What is included in the statement of cash flows?
A cash flow statement provides data regarding all cash inflows that a company receives from its ongoing operations and external investment sources. It includes cash made by the business through operations, investment, and financing—the sum of which is called “net cash flow.”
The three sections of the cash flow statement are: operating activities, investing activities and financing activities. Companies can choose two different ways of presenting the cash flow statement: the direct method or the indirect method.
A cash flow statement is a financial statement that summarizes the amount of cash flowing into and out of a company. This includes all cash inflows a company receives from its ongoing operations and external investment sources.
A cash flow statement is generally broken down into 3 main sections: operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. The operating activities section of a cash flow statement summarizes cash inflows and outflows involved with running the business.
Cash flow statements record inflows (or 'receipts') and outflows (or 'disbursements') of cash: dollars that are either entering your business or leaving your business.
It includes cash made by the business through operations, investment, and financing—the sum of which is called “net cash flow.” The first section of the cash flow statement is cash flow from operations (CFO), which includes transactions from all operational business activities.
Key Takeaways
A cash flow statement summarizes the amount of cash and cash equivalents entering and leaving a company. The CFS highlights a company's cash management, including how well it generates cash. This financial statement complements the balance sheet and the income statement.
The statement of cash flows classifies cash receipts and disbursements as operating, investing, and financing cash flows. Both inflows and outflows are included within each category.
In other words, cash flow is the movement — into and out of your business month-to-month — of the actual cash you have on hand, the cash that's actually available to pay your bills, make investments and meet payroll.
Cash flow from investing activities includes long-term asset (fixed asset) cash purchases and sales and fixed asset insurance proceeds. Furthermore, investing activities are investments in securities of other companies, loans to other entities, and M&A cash transactions to buy businesses.
Do you include depreciation in cash flow?
Since depreciation decreases operating income, but does not result in a cash outflow, it is added back to operating income to reconcile net cash provided from operating activities.
The classification of cash flows is functional, usually based on the nature of the underlying transaction. The primary purpose of the statement is to provide relevant information about the agency's cash receipts and cash payments during a period.

The cash flow statement shows all sources of cash and all of the uses of cash. Provides information about cash receipts (inflows) and cash payments (outflows).
There are three primary components to a cash flow report: operating, investing and financing. Monthly cash flow reporting, future forecasting and at-a-glance analysis are the primary purposes of cash flow statements.
Key Highlights. Operating cash flow (OCF) is how much cash a company generated (or consumed) from its operating activities during a period. The OCF calculation will always include the following three components: 1) net income, 2) plus non-cash expenses, and 3) minus the net increase in net working capital.
- Operating activities.
- Investing activities.
- Financing activities.
Cash flow is the movement of cash into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It is usually measured during a specified, finite period of time, and can be used to measure rates of return, actual liquidity, real profits, and to evaluate the quality of investments.
A cash flow statement is a financial statement that shows how cash entered and exited a company during an accounting period. Cash coming in and out of a business is referred to as cash flows, and accountants use these statements to record, track, and report these transactions.
The cash flow statement simply shows the inflows and outflows of cash from your business over a specific period of time, usually a month.
- Net Cash-Flow = Total Cash Inflows – Total Cash Outflows.
- Net Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flow + Cash Flow from Financial Activities (Net) + Cash Flow from Investing Activities (Net)
How do you know if your cash flow statement is correct?
The first sign that the cash flow statement has errors in it is that it simply is out of balance, meaning that the total of its three sections is not equal to the change in the cash asset. This can be due to: Mathematical errors like adding errors or calculating the increase in the various line items incorrectly.
It presents cash inflows (receipts) and outflows (payments) in the three activities of business: operating, investing, and financing.
- Decide how far out you want to plan for. Cash flow planning can cover anything from a few weeks to many months. ...
- List all your income. For each week or month in your cash flow forecast, list all the cash you've got coming in. ...
- List all your outgoings. ...
- Work out your running cash flow.
Free Cash Flow (FCF) = Cash from Operations (CFO) – Capital Expenditures (Capex) EBITDA = Operating Income (EBIT) + D&A.
Cash flow refers to the amount of money moving into and out of a company, while revenue represents the income the company earns on the sales of its products and services.