International Accounting Standard 7 Cash Flow Statement

Main objective of this thesis is to analysis the Compliance of International Accounting Standard-7 Cash Flow Statement. Here overall discussion is to determine the process of the preparation the statement of cash flow, presentation of the information in relation to the transactions & also the disclosure of such information as per the International Accounting Standards (IAS) – 7 that contains the cash flow statements matter.

Introduction

The preparation of the statements of cash flow refers to the inflow & outflow of cash of an organization. An organization has various types of activities by which the inflow & outflow of cash occurs. The activities are mainly consisting operating, investing & the financing activities of a firm. The firm pays to several parties & also receipts from various sources. Here, I have tried to determine the main source of activities receipts & payments for which the cash is disbursed or received. The payment & also receipt occurred through cash are the main concern of the study.

Objective of the study

The preparation, presentation & also the disclosure of the significant accounting rules & also the policies are obligatory for every firm to maintain in the financial statements. The cash flow statements is one of the five mandatory parts of financial statements that is must for all types of firms to prepare by following the guidelines referred into the IAS (International Accounting Standards). Cash Flow statement is also needed to prepare by following International Accounting Standards – 7. Each & every firm must need to prepare the cash flow statements to show the amounts of cash inflow & outflow in the organizations. The three parts of the cash flow statements represent the amount of the cash flow from operating, investing & financing activities of the concerned firm. Here my objective is to determine the process of the preparation the statement of cash flow, presentation of the information in relation to the transactions & also the disclosure of such information as per the International Accounting Standards (IAS) – 7 that contains the cash flow statements matter.

Definition of Cash Flow statement as per “International Accounting Standards-7”

A cash flow statement it can be defined as a financial statement that shows the flow of cash into and through the company. As a businessman it is essential to know about cash flow statement and how it is prepared. A cash flow statement is just the report of the movement of cash into and out of your business over a period of time. It basically reports your business sources and uses of cash and the beginning and ending values for cash and cash equivalents each year. It also includes the combined total change in cash and cash equivalents from all sources and uses of cash.

IAS7 (Para. 6) states: “cash flows are inflows and outflows of cash and cash equivalents”. Cash equivalents are defined as “short-term, highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and which are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value”.

In financial accounting, a cash flow statement, also known as statement of cash flows or funds flow statement, is an integral part of financial statement that shows how changes in balance sheet accounts and income statements items affect cash and cash equivalents and breaks the analysis down to operating, investing, and financing activities. Essentially, the cash flow statement is concerned with the flow of cash in and cash out of the business. The statement captures both the current operating results through Income statement and the accompanying changes in the balance sheet. As an analytical tool, the statement of cash flows is useful in determining the short-term viability of a company, particularly its ability to pay short term liabilities & bills. International Accounting Standard 7 (IAS 7) is the International Accounting Standard that deals with the preparation, presentation & disclosure of the relevant information of the cash flow statements. Every company must have to prepare the cash flow statement by following the IAS-7.

Purpose of preparing Cash Flow statement

The cash flow statement is needed to prepare to show the cash inflow &outflow in an organization occurred through the operating, investing & financing activities. The cash flow statement, previously known as the flow of Cash statement, reflects a firm’s liquidity to pay the short term obligations.

The balance sheet is a snapshot of a firm’s financial resources and obligations at a single point of time, and the income statement summarizes a firm’s financial transactions over an interval of time. These two financial statements reflect the accrual basis accounting used by firms to match revenues with the expenses associated with generating those revenues. The cash flow statement includes only inflows and outflows of cash and cash equivalents; it excludes transactions that do not directly affect cash receipts and payments & the non-cash items such as depreciation, amortization & depletion of fixed assets of both tangibles & intangibles & write-offs on bad debts or credit losses to name a few. The cash flow statement is a cash basis report on three types of financial activities: operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. Non-cash activities are usually reported in footnotes.

The main purposes of preparing the cash flow statements include:

1. Provide additional information for evaluating changes in assets, liabilities and equity related to cash & cash equivalent.
2. Improve the comparability of different firm’s operating performance by eliminating the effects of different accounting methods.
3. Indicate the amount, timing and probability of future cash flows.

