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The statement of cash flow's primary purpose is to provide information regarding a company's cash inflows and outflows during a specified accounting period. This paper will focus more on how cash flow is helpful to external users. The statement of cash flow complements the income statement and the balance sheet. When credit decisions are made, many factors must be assessed. According to FASB (SFAS-95, paragraph 5) the information on actual cash flows is useful to help creditors, investors, and other external parties asses (1) the ability of an enterprise to generate positive future net cash flows, meet its obligations, and pay dividends; (2) the needs for external financing; (3) the reasons for the differences between cash flow from operating activities and net income (or change in net assets); and (4) the effects on financial position of cash and non-cash investing and financing activities.
Cash flows are classified as operating, investing, or financing activities. Operating activities relates to company’s primary revenue generating activities such as cash generated from the sale of goods and cash paid from merchandise. Investing activities includes lending money and collecting on loans related to noncurrent assets. For example, cash generated from the sale of land. Financing activities include borrowing and repaying money from creditors related to noncurrent liabilities and owners’ equity. The goal is for company to have a positive cash flow from operating. This is the area that a company should focus most of their attention on because it paints the best picture of how well a business operation are producing cash that will ultimately benefits the shareholders. “if it is positive, the company is generating more cash that it is spending on its day-to-day operations.” (Lan, 2012)
The cash flow statement is an important analytical tool that creditor can use to

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