Cash Flow from operating activities
Cash flow from operating activities includes cash
inflows from sales of goods and services, interest income and dividend income.
Cash outflows includes outflow for merchandise inventory, employee wages,
taxes, interest expense and various other expenses. The formula for cash flow
from operating activities is as given below.
Net
Income
+ Depreciation expense
+ Amortization Expense of Intangibles
+ Amortization of Bond Discount
+ Loss on sale of Plant assets or Investments
+ Decrease in Accounts receivable
+ Decrease in Merchandise Inventory
+ Decrease in prepaid expenses (Rent,
Supplies, Insurance)
+ Increase in Accounts payable (except
dividends payable)
+ Increase
in Accrued Liabilities (Taxes payable, Wages Payable,
Interest
Payable, Expenses payable)
+ Decrease
in Investment in Subsidiary (Equity method)
+ Increase
in Deferred Tax liability
= Net
Cash Flow from Operations
Depreciation/ Amortisation
Depreciation
and amortization expenses are all non cash expenses, which needs to be added
back to the net income. The amortization of bond discount is also a non cash
expense, and bond premium is a non cash revenue which has to be added back and
subtracted from the net income respectively. The discount account is contra to
the bonds payable account, the total cash flow when the bond is issued at a
discount can be found out by merging the contra account to the bonds payable
account, similarly, the premium account. This will be recorded in the cash flow
from financing activities, for the period in which the bond is issued.
Loss on sale of Plant assets or Investments
Consider
the following transaction
Cash 100000
Plant 120000
Loss 20000
We
know that the $100000 cash in flow will not be reflected in the net income
figure, but non cash loss of $20000 will be. The whole $100000 cash inflow will
be recorded in the cash flow from investing activity section as
Cash from sale of Plant asset 100000
Therefore, the amount $20000,
which is contained in the net income figure as a reduction, has to be reversed.
Therefore all the losses in the sale of Plant assets or investments have to be
added back to the net income figure to arrive at the net cash flow figure.
Consider
the following transaction
Cash 120000
Plant 100000
Gain 20000
Here the $120000 cash inflow which
will not be reflected in the net income figure will be recorded in the cash
flow from investing section as follows
Cash from sale of Plant asset 120000
The non cash gain of $20000 which
is contained in the net income figure as an increase has to be subtracted to
avoid double counting.
Consider the following transactions
Cash 70000
Notes receivable 50000
Plant 100000
Gain 20000
Cash 70000
Notes Receivable 30000
Plant 120000
Loss 20000
In both cases the cash received
is recorded in cash flow from investing activities, Gain/ losses treated
subtracted/added to net income as previous examples, note receivable treated in
the loans made section in cash flow from financing activities.
Since there is no actual cash
from the loans made (notes receivable) the figure will not be recorded in that
section, unlike accounts receivable figures in the balance sheet.
(Refer Loans made section in the
cash inflow from investing activities for further details)
Consider the following transactions
Cash 70000
Notes Payable 50000
Machine 100000
Loss 20000
Here when the machine is
purchased, we record it by its Fair Market Value, which, in this case is less
than the valuation of its price. Therefore the loss. Here also the loss is
treated the same as in the above cases. And the notes payable, which is a short
term loan taken by the company from the seller, is treated in the notes payable section in the cash flow from financing activities. (Since there is no cash
outflow in the notes payable account, it is not recorded)
If the fair market value of an asset is
greater than the valuation price, while purchasing, the valuation price is
taken into account and no gain is recorded.
Decrease in Accounts Receivables
Consider the different
transactions given below
(I) Accounts receivable 2000
Sales
2000
(II)
Notes receivable
(note/loan) 2000
Cash
2000
(III) Cash 2000
Accounts receivable 2000
(IV)
Sales Return 2000
Accounts Receivable 2000
Case (I) Here the sales is actually a non cash income,
a part of net income. The accounts receivable has to be subtracted from the net
income to find the net cash flow.
