Answer :

HI5020

Management accounting

Introduction 

This report reflects the key understanding of the usefulness of the cash flow statement, income and expenses statement and other financial statements which are used by company to reflect its financial performance.  It is analysed that the cash flow statement, tells the investors about the actual cash which the organisation generates from its operations. On the other hand, income statement reflects the income earned and expenditure made by company in its business operation. This report reflects the key details of the changes in the cash flow statement of the different companies and financial analysis of highly cash outflow items and low cash outflow items in the financial statements.

PART A

Usefulness of Cash Flow Statement:

With the ramified economic changes, every organization needs to assess the changes in the cash flow from the business and possible factors affecting the cash inflow and outflow. In the era of accrual system of accounting, the investors are not in a position to understand the actual cash generated by the business by looking at the income statement. Therefore, they evaluate the analysis the profit and loss account. The income statement represents the revenue that has been calculated using the accrual basis and not the cash basis. The potential returns that the investments made in the organisation will generate depend upon the cash generation also in addition to the revenues. Past have shown several examples of the organisations which were highly profit generating but eventually fell because of insufficiency of cash. Hence, the cash flow statement, tells the investors about the actual cash which the organisation generates from its operations, investments and financing activities. The areas where cash has been put to use are also clarified (Miao, Teoh, and Zhu, 2016). 

Usefulness of income statement

Through income statement the investors are able to get a closer look into the company’s operations like revenues, operating expenses, administrative and selling expenses, taxes and etc. through this statement the investors get to know the actual position of organisation when it comes to profit making. A comparison of different years’ income statement can enable the investors to analyse the growth in profitability and the ultimate potential of returns. Hence, through the income statement the investors can prioritise their investment choices (Black, 2016).

PART B: 

Answer to question no-1

Answer to question no-1 (a)

Funtastic Limited: the major sources of cash include receipts from customers, proceeds from borrowings, proceeds from share issue, receipt of interest and investment income and a one-time receipt from sale of international subsidiary in year 2018.

The major uses of cash include, payment to suppliers and employees, financing costs, payment for plant & equipment and intangible assets, and a repayment effected of commercial bills in year 2016 as latest.

BHP Limited: the major sources of cash include, cash portion of business profits, receipts from receivables, sale of inventories, trade credit from payables, interest and dividend receipt, proceeds from asset sale, proceeds from interest bearing liabilities, and net cash flow from discontinued operations.

The major uses of cash include, income tax and royalty related tax payments, interest payments, restocking of inventories, creation of provisions, payment for trade payables, purchase of property, plant and equipment, expenditure on exploration, repayment of interest bearing liabilities, and dividend payment.

Santos Limited: the major sources of cash include receipts from customers, pipeline tariffs and other receipts, disposal of non-current assets, drawdown of borrowings, and disposal of subsidiaries in year 2018. 

The major uses of cash include, payment to suppliers and employees, payment of borrowing costs, purchase of exploration and evaluation assets and oil and gas assets, repayment of borrowings, payment of royalty and excise and related taxes and payment of income taxes. 

Answer to question no-1 (b)

Funtastic Limited: the organisation is in the business of manufacturing, marketing and selling of branded merchandise which includes homewares, toys, confectionary and etc. The cash flows reported from operating activities are all from continuing operations of business. The trend shown by them is a rise yet negative in financial year 2017 as compared to financial year 2016, but a steep fall in financial year 2018 as compared to both financial year 2016 and 2017.

BHP Limited: the organisation deals in natural resources and has multiple business channels. Hence, it is bound to have several operations that have been discontinued. The cash flows from continued operation are showing an upward trend from US$9,840 M in year 2016 to US$17,561 M in year 2018 which is almost double. The most obvious reasons are rise in the profit before taxation which is because of rise in business revenues. 

