Cash flow

A cash flow describes a real or virtual movement of money:

• a cash flow in its narrow sense is a payment (in a currency), especially from one central bank account to another; the term 'cash flow' is mostly used to describe payments that are expected to happen in the future, are thus uncertain and therefore need to be forecasted with cash flows;
• a cash flow is determined by its time t, nominal amount N, currency CCY and account A; symbolically CF=CF(t,N,CCY,A).
• it is however popular to use cash flows in a less specified sense describing (symbolic) payments into or out of a business, project, or financial product.

Cash flows are narrowly interconnected with the concepts of value, interest rate and liquidity. A cash flow that shall happen on a future day tN can be transformed into a cashflow of the same value in t0.

Cash flow analysis

Cash flows are often transformed into measures that give information e.g. on a company's value and situation:

• to determine a project's rate of return or value. The time of cash flows into and out of projects are used as inputs in financial models such as internal rate of return and net present value.
• to determine problems with a business's liquidity. Being profitable does not necessarily mean being liquid. A company can fail because of a shortage of cash even while profitable.
• as an alternative measure of a business's profits when it is believed that accrual accounting concepts do not represent economic realities. For instance, a company may be notionally profitable but generating little operational cash (as may be the case for a company that barters its products rather than selling for cash). In such a case, the company may be deriving additional operating cash by issuing shares or raising additional debt finance.
• cash flow can be used to evaluate the 'quality' of income generated by accrual accounting. When net income is composed of large non-cash items it is considered low quality.
• to evaluate the risks within a financial product, e.g., matching cash requirements, evaluating default risk, re-investment requirements, etc.

Cash flow notion is based loosely on cash flow statement accounting standards. the term is flexible and can refer to time intervals spanning over past-future. It can refer to the total of all flows involved or a subset of those flows. Subset terms include net cash flow, operating cash flow and free cash flow.

Symptoms of cash flow problems. There are many reasons a business can suffer cash flow problems – some are down to mismanagement and poor decisions, and in some cases factors outside of your control. Any of the following symptoms can indicate that a business is experiencing cash flow problems:

• Up to overdraft limit – no headroom / returned payments
• Stretch to pay salaries each month
• Trade creditor arrears
• Taxation arrears
• Rent arrears
• No working capital ‘buffer’ – surviving day to day
• Negative working capital on balance sheet – over geared / losses?
• Lack of funds for remedial action (redundancies / premises relocation)
• Lack of profitability – insufficient to support owner / manager’s lifestyle
• Unable to pay for professional advice

Cash flow problems can be avoided through good credit management; the Chartered Institute of Credit Management has produced a series of Managing Cash flow Guides which are available on its website (see references) which have been dowloaded more than 500,000 times at December 2015

Business' financials

The (total) net cash flow of a company over a period (typically a quarter, half year, or a full year) is equal to the change in cash balance over this period: positive if the cash balance increases (more cash becomes available), negative if the cash balance decreases. The total net cash flow for a project is the sum of cash flows that are classified in three areas

1. Operational cash flows: Cash received or expended as a result of the company's internal business activities.

so how to calculate operating cash flow of a project? OCF=incremental earnings+depreciation=( earning before interest and tax-tax)+depreciation=earning before interest and tax*( 1-tax rate)+ depreciation= ( revenue - cost of good sold- operating expense- depreciation)* (1-tax rate)+depreciation= ( Revenue - cost of good sold- operating expense)* (1-tax rate)+ depreciation* tax. By the way, depreciation*tax which locates at the end of the formula is called depreciation shield through which we can see that there is a negative relation between depreciation and cash flow.

1. changing in net working capital. It is the cost or revenue related to the company's short-term asset like inventory.
2. capital spending. This is the cost or gain related to the company's fix asset such as the cash used to buy a new equipment or the cash which is gained from selling an old equipment.

The sum of the three component above will be the cash flow for a project.

And the cash flow for a company also include three parts:

1. operating cash flow: It refers to the cash received or loss because of the internal activities of a company such as the cash received from sales revenue or the cash paid to the workers.
2. investment cash flow: It refers to the cash flow which related to the company's fix asset such as equipment building and so on such as the cash used to buy a new equipment or a building
3. financing cash flow: cash flow from a company's financing activities like issuing stock or paying dividends.

The sum of the three components above will be the total cash flow of a company.

Examples

Description	Amount ($)	totals ($)
Cash flow from operations		+70
Sales (paid in cash)	+30
Incoming loan	+50
Loan repayment	-5
Taxes	-5
Cash flow from investments		-10
Purchased capital	-10
Total		60

The net cash flow only provides a limited amount of information. Compare, for instance, the cash flows over three years of two companies:

	Company A			Company B
	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Cash flow from operations	+20M	+21M	+22M	+10M	+11M	+12M
Cash flow from financing	+5M	+5M	+5M	+5M	+5M	+5M
Cash flow from investment	-15M	-15M	-15M	0M	0M	0M
Net cash flow	+10M	+11M	+12M	+15M	+16M	+17M

Company B has a higher yearly cash flow. However, Company A is actually earning more cash by its core activities and has already spent 45M in long term investments, of which the revenues will only show up after three years.

See also

• Cash flow sign convention
• Cash flow hedge
• Cash flow projection
• Cash flow statement
• Internal rate of return
• Net present value
• Return of capital

References

Further reading

• Auerbach, A. J., & Devereux, M. P. (2013). Consumption and cash-flow taxes in an international setting (No. w19579). STICERD - Public Economics Programme Discussion Papers 03, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE. National Bureau of Economic Research.

External links

• International Federation of Accountants International Good Practice Guidance on Project Appraisal Using Discounted Cash Flow
• A Review of Academic Research on the Reporting of Cash Flows from Operations
• Managing Cashflow Guides