[mightywombatt]

How can a company have an income of $60,000 but still have a shortage of cash?

[Fr_Chuck]

Is that 60,000 a day, a month, if it is a year.

Is that gross or net income. If it is gross, they may be spending 70,000 to earn 60,000

So they spend more than they make

[morgaine300]

Is "income" meant to be gross revenues, or net income?

I suspect it's meant to be net income, because that's the only way it makes sense to ask how the company could have a shortage of cash. Having expenses higher than revenues means they have a net loss, not a shortage of cash necessarily.

So going with the assumption it means net income (and you should state it that way - "income" and "net income" aren't the same things), the reason is partly because the company could be paying something that is not on their income statement. For instance, a loan payment. So cash is going out, but it's not an expense and therefore doesn't reduce net income.

Mostly the reason is if the company is on an accrued basis, then revenues and expenses do not always match cash. You could have a million in sales recorded but not have received the cash payments from the customers for all of it. So even though you have a million of revenues on your income statement, you don't have that much in cash. By the same token, you could have a net loss on your books but have a positive cash flow.

They are likely trying to stress the concept of the difference between the accrued basis and how the cash actually comes out.