The liquidity position of a company can be evaluated using several ratios which evaluate short-term assets and liabilities and a firm’s ability to settle short-term debts (Gibson, 2011). These ratios can provide insight into a firm’s ability to repay its debts in the short term (Gibson, 2011). In turn they suggest a firm’s capacity for debt-satisfying capabilities into the future (Gibson, 2011). This paper will use financial statement data as cited in Gibson (2011) from 3M Company (3M) to better understand liquidity measures to evaluate a firm’s total liquidity position. The following paper will focus on various liquidity calculations, their meaning, and their interpretation relative to 3M. Finally, an overall view of 3M’s liquidity …show more content…
Nonetheless, an improvement in age of receivables for a single company over multiple periods suggests a company is becoming more efficient or effective at managing its receivables (Bujaki & Durocher, 2012; Gibson, 2011).
Accounts receivable turnover is the second method by which a company’s trade receivables’ liquidity can be evaluated (Gibson, 2011). Žager et al. (2012) noted turnover ratios should be as high as possible as this indicates a firm’s ability to convert its assets more often. 3M’s accounts receivable turnover for years 2007 and 2008 is shown in Exhibit 2. In 2007, 3M turned its accounts receivable over 7.12 times and 7.70 times in 2008. This calculates into a turnover of its accounts receivable every 51.28 days in 2007 and 47.38 days in 2008. The increase in accounts receivable turnover times per year (decrease in number of days to turnover accounts receivables) from 2007 to 2008 is a positive trend for 3M. It suggests, along with the prior calculation, the management of receivables is likely to be improving in efficiency.
A company must pay attention to the number of days of its sales it holds in inventory to determine the amount of time it will take to convert the inventory on hand into sales (Gibson, 2011). As shown in Exhibit 3, 3M increased from 81.74 days of sales in inventory in 2007 to 82.20 days in 2008. At face value, an increase suggests a slight negative trend for 3M as it is holding onto more inventory, taking longer to sell
Rapid cash collections are indicative of high turnover; however, loss of customers to rival firms and tight credit levels arise from extremely high accounts receivable turnover level, (Horngren, 2013, p. 805).The accounts receivable turnover for Harry Jones in 2014 was 7.93 times. This figure decreased to 5.63 times in 2015. Both figures are less than the industry average of 9 times. Low inventory turnover levels might be attributed to reduced accounts receivable turnover levels throughout both 2014 and 2015. Inventory levels can be increased in the future to achieve higher accounts receivable turnover, (Horngren, 2013, p. 805).
When compared with the industry, the receivables turnover of S&S Air of 43.05 times is well over the industry upper quartile of 14.11 times. This shows that the collection of accounts receivable is a major strength of S&S Air when compared to the rest of the industry.
Interco's overall financial health is relatively healthy. It is highly-liquid as the current ratios are consistently over 3.5, showing that it has plenty of cash to cover any of its current liabilities. Its accounts receivable days indicate that in 1987 it took longer to collect on outstanding accounts while this figure would drop in 1988. The same trend follows with its inventory days, increasing in 1987 and decreasing in 1988, which would signal that its turnover was slower in 1987 and faster in 1988. The accounts payable days increased in 1987 while slightly decreasing in 1988. This is a healthy trend as Interco was able to take
11. Accounts receivable turnover and days sales in accounts receivable for the last three years:
Receivables Turnover: This shows the degree of realization in accounts receivables. Company N has a lower turnover rate, a lower rate implies that receivables are being held longer and the less likely they are to be collected. Also there is an opportunity cost of tying up funds in receivables for a long period of time. Company M is 29 times higher than company N.
Liquidity is an important factor in financial statement analysis since an entity that can not meet its short term obligations may be forced into liquidation. The focus of this aspect of analysis is on working capital, or some computer of working capital.
