Finance 313 Chapter 2

1.Liquidity measures how quickly and easily an asset can be converted to cash without significant loss in value. It’s desirable for firms to have high liquidity so that they have a large factor of safety in meeting short-term creditor demands. However, since liquidity also has an opportunity cost associated with it—namely that higher returns can generally be found by investing the cash into productive assets—low liquidity levels are also desirable to the firm. It’s up to the firm’s financial management staff to find a reasonable compromise between these opposing needs.

2.The recognition and matching principles in financial accounting call for revenues, and the costs associated with producing those revenues, to be “booked” when the revenue process is essentially complete, not necessarily when the cash is collected or bills are paid. Note that this way is not necessarily correct; it’s the way accountants have chosen to do it.

3.Historical costs can be objectively and precisely measured whereas market values can be difficult to estimate, and different analysts would come up with different numbers. Thus, there is a tradeoff between relevance (market values) and objectivity (book values).

Depreciation is a non-cash deduction that reflects adjustments made in asset book values in accordance with the matching principle in financial accounting. Interest expense is a cash outlay, but it’s a financing cost, not an operating cost.

6.For a successful company that is rapidly expanding, for example, capital outlays will be large, possibly leading to negative cash flow from assets. In general, what matters is whether the money is spent wisely, not whether cash flow from assets is positive or negative.

It’s probably not a good sign for an established company, but it would be fairly ordinary for a start-up, so it depends.

The adjustments discussed were purely accounting changes; they had no cash flow or market value consequences unless the new accounting...