summary, ROI model, qualitative benefits, strategic fit, pilot plan, and measurement framework
  • Optional: implementation roadmap with key milestones and owners

 

Closing Thoughts: More Than a System

At its core, this playbook is not just about securing approval for a tool. It’s about reestablishing what treasury is here to do.

Treasury doesn’t just manage numbers—it manages uncertainty. It converts complexity into clarity. It sits at the intersection of risk, opportunity, and responsibility. And yet, too often, the systems meant to support that work are outdated, disconnected, or undervalued.

Building a business case is a form of advocacy for better decisions, better visibility, and ultimately, better outcomes. It’s about helping your organization not just see its financial position, but understand it, respond to it, and plan from it.

The work of treasury has changed. Expectations have changed. The technology has changed. And now, the case must change too.

So treat this not just as a proposal, but as a turning point. A signal that treasury is ready to lead with insight—not just support with data. Ready to be a strategic partner—not just a processing function. Ready to step forward—with the numbers to prove it.

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