MANAGING CASH FLOW “Follow the money”—William Goldman, All the President 's Men Imagine you were John Olson. You are an energy analyst for Merrill Lynch. Your boss, Donald Sanders, shows you a hand-written note from one of Merrill’s largest customers. It reads in part, ' 'Don -- John Olson has been wrong about … (our company) … for over 10 years and is still wrong … Ken. ' ' Merrill subsequently fired Olson because he refused to endorse the customer’s exaggerated profit claims. The Ken, of course, is Ken Lay of Enron fame; the analyst was John Olson, by his own description an old-fashioned analyst who refused merely to promote stocks, relying instead on fundamental analysis to assess the companies he examined. Ironically, he was the only …show more content…
Where would you be if you had wholeheartedly endorsed Enron like Henry Blodgett of Merrill Lynch and Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley did? This is why we will focus our discussion of accounting on cash flow analysis as the key to understanding solvency, both your customers and your own and not a broader overview of the Accounting process. I assume all students studied Accounting during their academic career. For those needing a refresher in accounting basics, please visit Accountingverse for detailed information. Why cash Flow? We like cash flow because it permits us to “follow the money” rather than the accrual-based numbers favored by Wall Street. Cash Flow Analysis provides a good way for investors to evaluate a company 's financial well-being and operational strength. Cash Flow is composed of revenue or expense streams that transfer between cash accounts over a specified period. We calculate the "statement of cash flows" showing the amount of cash generated and used by a company during the period by adding back noncash charges (such as depreciation) to net income after taxes. Changes in cash are derived from one of three activities - Financing, Operations or …show more content…
Let’s say you own a landscaping business billing about $600,000 a year, one third from shopping centers, office complexes, and other commercial clients, and the rest from homeowners. “What if” scenarios, envisioning a weakening in your commercial business, should focus on ways to reduce cash flow out and increase cash flow in. Landscaping is labor-intensive, so your first response would almost certainly involve lay-offs or reductions in hours worked. Another strategy would be to shift full-time employees to contract work, transferring your labor costs from fixed to variable expenses. You would save money on payroll taxes and benefits, provide yourself flexibility in hiring and your ability to respond to changing market conditions, conserving cash flow. Shifting equipment expenditures from purchase to lease can also deliver cash savings. To increase cash flow, sell subscription services with automated monthly credit card billing and offer discounts for annual plans to generate cash in
On the surface, the motives behind decisions and events leading to Enron’s downfall appear simple enough: individual and collective greed born in an atmosphere of market euphoria and corporate arrogance. Hardly anyone—the company, its employees, analysts or individual investors—wanted to believe the company was too good to be true. So, for a while, hardly anyone did. Many kept on buying the stock, the corporate mantra and the dream. In the meantime, the company made many high-risk deals, some of which were outside the company’s typical asset risk control process. Many went sour in the early months of 2001 as Enron’s stock price and debt rating imploded because of loss of investor and creditor trust. Methods the company used to disclose its complicated financial dealings were all wrong and downright deceptive. The company’s lack of accuracy in reporting its financial affairs, followed by financial restatements disclosing billions of dollars of omitted liabilities and losses, contributed to its downfall. The whole affair happened under the watchful eye of Arthur Andersen LLP, which kept a whole floor of auditors assigned at Enron year-round.
Enron was an energy company founded in 1985 that was in the business of “trading commodities, which soon became the largest business site in the world” (Cbc.ca, 2006). By the end of 2001 it was discovered that Enron had created a “complex web of partnerships” (Cbc.ca, 2006) to hide the level of its level of debt and to artificially inflate stock prices. This financial fraud played out in a company whose “ethics code was based on respect, integrity, communication, and excellence (Cengage.com, n.d.). It is evident that these values were a superficial layer of outward facing trust that masked the problems inherent in the company where the espoused values are not the enacted values (Lecture Slides: Slippery Slopes). These problems are “rooted in
Joe operates a successful commercial landscaping and tree trimming business, and client's keeps his operation extremely busy. Although Joe employees at least 50 workers, with landscaping being seasonal, he experiences a high turnover. In addition to landscaping and tree trimming, equipment rental is also available to the clients, which adds an additional division to the business. With $250,000 of capital, and past year's revenues of $500,000, Joe is looking for guidance to take his business to the next level.
Please consider this research proposal regarding a small to Mid-range Company with a revenue of $875,000 per year with 45 employees have reached critical cash flow issues. Senior staff time consumed with bottlenecks on site, with missing ordered supplies, added labor with incorrect materials costs. Marketing along with current customer’s project completion time are over deadlines from under-staffed by senior management. Layoffs are to proceed, and filing for restructure of the organization is at hand.
