accounting help

please see attached. 

In your own words please respond to the following. No word minimum. Please cite all sources using APA format.

1)

To be successful, a company must anticipate its cash flows. What evidence would help you evaluate whether or not a company does adequate cash planning? Is there any information not available in the company’s annual report that would help you make this evaluation?

2)

Upon studying its statement of cash flows, you note that over the last three years a firm has consistently reported negative cash flow from operating activities, positive cash flow from investing activities, and negative cash flow from financing activities. What does this combination of cash flows suggest to you about the firm? Is there any additional information that you would like to see? If so, what?

Notes from class

The statement of cash flows depicts how a company’s operating, investing, and financing activities have affected cash during an accounting period. It explains the net increase/decrease in cash during an accounting period. The main purpose of this statement is to provide information about a company’s cash receipts and cash payments during an accounting period. It also provides information about a company’s operating, investing, and financing activities during the period. While some information may be gathered from other financial statements, the statement of cash flows summarizes all transactions that affect cash.

The statement of cash flows is a useful decision-making tool for managers, investors, and creditors. Managers can use this statement to determine the company’s liquidity and to assess the effects of major policy decisions, such as the dividend policy. Investors and creditors might use the statement to establish a company’s ability to manage cash flows, to generate positive future cash flows, to pay liabilities, dividends, and/or interest.

There are two methods used for preparing the statement of cash flows: the direct method and the indirect method. The only difference between the two methods is in the operation activity section of the statement. Let’s look at a very basic scenario to explain the differences. Assume that a company had $6,000 of sales during their first year of business and an ending accounts receivable balance of $500 and cost of goods sold of $1,000 and rent expense of $800. Assume that all costs and expenses are paid for in cash during this current period. The income statement would appear as follows:

Sales                                $6,000
- Cost of Goods Sold          $1,000
= Gross Profit                    $5,000
- Expenses                          $800
= Net Income                    $4,200

Because the accrual method of accounting requires that we recognize all sales in the period earned and all expenses in the period, the income statement will not normally match the cash flows due to the timing of receipts and payments. For example, in the above, we had $6,000 in sales earned but there is a receivables balance of $500 which tells us that only $5,500 was actually collected in cash. The expenses and costs in this simple example match, so the sales are our only difference.