The M&A Files: You Just Had an Acquisition — Now What?

When a company buys another business, they buy the whole business. That acquisition includes the back-office tech stack, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and treasury management system (TMS), as well as the organizational history of workflows, processes and even internal knowledge.

This means, for CFOs and treasury executives, that the real work is just beginning.

By the time a merger or acquisition closes, the celebratory headlines will have faded and the financial models may have been justified. But beneath the surface of the big-picture vision of the deal lies the complex, often gritty task of back-office integration.

It’s the kind of work that doesn’t make headlines but can determine the success or failure of the deal.

And it increasingly falls on the finance teams to turn formerly theoretical deal synergy into a successful operational reality. Due diligence may get two companies to the altar, so to speak, but a winning integration of back office and payment systems is the true marriage, and where any relationship can find itself tested.

With U.S. business sentiment beginning to warm after a relatively quiet start to the year for mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity, companies that approach integration as a strategic capability, not just a checklist, could be the ones that emerge stronger.

Read also: CFOs Move From Ledgers to Leaders as Back Offices Become Command Centers

Business Continuity Becomes the CFO’s Moment of Truth

For finance leaders, the early post-acquisition window is crucial. Cash management, banking relationships, inter-company loans, hedging strategies and compliance frameworks must be rationalized quickly.

Treasury teams, often under-resourced during the pre-close phase, are suddenly expected to connect disparate financial systems, reconcile cash positions and align policies, all while ensuring liquidity and business continuity.

Any snags that appear on day one can snowball down the line, and can potentially impact supplier trust among other issues.

The first order of business? It can look like standing up a central integration office that includes treasury, finance, IT, legal and HR. Cross-functional teams are able to help set priorities, track progress and act as a command center for all integration efforts. Crucially, the treasury function should not be a downstream participant.

“A huge challenge for CFOs post-close isn’t just financial reconciliation but knowledge reconciliation. Fund leaders are expected to connect fragmented data across CRMs, file systems, and institutional memory, often under intense time pressure,” Taylor Lowe, CEO and Co-founder of Metal, told PYMNTS.

This visibility can often depend on reconciling or migrating to a unified TMS. If both entities use different platforms, or if one lacks automation entirely, the path forward may require more careful mapping. Even seemingly mundane differences like payment approval thresholds or investment policies can create friction. Without alignment, treasury teams risk inconsistent practices that may open the door to control failures.

See more: For CFOs, the Tech Stack Is the Business Strategy

People, Process and Platforms

M&A integration also has a regulatory dimension. Treasury teams must ensure that licenses, know your customer (KYC) documentation, tax IDs and compliance certifications are updated. In cross-border deals, this includes assessing exposure to sanctions regimes, anti-money laundering (AML) protocols and local banking regulations.

“AI (artificial intelligence) offers a new path forward with its capability to aggregate and structure internal knowledge across silos, without the need for manual data entry. But it’s not as simple as prompting an off-the-shelf LLM (large language model). These models are powerful, there’s a need for purpose-built software that understands each fund’s unique workflows and transaction,” said Metal’s Lowe.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Smart Spending: How AI Is Transforming Financial Decision Making“ found that more than 8 in 10 CFOs at large companies are either already using AI or considering adopting it.

Process reengineering is equally vital. Legacy workflows can often conflict, and automation maturity may vary across mergers.

The dealmaking landscape is only heating up, making technological innovation a key part of corporate integration. In Italy, there have been seven M&A deals between banks alone announced or completed; while March saw two large deals announced, with Google acquiring Wiz and Sycamore Partners taking over Walgreens Boots Alliance. In April, Global Payments announced it would acquire Worldpay for $24 billion; while at the start of May, payments tech company CPI Card Group acquired payment card solutions company Arroweye.