A recent survey by Kyriba of members of the Association of CorporateTreasurers (ACT) provides statistical confirmation of somethingfinance executives have known for years: Spreadsheets are not themost efficient tool for managing the treasury function.

The vast majority of the survey's 269 respondents, mostly fromthe U.K. and Ireland, engage in operational cash management (78percent) and in cash position reporting and forecasting (75percent) on a daily basis. Many also engage in risk management (66percent); providing data for corporate decisions (58 percent); andhigh-level, strategic financial analysis (43 percent) from day today.

Nevertheless, 48 percent of companies with less than£100 million in annual revenue use spreadsheets tocomplete their daily cash management activities. Even amongcompanies with more than £10 billion in revenue, 11percent use spreadsheets for cash management, while 46 percent usea client-server-based treasury management system, 9 percent use asoftware-as-a-service treasury management system, 26 percent usetheir ERP system, and 7 percent use a system developed in-house(see graph below).