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the state of affairs of the pany at (a certain date) and the financial statements 
have been properly prepared in accordance with the panies Act 
2006。’ 
The panies Act 2006; the longest Act ever introduced; has brought 
in some tough rules on how auditors; among others; should report on 
pany accounts。 MBAs; unless they are also accountants; don’t get 
involved in doing audits。 But they are expected to know who’s who in the 
auditing world。 Accountancy Age (accountancyage/resource/ 
top50) will keep you informed as to who’s who in the auditing world。 
BOOKKEEPING – THE WAY TRANSACTIONS 
ARE RECORDED 
Until Luca Pacioli wrote what was in essence the world’s first accounting 
book; over 500 years ago; accounting records were maintained in singleentry 
format; one event merited one record。 This meant that errors could 
be prevented only by a major duplication of effort; for example by having 
different people making and counting up parallel records。 Pacioli; a 
mathematician who worked for the Doge of Venice; came up with a system 
of double…entry bookkeeping that required two entries for each transaction 
and so provides built…in checks and balances to ensure accuracy。 Each 
transaction requires an entry as a debit and as a credit。
24 The Thirty…Day MBA 
To give an example; selling goods in a double…entry system might result 
in two separate journal entries – a debit reducing the stock by £250 and a 
corresponding credit of £250 of new cash in – a double entry (see Table 1。3)。 
The debits in a double…entry system must always equal the credits。 If they 
don’t; you know there is an error somewhere。 So; double entry allows you 
to balance your books; which you can’t do with the single…entry method。 
Pacioli’s genius lay in seeing that the ultimate balancing number in a 
pany’s accounts was the profit or loss for the owners of that enterprise。 
In fact he required at least two entries or as many as are required to balance 
the books。 Let us take the above example to its logical conclusion。 On the 
not unreasonable assumption that the business plans to make a profit from 
selling goods; the figures will look rather different。 To keep the numbers 
simple; let’s suppose the goods they sold cost them £125 (a 50 per cent 
margin); then the entries would be as follows。 Goods in stock go down by 
£125; while cash goes up by £250。 That net change of £125 is balanced by an 
increase in profits of £125; so the assets and liabilities are kept in balance。 
In this example; had the goods sold for less than was paid there would 
have been a loss; which would have reduced the value of the owner’s stake 
in the business by a corresponding amount。 
This is all an MBA student needs to know about bookkeeping; the main 
part of the knowledge they require is how to interpret the figures once 
recorded。 
CASH FLOW 
There is a saying in business that profit is vanity and cash flow is sanity。 
Both are necessary; but in the short term; and o。。en that is all that ma。。ers in 
a business as it struggles to get a foothold in the shi。。ing sands of trading; 
cash flow is life or death。 The rules on what constitutes cash are very simple 
– it has to be just that; or negotiable securities designated as being as good 
as cash。 Cash flow is looked at in two distinct and important ways: as a 
projection of future expected cash flows; and as an analysis of where cash 
came from and went to in an accounting period and the resultant increase 
or decrease in cash available。 
Table 1。3 An example of a double…entry ledger 
General Journal of Andrew’s Bookshop 
Date Description of entry Debit Credit 
10 July Rent expense £250 
Cash £250
Accounting 25 
Cash…flow forecasts 
The future is impossible to predict with great accuracy but it is possible to 
anticipate likely outes and be prepared to deal with events by building 
in a margin of safety。 The starting point for making a projection is to make 
some assumptions about what you want to achieve and test those for 
reasonableness。 
Take the situation of High Note; a business being established to sell sheet 
music; small instruments and CDs to schools and colleges; which will expect 
trade credit; and members of the public who will pay cash。 The owner plans 
to invest £10;000 and to borrow £10;000 from a bank on a long…term basis。 
The business will require £11;500 for fixtures and fi。。ings。 A further £1;000 
will be needed for a puter; so。。ware and a printer。 That should leave 
around £7;500 to meet immediate trading expenses such as buying in stock 
and spending £1;500 on initial advertising。 Hopefully customers’ payments 
will start to e in quickly to cover other expenses; such as some wages 
for bookkeeping; administration and fulfilling orders。 Sales in the first six 
months are expected to be £60;000 based on negotiations already in hand; 
plus some cash sales that always seem to turn up。 The rule of thumb in the 
industry seems to be that stock is marked up by 100 per cent; so £30;000 of 
bought…in goods sell on for £60;000。 