The cash flow statement has been adopted as a standard financial statement because it eliminates allocations, which might be derived from different accounting methods, such as various timeframes for depreciating fixed assets.

History of Cash Flow statement

Cash basis financial statements were very common before the invention of accrual basis accounting of preparing financial statements. The “flow of funds” statements of the past were cash flow statements.

In 1863, the Do wlais Iron Company had recovered from a business slump, but had no cash to invest for a new blast furnace, despite having made a profit. To explain why there were no funds to invest, the manager made a new financial statement that was called a comparison balance sheet, which showed that the company was holding too much inventory. This new financial statement was the genesis of Cash Flow Statement that is used today.

In the United States in 1971, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) defined rules that made it mandatory under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) to report sources and uses of funds, but the definition of “funds” was not clear.”Net working capital” might be cash or might be the difference between current assets and current liabilities. From the late 1970 to the mid-1980s, the FASB discussed the usefulness of predicting future cash flows. In 1987, FASB Statement No. 95 (FAS 95) mandated that firms provide cash flow statements. In 1992, the International Accounting Standards Board issued International Accounting Standard 7 (IAS 7), Cash Flow Statements, which became effective in 1994 as an integral part of the financial statements, mandating that firms provide cash flow statement that shows the inflow & outflow of cash relating to the operating, investing & financing activities.

US GAAP and IAS 7 rules for cash flow statements are almost similar, but some of the differences occur:

• IAS 7 requires that the cash flow statement include changes in both cash and cash equivalents. US GAAP permits using cash alone or cash and cash equivalents.
• IAS 7 permits bank borrowings (overdraft) in certain countries to be included in cash equivalents rather than being considered a part of financing activities.
• IAS 7 allows interest paid to be included in operating activities or financing activities. US GAAP requires that interest paid be included in operating activities.
• US GAAP (FAS 95) requires that when the direct method is used to present the operating activities of the cash flow statement, a supplemental schedule must also present a cash flow statement using the indirect method. The IASC strongly recommends the direct method but allows either method. The IASC considers the indirect method less clear to users of financial statements. Cash flow statements are most commonly prepared using the indirect method & easier also but is not especially useful in projecting future cash flo

Classification of the Cash Flow statement

Cash flow statements include the cash related activities of the entity that is affiliated to the operation, investment & finance. These three kinds of cash flow statement activities are correlated to each other. They usually depend on and affect each other. The cash flow forecast should take this into account, and offer a complete picture of where cash will come from and how it will be used for the period being forecast.  The relationships between the different cash flow activities may depend on the nature of the business, size of the entity, capacity to perform, stages of development of the business, and general economic conditions, or conditions within the market or industry in which the business operates.

The partitioned three segments of cash flow statements are as follows:

1) Operation related activities of the Cash flow statement,

2) Investment related activities of the cash flow statement &

3) Financing related activities of the cash flow statement

1) Operation related activities of the Cash flow statement:

Operating activities include the main revenue producing activity of the organization that is related to production, sales and delivery of the company’s product & also the collection of the cash from its customers. Therefore, they generally result from the transactions and other events that enter into the determination of net profit or loss.  The payments of the operating activities include the purchase raw materials, inventory, payment of salaries & wages, carriages for the product, advertising, and shipping the product & other operating expenses of the firm.

Under IAS 7, operating cash flows include the following activities of a firm:

a) Cash receipts from the sale of goods and the rendering of services

b) Cash receipts from royalties, fees, commissions and other revenue

c) Cash payments to suppliers for goods and services

d) Cash payments to and on behalf of employees

e) Cash receipts and cash payments of an insurance enterprise for premiums and claims, Annuities and other policy benefits

f) Cash payments or refunds of income taxes unless they can be specifically identified with Financing and investing activities and

g) Cash receipts and payments from contracts held for dealing or trading purposes.

Some items are added back to or subtracted from the net income figure, that  are found on the Income Statement, to arrive at cash flows from operations activities generally include:

• Depreciation (loss on tangible asset value over time)
• Deferred tax
• Amortization (loss on intangible asset value over time)
• Any gains or losses associated with the sale of a non-current asset, because associated cash flows do not belong in the operating section.(unrealized gains/losses are also added back from the income statement)

From the major class of cash receipts & payments we get the net operating cash flows of a firm.

