Our work / Client story
Consolidating 26 daily custodian cash files into one report.
A credit asset manager with three BDCs received 26 cash files from its custodians every day, and three teams each processed them by hand. Dacumen automated the consolidation, so that every team now works from one daily file of cash transactions.
- Client
- Credit asset manager with three BDCs
- Process
- Daily custodian cash reporting
- Source data
- 26 daily cash files, delivered by email
- Delivered
- One consolidated daily transaction file, with file-arrival monitoring
- Reported result
- Six hours of daily manual processing eliminated across three teams
Summary
The engagement in three points.
- The client received 26 custodian cash files each day, by email and at different times, and three teams each processed them manually.
- Dacumen automated the collection and consolidation of the files and delivered all portfolio cash transactions in one daily file.
- The client reported that six hours of daily manual processing were eliminated across the three teams.
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Client name and BDC details, if the client authorizes a named reference.
The problem
Twenty-six cash files, processed separately by three teams.
The manager needed a single view of cash for its three BDCs, but the data reached it as 26 separate files from its custodians each day. Several features of those files made them difficult to combine:
- The files arrived by email on a staggered schedule, so the data was complete at a different time each day.
- Transactions carried no record identifiers, which made it hard to match a transaction in one day’s file to the same transaction in the next.
- Custodians updated transactions retroactively, so figures that had already been processed could change.
Each team that used the cash data maintained its own manual process for extracting it. The result was duplicated effort and no consistent way to monitor cash availability and activity across the three BDCs.
Dacumen’s contribution
One automated process in place of three manual ones.
Dacumen replaced the separate manual processes with a single automated one:
- File monitoring
- Each expected file is tracked against its usual arrival window, and its arrival and processing are recorded.
- Consolidation
- The 26 files are standardized and combined, so that all portfolio cash transactions are held in one file.
- Daily delivery
- The consolidated file is sent to the client’s teams automatically by email each day.
The monitoring view
Knowing which files have arrived, and which are late.
The first step in consolidating cash data is confirming that all of it has arrived. This view shows the status of each expected file by day.
| Expected file | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note 1 Fund 1 · Custodian A · cash activity | Arrived 06:10 | Arrived 06:12 | No file expected | No file expected | Arrived 06:09 | Arrived 06:11 | Arrived 06:10 | Arrived 06:12 |
| Fund 1 · Custodian A · cash balances | Arrived 06:14 | Arrived 06:15 | No file expected | No file expected | Arrived 06:14 | Arrived 06:16 | Arrived 06:13 | Arrived 06:15 |
| Note 2 Fund 2 · Custodian B · cash activity | Arrived 07:40 | Arrived 07:52 | No file expected | No file expected | Arrived 07:44 | Arrived 07:41 | Arrived 07:47 | Due by 08:00 |
| Fund 2 · Financing subsidiary · cash sheet | Arrived 05:30 | Arrived 05:31 | No file expected | No file expected | Arrived 05:30 | Arrived 05:33 | Arrived 05:30 | Arrived 05:31 |
| Fund 3 · Custodian A · cash activity | Arrived 06:20 | Arrived 06:22 | No file expected | No file expected | Arrived 06:19 | Arrived 06:21 | Arrived 06:20 | Arrived 06:22 |
| Note 3 Fund 3 · Custodian C · daily prices | Arrived 09:05 | Arrived 09:10 | No file expected | No file expected | Arrived 09:02 | Arrived 09:31 | Arrived 09:06 | Due by 09:30 |
Arrived and processedExpected arrival window
Each file is tracked from arrival to processing
The view lists every file the client expects each day and records when it arrived and was loaded, so no team has to check a mailbox to know whether its data is ready.
Expected arrival windows show what is still outstanding
Files arrive on a staggered schedule. Each has an expected window based on its usual arrival time, which separates a file that is not yet due from one that is late.
Late files are visible before the report is needed
A file that misses its window is flagged the same morning, while there is still time to request it from the custodian.
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Current screenshot of the file-arrival dashboard, with client, fund and custodian names removed.
The reported result
Six hours of manual processing removed from each day.
The client reported the following results:
- Six hours of daily manual processing eliminated across three teams
- Better visibility of cash across the three BDCs
- The ability to report on cash daily
- More reliable cash data, because every team works from the same file
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Read the storyDiscuss your priorities.
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