CFOs Target Idle Cash as Treasury Shifts to Real-Time Control

Within the corporate realm, treasury is expected to anticipate, allocate and act, turning liquidity into a managed input. That transition toward proactive management is forcing finance leaders to reconsider a longstanding assumption: that delays in payments are a tolerable feature of doing business.

Timing Problem, Not Balance Sheet Problem

The problem begins with idle cash, though the term understates the operational consequences. Cash is not simply sitting still; it is trapped within processes that delay its use.

The interval between invoicing and funds availability, what PYMNTS Intelligence defines as Time to Cash, represents a period during which capital cannot be deployed to meet obligations, fund growth or reduce risk.

That interval stretches across receivables, approvals, reconciliation and settlement, forming a chain in which each delay compounds the next. Every additional day extends exposure to shortfalls, increases reliance on external financing and weakens the accuracy of forecasts. In this sense, the central inefficiency in payments is a matter of duration. Time governs access to liquidity, and when time expands, so to speak, operational performance contracts.

PYMNTS Intelligence data shows that while 71% of CFOs report improvements in their Time to Cash cycles, nearly 30% see no change or deterioration, underscoring a widening divide between firms that accelerate liquidity and those experiencing a stall.

Visibility remains a central constraint. Even as companies adopt dashboards and analytics, many CFOs still operate with delayed or incomplete views of cash positioning. Forecasting often relies on periodic snapshots rather than continuous inputs, limiting the ability to respond to intraday shifts in liquidity.

Tokenized Cash: End of Waiting?

Recent infrastructure developments suggest that the industry is beginning to address the time dimension directly. The recent announcement that BMO is building tokenized cash capabilities for institutional clients offers a glimpse of how liquidity may evolve.

The platform, built on CME Group’s permissioned ledger infrastructure, is designed to enable the conversion of dollars into tokenized instruments that can move continuously, supporting margin calls, settlement and treasury operations without reliance on banking hours. Tokenized cash reduces dependence on batch processing, cut-off times and intermediary reconciliation. It introduces the possibility of programmable liquidity, where payments are triggered by conditions rather than schedules.

The implications extend into core B2B use cases. Intraday liquidity optimization becomes achievable when cash positions update continuously, allowing treasury teams to rebalance accounts and minimize idle balances within the same operating day.

Supplier payments can be tied directly to inventory thresholds or delivery confirmation, shortening the gap between goods received and funds disbursed. Payroll and contractor payouts can shift from fixed cycles to event-driven disbursements aligned with work completion.

These use cases point toward a structural change in how treasury operates. The distinction between decision and execution narrows when funds can move instantly and systems can act on real-time data. In that way, treasury functions move beyond the confines of the settlement window.

The broader pattern suggests that payments modernization is entering a phase defined less by synchronization. Removing idle time will require aligning various timelines. When that occurs, treasury will no longer operate in cycles, with liquidity available at the moment it is needed.