2. Investment related activities of the cash flow statement:

Investment related activities of the cash flow statement of an organization relates to the acquisition &  of the long term asset including the purchase of fixed asset such as machinery & equipment, furniture, property & plant. That means the investing activities are related to the achievement of the production capacity of the firm & the disposition of the old, postdated long term asset. The investment related activities of the form includes the following:

• Purchase or Sale of long term assets including land, building, machinery, plant, property, equipment & marketable securities etc.
• Loans made to suppliers or received from customers
• Payments related to mergers and acquisitions

3.  Financing related activities of the cash flow statement:

Financing activities of the firm are equity & debt related activities of the firm. Financing activities alter the equity capital and borrowing structure of the enterprise also. In simple words, it is the money owned by outside entities which include banks & shareholders. Moreover, it also includes the payments to these owners of the company. If you increase or decrease your debt, that change is included in financing activities. Equity changes such a capital contributions or shareholder distributions also are reflected and included under financing activities. Like investing activities assets, financing activities liabilities and equity do not represent revenue or expense items. As per IAS -7 the following activities are the financial activities of the business entity:

• Cash proceeds from issuing short-term or long-term debt
• Payments of dividends
• Payments for repurchase of company shares
• For non-profit organizations, receipts of donor-restricted cash that is limited to long-term purposes

• Cash repayments of amounts borrowed
• Payment of dividend tax

• Repayment of debt principal, including capital leases &

• Cash payments to owners to acquire or redeem the enterprise’s share

Usefulness of preparing Cash Flow statement

A statement of cash flow can be benefited in various ways for the form. It includes all the cash related transaction f the firm both inflow to firm & outflow from the firm.  It shows the amount of receipts & payments in the organization under the different headings of activity. We can gather an idea about the overall situations of cash movements in & out of the firm that helps us to predict the future cash flow & can help to allocate budget for different sources of activities.  Cash flow statement, a mandatory one for every firm to maintain, when used in conjunction with the rest of the financial statements, provides information that enables users to evaluate the changes in net assets of an entity, its financial structure (including its liquidity and solvency) and its ability to affect the amounts and timing of cash flows in order to adapt to changing circumstances and opportunities. Cash flow information is useful in assessing the ability of the entity to generate cash and cash equivalents and enables users to develop models to assume and compare the present value of the future cash flows of different entities. It also enhances the comparability of the reporting of operating efficiency by different entities because it reduces the effects of using different accounting treatments for the same transactions and events.

Another important benefit of Historical cash flow information is that it can often be used as an indicator of the amount, timing and certainty of future cash flows. It is also useful in checking the accuracy of past assessments of future cash flows and in examining the relationship between profitability and net cash flow and the impact of changing prices among the competitive business entities. The followings are the direct benefit that the users can get from the cash flow statement:

1. The entity’s ability to generate future cash flows can be known from the cash flow statement
2. The entity’s ability to pay dividends & meet the obligations.
3. The reasons for the difference between net income & net cash provided or used by the operating activities.
4. The cash investing & financing transactions during the period can also known from the cash flow statement

Accounting guidelines for the preparation of Cash flow statements as per International Accounting Standards (IAS)-7

Preparation procedure of the cash flow statements

A cash flow statement is important for the business because it can be used to assess the timing, amount and predictability of future cash flows and it can be used as the basis for budgeting. A cash flow statement can answer the questions, “Where did the money come from?” and “Where did it go?” Cash flow statement can be prepared by following two ways. By showing cash payments & receipts from the operating activities we get the net cash generated from the operating activities of the firm. Then the investing activities related cash receipts & payments are adjusted then we get the amount of net cash generated from the investing activities. At last, then the financing related cash payments & receipts are adjusted. Then we get net financing cash flows. Two methods of preparing the cash flow statement differ in only in operating activities. The other two activities adjustments are same.

In times of determining net operating cash flows under direct method all the operating related cash receipts & payments are adjusted directly & we get the net operating cash flow. But in the process of indirect method net profit are shown & the non cash expenses such as depreciation, amortization & depletion are added back. The increase in asset 7& the decrease in liability are deducted from the net income & the decrease in asset & increase in liability are added to the net income balance. Then we get the net operating cash flow under indirect method. The process of determining cash flows from the investing & financing are same under the direct & indirect method.