Case (II) Refer loan made section in the cash flow from
investing activities.
Case (III) Here the cash is finally received for the
accounts receivables. The accounts receivable has to be added to the net income
to derive the net cash flow.
Case (IV) Here the sales return is a contra to
sales and this is a part of the net income figure. To arrive at the net cash flow,
the accounts receivable has to be added back to the net income figure to arrive
at the net cash flow.
So any increase in the total
accounts receivable figure which denotes that the accounts receivable figure
from case (I) is greater than case (II) and (III), and vice versa. So the
increase in the total accounts receivable figure has to be reduced from the net income and vice versa to arrive at
the net cash flow figure.
Decrease in Accounts Payable
Consider the different
transactions given below
(I) Purchase 2000
Accounts Payable 2000
(II) Cash 2000
Notes
Payable
2000
(III)
Accounts Payable 2000
Cash 2000
Case (I) This accounts payable increase will be a
part of total accounts payable figure. Any increase in accounts payable has to
be added to the net income to arrive at the cash flow. Purchase is a special expense which is dealt
in the next section
Case (II) Refer notes payable in cashflow from financing activities
Case (III) Here the cash is finally paid for the
accounts payable. The accounts Payable has to be subtracted from the net income
to derive the net cash flow.
So the decrease in the total
accounts payable figure has to be subtracted to the net income and vice versa
to arrive at the net cash flow figure.
Cash flow in sales and purchases
Consider the common transactions given
below.
(I) Sales 1000
Cash 300
Acc receivable 700
(II) Purchase 800
Cash 200
Acc Payable 600
Case (I) The sales figure is a part of net income
figure. In order to arrive at the cash flow, we just need to reverse the non
cash income of acc receivable to arrive at the net cash flow.
Case (II) The purchase account is just an intermediate account, in the periodic inventory system. In the met income calculation, only the COGS is subtracted. Purchase account does not figure in the net income calculation, but it comes in the balance sheet as a part of change in the inventory over a year. So our target here is to
1. Record the cash outflow during the purchase which does not come in the net income figure.
2. Eliminate the increase in accounts payable for purchases, if there is any, from the increase on the total accounts payable figure, which is added to the net income to find the cash flow. This is because of the following reasons.
a. Any increase in accounts payable is added to the net income figure, because the accounts payable accounts has a non cash exp in the other side if the coin.
b. The accounts payable for purchases is an exemption, though purchase exp is a non cash exp. This is because, purchase exp does not get subtracted from the gross income to arrive at the net income.
c. So increase in accounts payable for purchases should not be added to the net income figure to find the cash flow.
3. Eliminate the non cash expense of COGS from the net income figure
This is done in the following operation of inventory.
Decrease in merchandise Inventory
Case (I)
Decrease in inventory (DI) = COGS – Purchase (COGS>purchase)
When we add this figure to the
net income figure, the non cash expense of COGS in the net income is eliminated
and the purchase figure is subtracted
-purchase=-cash –account payable
The accounts payable figure for purchases
in always present in the total accounts payable in the balance sheet. So when
total accounts payable increase is added to the net income to derive the net
cash flow, the accounts payable for purchases which is ingrained in the total
accounts payable, also gets added.
But, the accounts payable for
purchase SHOULD NOT be added to the net income to arrive at the cash flow
figure. Any other accounts payable increase happens because of a non cash expense.
This is because, unlike sales
figure which is added and COGS which is subtracted, purchase figure is not
subtracted from the gross revenues to arrive at the net income, while preparing
the income statement. Therefore the accounts payable for the purchase ( as a
part of purchase) is not expensed to arrive at the net income figure, which is
unlike any other accounts payable.
Now when we add DI to the net income figure, the COGS which
is subtracted to arrive at the net income figure when the Income statement is
prepared and the accounts payable for purchase which is added( as a part of
total accounts payable) to net income while preparing the net cash flow from
net income, are both eliminated.
