Cash Transfer Scheduling for Concentrating Noncentral Receipts

Cash concentration is a routine cash management activity that concerns transfer of funds from bank accounts in remote locations to the firm's central bank accounts. Substantial savings can accrue to the company as a result of properly scheduling these transfers, i.e. determining the optimal timing and amount of cash transfers. In this paper an easy to implement model is developed to aid management in this activity. The transfer policy is shown to be a day-specific (s, S) policy which is amenable to efficient computerization. This result is shown to hold under a set of realistic assumptions regarding deposit patterns, various cost functions, and institutional arrangements.