Format of preparing cash flow statements

The following format is used to prepare the cash flow statements under the direct method.

Company Name

Statement of cash flows

Period covered

Though some activities are noncash in nature but they are very much significant for the entity. Some of the noncash activities are given below:

1. Issuance of common stock to purchase assets
2. Issuance of debt to purchase assets
3. Conversion of bonds into common stock
4. Exchange of plant assets

The following format is used to prepare the cash flow statements under the indirect method:

Company Name

Statement of cash flows

Period covered

Significant noncash activities include the issuance of common stock to purchase assets, issuance of debt to purchase assets, conversion of bonds into common stock & exchange of plant assets.

Major steps of preparing the cash flow statements

The cash flow statement is prepared in major 3 steps. This 3steps is to be followed to prepare the cash flow statements.

Step -1: Determine the net cash provided/used by operating activities by converting net income from an accrual basis to a cash basis. This step involves analyzing not only the current year’s income statement but also comparative balance sheets & selected additional data from adjustments.

Step -2: Analyze changes in noncurrent asset & liability accounts & record as investing & financing activities or as significant noncash transactions. This step involves analyzing comparative balance sheet data & selected additional information for their effects of cash.

Step -3: Compare the vet change in cash on the statement of cash flows with the change in the cash account reported in the balance sheet to make sure the amounts agree. The difference between the beginning & ending cash balances can be easily computed from comparative balance sheets.

Cash inflows & outflows can change the the accounts balance of the balance sheet items in the following way:

Components of cash flow statement:

A. Operating or financing activities:

Various types of Transactions are included in cash flows under each of the three activities of cash flow statement in different manner. As per Para 12 of IAS 7, “A single transaction may include cash flows that are classified differently. For example, when the cash repayment of a loan includes both interest and capital the interest element may be classified as operating activities and the capital amount is classified as financing activities”.  This may happen in several items of the cash flow statement preparation.

B. Operating or investing and financing Activities:

Some cash flow items may be classified under any of the activity of the cash flow statement as arising activities such as ‘interest’ ‘dividend’ ‘income tax’. They are the conflicting items of the cash flow statement. The provisions of these types are as follows.

(1) Interest:

(a) For a financial institution, interest paid and interest received are usually classified as operating cash flows as interest received is the main revenue producing activity & payment of interest is the main expense item (Para 33).

(b) For the enterprise except the financial institution, interest paid and interest received may be classified as operating cash flows because they enter into the determination of net profit or loss. Alternatively, interest paid may be classified also as financing cash flows, because they are the costs of obtaining financial resources. Interest received may be classified as investing cash flows, because they are returns on investments (Para 33).

(2) Dividend:

(a) For a financial institution, dividends received are usually classified as operating cash flows (Para 33).

(b) For other enterprise, dividends received may be classified as operating cash flows because they enter into the determination of net profit or loss. Alternatively dividend received may be classified as investing cash flows, because they are returns on investments (Para 33).

(c) Dividend paid may be classified as financing cash flows, because they are costs of obtaining financial resources. Alternatively, dividend paid may also be classified as component of cash flows from operating activities in order to assist users to determine the ability of an enterprise to pay dividend out of operating cash flows (Para 34).

(3) Income tax:

(a) Taxes on income arise on a transaction that gives to the cash flows that are classified as operating, investing, and financing activities in cash flow statement. While tax expense may be readily identifiable with investing or financing activities, the related tax cash flows are often impracticable to identify and may arise in a different period from the cash flows of the underlying transactions. Therefore, taxes paid are usually classified as cash flows from operating activities. However, it is practicable to identify the tax cash flow within individual transaction that gives rise to cash flows that are classified as investing or financing activity as appropriate. When tax cash flows are allocated over more than one class of activity, the total amount of taxes payment is disclosed (Para 36.)  In the light of SFAS 95, “Transaction that enter into the determination of net income” are defined as operating activities and hence, interest received or paid, dividend received and taxes on income are rigidly treated to arise from operating activities. Stakeholder’s dividend is treated as cash outflows classified as financing activities.

