Formation of the cash flows information and its analysis

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama Lietuvos apdirbamosios pramonės įmonių pinigų srautų informacijos formavimas. Daug dėmesio skiriama pinigų srautų klasifikavimui pagal veiklos sritis (pagrindinė, finansinė, investicinė). Tiriami pinigų srautų informacijos formavimo etapai. Pateikiama pinigų srautų rodiklių skaičiavimo metodika ir vertinimas.Funds are the most liquid assets of a company. A certain amount of assets is necessary for assurance of the long-term and short-term solvency of a company. The funds of a company are used for settling up with the suppliers and creditors, for implementation of investments and for paying out the dividends. The company, in its turn, cams the money out of the rendered services and the goods and employs it in the course of its further activities. Importance of availability of the funds for the company is evident. The successful activity of each company is closely related with ils capability to generate the funds. Thus, management of cash flows is one of the priorities in management of a company. However, a certain amount of information is necessary, which would help to implement one's wish to manage cash flows. Analysis of formation of the information on cash flows serves as the objective of investigation. Formation of the information on cash flows in the Lithuanian companies, attributed to the processing industry, serves as the object of investigation. Analysis of the scientific literature, the logical analysis, the questionnaire information, which has been accumulated as a result of polling, summarizing and specification serve as the methods of investigation. The funds include the cash-in-hand and the assets, which are kept at the bank accounts, whereas the short-term (up to three months) liquid investments, which can be quickly exchanged into the appropriate money amounts and the risk of which would be insignificant in case of change of their value, serve as equivalents of the funds. The funds and/or their equivalents should not be identified with cash flows. The investigation has revealed that the cash flows, coming out of the main activities (67%), out of the financial activities (17%) and out of the investment activities (16%), are of the largest comparative importance for the Lithuanian companies, attributed to the processing industry. It has been proved that formation of the information on cash flows should be carried out consecutively, i.e. within certain stages. However, little attention has been devoted to this problem both in literature and practice. It's purposive to single out 5 stages of formation of the information on cash flows, i.e. synthetic and analytical accounting on cash flows; creation of working tables on cash flows; creation of the report on cash flows (by using the direct and/or indirect methods); analysis of cash flows; taking the decisions on management. The above-specified stages are closely interrelated, stipulate each other, cover all important fields of formation of the information on cash flows. After having studied the literary sources, which have been published by Lithuanian and foreign authors within the years 1994 - 2003, the following conclusion has been drawn: the financial accounting as well as the names of the articles, reflected in them, differ in different countries; the authors use the terminology of the activities branches, which have been investigated; some Lithuanian authors automatically translate a certain index into the Lithuanian language without having considered the methods of its calculation more profoundly; certain terms in the English language do not comply with the terms in the Lithuanian language. After having carried out the investigation, it was revealed that cash flows produce the largest impact upon solvency and profitability of the company. Thus, it's advisable to calculate and analyse such relative indices of cash flows, which produce the largest impact upon efficiency of the company's activities. It's advisable to single out the following groups of relative indices on cash flows: the indices of cash flows, related with solvency of the company; the indices of cash flows, related with profitability of the company; other indices of cash flows. It's expedient to finalize the analysis of cash flows with investigation of the cycle of the funds turnover. Two relative indices define the cycle of the funds turnover, i.e. duration of the cycle of the funds turnover and the funds turnover itself