In order to test his hypothesis, the author followed the Dechow and Dichev (2002), which examines the standard deviations of residuals from a regression of accounts receivable accruals on corresponding cash flow realizations. The model uses information related to accounts receivable, sales cash collected during the periods, and errors in accounts receivable accruals (sresid). The author
If you sell a product or perform any service on credit, you are also in the accounts receivable collection business, and your company’s financial health depends on how well you do it. Unfortunately, it is one of those operations that is usually performed with insufficient forethought as to the systems, staff, strategy and tactics to employ in order to deliver exceptional results. With superior planning, execution, and technology, you can improve your company 's standard metric of cash flow
Buchbinder & Shanks (2012, p. 199) defined account receivable (AR) as a “current asset, created in the course of doing business, consisting of revenues recognized, but not yet collected as cash”. In health care organization, account receivable approximately contains 75 percent of the provider’s assets, for this reason it is also called patient accounts. In order to collect revenues generated and ensure cash flows for the management of the overall operations of the organization, management of account receivable is very important. It involves collaboration and cooperation of almost all departments in the health care organization (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2012, p. 199).
However, the receivables turnover ratio of year-ended 2014 is lower as compared with the year-ended 2013; the lower ratio of year-ended 2014 can be interpreted as the company has accumulated account receivables and re-assessment of the company’s policy in terms of receivables collection period is required as it might place the company in unfavourable condition if this situation
Bill is concerned about the inventory and account receivables turnover ratios because of their purpose and meaning in converting the situation of the business into figures. Inventory turnover ratio is to measures how efficient a business is at managing their inventory and generating sales from it, the formula for the ratio is (Cost of Good Sold)/(Average Inventory). From the statement, Linda Berhad initially had 5.1 turnover ratio where 1/5.1 ×365 days=71.57 days, this indicates that Bob initially only used approximate 72 days to clear off his entire inventory. Meanwhile, Bill had noticed that the ratio had decreased to 2.7 where it took about 136 days (1/2.7 ×365 days=135.19 days) for Linda Berhad to clear off their entire inventory. This means Linda Berhad are having a tough time to sell off their goods which is true as Bob said their computers were unable to sell during the holiday season.
Financial managers have typically been involved in the high-level decision making regarding the financial health of a company. However, the function of the financial manager has changed over time to include more detailed aspects of the company’s cash flow, including accounts receivable. Accounts receivable is vital to a company’s cash flow operations, if you cannot collect the money from your customers, you cannot pay for materials, expenses, or employees. If your customers are not paying on time, or not paying whatsoever, a business will inevitably lack the cash flow it requires to pay its own expenses. Consequently, it is essential for companies to have comprehensive policies on the managing of their accounts receivable because it has proven to be an essential part of business activities. The management of accounts receivable has a direct influence on shareholder value, on the capability of a company to meet its short-term obligations, such as, paying expenses and creditors. This paper will address how to effectively manage accounts receivable, by use of a credit policy and why it so critical.
This report provides analysis of the current liquidity management in banks. Methods of evaluation include peer, trend and horizontal analysis such as ratios, principle and regulations. In the first part, we analyze the differences between liability liquidity management and asset liquidity management and explore the features an effective liquidity management system should possess. Then we compare liquidity ratios of four banks in Australia to examine their performance on liquidity management according to line charts. Finally, Liquidity Coverage Ratio and Net Stable Funding ratio are introduced, how they improve mutually.
Liquidity plays a key role in the uplift of a firm. Liquidity is a measure which represents the ability of a firm having
Receivables—liquid form of asset Liquidity can be defined as financial solvency of the company it can be expressed as the liquidity of asset as well as corporate liquidity or solvency (Kallberg and Parkinson 1993, quoted in Ivanovic 1997, 125). On Stock market liquidity can be measured by observing the gap between the buying and selling price (Bogdan, Baresa, and Ivanovic, 2010, 45). Some authors (Uyemura; Van Deventer) define liquidity as ability to collect funds at no extra costs within a reasonable time (1993, 234). For continuous and normal business activities (lifetime) of each business entity most important is ability to timely settle obligations when they come for final payment. Receivable is liquid if it can be sold in short time without significant loss. In assessment of liquidity of individual receivable it is very important probability that it can be converted into cash, probability that it can be matched price and assumption that these two probabilities will not change at the market. Most liquid form of asset of a business entity represents funds which are ready for use in different purposes, after money—most liquid form of asset owned by