This gives us the actual cash
flow.
Case (II)
Increase in inventory =
purchase-COGS (purchase>COGS)
So it has to be subtracted to
arrive at the same result.
Decrease in Pre paid expenses (Rent, Supplies, Insurance)
Prepaid expenses are capitalised
expenses, which are paid upfront, and expensed in a fixed rate annually.
Consider the following case
Supplies exp 5000
Supplies 5000
Here the idea is that any decrease in the prepaid expenses is caused by a non cash expense. So that decrease has to be reversed to arrive at the net cash flow.
Consider the following case
Supplies 10000
Cash 4000
Accounts payable 6000
Here cash flow is -4000. Suppose
this is the only operation in a year, then net income will be 0
When the supplies increase 10000
is subtracted from the net income as per the equation and the accounts payable 6000 is added to the net income, the total cash flow
becomes -4000.
Consider the following transaction.
Supplies 10000
Cash 4000
Acc receivable 6000
Here cash flow is 4000. Suppose
this is the only operation in a year, then net income will be 0.
When the supplies decrease 10000
is added and the accounts receivable increase 6000 is subtracted, the total cash flow
becomes 4000
From the above examples, we find
that any decrease in the prepaid expenses has to be added and vice versa to
arrive at the net cash flow. The accounts payable addition and the accounts
receivable subtraction required to arrive at the net cash flow, is already done
with the total accounts receivable/payable.
Increase in Accrued Liabilities (Taxes payable, Wages Payable, Interest
payable, Expenses payable)
Consider the following
transactions
(I)
Interest expense
2000
Interest
payable 2000
(II)
Interest income 2000
Interest
payable 2000
(III) Cash 2000
Interest Payable 2000
In case (I) and (II) the decrease
and increase in accrued liability is caused by a non cash income and expense
respectively. So they have to be added and subtracted from net income
respectively to arrive at the cash flow.
In case (III) here the cash
outflow is recorded by subtracting the increased accrued liability.
There fore any decrease in
accrued liability has to be added and vice versa to the net income figure to
arrive at the net cash flow figure.
Contingency liabilities comes in accrued liabilities
Decrease in Investment in Subsidiary (Equity method)
This has significance when the
investment in the subsidiary falls between 20% -50% and the parent company has
significant influence over the subsidiary.
Consider the following
transactions
Investment in long term securities
100000
Cash
100000
Investment in long term securities 15000
Investment income 15000
Investment in long term securities 7500
Cash 7500
In the above situation where we
assume that the investment is 30% in the subsidiary with significant influence.
The second entry is the portion (30%) of subsidiary’s income ($50000) under
equity method, and the third entry is the entry for the cash inflow for
dividends. Dividend received is considered as a reduction in the investments.
Increase in the investment=Investment
income –cash (inv.income>cash).
So when this is subtracted from
net income, it takes care of the reversal of non cash income and addition of
cash inflow to arrive at the net cash flow
And, decrease in the
investment=Cash-Investment income (cash>inv.income)
So when this is added to the net
income, it takes care of the reversal of the non cash income and addition of
cash inflow to arrive at the net cash flow.
Increase in differed tax
liability
Consider the following
transactions
(I)
Income Tax expense 2000
Deferred Tax Liability 750
Income tax Payable 2750
(II)
Income Tax expense 2750
Deferred tax Liability 750
Income tax payable 2000
In order to derive the net
income, the non cash income tax expense, has to be added back to the net
income.
In case (I) the income tax payable
exceeds the income tax expense by the amount of deferred tax liability. So the
deferred tax liability has to be subtracted from the net income to arrive at
the cash flow.
In case (II) the income tax
payable trails the income tax expense by the amount of deferred tax liability.
So the deferred tax liability has to be added to the net income to arrive at
the total cash flow.
There for a decrease in deferred
tax liability has to be subtracted from the net income to arrive at the net
cash flow and vice versa.