I have spent more than 25 years in Account Analysis working on the challenges from both the corporate treasury and bank perspective. I helped design some of the decades old systems that banks still use today. I have run product teams, overseen implementations and managed the back-office teams who carried the burden of analysis and statement generation. I know the strengths of these systems and the legacy of Account Analysis, but I also know their flaws.
That perspective gives me both credibility and urgency in saying this: the way banks approach Account Analysis is broken.
Yes, it technically works. Yes, legacy providers still sell systems that calculate volumes, apply fees, and produce earnings credits. But let’s be honest: these systems were built for another era. The way banks run Account Analysis today is still powered by stone age technology. They haven’t fundamentally changed, even as the rest of banking has been reinvented.
If there’s one thing you take away from this article, it should be this: The world has moved. Account Analysis hasn’t. We need to reimagine the process from the ground up. Shift away from looking at it as a siloed billing operation to something that’s more encompassing of the entire treasury revenue lifecycle.
The Stagnation Problem
Month-end still looks familiar to anyone who’s been in Account Analysis operations for a while. Data floods in from dozens of sources. Ops teams scramble through a compressed window to reconcile, calculate, and issue statements under pressure. Banks paper over gaps for now with spreadsheets, sticky notes, and manual workarounds. Errors creep in, and statements go out late. This leads to a loss of confidence in your bank from your customer.
Discounts and commitments are promised but rarely tracked. Introductory pricing lingers for years. Pricing reviews slip through the cracks. All of this leads to revenue leakage and misaligned relationships.
Revenue leakage isn’t new, but it’s becoming harder to ignore. The reason it’s overlooked is simple, revenue leakage doesn’t announce itself. It hides in the gaps between teams, systems, and spreadsheets. It’s a structural byproduct of manual processes, siloed data, and weak quote-to-cash governance. Often looked at as a silent killer, revenue leakage has the potential to significantly erode margins without even being noticed – a huge financial loss for your bank.
Meanwhile, the rest of banking is running in real-time, with APIs and data streaming. Account Analysis? Still stuck in batch-mode, error-prone, and frustrating for everyone involved.
Why This Matters Strategically
It is easy to dismiss Account Analysis as back-office plumbing, just as a month-end operational task. As long as statements go out on time and error-free to clients, the deeper issues remain invisible. But taking a step back, the Account Analysis process is strained by other teams because the consequences run far beyond:
- Sales teams are constrained. Relationship managers lack tools to model deals or track commitments. They rely on instinct or over-discounting to win business.
- Operations teams are overwhelmed. Every month is a fire drill, leaving little time for higher-value work.
- Product teams have their hands tied. Their fragmented, outdated product and pricing systems limit agility and create inconsistencies. They’re also left in the dark regarding real-time visibility and profitability of their products.
- Clients’ trust collapses. Treasurers expect transparency and responsiveness. If their statements arrive late or riddled with errors, confidence erodes. This opens doors for competitors to steal their business.
The truth is simple: Account Analysis is not just a billing function. If it stays disconnected from deal negotiation, pricing, and execution, it will always be playing catch-up. It has the power to shape how clients perceive the value of their banking relationship. If it fails, the entire relationship suffers.
What Banks Tell Me
When I talk to bankers, I hear the same things over and over:
And maybe the most telling: “It hasn’t really changed in decades.”
Most banks treat the inefficiency as just the cost of doing business. It doesn’t have to be.
Reimagining Account Analysis
To truly reimagine Account Analysis, we need to stop treating it as a month-end billing function and start recognizing it as a full revenue lifecycle. For decades, banks have viewed Account Analysis as the painful rush to issue statements at the end of the month.
But it should be far more than that. It should be a continuous process that begins at the moment of deal negotiation and extends through setup, tracking, monitoring, billing, and ultimately repricing and renewal.
When Account Analysis operates as a silo, each of these stages is disconnected. Terms are negotiated in spreadsheets but never make it to billing. Commitments are promised but not enforced. Data arrives in fragmented files, leaving operations to reconcile after the fact. The result is predictable: revenue leakage, client disputes, compliance risk, and missed opportunities to grow relationships.
Seen holistically, however, Account Analysis can become a connected lifecycle — a steel thread linking every stage of the commercial relationship.
And when you do that, five things fall in place.
Empowered the front officeRelationship managers get the tools to model deals dynamically, apply commitments, and benchmark pricing against the market. No more over-discounting to win business.
Seamless executionDeals that are sold flow directly into billing. No rekeying, no delays, no revenue lost in translation.
Active monitoringClient commitments must be tracked continuously. If thresholds are missed, the system triggers alerts or automatically adjust pricing.
Real-time visibilityWith modern data pipelines, statements can build daily — even intraday — providing clients with transparency while errors are caught earlier.
Analytical insightDashboards, profitability analysis, and anomaly detection turn Account Analysis into a proactive tool for managing margin and strengthening client relationships.
This is not just about making billing more efficient or faster. It is about transforming Account Analysis into a continuous assurance system — daily proof that commitments are honored, revenue is protected, and value is delivered across the entire lifecycle of the client relationship.
Moving Beyond Legacy
Legacy providers still offer systems, and to their credit, those systems still get the basics done. But they were designed for a different era: when data moved in batch files, when clients accepted delays, and when scrutiny was far lighter. That world is gone.
The new crop of Account Analysis vendors has modern tech but often misses the realities, challenges, complexities, nuances, and workarounds of how legacy Account Analysis processes actually work inside banks.
We’re not here to compete with them by becoming yet another Account Analysis provider. We’re here to change the game entirely.
As Henry Ford once said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
You may look at the market alternatives in the market are faster horses, but we’ve built a car instead.
The difference is like comparing flip phones to smartphones. Flip phones could make calls, but smartphones redefined what was possible. Account Analysis deserves the same kind of reinvention.
And at Zafin, we’re at the perfect intersection of a strong background in understanding the banks’ specific challenges and the perfect solution that solves them.
Why Now
Banks that lead this shift will set the standard for client expectations. Real-time visibility, active commitment tracking, and seamless execution will soon be baseline. If you wait, you’ll still get there, but it’ll be late and more painful.
The choice is simple: keep treating Account Analysis as a billing utility and accept the leakage and frustration or reimagine it as a growth engine that drives transparency, profitability, and client trust.
It’s time to shift from a lose-lose to a win-win for your bank and your customer.
A Call to Treasury Leaders
I have lived in the old world of Account Analysis and seen its limitations. I have also seen what is possible when the process is redesigned for today’s realities.
Revenue that leaks away can be protected. Clients re-engage because they can finally see what’s happening. Sales negotiates with confidence. Operations teams stop living in panic mode. Product teams finally get the product flexibility and performance visibility.
At Zafin, we are not just another Account Analysis software provider. We are rewriting the rules of the game.
This function has been neglected for too long. Done right, it doesn’t just keep the lights on—it shapes the relationship. It’s time to leave stone age tech behind. Stop asking for faster horses. Start building the car.
If you’re ready to look at Account Analysis in a whole new light, I invite you to learn more here.