The Treasury Pathfinder
The Situation
Imagine moving from accounting into treasury; we are sure this hits home for quite some of our readers. Now imagine doing it while also being responsible for building the treasury function from scratch.
That was the position facing one Treasury Manager at a scaling B2B SaaS organisation. Treasury had previously existed mainly as a collection of urgent activities within accounting: banking relationships, payments, PSPs and whatever else needed immediate attention.
There was no dedicated function, no established blueprint and plenty to build.
Multiple entities worked with different banks, providers, systems and legacy processes. At the same time, treasury needed to introduce better cash visibility, forecasting, payment structures, banking arrangements and scalable processes.
For a period, it was a one-person treasury team. That meant being both the strategist designing tomorrow’s treasury function and the person making sure today’s payments still worked.
The Challenge
There were plenty of opportunities for improvement, so the true challenge was in deciding what to tackle, when to tackle it, and how hard to push.
Treasury projects rarely depend on treasury alone. Banks have onboarding timelines, PSPs have their own limitations, KYC requirements appear, integrations take longer than expected, and approvals tend to move at different speeds.
For someone relatively new to treasury, it can be difficult to know whether a roadblock is simply normal market practice or something worth challenging.
- Should you negotiate harder?
- Escalate?
- Change provider?
- Accept the constraint and move on?
- And when ten projects all have a valid business case, which one should come first?
Working alone created a steep learning curve.
The Treasury Path Finder had plenty of ambition and drive for knowledge; she just needed some shaping from an experienced second perspective.
The Approach
Through Pecunia, the Treasury Manager began regular mentoring and sparring sessions with Patrick. Rather than following a rigid coaching programme, the conversations stayed practical. Each week, the Treasury Manager brought whichever challenges were most relevant at that moment.
Together, they would explore options, challenge assumptions, benchmark expectations and work through what was realistically achievable.
Topics ranged from banking infrastructure and cash pooling to forecasting technology, external treasury partners and the internal positioning of the treasury function. The support extended beyond the weekly conversations.
When evaluating technology providers, banks or other external partners, Pecunia could provide market perspective, facilitate introductions and, where useful, join selected discussions.
One important example was cash flow forecasting. With the company scaling quickly, implementing a full TMS could easily have looked like the natural next step. The mentoring conversations helped challenge that assumption.
Instead of asking:
“What should a growing treasury department normally buy next?”
the question became:
“What does this treasury function actually need right now?”
That change in perspective helped narrow the options and ultimately supported a more focused technology decision.
There was another lesson too: avoiding the perfectionism trap.
When building treasury from scratch, it is tempting to design the perfect end-state immediately. The coaching encouraged a different mindset:
Create value-> Keep momentum->Refine as you grow.
The Impact
The most important outcome was not one particular system, banking structure or project.
It was better judgement.
Regular access to someone who had worked across different treasury environments, banks, systems and operating models provided perspective that would otherwise take years to accumulate through experience alone.
That helped the Treasury Pathfinder build confidence when dealing with unfamiliar situations, evaluate options more efficiently and recognise where to push, and where not to.
It also supported development beyond the technical side of treasury. The role increasingly involved positioning treasury across the organisation, contributing to strategic initiatives and thinking about how the function should develop as the business scaled.
For a one-person treasury team, having an external sparring partner created something that is often difficult to find internally: space to think.
Not someone to make the decisions, but someone experienced enough to challenge them.
You Don’t Have to Build Treasury Alone
A strong treasury professional does not need to arrive with every answer on day one. With the right mindset, exposure and experienced support, development can happen remarkably quickly.
As the Treasury Manager put it:
Mentoring gives you experienced judgement when you need it most, while still helping you build your own.
At Pecunia, we don’t just connect organisations with treasury expertise.
We help treasury professionals build the confidence, perspective and capability to make that expertise their own.
Building treasury and need an experienced perspective alongside you? Let’s talk.
