Forecasting made simple

Veeva Systems gains greater capability, increased efficiency

 

4 minute read

Key takeaways

  • Veeva Systems was laboring under a manual method of downloading transaction data and was limited in its reporting and forecasting ability.
  • After a seamless adoption of CashPro Forecasting, they are saving time every week and getting a quicker, more accurate projection of their cash flow.
  • More accurate forecasting enables them to keep less cash on hand and to allocate more to their savings and investing accounts.

Veeva Systems, a cloud-computing company focused on the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, was seeking to maximize the effectiveness of its lean treasury department.

 

A user of Bank of America’s CashPro® digital payment platform, the company was manually downloading transaction data from CashPro to Microsoft Excel on a weekly basis. Not only did this take time, but it limited Veeva’s ability to dynamically assess cash flow and to forecast payments, causing the company to keep excess cash in its operating accounts.

Increased visibility with CashPro Forecasting

Introduced in 2021, CashPro Forecasting is embedded in CashPro and offers a complete view of all of a user’s accounts, including those at other banks.

 

“For us, the biggest difference has been the ability to see an overview of all our inflows and outflows on one screen,” says Dorothy Huerto, treasury cash manager at Veeva. Since transactions populate automatically, the company no longer needs to manually import data, saving it several hours a week.

 

Having ready access to its historical cash flow also makes it easier for Veeva to forecast upcoming payments accurately. CashPro Forecasting uses machine learning and predictive analytics to automatically generate forecasts, then continues to refine those forecasts based on a company’s actual cash flows. “Everything is faster,” says Huerto. “When it comes to both reporting and forecasting, it’s been a big time-saver.”

 

More efficient use of funds

More accurate forecasting also lets Veeva precisely predict and control how much cash it keeps in its checking accounts. “Of course we always need to have enough cash on hand to meet payroll and other expenses, but previously we might err on the side of caution and overfund those day-to-day accounts,” says Sabrina Wong, treasurer at Veeva. “Now, we know exactly how much we’ll need, and we can move more of those funds into a higher-yielding vehicle like a savings or investment account.”

 

Smooth implementation

For Veeva, an additional benefit was how easy and intuitive it was to begin using CashPro Forecasting. “With some cash management tools, you almost need a programmer to understand the system, but here the interface is very clean and easy to navigate,” notes Wong. “It’s also been very reliable, with no down time.”

 

Between the time savings, the improved cash flow and the data-driven insights that help it make more-informed decisions, Veeva is eager to roll out CashPro Forecasting to regional finance teams, according to Huerto. “We’re excited about how much we’ll be able to do with it.”

 

Case studies are for illustrative purposes only and intended to demonstrate the capabilities of Bank of America. You should not consider these case studies as an endorsement of Bank of America. Case studies do not necessarily represent the experiences of other clients. Results may vary.