Components of the Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement tracks cash management in business activities. It is divided into operating, investing, and financing activities.

Consider Delta Furniture, a furniture manufacturer.

Cash flows from operating activities include transactions related to its core business operations.

If Delta Furniture receives fifty thousand dollars from sales and pays twenty thousand dollars in wages, its net cash flow from operating activities is thirty thousand dollars.

Cash flows from the business’s investing activities involve cash used for or generated from buying and selling long-term assets.

Delta Furniture buys equipment for fifteen thousand dollars and sells a vehicle for five thousand dollars, the net cash flow from investing activities is negative ten thousand dollars.

Cash flows from financing activities reflect how the business raises and repays capital.

Delta Furniture takes a loan of twenty thousand dollars and repays five thousand dollars within the same year, its net cash flow from financing activities will be fifteen thousand dollars.

These three sections help stakeholders understand a business's cash position and how it supports business growth and stability.