Use of method to prepare the cash flow statement

Use of direct & indirect method to prepare the cash flow statements for the entity: Most firm use the indirect method for cash flow statements preparation. Because this method is easier as the adjustments are made from the net income that is readily available for every firm. The preparation of cash flow statement is preferred under the direct method as per IAS -7: cash flow statement. But both methods are allowed. Few firms use the direct. Here all the operating cash receipts & payments are adjusted to get the net operating cash flow. Almost 99% of the firm uses the indirect method & the rest use direct one.

Requirements to prepare cash flow statement:

To prepare the statement of cash flow statement of Computer Service Company we have used the balance sheet of current & last year, income statement & the other additional information of the company.

Computer Service Company

Balance sheet

December 31

Computer Service Company

Income statement

December 31, 2008

The following additional information is also relevant for the preparation of the statements of cash flows.

1. All of the shares of a subsidiary were acquired for 590.
2. The fair values of assets acquired and liabilities assumed as follows:

3. 250 were raided from the issue of share capital and a further 250 was raised from long-term borrowings.
4. Interest expense was 400 of which 170 was paid during the period. 100 relating to interest expense of the prior period were also paid during the period.
5. Dividends paid were 1,200.
6. The liability for tax at the beginning and end of the period was 1 000 and 400 respectively. During the period, a further 200 tax was provided for. Withholding tax on dividends received amounted to 100.
7. During the period, the group acquired property, plant and equipment with an aggregate cost of 1,250 of which 900 was acquired by means of finance leases. Cash payments of 350 were made to purchase property, plant and equipment.
8. Plant with original cost of 80 and accumulated depreciation of 60 was sold for 20.
9. Accounts receivable as at end of 19-2 include 100 of interest receivable.

Examples of cash flow statement as per IAS-7:

The cash flow statement preparation is mandatory in financial reporting as per International Accounting standards -7. It is one of the integral parts of the financial statements that show the inflow & outflow of cash from & to the other parties. It includes all the income &n expense occurred in cash.

Computer Service Company

CASH FLOW STATEMENT (DIRECT METHOD) (PARA 18A)

Dec 31, 2008

Computer Service Company

CASH FLOW STATEMENT (INDIRECT METHOD) (PARA 18A)

Dec 31, 2008

NOTES TO THE CASH FLOW STATEMENT BOTH FOR (DIRECT METHOD AND INDIRECT METHOD)

1. ACQUISITION OF SUBSIDIARY

During the period the group acquired subsidiary X. The fair value of assets acquired and liabilities assumed were as follows:

• PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

During the period, the Group acquired property, plant and equipment with an aggregate cost of 1,250 of which 900 was acquired by means of finance leases. Cash payments of 350 were made to purchase property, plant and equipment.

• CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS:

Cash and cash equivalents consist of cash on hand and balance with banks, and investments in money market instruments. Cash and cash equivalents included in the

Cash statement comprise the following balance sheet amounts

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period include deposits with banks of 100 held by a Subsidiary which are not freely remissible to the holding company because of currency exchange Restriction.

Alternative presentation of for the indirect method only:

As an alternative, in an indirect method cash flow statement, operating profit before working capital changes is sometime presented as follows:

Bangladesh perspective of preparing cash flow statement

Bangladesh accounting standard

International Accounting standard is applicable for all over the world which follows the IASB framework for financial reporting. In Bangladesh International Accounting standard (IAS) is applicable as Bangladesh accounting standard (BAS). All the rules & regulations of IAS are maintained in BAS. In Bangladesh the accounting standard is issued by the ICAB (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh). ICAB is the sole authority to issue the BAS in our country by following IASB. It always maintains the ever changing process of standards because of the changing nature of the corporate world. Here the BAS -7 is the Bangladesh version if IAS -7 which states the preparation of cash flow statement of the financial statements. In our country it is obligatory to prepare the cash flow statements by maintaining the BAS-7 for all types of business entity.

