Connecting Balance Sheet Changes with Cash Flows
The numbers in the statement of cash flows are derived from the changes in a business’s balance sheet accounts during the year. Changes in the balance sheet accounts drive the amounts reported in the statement of cash flows.
The three primary financial statements of a business — the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows — are intertwined and interdependent.
The lines of connection between changes in the business’s balance sheet accounts during the year and the information reported in the statement of cash flows are shown in the following figure. Note that the $155,000 net increase in retained earnings is separated between the $405,000 net income for the year and the $250,000 cash dividends for the year:
$405,000 net income – $250,000 dividends = $155,000 net increase in retained earnings
Connections between balance sheet changes and the statement of cash flows.
Balance sheet account changes are the basic building blocks for preparing a statement of cash flows. These changes in assets, liabilities, and owners’ equity accounts are the amounts reported in the statement of cash flows, or the changes are used to determine the cash flow amounts (as in the case of the change in retained earnings, which is separated into its net income component and its dividends component).
Note in the cash flow from operating activities section in the figure that net income is listed first, then several adjustments are made to net income to determine the amount of cash flow from operating activities. The assets and liabilities included in this section are those that are part and parcel of the profit-making activity of a business.
For example, the accounts receivable asset is increased (debited) when sales are made on credit. The inventory asset account is decreased (credited) when recording cost of goods sold expense. The accounts payable account is increased (credited) when recording expenses that haven’t been paid.
The rules for cash flow adjustments to net income are:
An asset increase during the period decreases cash flow from profit
A liability decrease during the period decreases cash flow from profit
An asset decrease during the period increases cash flow from profit
A liability increase during the period increases cash flow from profit
Following the third listed rule, the $191,000 depreciation expense for the year is a positive adjustment, or add-back to net income. Recording depreciation expense reduces the book value of the fixed assets being depreciated.
To be more precise, recording depreciation increases the balance of the accumulated depreciation contra account that is deducted from the original cost of fixed assets. Recording depreciation does not involve a cash outlay. The cash outlay occurred when the business bought the assets being depreciated, which could be years ago.
Accounting Glossary
accounting equation
The equation Assets = Liabilities + Equity, which demonstrates the two-sided nature of accounting and is useful for explaining the concept of double-entry accounting (or double-entry bookkeeping).
Accounting Glossary
accounting period
The time period for which financial information is being tracked in a business, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Accounting Glossary
accounts receivable
An account that records the amounts that customers owe to a business.
Accounting Glossary
adjusting entry
A correction made to a bookkeeping account that adjusts for accounting errors or other necessary changes at the end of the accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
cash flows
Used to describe the source or sources of cash or how cash is used.
Accounting Glossary
Chart of Accounts
A list of all the accounts used by a business, including what types of transactions go into each account.
Accounting Glossary
debit
An accounting entry that increases an asset or expense account, and decreases a liability or income account.
Accounting Glossary
dividends
A portion of a company’s profits paid by share of common stock on a quarterly or annual basis.
Accounting Glossary
FASB
Financial Accounting Standards Board. FASB is the highest-ranking authority in the private (non-government) sector of the U.S. for making pronouncements on GAAP and for keeping accounting standards up-to-date.
Accounting Glossary
Federal Unemployment Tax
In the U.S., the fund that used to be known simply as Unemployment. Employers contribute to the fund, and states also collect taxes to fill their unemployment fund reserves. (The acronym FUTA means Federal Unemployment Tax Act.)
Accounting Glossary
fidelity bonds
A type of insurance — typically carried by employers for their employees — that helps guard against theft and reduce the risk of loss.
Accounting Glossary
FIFO
First-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold in which a business charges out product costs to cost of goods sold expense in the chronological order in which the goods were acquired.
Accounting Glossary
fungible
Describes a product that is interchangeable and virtually indistinguishable from another product.
Accounting Glossary
General Ledger
A summary of all of a business’s accounts and transactions.
Accounting Glossary
IASB
International Accounting Standards Board. The IASB (based in London) is the main authoritative accounting standards setter outside the U.S.
Accounting Glossary
Journals
The location in which bookkeepers keep records (in chronological order) of daily company transactions.
Accounting Glossary
LIFO
Last-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold that selects the last item you purchased first, and then works backward until you have the total cost for the total number of units sold during the period.
Accounting Glossary
LLP
Limited liability partnership. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals in which all the partners have limited liability.
Accounting Glossary
PC
Professional corporation. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals who otherwise would have to operate as an unlimited partnership liability.
Accounting Glossary
petty cash
A cash account that businesses keep on hand for unexpected expenses.
Accounting Glossary
revenue
Monies that are collected in the process of selling a company’s goods and services.
Accounting Glossary
salvage value
The amount that an asset is worth after it has been fully depreciated.
Accounting Glossary
statement of cash flows
A financial statement that summarizes a business’s cash inflows and outflows during an accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
transactions
Economic exchanges between a business or other entity and the parties with which the entity interacts and makes deals.
Accounting Glossary
worker’s compensation insurance
A type of insurance carried by employers that covers its employees in case they are injured on the job.
