Why cash can go down even when sales are up? (2023)

Why can cash go down even when sales are up?

Growth in Days Sales Outstanding

If days sales outstanding grows, it indicates poor receivable collection practices, meaning a company isn't getting paid for items it sold. This leads to higher current assets, constituting a use of cash that decreases cash flows from operating activities.

Sometimes, negative cash flow means that your business is losing money. Other times, negative cash flow reflects poor timing of income and expenses. You can make a net profit and have negative cash flow. For example, your bills might be due before a customer pays an invoice.

Sales growth influences cash flow in two ways, namely, via the growth effect and its effect on the management decision to handle it. Sales growth has an impact that is relative to all other revenue generating activities that figure on the balance sheet or income statement within the organization.

Inventory and cost of goods sold also affect profits, but not necessarily cash because of the timing of the expenses. For example, you may have bought products to put into inventory including products you haven't yet sold.

Your business can be profitable without being cash flow-positive—and you can have a positive cash flow without actually making a profit.

Profit is the revenue remaining after deducting business costs, while cash flow is the amount of money flowing in and out of a business at any given time. Profit is more indicative of your business's success, but cash flow is more important to keep the business operating on a day-to-day basis.

The key difference between cash flow and profit is while profit indicates the amount of money left over after all expenses have been paid, cash flow indicates the net flow of cash into and out of a business.

However, over a certain period of time, a company may be profitable but still have cash flow difficulties. This is mainly due to the accrual basis of accounting, where revenues and expenses are recorded as they are incurred, not received.

Cash flow is different from sales revenue in two ways. First, while sales revenue only shows the gross amount of money coming into a company through sales, cash flow shows the total amount of money both coming into a company and moving out of it.

What are the three factors that determine cash flow?

Accounts receivable, average collection period, accounts receivable to sales ratio--while you might roll your eyes at all these terms, they're vital to your business.

Revenue is the money a company earns from the sale of its products and services. Cash flow is the net amount of cash being transferred into and out of a company. Revenue provides a measure of the effectiveness of a company's sales and marketing, whereas cash flow is more of a liquidity indicator.

Most businesses either have a decrease in sales or an increase in expenses. If sales are up but profits are down, then this likely means that the decline in operating profit can be attributed to an increase in expenses. For most businesses, the culprits for rising costs include: Increased overhead expenses.

If cost of sales is rising while revenue stagnates, this might indicate that input costs are rising, or that direct costs are not being managed properly. Cost of sales and COGS are subtracted from total revenue, thus yielding gross profit.

An increase in COGS may be due to rising prices for supplies or be associated with a decline in revenues. By contrast, improvements in cost controls, productivity or the adoption of new technology can bring the COGS percentage down, resulting in a larger gross profit and an increase in net operating profit.