Our country’s perspective to maintain the IAS-7 (BAS-7)

In our country for the reporting of the financial statements cash flow statements is one of the integral parts. It is mandatory to prepare in accordance with BAS -7. The rules & regulations are strict to follow for the business organization in our country. All the companies show their cash flow statements to express the cash flow in & out from the organization through the operating, investing financing activity of the entity. The entity’s cash flow is mostly needed to know for the entity as it can help them to predict the future cash flow & also determine the current cash available to meet the obligations. It also helps to allocate cash budget for each activity of the entity. To determine the liquidity of the entity it helps the organizations.

Does the business entity in our country follow the IAS -7 (BAS -7) or not to prepare the cash flow statement for financial reporting?

In our country all the business entity both manufacturing & financial has to maintain the cash flow statement for them. Here are the few manufacturing companies which follows the BAS-7 for the financial reporting.

Here is the Analysis of Statements of Cash Flows of few listed companies of our country who maintains the BAS-7 to prepare the cash flow statements in times of financial reporting:

1. N. Spinning Mills Ltd.(2010)
2. Alam cold Rolled Steels Ltd. (2010)
3. Square textiles Ltd. (2010)
4. Aftab Automobiles Ltd. (2010)
5. Summit Power Ltd.(2009)
6. Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd.(2010)
7. Makson Spinning Mills Ltd. (2010)
8. BSRM Steels Ltd. (2010)
9. Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (2010)
10. Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd.(2010)
11. Rangpur Foundry ltd.(RFL)  (2010)
12. Prime Textile Ltd. (2010)
13. Keya Detergent Ltd. (2010)

As per the requirement of the Companies Act -1994 of our country it is mandatory to prepare the cash flow statements as part of the financial Statements. All the companies of our country prepare the statements of Cash Flow for showing the accurate movements of cash within & outside the business & also to disclose the cash movements in the financial statements for the user so that they can take the appropriate decisions for their own will.

The following firm shows their receipts & payments of cash inflow & outflow under the several activities of the firm in the following way:

R.N. Spinning Mills Ltd (2010)

Comments: R.N. Spinning Mills Ltd follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements. But dividend paid can also be included in the operating activities.

Alam cold Rolled Steels Ltd.(2010)

Comments: S. Alam cold Rolled Steels Ltd follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements. They showed the dividend paid as the financing activities it can also be referred as the operating activities.

Square Textiles limited (2009)

Comments: Square Textiles limited follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) to prepare the Cash Flow statements in the financial statements.

Aftab Automobiles Ltd (2010)

Comments: Aftab Automobiles Ltd follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements.

Summit Power Ltd.(2009)

Comments: Summit Power Ltd follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements. They showed the interest received as the investing activities but it can also be showed as the operating activities of the firm.

Power Grid Company of Bangladesh ltd. (2009-2010)

Comments: Power Grid Company of Bangladesh ltd. follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements.

Makson Spinning Mills Ltd.(2010)

Comments: Makson Spinning Mills Ltd follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements. They followed the indirect method to prepare the cash flow statement.

BSRM Steels Ltd:(2010)

Comments: BSRM Steels Ltd follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements.

Beximco pharmaceuticals ltd.

Comments: Beximco pharmaceuticals ltd. follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements.

Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd.

 Comments: Advanced Chemical Industries Ltd. follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements.

Rangpur Foundry ltd.(RFL)  (2010)

Comments: Rangpur Foundry ltd. follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements.

Prime Textile Ltd. (2010)

Comments:  Prime Textile Ltd. follows the IAS-7(BAS-7) in times of preparing the Cash Flow statements for financial reporting.

Keya Detergent Ltd. (2010)

Comments:  Keya Detergent Ltd. prepares their Cash Flow statements for financial reporting as per IAS-7(BAS-7). They showed the interest expenses as operating it can also be considered as the financing expenses.

From the analysis of the above Cash Flow statement of our country’s renowned manufacturing firms we can see that most of the firm showed the dividend as their financing activities. But it can also be showed as also under the operating & investing activities also. But it depends on the purpose & nature of use of business & also the use of funds. The below 3 are the most notable items of the cash flow statement that can be showed under different headings as mentioned in the above.

