In many treasury departments, payment workflows still rely on a patchwork of emails, spreadsheets, and uploaded files. While these manual steps might seem manageable, they can easily introduce inefficiencies, limit visibility, and increase operational risk. More importantly, they hold treasury teams back from focusing on the strategic work that adds real value.

Regulatory changes are also forcing the issue. Global initiatives like ISO 20022 are reshaping payment messaging standards and creating new expectations for structure, transparency, and interoperability. For companies still operating with outdated tools, adapting to these changes manually is both complex and unsustainable.

As pressure grows from regulators, internal audit teams, and executive leadership, treasury organizations are looking for ways to streamline operations while tightening controls. Payment automation has quickly become a key part of that strategy.

Why Manual Payments are No Longer Scalable

When treasury teams rely on manual processes to move files, check formats, and route approvals, increased risk becomes a daily reality. Payments can be delayed, duplicated, or sent without proper authorization, and each exception creates additional work and uncertainty. Treasury teams are spending too much time troubleshooting and not enough time analyzing and optimizing.

At the same time, expectations are shifting: treasury is expected to act faster, ensure compliance, and respond to regulatory changes like ISO 20022 with minimal disruption. Manual payment processes simply do not provide the scale or consistency required to meet those goals and new expectations.

What Automation Enables in Modern Treasury Operations

Moving to automated payments is not just about replacing tasks with technology; it creates a more reliable, secure, and transparent process from end to end.

With automation, treasury teams can:

• Standardize payment workflows across regions and banks

• Create rule-based and auditable approval processes

• Shift from manual file uploads to real-time APIs

• Automatically apply payment formats and validations, reducing error rates and ensuring compliance with changing standards like ISO 20022

Most importantly, automation opens the door to better data—treasurers can gain a clear view of payment status, timing, and cash positions across the organization to make more informed decisions.

How GTreasury Supports This Shift

GTreasury’s treasury payments solution helps organizations simplify and secure treasury operations while preparing for regulatory and technology shifts. Our adaptable treasury platform provides a central place to manage payments across all banks, accounts, and formats. Additionally, it includes support for both traditional file-based connections and modern API integrations, so teams can progress toward real-time connectivity at their own pace.

With GTreasury, treasurers can build intelligent approval workflows, automatically validate payment data, and track every step for audit purposes. The platform is built to accommodate evolving standards like ISO 20022 and aligns with compliance and governance frameworks already in place.

Why CFOs and Treasurers Are Taking Notice

Payment automation is no longer an IT initiative or an operational upgrade. Now it has become a core part of treasury strategy, and CFOs see it as a way to reduce fraud exposure, improve cash visibility, and free up treasury teams to focus on liquidity planning and business support.

With global payment regulations evolving and the cost of errors rising, treasury leaders know they cannot afford to stay tied to outdated processes. Organizations that automate now will be better positioned to adapt, scale, and lead with confidence.

What to Consider Moving Forward

If your team is still relying on manual uploads, email approvals, and disconnected bank systems, now is the time to evaluate what automation could change for you. Start by identifying your high-risk and high-volume workflows and assess how much time your team spends managing exceptions. From there, consider how a centralized platform could help reduce that effort, improve visibility, and align with the future of payments.

Treasury’s role is expanding, and the tools must evolve with it. Automation is no longer optional. It is a necessary step toward smarter, safer, and more strategic operations.

Schedule a consultation with our team of treasury experts to learn how to automate your payment processes.