Santos Limited: the organisation is Australia’s second most producers of oil and gas. The statement of cash flows shows the cash flows from operations which completely attribute to the continuing operations. These cash flows are showing an upward trend from US$840 M in financial year 2016 to US$1578 M in financial year 2018.

Answer to question no-1 (c)

Cash flow from operations is higher than the net income for BHP Limited for all the three financial years. The net income presented is on accrual basis and also comprises of certain non-cash expenses like depreciation and amortisation and impairment. These items do not deduct the cash of business. Also the change in current liabilities and current assets is required to be adjusted from net income for acquiring the cash flows from operations. The negative amount beside the trade and other receivable and inventory depict slow account receivable and decreased inventory management efficiency and vice versa. The negative amount beside trade payable shows payment to payables while positive amount shows receipt of trade credit. These are some of the reasons that have caused the cash flows from operations to exceed the net income (Hribar, and Yehuda, 2015).

Answer to question no-1 (d)

Tables have been presented for each organisation depicting whether cash flow from operations covers the capital expenditure or not:

Answer to question no-1 (e)

Tables have been presented below which show whether cash flow from operations is able to cover the capital expenditure and dividend or not:

Answer to question no-1 (f)

The following tables show whether the cash flow from operations is in excess of capital expenditure and dividend or not, and if in excess then by what amount (Bremberger, Cambini, Gugler, and Rondi, 2016),

The organisation has cash used in operating activities. There is no scope of covering capital expenditure and dividend by operating cash flows hence. The organisation seems to be covering the capital expenditure and dividend from its financing cash flows, i.e. by proceeds of borrowings and share issue (Bhullar,  Bhatnagar, and Gupta,  2018).

The organisation might be investing the surplus cash flow from operations in paying off the financing liabilities like interest bearing liabilities, ESOP, etc. By doing this the company can reduce external borrowing costs.

The organisation might be using the surplus in paying off the borrowings, and keeping the remaining amount to settle future working capital obligations.

Answer to question no-1 (g)

BHP limited had definitely used the working capital accounts other than cash & cash equivalents as sources and uses of cash. The reduction in current assets like trade receivables and inventory and rise in current liabilities like trade payables and provisions is taken as source or cash. Rise in the current assets like trade receivables and inventories, and fall in the current liabilities like trade payables and provisions is taken as use of cash (Lewellen, and Lewellen, 2016). 

Answer to question no-1 (h)

Funtastic limited: the major non-operating items that have affected the cash flows include payment for plant and equipment, and payment for purchase of intangible assets for all three financial year. It is specifically for financial year 2016, when repayment of commercial bills has used cash of AU$1,000,000. The cash inflow is extended by the receipt of interest and other investment income, and proceeds from borrowings (Baker, and Weigand,  2015).

BHP Limited: the cash flow is mainly affected by the purchases made by organisation for property, plant and equipment in all three financial years. Exploration expenditure has also caused a significant effect on the cash flows. Other than these the repayment of interest bearing liabilities and payment of dividends has reasonably affected the cash position of the organisation. The only major source of inflow of cash is proceeds from interest bearing liabilities. 

Santos Limited: other than inflows and outflows from operating activities, the cash flows have been brought down due to capital expenditures like exploration and evaluation assets, oil and gas assets, and property, plant and equipment in all three years. Repayment of borrowings has also been significant. The cash position is brought up by disposal on non-current assets, drawdown of borrowings and proceeds from issue of shares.

i)

Funtastic limited: the expenditure on capital assets has increased in comparison to financial year 2016 in year 2017 from AU$1,209,000 to AU$1,428,000. For financial year 2018 the capital expenditures has drastically fallen to AU$426,000. The reason is completely attributable to negative operating cash flows.

BHP Limited: for BHP Limited, the trend is completely reverse. In financial year 2017, the capital expenditure fell to US$4,053 M from US$6040 M in financial year 2016. Also, for financial year 2018, the capital expenditure rose to US$5,212 M in financial year 2018. The improved capital expenditures are due to improved operating cash flows.