Dividend: For a financial institution, dividends received are usually classified as operating cash flows (Para 33). For other business enterprise, dividends received may be classified as operating cash flows because they enter into the determination of net profit or loss. Alternatively dividend received may be classified as investing cash flows, because they are returns on investments. (Para 33) Dividend paid may be classified as financing cash flows, because they are costs of obtaining financial resources. Alternatively dividend paid may be classified as component of cash flows from operating activities in order to assist users to determine the ability of an enterprise to pay dividend out of operating cash flows.(Para 34).

Interest: For a financial institution, interest paid and interest received are usually classified as operating cash flows (Para 33). For other enterprise, interest paid and interest received may also be classified as operating cash flows because they enter into the determination of net profit or loss. Alternatively, interest paid may be classified as financing cash flows, because they are costs of obtaining financial resources. Interest received may be classified as investing cash flows, because they are returns on investments (Para 33). In the above analysis we can see that almost all of the firms recorded the interest expense as the operating activities by considering that it as operating expenses of the entity.

Income tax: Taxes on income arise on a transaction that gives to the cash flows that are classified as operating, investing, and financing activities in cash flow statement. While tax expense may be readily identifiable with investing or financing activities, the related tax cash flows are often impracticable to identify and may arise in a different period from the cash flows of the underlying transactions. Therefore taxes paid are usually classified as cash flows from operating activities. However, when it is practicable to identify the tax cash flow within individual transaction it gives rise to cash flows that are classified as investing or financing activity as appropriate. When tax cash flows are allocated over more than one class of activity, the total amount of taxes paid is disclosed. (Para 36) In the above analysis we can see that most of the firms showed income tax paid expense as the operating activities because it reduces the net profit of the entity.

 Findings & Recommendations

Findings of the study on cash flow statement

The preparation of the cash flow statement is very much important in financial reporting. Cash flow statement is one of the integral parts of the financial statement. The cash flow statement is also prepared for a specific purpose as like as the statement of financial position, statement of changes in owner’s equity. Each statement has the unique goal of preparation. By following the cash flow statement the firm can use its cash effectively. The inward & outward can be known & also the movement can be predicted form the cash flow statement. The amount of receipts & payments of the cash from each of activity including operating, investing & financing can be assessed. The ability to meet the current obligation is from the liquidity can be measured. So the statement of cash flow plays a viable rule in the financial statement reporting.

Findings of followings IAS -7(BAS-7) to prepare the cash flow statement

IASB is a universal body which is the main issuing authority of the IAS for the financial reporting. IAS is followed by the countries which maintain the IASB framework. By following the IAS a country can prepare a cash flow statement as like as the other IAS following countries. As a result it is easy to compare the reporting of different countries & the intended users can take the investing or financing decisions. In our country all the firms are required to prepare the cash flow statement as per the BAS-7 applicable in our country. The users can easily evaluate the performance of various firms. If the standard was not followed it was not easy to evaluate the firms. Even it is possible to evaluate a foreign firm to a native one. So the use of the same standard makes it possible for the intended users to compare the financial statements.

Recommendations of the study

Cash flow statement preparation is the purpose of determining the cash movements of the entity from & to the entity as the cash is the most liquid asset of the entity. It relates only to the cash basis accounting. It does not consider the noncash items as it can be the most viable activities of the entity. Such as the issuance of bonus share, issuance of share to obtain the long term asset of the entity are the transactions that has no impact on the cash balance but it has an impact on the business operation. So cash flow statement does not cover a large part of the organizations activity. After all it plays a viable rule for an entity accounting procedure.

Conclusion:

In every business organization the preparation of the cash flow statement plays a vital role for the as it refers to determine the movements of cash for various purpose. Cash as the most liquid asset of an entity is needed to maintain as best possible way. Excess cash kept in hand causes the increase in interest cost & also security problem. On the other hand lack of cash in hand can lead a firm disastrous conditions as it cannot pay its short term obligations that hampers the reputation of the entity.

By maintaining a separate account for cash items we can easily use it in best possible way. The cash flow statement can help to do that in a compatible way. Moreover by following the IAS -7 (BAS-7) we can get a standard way to prepare all the business entity’s cash flow statement preparation that make it possible to compare the statement of cash flows & evaluate the results for the stakeholders of the entity.