The challenge
The starting point
Currency exchanges face a deep opacity: daily currency volatility makes it hard to know how much is really earned on each transaction. Add to that financial mismatches between branches and the heavy load of manual accounting reconciliation at the end of each day.
With no system connecting the counter to accounting, real profit stayed hidden between spread gains and currency fluctuation gains (or losses), and the daily close consumed hours of error-prone work.
The approach
How we approached it
Before writing a line of code, COBIZ challenged the industry paradigm. The key decision was to treat each currency not as a rate, but as merchandise.
That shift made it possible to connect the counter with accounting and finally separate operating profit from spread from gain or loss from market fluctuation.
The solution
What we did with COBIZ
The core of the project was a paradigm shift: treat each currency as merchandise. On that idea, COBIZ built a four-pillar architecture:
- Currency stock control: each currency is modeled as inventory (cash in drawer and vault, and virtual balances in banks), with full cash traceability and no hidden shrinkage.
- Average-cost engine: automatic recalculation of the weighted acquisition cost with every purchase, to determine the real profit margin on each sale, independent of the market rate.
- Direct accounting integration: automated transactional entries and daily currency revaluation, with a daily close that needs no manual data entry and has no errors.
- Inventory planning: optimal cash levels based on historical demand, freeing capital tied up in low-turnover currencies and preventing shortages.
The system also automatically controls minimum sale prices based on acquisition cost, protecting the business from selling at a loss during sudden market drops.
Results
The impact
The business finally sees itself clearly:
- Absolute financial visibility: the exact source of profit is known.
- An 80% reduction in cash close and reconciliation time.
- Capital optimization: better turnover of secondary currencies, freeing cash flow.
- Risk mitigation: automatic minimum sale prices based on cost, to never sell at a loss.