How To Manage Cash Flow 管理现金流量 |
How To Manage Cash Flow 管理现金流量
Cash Flow Basics
What is cash flow? It's basically the movement of funds in and out of your business. You should be tracking this either weekly, monthly or quarterly. There are essentially two kinds of cash flows:
• Positive cash flow: This occurs when the cash funneling into your business from sales, accounts receivable, etc. is more than the amount of the cash leaving your businesses through accounts payable, monthly expenses, salaries, etc.
• Negative cash flow: This occurs when your outflow of cash is greater than your incoming cash. This generally spells trouble for a business, but there are steps you can take to remedy the situation and generate or collect more cash while maintaining or cutting expenses.
大概解释：单位时间内的现金流入和流出，就是现金流量。分为正流量，负流量。通过买卖现金增多了，就是正流量，反之就是负流量。当单位时间内出现负流量就要争取收集更多现金，或者控制支出
Achieving a positive cash flow does not come by chance. You have to work at it. You need to analyze and manage your cash flow to more effectively control the inflow and outflow of cash. The SBA recommends undertaking cash flow analysis to make sure you have enough cash each month to cover your obligations in the coming month. The SBA has a free cash flow worksheet you can use. In addition, most accounting software packages geared to small or mid-sized businesses
Profit versus Cash Flow
Profit does not equal cash flow. You can't just look at your profit and loss statement (P&L) and get a grip on your cash flow. Many other financial figures feed into factoring your cash flow, including accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, capital expenditures, and debt service. Smart cash-flow management requires a laser focus on each of these drivers of cash, in addition to your profit or loss. "There is a secret that very few business owners have discovered (and the accounting community has not done a good job revealing): knowing whether you earned a profit (or created a loss) is not the same as knowing what happened to your cash," Campbell says. "Profit, as defined by the rules of accounting, is simply revenue minus expenses. Invoicing a customer for products or services you sold to them creates revenue. Actually collecting the money on that invoice is what creates cash."
A positive cash flow is actually needed to generate profits. You need enough cash to pay your employees and suppliers so that you can make goods. It's the sale of those goods that helps generate a profit. But if you don't have the money to make the goods, you don't end up with the profit. So you really need to structure your business to have a positive cash flow if you want your business to grow and increase profits.
"Growing your business puts a huge strain on cash," Campbell says. "You almost always have to make investments and bring certain expenses on ahead of achieving the higher revenue and cash flow that comes with successful growth. Maybe you want to open an office in a new city so you can build the business there. Or, you need to build a new facility so you have the capacity to sell to larger customers. Those scenarios (and others) require cash up front."
利润和现金流量对比
大概解释：
利润不等于现金流量。只看利润而忽视手头的现金是很危险的。正现金流量才能创造利润，道理很简单，手里没钱，就没法进一步买货，没法给员工开工资。当正现金流量过大的时候就可以尝试投资到新领域，当然任何投资的前提是，手里得有钱。所以有可以马上用的现钱才有机会创造利润
How to Improve Cash Flow
Most business owners see growth as the solution to a cash-flow problem. That's why they often achieve their goal of growing the business only to find they have increased their cash-flow problems in the process. Plan for growth and the related cash outlays in advance, so they donot come as a surprise. In the meantime, the SBA recommends that you take the following practical steps to better manage cash flow, especially for the growing business:
• Collecting receivables - To speed up the receipt and processing of receivables, the SBA suggests several steps. Spring for a lockbox service, post office boxes serviced by banks so that customers in far flung locations can mail payments there and the checks will be processed by the banks more quickly. Ask customers to preauthorize checks so that banks can draw against their accounts at timed intervals. Centralize your banking at one bank. Ask customers to pay with depository transfer checks, a relatively cheap fund transfer. You can also try offering discounts to customers if they pay bills quickly.
• Tightening credit requirements - Businesses often have to extend credit to customers, particularly when starting out or growing. But you have to do your research beforehand to determine the risk of extending credit to each customer. Can they pay their bills on time? Is their business growing or faltering? Are they having cash-flow problems? The SBA recommends getting a Dun & Bradstreet report on potential customers and asking them to fill out a credit application. You should also check references. Another option to extending store credit is to accept credit cards. This will cost you a percentage, generally from 2 to 5 percent of the sale, but it may be a safer bet for getting paid on time.
• Increasing sales - If you need more cash, it seems like a no brainer to go out and try to attract new customers or sell additional goods or services to your existing customers. But this may be easier said than done. New customer acquisition is essential to a growing business, but it can take time and money to convert prospects into sales. Selling more to existing customers is cheaper and you may be able to do this by analyzing what they're buying and why - information that may even lead you to increase your profit margin and, hopefully, generate more cash. But the SBA warns businesses to be careful when increasing sales because you may just increase your accounts receivables and not actual cash if these sales are on credit.
• Pricing discounts - One option to increasing cash flow is to offer your customers discounts if they pay early. While this practice may impact your profit margin, it may help your management of cash flow by incentivizing customers to make payments earlier than billing cycles typically require. Your company may also take advantage of this with suppliers and others that you owe, but be careful that your early payments of debt don't leave you with a cash flow shortfall.
• Securing loans - Short-term cash flow problems may sometimes necessitate a business taking out a loan from a financial institution. Some possible types are revolving credit lines or equity loans, according to the SBA. Most of the time this type of borrowing accomplishes its goals, although during the financial crisis many banks were canceling credit lines and calling in loans. Another option is a long-term amortized loan which includes interest and principal until the loan is paid off.
以上五点介绍了怎样提高现金流量。
1， 尽快把该收的钱收齐
2， 对客户信用度要求要严格审查，对其偿还能力要全面评估
3， 存货要尽量多卖
4， 卖不掉打折也要卖，能卖掉的也可以打折卖，鼓励客户尽早把钱放进你的口袋
5， 谁来大概解释下+5
想了下，和玩大富翁之类的游戏差不多，基本上是手里越有钱的，越有机会买更多地，然后越有机会赚到钱，手上没钱的，跳到哪一格，都只能干瞪眼，即使已经有了些地和房屋，到了必须缴费的时候也不得不变卖资产，越搞越穷
|
|