π¨βπ« Notes
Statement of Cash Flows
The statement of cash flows is divided into three sections which roughly correspond to the three major jobs of the financial manager:
- Operating activities
- Investment activities
- Financing activities
Statement of Cash Flows: Operating Activities
Depreciation:
- We also add depreciation to net income, since it is not a cash outflow
Accounts receivable:
- Adjust the cash flows by deducting the increases in accounts receivable
- This increase represents additional lending by the firm to its customers and it reduces the cash available to the firm
Accounts payable:
- Similarly, we add increases in accounts payable
- Accounts payable represents borrowing by the firm from its suppliers
- This borrowing increases the cash available to the firm
Inventory:
- Finally, we deduct increases to inventory
- Increases to inventory are not recorded as an expense and do not contribute to net income
- However, the cost of increasing inventory is a cash outflow for the firm and must be deducted on the statement of cash flows.
Statement of Cash Flows: Investment and Financing Activities
Investment Activity
- Subtract the actual capital expenditure that the firm made
- Also deduct other assets purchased or investments made by the firm, such as acquisitions
Financing Activity
- The last section of the statement of cash flows shows the cash flows from financing activities
- Subtract Dividends paid
- Add cash received from sale of stock
- Subtract cash spent repurchasing your own stock
- Add changes to short-term and long-term borrowing
βοΈ The Impact of Depreciation on Cash Flow
- Suppose Global had an additional $1 million depreciation expense in 2019
- If Globalβs tax rate on pretax income is 26%, what would be the impact of this expense on Globalβs earnings?
- How would it impact Globalβs cash at the end of the year? β In the end, accelerating depreciation cuts your tax bill and thereby increases cash flows. It lowers your earnings, but in a βnon-cashβ manner.
Depreciation decreases Pretax income by $1M. This also decreases your tax bill by $0.26M. On the statements of Cash Flows, we add the $1M of depreciation back in, so that the final incremental cash flows are exactly +$0.26M.
Income Statement and Statement of Cash Flows
- Recall that depreciation is not an actual cash outflow, even though it is treated as an expense, so the only effect on cash flow is through the reduction in taxes
- Globalβs operating income, EBIT, and pretax income would fall by $1 million because of the $1 million in additional operating expense due to depreciation
- This $1 million decrease in pretax income would reduce Globalβs tax bill by 26% Β΄ $1 million = $0.26 million
- Therefore, net income would fall by 1 - 0.26 = $0.74 million
- On the statement of cash flows, net income would fall by $0.74 million, but we would add back the additional depreciation of $1 million because it is not a cash expense
- Thus, cash from operating activities would rise by -0.74 + 1 = $0.26 million
- Thus, Globalβs cash balance at the end of the year would increase by $0.26 million, the amount of the tax savings that resulted from the additional depreciation deduction
- The increase in cash balance comes completely from the reduction in taxes
- Because Global pays $0.26 million less in taxes even though its cash expenses have not increased, it has $0.26 million more in cash at the end of the year