Alloy provides an identity risk management platform for companies offering financial products. Over 700 banks, credit unions, and fintechs rely on Alloy to manage fraud, credit, and compliance risks throughout the customer lifecycle.

Founded in 2015, Alloy’s cash needs have grown increasingly complex. Its lean finance team was spending significant time collecting and reconciling cash data manually on error-prone spreadsheets.

Nilus automates this process, providing real-time cash visibility. This increased efficiency has led to tighter control of Alloy’s cash balance and proactive decisions, such as targeting customer segments for better ROI.‍

The problem: 1 day a week of manual reconciliation delayed cash visibility 

With over 10 accounts across multiple institutions, Alloy’s manual cash flow management consumed an entire day each week and was prone to errors.

“Our first use case was: Can we get visibility on cash?” said Hai Kim, VP of Finance at Alloy. When Kim joined as Alloy’s first finance employee in 2019, the company’s cash management was highly manual. A contractor would log into each bank portal, extract transaction details, and populate spreadsheets weekly—a process fraught with dependencies and errors.

Collecting cash data was critical for the CFO to monitor cash balances and trends, but the manual process was slow and inefficient. Reconciling these numbers added further delays, consuming valuable time that could be better spent on strategic analysis.

“It took a full day to pull and reconcile everything,” Kim said. “Instead of forward-looking analysis, time was spent ensuring the data was accurate.”

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The solution: Real-time cash visibility and a (virtual) team member‍

With Nilus, Alloy has achieved greater cash visibility and control while saving their finance team a full day each week—adding up to 50 hours a month.

“Having a view of all your cash is invaluable,” Kim said. “It eliminates worries about cash visibility and sets the finance team on the right path.”

Kim likened Nilus to adding another team member. “It’s a big value-add. I recommend it for companies with complex cash tracking across accounts, banks, and transactions.” Automating mundane tasks also enhances team satisfaction, as employees can focus on higher-value activities.

Controlling target cash balance with short-term collections forecasting

With Nilus, Alloy monitors quarterly cash targets more effectively. Aggregated bank data allows the finance team to track customer payments and guide collections efforts to meet cash balance targets. They can also optimize vendor payments based on cash flow.

Other ways Alloy uses Nilus:

• Automated transaction categorization and tagging with AI
• Achieve accurate Bottom-up cashflow forecasting
• Daily bank feeds integrated into the ERP
• Automated reconciliation of invoices and payments
• Overdue balances and AR analytics for better cash flow forecasting

Fast time-to-value for a lean finance team

Nilus’ lightweight, flexible platform was quick to implement and adapt to Alloy’s evolving needs. “We couldn’t afford a lengthy implementation,” Kim said. “Nilus was the perfect fit for our small team.”

The platform’s flexibility ensures scalability as Alloy adds accounts or changes systems. “Nilus has proven it can scale with us,” Kim said.

Better board reporting and no more cash spreadsheets

Manual cash spreadsheets are now obsolete. Alloy’s CFO uses Nilus for month-end and quarter-end reviews, tracking cash trends and targets. For board reporting, the finance team generates detailed breakdowns of cash flow, burn rates, and positions directly from Nilus.

“The CFO views Nilus as one of our most valuable tools,” Kim said. “Unlike manual spreadsheets, it provides real-time updates.”

Impact: From validating AR data to strategic decision-making

With more time for analysis, Alloy’s finance team has elevated its role to strategic decision-making. For example, they identified a high-risk customer segment with delayed payments and unfavorable terms, leading to a shift in sales targets toward more stable, higher-ROI clients.

“Instead of reconciling data, you can analyze trends and share insights with the sales team,” Kim said. “AR management has become strategic rather than a data exercise.”

The team also collaborates more closely with other departments on budgeting, focusing on forward-looking plans rather than retrospective reports.

Conclusion: Nilus has transformed Alloy’s cash management, improving efficiency, accuracy, and strategic focus. By automating manual processes, Alloy’s lean finance team can dedicate more time to driving business growth.