It’s easy for small things that suck cash out of the business to go unnoticed in daily operations. Reviewing your cash flow reports can show lags between sales and cash receipts for those sales.
You can carry out a cash flow analysis once every month, but it’s a good idea to do this even more frequently—weekly or daily. Regularly breaking it down helps you understand if you can pay out staff salaries on time, whether you can make all vendor payments, and if you can finally go ahead with a long-awaited expansion. Once you’ve prepared a cash flow statement, you’ve already completed the most challenging part of cash flow analysis! From there, it’s a simple matter of understanding what each line means as you read through your statement.
Cash Flow Analysis: Things to Watch
Net Increase/Decrease in Cash
This lets you know your company’s current cash status. If this is worryingly negative number, look at recent expenses. Ensure that the company is making enough money to go beyond breaking even. It is also known as the “ending balance” of cash flow.
Outstanding Customer Payments
Even when profits are looking up, pay close attention to late payments, which are like uncollected debt. Negative cash flow because clients failed to pay on time might mean you have to rethink your invoice collection process.
Cash Flow from Operations
Whatever the nature of your business, your ultimate financial aim is to make a profit. This means that your operational cash flow needs to be consistently positive. Ideally, you want this number to increase every quarter.
Learn more about Cash Flow
To learn more about managing, analyzing and making cash flow decisions for your business-Download our Guide today!
