Before you prepare your treasury guidelines, take a close look at your current treasury processes. Can these be optimised? Take advantage of this phase to analyse the status quo as neutrally as possible.
Rules are important, but they only make sense when they can and will be followed. Only define in your treasury guidelines what you can actually comply with.
Formulate your guidelines as clearly and simply as possible. There should be only one possible interpretation – the one you actually intend.
Define clear objectives and principles for your company’s treasury management including cashflow forecasting, fx-risk management, guarantees, reports and workflows.
The responsibilities and the allocation of centralised and local tasks are an essential part of treasury guidelines and need to be defined precisely.
Leave nothing to chance. All key areas (corporate finance, risk management, cash management and bank partner management) should be regulated within the treasury guidelines.
Rely on signatures to confirm that the guidelines have been read and understood. This applies to those responsible at your subsidiaries as well as all others in your organisation who play a key role.
Good treasury guidelines protect you as the treasurer in critical situations. If questions arise as to why a certain hedge ratio was selected, for example, you can refer to compliance with the policy and its approval by the CFO.
