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Saving Time, Saving Money
UK-based Triton Consulting uses Cash Gauge for Cash Forecasting
When companies need to forecast their cash flow, they don't want to wait around. They want instant gratification:
immediate access to real-time, interactive models. Triton Consulting, of the United Kingdom, turned to Cash Gauge
Software for more effective cash flow forecasts.
That meant the ability to: move payment or invoice information to new dates by dragging and dropping;
recalculate cash flow forecasts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, without having to change, re-key or save data;
and import cash flow data from existing Excel spreadsheets.
Gaining Business Insight
Employing a company's current accounts receivable and accounts payable invoice data, Cash Gauge is
optimized for the generation and analysis of detailed, up-to-date cash projections. The software places
each invoice into a forecasted payment date column, calculated using either the invoice due date or a
projected days-to-pay that can vary by customer and vendor. Using "drag and drop" functionality, data can
be moved from one projected column to another to reflect current payment assumptions.
Once realistic cash forecasts are prepared, colorful graphs can be displayed or printed in Cash Gauge to
help management see its upcoming cash flow. Reports can also be produced with the detail to support those graphs,
and the reports can be exported to Microsoft Excel for easy distribution to co-workers and lenders. Cash Gauge
supports an unlimited number of forecast models so clients can easily produce more pessimistic or optimistic scenarios.
This flexibility and drag and drop functionality is a far cry from the Excel spreadsheets Triton previously used.
An IT consultancy, Triton had developed fairly sophisticated spreadsheets for its cash forecasts. However, these
spreadsheets made it difficult to move invoices across expected payment dates, which is essential to avoid
time-consuming data-entry. What's more, there was no way to change the length or granularity of the forecasting period.
Bottom line, cash management was becoming too burdensome using this method.
Triton evaluated other products before settling on Cash Gauge, but the problem with all of them was that their price
didn't represent value relative to Triton's needs, or they were too basic in their functionality. For example, some
vendors only offered expensive multi-user licenses. Other software, available for a free download trial, was far
more affordable, but proved to be little more than basic cash models that lacked the flexibility Triton required. And
the 'cash flow forecast' facility provided by Triton's accounts receivable vendor was inadequate for the company's needs:
expense data had to be generated from averages of preceding transactions (not useful to Triton) or input manually (also
of little interest).
Empowering Corporate Decisions
Triton was immediately drawn to Cash Gauge because of the company's quick Product Tour on its website (www.cashgauge.com)
and clear, affordable pricing. The ability to download the Cash Gauge product for evaluation also was a critical factor.
"We were impressed by how easily we were able to get started with the evaluation version of Cash Gauge," said Stuart Moore,
finance director, at Triton Consulting. He trained himself, using the on-line manual and demonstration data in the download
trial version. "I had a few questions, which I e-mailed to Cash Gauge Customer Support, and quickly got good answers.
Cash Gauge helped me set up my first import, and then I was off and running," Moore said.
Triton has leveraged Cash Gauge to reduce by approximately 50 percent the time required for monthly cash flow updates.
The ability of Cash Gauge to generate short and long-term cash forecasts, with different periods of time, also is a
tremendous help in determining whether to follow-through on the consultancy's business plans. Additionally, the Cash Gauge
export facility allows Triton to easily provide its board of directors with forecasts, downloaded into Excel, for weekly use,
and for monthly board meetings and bi-annual strategic meetings.
"As an IT solutions, services and education company, accurate cash forecasting is essential in determining the ability of
the company to respond to business won by our sales department, and in deciding our degree of investment in training, and
research and development projects," said Moore. "It also allows us to budget effectively and invest funds that we can
see are not required in the short term. With poor cash forecasting, we risk incurring credit fees, and not having essential
information on hand, in order to respond quickly to requests for bid."
About Triton Consulting
Triton Consulting aims to be the leading provider of independent, high quality, value added, Information Management solutions
and services, consistently providing dependability, technical excellence and value for money to each of its clients.
As a highly focused, independent Information Management solutions and technical services provider, Triton is able to
supply exceptional individuals to assist organizations in addressing their most pressing IT issues. As an IBM Business Partner,
the firm is ideally placed to stay up to date with all of the very latest developments in IBM's flagship information management
products. Triton Consulting has a proven track record in helping companies with household names address a wide variety of
strategic, technical and managerial issues, from wide-ranging strategy reviews to detailed performance modeling and tuning.
To learn more about Triton Consulting and the services it offers, visit Triton online at
www.triton.co.uk.
About Cash Gauge Software, Inc.
Cash Gauge Software, Inc., was founded to help organizations gain greater control over their cash flow. Its flagship software,
called Cash Gauge, provides CFOs, controllers, treasury managers, and financial analysts with the easy-to-use tools they
need to create complete, accurate and timely cash flow projections. Cash Gauge Software is privately held and headquartered
in Princeton, NJ. For more information, or to download a free copy of the software for a 30-day trial, visit Cash Gauge Software
online at www.cashgauge.com.
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