With over 300 legal entities and more than 1,000 bank accounts worldwide, Microsoft was looking to manage its bank account administration more efficiently. Although the company’s bank accounts have been managed centrally from Microsoft’s corporate headquarters since 1991, the scale of the operation had led to certain inefficiencies, with requests and approvals being processed by email.

“On any given day, we have several account openings, closures and/or signature changes being requested globally,” explains Nancy Wells, Senior Banking Manager. “The administration of bank account openings, closures and signature changes was inconsistent and the process flows were not manageable.”

Consequently, Microsoft was looking for a tool which could be used to manage the internal approval process and provide notifications to interested parties.

The tool needed to be able to co-ordinate documentation between corporate treasury, Microsoft’s subsidiaries and its banking partners, while enabling the tracking of required attributes such as signer, legal entity owner, bank name, SWIFT code and bank account number. In addition, the chosen solution had to be scalable for volume and flexible to support e-commerce accounts as well as other global cash management administration functions such as bank guarantees.

Microsoft considered purchasing a tool to achieve these goals, but there were few such tools available and a suitable match could not be found. The decision was therefore taken to design a tool internally. It was felt that this would enable Microsoft to control the cost of implementation more effectively, while meeting business requirements as closely as possible.

“As a consequence of developing BAAT, Microsoft Treasury is now able to manage all of the company’s bank account and bank guarantee administration centrally.”

The resulting product, the Bank Account Administration Tool (BAAT), is based on Microsoft ASP.net technology. The tool defines user roles, which are allocated based on job function and by company code. It also includes a routing feature, which is used to gather the internal approvals required to open and close bank accounts and to make changes to signatories. “This is a vast improvement over Excel spreadsheets,” comments Wells. “At a glance, we can view workflows in process by account, such as a signatory change, and easily view which signers are being removed and added.”

This innovative tool has enabled Microsoft to maintain internal controls and co-ordinate documentation between all parties. “We have achieved the ability to house relevant data, such as signers, legal entity owner, bank name, address, SWIFT code, IBAN and GL account and bank account number, in one place where we can easily retrieve information,” Wells continues. “BAAT provides the audit trail of opening of the accounts, signer changes and closures.”

Meanwhile, a bank guarantee module has been included in the latest release of BAAT, which was issued in 2008. This module gives the treasury approval authority in the issuance process and global visibility over all bank guarantees being issued. Key information is stored in a uniform format and can easily be retrieved.

As a consequence of developing BAAT, Microsoft Treasury is now able to manage all of the company’s bank account and bank guarantee administration centrally, supporting internal controls and enabling the treasury to ensure that business groups and subsidiaries comply with policies and procedures.