Treasury needs one reliable number per account before the first payment cut-off: what will be there at the end of the day. An agent can build it every morning by checking overnight statements, confirming opening balances, adding today's known flows and proposing funding moves. The treasurer decides every move, and the agent's figures are compared with actuals each evening.
What is the daily cash position, and who owns it?
The daily cash position shows, for each bank account, entity and currency, the opening balance, the flows expected today and the projected closing balance. It answers three questions: is any account going overdrawn, where is idle cash sitting, and what must move before cut-off. It is a working document for one day, unlike the cash flow forecast, which looks weeks or months ahead.
The treasurer owns the position and every decision taken from it. A treasury analyst traditionally spends the first hours of the day building it from bank portals, the treasury system, the payables run and emails from colleagues about receipts. That build is the work an agent can take over. How the agent is scoped inside a treasury system is covered in letting an AI agent prepare cash positions in your treasury system, and the general bounds for finance agents in AI agents for finance.
What are the steps, and who acts at each one?
- Agent, depth 1, early morning: collects prior-day statements. Confirms one arrived for every account on the account list, and flags those that did not.
- Agent, depth 1: checks opening balances. Today's opening balance per the bank equals yesterday's closing balance. Any break is listed before anything else is built on it.
- Agent, depth 1: loads known outflows. Today's supplier payment run, payroll, tax payments, loan interest and repayments, card settlements, and deal maturities.
- Agent, depth 1: loads expected inflows. Customer receipts due from the receivables ledger and order-to-cash data, intercompany settlements and deal maturities. Each tagged with how certain it is: contractual, customer-promised or estimated.
- Agent, depth 3 once certified: writes the position. Projected closing balance per account, entity and currency, in the treasury system.
- Agent, depth 2: drafts funding proposals. Which accounts need cover, where surplus sits, which moves would fix both, and each move's cut-off.
- Person, treasurer: decides and executes. Accepts, changes or rejects each proposal, then executes through normal authorisations.
- Agent, depth 1, midday and afternoon: refreshes from intraday data. Updates the position and flags large unexpected movements.
- Agent, depth 1, next morning: compares projected with actual. Per account, with the reason for each large difference.
| Step | The agent does | Depth | Stays with a person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statements | Collects and checks completeness | 1 | Chasing banks |
| Opening balances | Confirms continuity | 1 | Resolving breaks |
| Flows | Loads outflows and inflows | 1 | Adding unknown flows |
| Position | Writes projected balances | 3 | Approving method |
| Proposals | Drafts funding moves | 2 | Treasurer decides |
| Intraday | Refreshes and flags | 1 | Acting on flags |
| Back-test | Projected against actual | 1 | Reviewing misses |
What does a morning look like with the agent?
Take an illustrative group with fourteen accounts across four banks and three currencies. By the time the analyst arrives, the agent has found that one bank's euro statement is missing and that a sterling account opened 2,000 lower than it closed the day before, because of a late bank charge. It has loaded a supplier run of 400,000 and payroll of 250,000 from the main sterling account, against expected receipts of 150,000, and projects that account 80,000 overdrawn by the end of the day. It drafts a transfer of 100,000 from a surplus account at the same bank, before the sterling cut-off. The analyst chases the missing statement; the treasurer approves the transfer.
Which controls matter, and what evidence do they leave?
Complete account list. The agent works from a maintained list of every bank account, including dormant ones. Evidence: list version with any account missing a statement.
Source and certainty on each flow. A payment run approved in the AP tool is firm; a customer's promise in an email is not. Evidence: source class and certainty tag on each line.
Available, not ledger, balance. Proposals use the balance the bank will actually let you use. Evidence: both balances on the position.
No execution by the agent. Evidence: held verdicts on all proposals, with the treasurer's decision.
Daily back-test. Evidence: the projected-against-actual report, signed off weekly by the treasurer.
What should you measure?
- End-of-day variance between projected and actual balance, per account and in total.
- Unexpected overdrafts and their cost.
- Idle balances above the level the treasurer sets.
- Time the position is ready before the first cut-off.
- Proposals accepted unchanged.
Where does it usually go wrong?
Receipts assumed on due date. Customers pay late, so receipts projected on due date overstate the position every day. Use each customer's observed payment pattern, which is also the basis of a good thirteen-week cash flow forecast.
Flows outside the systems. A director agrees a one-off payment by email; treasury hears late. Give people one way to log unplanned flows that the agent reads.
Missing statements ignored. The agent builds the position without one bank's data and treats the account as unchanged. A missing statement must be shown as missing.
Currency cut-offs. A move in one currency must happen hours earlier than another. Proposals should carry the cut-off for the currency and bank, not a single daily time.
Treating positioning as decision-making. Whether an agent can manage daily cash positioning on its own runs into irreversibility quickly; moves between banks are depth 4.
Questions people ask
Can the agent work across many banks and currencies?
Yes, if statements reach it in a consistent form through the treasury system. Certify it on the full account list, not a sample of the easiest banks.
What about pooling arrangements?
Physical and notional pools change what a "balance" means. The agent should show positions both before and after pooling, as the bank applies it.
How early must the position be ready?
Before the earliest cut-off that matters for any decision, usually the first currency cut-off of the day.