Ask Me Help Desk - Cash Flows

I don't know if it's too late for this. I'm getting $320 for the operating, so I don't know where the instruction got his number either.

I don't know where you got all your numbers, so it's a bit difficult to tell you what all you may have done wrong. (It's easier for me to see your work, which can allow me to see where the method has gone astray.) I don't know why you're subtracting dividends from the increase in common stock. Dividends are paid out of retained earnings. Your statement that net income would be retained earnings plus dividends is the right idea, but incorrect. It's the change in retained earnings plus dividends. But you didn't include a net income at all, as far as I can see. I don't do it that way though. I take 250 less the dividends, which gives me a sub-total of 205. Then I look at that, and the new balance of 470, and that difference is the net income that was added on. (i.e. it's easier for me to just start at the beginning balance, make the changes I know of, then figure out the difference of what is left, instead of trying to account for the net change.)

The A/P and Gain on the sale are correct. Depreciation, however, is incorrect. Using that same method, I start with the beginning balance of 400 in the accumulated depreciation. When an asset is sold (or discarded in any manner), the A/D comes with it. So that 60 would subtract off that. Leaving me with 250. Then the difference between that and the ending balance of 330 is 80, not 70. (There's a decrease in that account of 70, but I don't know if that's what you used, or if you just made an error in calculation. Here's where seeing your work would really help.)

I don't know where you got the 170 for current assets. You should also list them individually. First, you may have included cash, I don't know. The whole thing is the change in cash -- it's a cash flow statement. You're not trying to adjust cash in just the operating section. All three sections put together will equal the change in cash. The A/R increased, so that's a subtraction. And the inventory decreased so that's an add. Current assets go the opposite direction from their change.

As for the investing... that's a bit tricky. What you aren't looking at, and should always look at, is the change in balance of accounts, and account for all changes. You have not accounted for the fact that the equipment didn't change by 60. It changed by 140, and it went up. If equipment was sold, how could it go up? You have to figure out how much that sold asset cost, so that you can figure out how that account changed. It was kind of a nasty little thing for the instructor to give you. (In real life, we don't have to figure things out this way. We know what went in and out of those accounts!)

If it sold for 60 and had a 25 gain, then its book value was 35. If its book value was 35 and accumulated depreciation was 150, then the cost was 185. So beginning balance minus 185 drops the balance of that account down to 815. But since its ending balance is 1140, it also went up by 325. That means they also purchased something in that category. (We don't know what.) Since there is nothing in long-term liabilities to show it was borrowed money or anything, we have to assume cash. So we also made a purchase of a fixed asset for 325. That's where the 265 came from for Investing.