This year, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) says that it has helped companies save more than 250,000 hours via its CashPro Forecasting solution. The AI-enabled digital tool addresses one of treasury’s most time-consuming yet “business critical” tasks — forecasting. It has now reportedly transformed what usually is described as being “heavily” manual effort into a faster, more intelligent and automated user experience.
Bank of America also mentioned that the forecasting solution is accessed off CashPro, the platform “that clients use for all their treasury, trade, and cross-border payments needs.”
When markets gyrated earlier this year, clients turned to CashPro Forecasting to gauge the “impact of tariffs and interest rates on their business.”
One indicator of this engagement is the “number of workspaces users create and share within their company.”
In Q2, that figure rose 113% above the norm, “peaking on April 15 and June 18. Clients highlight this as a key advantage: the tool gives teams shared visibility and a collaborative way to assess how news events could affect their company.”
Typically, cash forecasting is completed “on spreadsheets and is a heavily manual exercise that can commonly take up to a week to complete, by which time the data is usually out of date and the activities begin again.”
CashPro Forecasting is a data intelligence tool that integrates account data and applies machine learning to “analyze cash positions, generate accurate forecasts, and deliver actionable insights—all within minutes.”
In April, the bank launched an enhanced version “of the AI model powering CashPro Forecasting.”
This upgrade enables the solution to process and “interpret data 5x faster, helping clients respond more nimbly to market events.”
They also introduced Ask Global Payments Solutions, “a generative AI tool that supports employees in addressing inquiries.”
In another update, it was noted that Bank of America is launching a digital platform for business owners and their employees, “offering greater access to a suite of retirement plans – including 401(k), IRA and more – as well as health benefit solutions and financial wellness resources.”
Via Bank of America Workplace Benefits, business owners can “explore plans and access tools that help enable them to identify the best plan for their businesses and their employees.”
Bank of America’s suite of benefits solutions now reportedly “offers access experts who can support plan selection, setup and maintenance.”
This platform includes:
- Pooled Employer Plan: The new Workplace Benefits Advised Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) enables a group of business owners to form a shared retirement plan, reducing administrative burden. The PEP also offers flexible plan design features, allowing employers to tailor a retirement plan to their unique business goals and employee needs.
- Small Business 401(k): The recently enhanced Merrill Small Business 401(k) offers managed recordkeeping and a modern digital platform that helps simplify enrollment, fund selection and plan management.
- Cash Balance Plans: The new Cash Balance Defined Benefit Plan with Merrill enables business owners and their employees to increase retirement contributions and help reduce taxable income for the business when paired with a 401(k) plan.
- Financial Wellness Education: A suite of educational resources for employees – ranging from retirement income planning to health care costs management – delivered via articles, seminars and one-on-one consultations with experts.
Key insights show workplace benefits are becoming “increasingly important to business owners who want to retain top talent.”
According to the Bank of America Workplace Benefits Report, “nearly a quarter (24%) of employees today say they recently left or have considered leaving their company because their workplace benefits are lacking, up from 15% in 2023.”
Additionally, findings from the latest Bank of America Business Owner Report reveal “that retention is a top priority for business owners.”
Amid today’s labor market, over half or the majority of business owners (52%) are hoping “to keep the same number of employees over the next 12 months.”
The report also found that “43% of business owners plan to hire, while more than half (59%) plan on expanding over the next year.”