This is “The Bigger Picture”, section 17.4 from the book Finance for Managers (v. 0.1). For details on it (including licensing), click here.
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17.4 The Bigger Picture
PLEASE NOTE: This book is currently in draft form; material is not final.
Learning Objectives
- Explain how cash and cash budgets fit into the larger picture of financial management.
- Describe some ethical considerations of cash budgets and management.
Through efficient current asset management, necessary working capital can be reduced. By freeing up cash from working capital, we can employ it in more productive, and higher returning, endeavors. Particularly in service industries, where there is less dependency upon fixed captial, effective collections from customers can be the difference between success and failure. A company can have a large net income, but if they can’t finance current assets (as can happen when a company grows too quickly), they can be driven to default. In a sense, they can be very profitably going bankrupt!
Ethical Considerations
When considering cash management, its tempting to try to decrease our cash conversion cycle at all costs. Some strategies may hurt our relationship with our customers: overly aggressive collections can alienate customers, or we might deny credit to customers when they need our support most.
Unscrupulous managers might also manipulate reporting of current assets to falsely represent the state of the company. They might not properly account for bad debts; net income will consequently be higher, but only as accounts receivable swells into a “ticking time-bomb”. If the manager is rewarded for raising revenue, he or she might relax credit standards and sell to customers who have no capacity to pay. Even if the customer can “scrape together” the payments, perhaps the burden would be too much (for example, a low-income customer leasing a luxury automobile).
Another possibility is overstating the value of inventory. Obsolescence or spoilage can cause the value of inventory to be less than what is represented on the balance sheet.
Key Takeaways
- Proper cash management is vital.
- Policies regarding cash have the potential to alienate customers. Balance is key in proper cash management.
Exercise
- Your company has a 90 day collection policy for receivables. A customer is having a cash flow issue, and asks for more lenient payment terms. What are some of the ethical considerations for this scenario?