On the basis of the above assumptions it is possible to make the cashflow 
forecast set out in Table 1。4。 It has been simplified and some elements 
such as VAT and tax have been omi。。ed for ease of understanding。 
The maths in the table is straightforward; the cash receipts from various 
sources are totalled; as are the payments。 Taking one from the other leaves 
a cash surplus or deficit for the month in question。 The bo。。om row shows 
the cumulative position。 So; for example; while the business had £2;450 
cash le。。 at the end of April; taking the cash deficit of £1;500 in May into 
account; by the end of May only £950 (£2;450 – £1;500) cash remains。 
Overtrading 
In the example above; the business looks like having insufficient cash; 
based on the assumptions made。 An outsider; a banker perhaps; would 
look at the figures in August and see that the faster sales grew the greater 
the cash…flow deficit became。 We know; using our crystal ball; the position 
will improve from September and that if we can only hang on in there for 
a few more months we should eliminate our cash deficit and perhaps even 
have a surplus。 Had we made the cash…flow projection at the outset and 
raised more money; perhaps by way of an overdra。。; spent less on fixtures 
and fi。。ings; or set a more modest sales goal; hence needing less stock and 
advertising; we would have had a sound business。 The figures indicate a 
business that is trading beyond its financial resources; a condition known 
as overtrading; anathema to bankers the world over。
Table 1。4 High Note six…month cash…flow forecast 
Month April May June July Aug Sept Total 
Receipts 
Sales 4;000 5;000 5;000 7;000 12;000 15;000 
Owners’ cash 10;000 
Bank loan 10;000 
Total cash in 24;000 5;000 5;000 7;000 12;000 15;000 48;000 
Payments 
Purchases 5;500 2;950 4;220 7;416 9;332 9;690 39;108 
Rates; electricity; heat; 
telephone; internet etc 
1;000 1;000 1;000 1;000 1;000 1;000 
Wages 1;000 1;000 1;000 1;000 1;000 1;000 
Advertising 1;550 1;550 1;550 1;550 1;550 1;550 
Fixtures/fi。。ings 11;500 
puter etc 1;000 
Total cash out 21;550 6;500 7;770 10;966 12;882 13;240 
Monthly cash 
Surplus/deficit(–) 2;450 (1;500) (2;770) (3;966) (882) 1;760 
Cumulative cash balance 2;450 950 (1;820) (5;786) (6;668) (4;908)
Accounting 27 
Cash…flow spreadsheet 
You can do a number of ‘what if’ projections to fine…tune cash…flow 
projections using a spreadsheet: Business Link (businesslink。 
gov。uk/Finance_files/Cash_Flow_Projection_Worksheet。xls) has a cashflow 
spreadsheet that you can copy and paste into an Excel file on your 
puter。 
Statement of cash flows for the year 
A cash…flow statement summarizes exactly where cash came from and how 
it was spent during the year。 At first glance it seems to draw on a mixture 
of transactions included in the profit and loss account and balance sheet for 
the same period end; but this is not the whole story。 Because there is a time 
lag on many cash transactions; for example tax and dividend payments; 
the statement is a mixture of some previous year and some current year 
transactions; the remaining current year transactions go into the following 
year’s cash…flow statement; during which the cash actually changes hands。 
Similarly; the realization and accrual conventions relating to sales and 
purchases respectively result in cash transactions having a different timing 
to when they were entered in the profit and loss account。 
Example 
A pany had sales of £5 million this year and £4 million last year and 
these figures appeared in the profit and loss accounts of those years。 Debtors 
at the end of this year were £1 million and at the end of the previous year 
were £0。8 million。 The cash inflow arising from sales this year is £4。8 million 
(£0。8 million + £5 million – £1 million) whereas the sales figure in the profit 
and loss account is £5 million。 
For these reasons it is not possible to look at just this year’s profit and loss 
account and balance sheet to find all the cash flows; you need the previous 
year’s accounts too。 The balance sheet will show the cash balance at the 
period end but will not easily disclose all the ways in which it was achieved。 
piling a cash…flow statement is quite a technical job and some training 
plus inside information is needed to plete the task。 Nevertheless; the 
bulk of the items can be identified from an examination of the other two 
accounting statements for both the current and previous years。 
From an MBA perspective it is understanding the requirement for a 
cash…flow statement as well as the other two accounts that is important; 
as well as being able to interpret the significance of the cash movements 
themselves。
28 The Thirty…Day MBA 
Straight Plc 
The un…audited condensed cash…flow statement for Straight Plc; which was 
established in 1993 as a supplier of container solutions for source…separated 
waste; is shown in Table 1。5。 Initially one man and a desk; the pany 
grew to bee the UK’s leading supplier of kerbside recycling boxes 
as well as a key supplier of other types of waste and

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