Furthermore, the cash-flow demonstrates the monetary receipts and monetary expenses in a certain time period. The cash-flow budget greatly centers on viability, which relates to the organization’s generating enough cash to meet both short-term and long-term financial obligations to maintain their existence (Finkler et al., 2013). In essence, an organization generating more cash than using in their operations produces a more
“When a company called Enron… ascends to the number seven spot on the Fortune 500 and then collapses in weeks into a smoking ruin, its stock worth pennies, its CEO, a confidante of presidents, more or less evaporated, there must be lessons in there somewhere.” - Daniel Henninger.
If you receive cash you are likely to save it and put it in the bank. Thus, what a business sacrifices by having to wait for the cash inflows is the interest lost on the sum that would have been saved.
Therefore, the company looses cash, which could aid further business operations. Increase numbers of creditors - countless businesses acquire credit to operate, however, too much credit can become a problem for a business, especially, if it also offers credit to customers. This is because you’re ability to pay your credit is dependent on whether your debtors pay you in due time. Therefore, in case they don’t, the business will surface cash flow problems. Over-financing – excessive borrowing to finance your business can result in higher interest rates and tougher repayment schedules and this can lead to cash flow challenges. Over-trading – when a business sells over and above its capability on credit, it results to loans or overdrafts to finance the transactions. If the customers do not pay on time, cash flow problem occurs. Over-investment – often times, a company may be tempted to utilise available cash for investment; purchase vehicles, machinery, premises, and other assets. Too much investment in assets and failure to budget for the future can cause a business to run out of cash and consequently, fail to finance
Today financial corporate managers are continually asking, “What will today’s investment look like for the future health of the company? Should financial decisions be put on hold until the markets become stronger? Is it more profitable to act now to better position the company’s market share?” These are all questions that could be clearly answered if the managers had a magical financial crystal ball. In lieu of the crystal ball, managers have a way of calculating the financial risks with some certainty to better predict positive financial investment outcomes through the discounted cash flow valuation (DCF). DCF valuation is a realistic approach, a tool used, to “determine the future and present value of investments with multiple cash flows” over a particular period of time which is incurred at the end of each period (Ross, Westerfield, & Jordan, 2011). Solutions Matrix defines DCF as a “cash flow summary adjusted so as to reflect the time value of money (The Meaning of Discounted Cash Flow, 2014).” The valuation of money paid or rec...
The Enron Corporation was an American energy company that provided natural gas, electricity, and communications to its customers both wholesale and retail globally and in the northwestern United States (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Top executives, prestigious law firms, trusted accounting firms, the largest banks in the finance industry, the board of directors, and other high powered people, all played a part in the biggest most popular scandal that shook the faith of the American people in big business and the stock market with the demise of one of the top Fortune 500 companies that made billions of dollars through illegal and unethical gains (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Many shareholders, employees, and investors lost their entire life savings, investments,
The management of cash is essential to the survival of any organization. Managing an organization’s financial operation requires knowledge of the economy and ways to maximize revenue. For any organization to operate on a daily basis adequate cash flow is required. Without cash management the organization will be unable to function because there is no cash readily available in case of inconsistencies in the market. Cash is also needed to keep the cycle of the company’s operations going.
The statement of cash flows reports a firm’s major cash inflows and outflows for a period. This statement provides useful information about a company’s ability to generate cash from operations, maintain and expand its operating capacity, meeting its financial obligations, and pay dividends. There are three types of activities to look at in this statement, which are cash flows from operating activities, investing activities, and financial activities (3, 2005).
The revenue/cost period-: Revenue and the cost period in accounting that the company get income from normal business activities. It’s referred to normal business income that the company got by selling their product and service.
Managing an organization’s financial operation requires a good understanding of the economy and ways to maximize revenue. For an organization to operate on a daily basis, adequate cash flow is required. Poor cash management within an organization might make it hard for the organization to function because there may be shortage of cash in case of inconsistences in the market. In most companies, management is interested in the company 's cash inflows and outflows because these determines the availability of cash necessary to pay its financial obligations. Management also uses this information to determine problems with company’s liquidity, a project’s rate of return or value and the timeliness of cash flows into and out of projects (used as inputs
Owners and managers require financial statements to make important business decisions that affect its continued operations. Financial analysis is then performed on these statements to provide management with a more detailed understanding of the figures. These statements are also used as part of management's annual report to the stockholders.