In Argentina, managing cash well is not just a matter of financial order. It can also affect a company’s operating and tax costs.

In an El Cronista article, different specialists explain that more and more companies are using a cash management operation that consists of sending checks to be collected through the stock exchange and subscribing to mutual funds, especially money market funds, to obtain temporary yield and reduce part of the cost associated with the tax on debits and credits.

Beyond the headline, what’s interesting is not the “rulo”. What’s interesting is the underlying lesson: a good treasury doesn’t leave cash sitting idle or move it without criteria.

What some companies are doing

According to the article, many companies instruct their ALyCs to send checks to be collected through the market and use those pesos to subscribe to different mutual funds. Adriana Marinelli defines it as a “cash management tactic” and notes that, even with lower interest rates, there is still flow into money market funds to avoid the cost of the check tax and associated withholdings.

José Bano adds that each mutual fund has an associated bank account exempt from the check tax, which makes it possible to leave the money for one day and redeem it the next to use it within the stock market system, avoiding the 0.6% on the way in and the 0.6% on the way out.

Simply put: some companies are using very short-term instruments not only to earn returns on temporary balances, but also to better manage the cost of moving money.

What financial takeaway does this leave for a small business

The tip is not “copy this operation tomorrow”.
The real takeaway is another one:

if your company moves cash every day, you have to think of treasury as a strategic function, not as a pass-through account.

Many SMEs still operate this way:

• they collect into one account

• they transfer to another

• they pay from another

• they leave balances idle

• they review everything at the end of the day or week

And along the way they lose three things:

• yield on temporary balances

• real visibility into liquidity

• operational and tax efficiency

The El Cronista article shows exactly that: cash management can also be designed.

When does it make sense to look at money market funds

Money market funds usually come into the conversation when a company:

• has very short-term idle balances

• needs daily liquidity

• doesn’t want to tie up cash

• seeks finer management between collections and payments

In the article, Emiliano Franco explains that companies use them routinely to invest cash flow, earn a return and, in addition, avoid the tax on debits and credits because those funds are exempt. He also notes that this type of investment has grown notably in recent years.

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a universal recipe. It means that cash can be put to work.

Careful: optimizing is not improvising

Here’s the fine point.

The same article includes a warning from Juan Truffa, director of Outlier: if the operation is overused, AFIP could object during a full inspection, while if it is not something habitual it should not cause problems.

Therefore, these types of decisions should not be taken as financial cleverness, but as part of an orderly treasury strategy, ideally validated with tax and financial advisors.

My blunt opinion:
if a company doesn’t have daily visibility into its cash, it shouldn’t start with these maneuvers.
First it has to solve the basics:

• where the money is

• what comes in

• what goes out

• what maturities are coming up

• which balances are idle

• which movement generates unnecessary cost

Without that, any optimization is improvisation.

The underlying problem is not the tax: it’s the lack of visibility

The most powerful thing about this article is not the savings from a specific tax.

The most powerful thing is that it exposes something much deeper: many companies do not have a treasury layer that allows them to decide properly what to do with their cash, even when the decision is as simple as leaving money idle, moving it, or investing it for 24 hours.

There lies the real Argentine treasury problem:

• too many accounts

• too many manual decisions

• little consolidation

• low daily tracking

• little traceability over how liquidity is used

What should an Argentine SME do today

If you want to turn this into an actionable piece of advice, it would be this:

1. Map all your cash in one place

Not just banks. Also wallets, funds, collection accounts, and temporary balances.

2. Separate operating liquidity from idle balances

Not all the money has to sit idle. But not all the money can be invested either.

3. Review the cost of moving money

In Argentina, the way you move cash also has financial and tax implications.

4. Have a simple policy for using short-term excess cash

Even if it’s basic. What is kept liquid, what is invested, for how long, with what criteria.

5. Avoid handcrafted decisions

If every move depends on one person looking at online banking, you’re too late.

What does this have to do with Fonder

A lot.

Because this type of decision only becomes repeatable when a company has:

• consolidated cash visibility

• real-time tracking

• cash flow forecasting

• less manual work to understand what is happening

Fonder aims exactly at that: giving companies a clearer treasury layer so they don’t manage their liquidity blindly, between banks, ERP, and Excel.

In the end, the best financial tip is not “make a specific move”.
It’s this:

understand your cash every day, because poorly managed cash costs much more than any isolated fee or tax.