Explanation of the Topic...Cash Flow Statement |
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On March 8 Good Deal receives $800 for the calculators sold to the school on February 25. No other transactions occurred in March.
The Good Deal financial statements dated March 31 are:
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Note that the year-to-date net income causes the amount in the owner's capital account (on the balance sheet) to increase from $2,000 to $2,300.
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The income statement for the first three months of the business shows a net income of $300. The operating activities section of the statement of cash flows begins with the $300 in net income, but then shows that $200 of cash was used to increase inventory. As a result, only $100 of cash was provided from operating activities.
The statement of cash flows also shows that $2,000 was received from the owner's investment in the company. The net cash inflow from the company's operating, investing, and financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2012 was $2,100.
The figure of $2,100 represents the change in cash from the beginning of the accounting year through March 31. If you look at the March 31 balance sheet, you will find that it confirms this—there is $2,100 in the Cash account on March 31 and there was $0 on January 1.
The statement of cash flows presented above was for the three months ended March 31, 2012. Let's look at how the statement of cash flows would be prepared for just one month—March 2012.
Since much of the information for the cash flow statement comes from changes in balance sheet accounts, we need to have the balance sheet amounts for both February 28, 2012 and March 31, 2012. The differences in these account balances from February 28 to March 31 will provide us with information we need on the activities in March.
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Focus on the "Change" column above. The first amount, a positive $800 change in the Cash account, will serve as a "check figure" for the bottom line of the cash flow statement for the month of March. In other words, the cash flow statement for March must end up explaining this $800 increase in the Cash account. The other amounts in the "Change" column will be used on the statement of cash flows to identify the reasons for the $800 increase in cash.
Since there were no sales and no expenses in March, the income statement for the one month of March (see above) reported no net income. This $0 of net income is the first amount reported on the statement of cash flows. The changes in the balance sheet accounts from February 28 to March 31 provided the other information needed for the month of March:
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Let's review the cash flow statement for the month of March 2012:
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