Cash Flow Statement: What It Is and Examples 2025

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement (CFS) is the financial statement used to measure inflow and outflow of cash. Actual cash flow of the firm is the most important item that can be extracted from financial statements. 

CFS helps to explain the change in accounting cash and cash equivalents. It helps in determining a company’s performance by providing information on its financial health and efficiency. CFS evaluates a firm’s ability to create enough cash flow to cover its operational costs and pay off its debt. In other words, it gauges how well a corporation manages its financial situation. The three main financial statements are Income statement, Balance sheet and Cash flow statement.

Importance of Cash Flow Statement

Provides information on spending:  

An understanding of the company’s primary payments to creditors can be obtained from a cash flow statement. It also provides cash transactions that are recorded but not shown in the other financial statements. These include purchase of capital goods, creditors, and purchasing inventory. 

Assists you in focusing on making cash: 

Profit, which generates cash, is essential for a firm’s success. However, there are plenty of alternative ways to earn cash. For example, when a business finds a means to reduce its equipment costs, it generates cash. It generates cash each time it collects receivables from clients more quickly than usual.

Maintains ideal cash balance: 

The ideal amount of cash on hand is maintained with the help of a cash flow statement. Determining if an excessive amount of cash is idle or whether there is an excess or shortfall in finances is crucial for the organization. If the company has extra cash on hand, it can invest it in stock or purchase merchandise. 

Helps in short term planning:

A profitable company must always have enough cash on hand to pay for impending bills and other short-term commitments. To make important decisions, a financial manager might examine cash inflows and outflows from previous transactions. Seeing a cash shortfall to pay off debts or establishing a base to apply for bank credit are a few situations where decisions must be made depending on cash flow.

How to determine Cash Flow Statement

The main components of Cash flow are- Cash flow from operating activities, Cash flow from investing activities and Cash flow from financing activities.

Cash flow from operating activities

The main sources of revenue for the organization are its operating activities. Cash flows related to sales, purchases, and other expenses are usually included in the cash flow from operations. The chief financial officer (CFO) of the firm decides whether to present operating cash flow directly or indirectly:

Direct presentation: A list of cash flows, including cash from sales and cash out for operating expenses, is used to show operating cash flows. Although indirect presentation is more common, this approach is rarely used.

Indirect presentation: Reconciliation of profit to cash flow is how operating cash flows are presented indirectly. Usually, we assume that the indirect method is applied. Cash flow also includes non cash items to balance the profits of the firm.

Add: Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and Amortization are the expenses incurred due to the loss of value of the asset over a period of time. Depreciation includes tangible assets such as land, building, machinery, whereas amortization involves intangible assets such as goodwill, patents, software, etc.

They are subtracted from the income statement and as they are non-cash expenses therefore added back in the cash flow statement to adjust net income. 

Add/subtract: Changes in working capital

The difference between current assets and current liabilities is the change in working capital. The increase in current assets represents the outflow of cash, for example, increase in debtors. Hence, they are subtracted from the cash flow statement whereas decreases in assets are added to the cash flow statement as they denote the inflow of cash. 

In contrast, when current liabilities increase, say, accounts payable, they are added to the cash flow statement and subtracted when there is a decrease in current liabilities.

Cash flow from investing activities

Cash flow from investing activities includes changes in non-current assets. Examples of non-current assets are long term investments, land, machinery, property, plant and equipment. 

Subtract: Increase in non-current assets

Capital expenditures are amounts of money used to buy property, plant and equipment. Capital expenditures might take the form of buying new office supplies like printers and computers for an expanding workforce, or they can involve buying new property and a building to house the company’s operations and logistics. These things are required to keep the business functional. Since these investments represent a financial outflow, they will have a negative effect on the total amount of cash raised by all activities. 

Cash flow from financing activities

Changes in the company’s capital structure are included in cash flow from financing activities i.e. changes in non-current liabilities and changes in short term borrowings. The payment of dividends is also a part of financing activities. 

Add: Increase in non current liabilities

Non-current liabilities such as long-term loans, bonds payable, long term lease leads to inflow of cash and therefore they are added in the cash flow statement.

Subtract: Payment of dividends

Payment of dividends is reducing the cash and hence it is a cash outflow. Interest is paid to the bondholders so it will be subtracted from the cash flow statement. 

Cash Flow Statement Example- Apex Auto Components Pvt. Limited

What is CashFlow Statement: Conclusion

To comprehend the company’s financial status, it is important to grasp several forms of cash flow. Operating cash flow is the amount of money created from operations before capital expenditures and working capital requirements are subtracted. Generally, it should be positive; if operating cash flow is negative for a long period of time, the company is having problems funding its operations because it is not making enough money. It will often be negative. During a period of rapid business expansion, fixed asset and inventory expenditures may surpass cash flow from sales. 

To conclude, the cash flow statement offers important information about the creation, use, and general financial health of a business. Stakeholders can decide on investment, financing, and operational plans with knowledge by examining the cash flow statement’s important elements and patterns. 

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