Short-Term Financial Planning: Concepts and Policies

1. Chapter 16 Short-Term Financial Planning

2. Key Concepts and Skills • Be able to compute the operating and cash cycles and understand why they are important • Understand the different types of short-term financial policy • Understand the essentials of short-term financial planning

3. Chapter Outline • Tracing Cash and Net Working Capital • The Operating Cycle and the Cash Cycle • Some Aspects of Short-Term Financial Policy • The Cash Budget • Short-Term Borrowing • A Short-Term Financial Plan

4. Sources of Cash Obtaining financing: Increase in long-term debt Increase in equity Increase in current liabilities Selling assets Decrease in current assets Decrease in fixed assets Uses of Cash Paying creditors or stockholders Decrease in long-term debt Decrease in equity Decrease in current liabilities Buying assets Increase in current assets Increase in fixed assets Sources and Uses of Cash

5. The Operating Cycle • The time it takes to receive inventory, sell it and collect on the receivables generated from the sale • Operating cycle = inventory period + accounts receivable period • Inventory period = time inventory sits on the shelf • Accounts receivable period = time it takes to collect on receivables

6. The Cash Cycle • The time between payment for inventory and receipt from the sale of inventory • Cash cycle = operating cycle – accounts payable period • Accounts payable period = time between receipt of inventory and payment for it • The cash cycle measures how long we need to finance inventory and receivables

7. Table 16.1

8. Example Information Net Sales = $1,150,000 Cost of Goods Sold = $820,000

9. Example - Operating Cycle • Inventory Period = 365 / Inventory Turnover • Inventory Turnover = COGS / Average inventory • IT = 820,000 / 250,000 = 3.28 times • Inventory Period = 365 / 3.28 = 111 days • Accounts Receivable Period = 365 / Receivables Turnover • Receivables Turnover = Credit Sales / Average AR • RT = 1,150,000 / 180,000 = 6.4 times • Receivables Period = 365 / 6.4 = 57 days • Operating cycle = 111 + 57 = 168 days

10. Example - Cash Cycle • Accounts Payables Period = 365 / payables turnover • Payables turnover = COGS / Average AP • PT = 820,000 / 87,500 = 9.4 times • Accounts payables period = 365 / 9.4 = 39 days • Cash cycle = 168 – 39 = 129 days • So, we have to finance our inventory and receivables for 129 days

11. Flexible (Conservative) Policy Large amounts of cash and marketable securities Large amounts of inventory Liberal credit policies (large accounts receivable) Relatively low levels of short-term liabilities High liquidity Restrictive (Aggressive) Policy Low cash and marketable security balances Low inventory levels Little or no credit sales (low accounts receivable) Relatively high levels of short-term liabilities Low liquidity Short-Term Financial Policy

12. Carrying versus Shortage Costs • Carrying costs • Opportunity cost of owning current assets versus long-term assets that pay higher returns • Cost of storing larger amounts of inventory • Shortage costs • Order costs – the cost of ordering additional inventory or transferring cash • Stock-out costs – the cost of lost sales due to lack of inventory, including lost customers

13. Temporary versus Permanent Assets • Are current assets temporary or permanent? • Both! • Permanent current assets refer to the level of current assets that the company retains regardless of any seasonality in sales • Temporary current assets refer to the additional current assets that are added when sales are expected to increase on a seasonal basis

14. Policy F Policy R Total assetrequirement Total assetrequirement Dollars Dollars Short-termfinancing Marketablesecurities Long-termfinancing Long-termfinancing Time Time Policy F always implies a short-termcash surplus and a large investmentin cash and marketable securities. Policy R uses long-term financing forpermanent asset requirements only andshort-term borrowing for seasonalvariations. Figure 16.4

15. Choosing the Best Policy • Best policy will be a combination of flexible and restrictive policies • Things to consider • Cash reserves • Maturity hedging • Relative interest rates • Compromise policy – borrow short-term to meet peak needs, maintain a cash reserve for emergencies

16. Dollars Short-termfinancing Flexiblepolicy(F) Totalseasonalvariation Compromise policy (C) Restrictivepolicy(R) Marketablesecurities General growth infixed assetsand permanentcurrent assets Time With a compromise policy, the firm keeps a reserve of liquidity that it usesto initially finance seasonal variations in current asset needs. Short-termborrowing is used when the reserve is exhausted. Figure 16.5

17. Cash Budget • Primary tool in short-run financial planning • Identify short-term needs and potential opportunities • Identify when short-term financing may be required • How it works • Identify sales and cash collections • Identify various cash outflows • Subtract outflows from inflows and determine investing and financing needs

18. Example: Cash Budget Information • Expected Sales for 2000 by quarter (millions) • Q1: $57; Q2: $66; Q3: $66; Q4: $90 • Beginning Accounts Receivable = $30 • Average collection period = 30 days • Purchases from suppliers = 50% of next quarter’s estimated sales • Accounts payable period = 45 days • Wages, taxes and other expenses = 25% of sales • Interest and dividends = $5 million per quarter • Major expansion planned for quarter 2 costing $35 million • Beginning cash balance = $5 million with minimum cash balance of $2 million

19. Example: Cash Budget – Cash Collections

20. Example: Cash Budget – Cash Disbursements

21. Example: Cash Budget – NetCash Flow and Cash Balance

22. Short-Term Borrowing • Unsecured loans • Line of credit – prearranged agreement with a bank that allows the firm to borrow up to a certain amount on a short-term basis • Committed – formal legal arrangement that may require a commitment fee and generally has a floating interest rate • Non-committed – informal agreement with a bank that is similar to credit card debt for individuals • Revolving credit – non-committed agreement with a longer time between evaluations • Secured loans – loan secured by receivables or inventory or both

23. Example: Factoring • Selling receivables to someone else at a discount • Example: You have an average of $1 million in receivables and you borrow money by factoring receivables with a discount of 2.5%. The receivables turnover is 12 times per year. • What is the APR? • Period rate = .025/.975 = 2.564% • APR = 12(2.564%) = 30.769% • What is the effective rate? • EAR = 1.0256412 – 1 = 35.502%

24. Short-Term Financial Plan

25. Chapter 16 Quick Quiz • Suppose your average inventory is $10,000, your average receivables is $9,000 and your average payables is $4,000. Net sales are $100,000 and cost of goods sold is $50,000. • What is the operating cycle and the cash cycle? • What are the differences between flexible and restrictive short-term financial policies? • What factors do we need to consider when choosing a financial policy? • What factors go into determining a cash budget and why is it valuable?