Santos Limited: For Santos Limited, the capital expenditure has shown a small rise from US$650 M to US$683 M for financial year 2017. While in financial year 2018, the capital expenditures fell significantly to US$ 576 M. this could be due to heavy investment already being made in business.

Answer to question no-1(j)

Funtastic Limited: there had been no dividends for business

BHP Limited: the trend as shown in capital expenditures is followed same in dividends. Dividends for both controlling and non-controlling interest, was US$4,192 M in year 2016 US$3,496 M in year 2017, US$6,802 M in year 2018. 

Santos Limited: the organisation has just paid dividend for year 2016 and 2018. In year 2016 the dividend payment had been US$43 M and US$73 M in year 2018. The dividends have just got double of what they were in 2016.

Answer to question no-1 (k)

Tables have been presented:

The trend followed by the net borrowings is downward. 

After assessing the cash flow statement and balance sheet of the company, it could be inferred that the net borrowings have fallen. This means the company is able to generate enough internal cash from operations that can suffice business needs (CHANDREN, AHMAD, and ALI,  2017).

The net borrowings have risen in financial year 2018 in comparison to both financial year 2017 and 2016. This could be due to the needs of business expansion and high cash usage in the investing activities. This shows that company has increased its overall outcomes and also increasing the profitability throughout the time (Baker,  and Kapoor,  2015).

Answer to question no-1 (l)

The working capital has risen for financial year 2016 in comparison to financial year 2016. For financial year 2018, the working capital has fallen (Wasiuzzaman, 2015). This reflects that company has increased its investment in the current assets which has resulted to the stronger liquidity. Nonetheless, it might result to high cost of capital due to the blockage of the more funds in the business value chain. 

PART B: 

Answer to question no-2

Funtastic limited: based upon the analysis of the cash flow, the financial strength of the business seems to be high market standing. Although the company’s operating cash flows are extremely negative, the organisation is still able to raise money from shareholders (Track, 2017).

BHP limited: the financial strength is high cash generation from operation which covers interest costs completely depicting high interest coverage. Also the company is paying ample amount of dividend representing satisfied shareholders. The extravagant dividend amount when compared with the amount of additional borrowings also depict high debt equity ratio (Caires, 2018).

Santos limited: the company’s financial strength is high rise in cash flow from operations which is able to cover the capital expenditure and dividend payments (Martí-Ballester, and Simon, 2017). 

Answer to question no-3

While lending, it is important to look for security of repayment of periodic costs and eventual payment. The organisation which generate sufficient cash to cover its expenses be them revenue or capital and still has surplus cash is an optimal lending choice always. In the comparison done in part “f”, one thing is very clear that BHP Limited has highest surplus available after payment of capital expenditure and dividends (Murfin, and Petersen, 2016). This excess can easily be used by the organisation for payment of borrowing costs and principal amount. If a decision of lending has to be made, the first priority is off course is of BHP Limited (Athari, Adaoglu, and Bektas,  2016).  After that, the Santos Limited can be considered for lending. However, BHP is priorities because of huge surplus of operating cash flows which presents strong cash held by the organisation after meeting the working capital commitments even. Funtastic Limited is totally not a good option as its operating cash flows themselves is negative (Gitman, Juchau, and Flanagan, 2015). This reflect that high cash outflow from the business is the negative indicator for the future growth of the organizing. Company needs to lower down tis cash outflow by implementing the effective financial management strategy (Ahmed, 2015).

Conclusion 

After assessing the whole report, it could be inferred that Santos Limited can be considered for lending as it has been keeping high cash outflow.  BHP is priorities because of huge surplus of operating cash flows which presents strong cash held by the organisation after meeting the working capital commitments. This shows that company has good amount of cash inflow in its business. Funtastic Limited is totally not a good option as its operating cash flows themselves is negative. All of these companies needs to strengthen its cash flow management strategy to survive in long run.