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Monday, June 25, 2012

The right path









ஒரு பெரிய நிறுவனத்தில வேலை பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருந்த
ஒரு இளைஞன். அடிக்கடி நோய் வாய்ப்பட்டுக்கிட்டிருந்தான்.
பெரிய பெரிய டாக்டர்களைப் போய்ப் பார்த்து, மருந்து ,
இஞ்செக்‌ஷன் எல்லாம் வாங்கிப் போட்டும், எவ்விதப் பயனும்
கிடைக்கவில்லை.
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கடைசியில் அவனுடைய புத்திசாலி மனைவி ஒரு நாள் சொன்னா,
‘நீங்க மனுஷங்களுக்கு வைத்தியம் பார்க்கிற டாக்டர்களை விட்டுட்டு ,
ஏதாவது ஒரு நல்ல வெட்னரி டாக்டர்கிட்டே (மிருக டாக்டர்)
போய் உடமைபைக் காட்டுங்க! அவர்தான் உங்களுக்க
சரியான ட்ரீட்மெண்ட் கொடுக்க முடியும்’னாள்.
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என்னது மிருக டாக்டர்கிட்டேயா? உனக்கென்ன மூளை
கெட்டுப் போச்சா?’ன்னு சீறினான் கணவன்.
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‘எனக்கொண்ணும் கெட்டுப் போகல! உங்களுக்குத்தான் எல்லாமே
கெட்டுப் போய் கிடக்கு! காலாங்காலத்தாலே கோழி மாதிரி
விடியறதுக்கு முன்னமேயே எழுந்திருக்கீங்க! அப்புறம் காக்காய்
மாதிரி குளிச்சிட்டு, குரங்கு மாதிரி ‘லபக் லபக்’னு ரெண்டு வாய்
தின்னுட்டு , பயந்தயக்குதிரை மாதிரி வேகமாக ஓடி ஆபிசுக்குப்
போறீங்க!
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அங்கே போய் மாடு மாதிரி உழைக்கறீங்க! உங்களுக்கு கீழே
வேலை செய்றவங்க மேலே கரடியா கத்தறீங்க! அப்புறம் ஆபிஸ்
விட்டவுடனே, ஆடு மாடுங்க மாதிரி பஸ்லே அடைஞ்சு வீட்டுக்கு
வர்றீங்க!
வந்ததும் வராததுமா, நாள் பூராவும் வேலை செஞ்ச களைப்பிலே
நாய் மாதிரி என்மேலே சீறி விழறீங்க! அப்புறம் முதலை மாதிரி
ராத்திரி சாப்பாட்டை ‘சரக் சரக்’னு முழுங்கிட்டு, எருமை மாடு
மாதிரி போய் படுத்து தூங்கறீங்க!
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மறுபடியும் விடிஞ்சா அதே மாதிரி கோழி கதைதான்!
இப்படி இருக்கிறவங்களை மனுஷ டாக்டர் எப்படிங்க
குணப்படுத்த முடியும்? அதனாலதான் சொல்றேன், நாளைக்கே
ஒரு கால்நடை டாக்டரைப் போய் பாருங்க!” என்று ஒரே மூச்சில்
சொல்லி முடித்தாள் மனைவி.
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என்ன பதில் சொல்வதென்று தெரியாம கணவன் முழிக்க,
கோட்டான் மாதிரி முழிக்காதீங்க’ போங்கன்னு முத்தாய்ப்பு
வச்சாளாம் மனைவி..!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Online free ebooks - downloadable



Would be glad if someone could share book on how to write good captions/title & descriptions (foreign author)

Sharing multiple sources of free Ebooks, in case the link is not clickable, please open the attachment, point the cursor/arrow at blue text, press control & enter, new page will open in the browser. 
 Infibeam free eBooks - The biggest and most impressive catalog, now offers free download on books from various categories.
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·         Planet PDF Free eBooks - Lists some free PDF eBooks
·         Project Gutenberg (the 1st producer of free ebooks (electronic books) - 32,000 free eBooks & 100,000 available from their partners, affiliates and resources.
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·         Scribd.com - Scribd is a social publishing site, where tens of millions of people share original writings and documents. Scribd's vision is to liberate the written word.
·         Literature.org - A small, but easily-navigated selection of online etexts from English literature.
·         Fictionwise.com - Fictionwise is the top independent eBook seller in the world with tens of thousands of satisfied customers. They offer award-winning eBooks by top authors!
·         Open Library - Open Library is an open, editable library catalog, building towards a web page for every book ever published.
·         Bartleby.com - Bartleby.com publishes thousands of free online classics of reference, literature and nonfiction.
·         Authorama - Features completely free books from a variety of authors, collected here for readers to read online or offline.
·         Universal Digital Library at Carnegie Mellon University - Its a digital library having a wide collection of variety of books by different authors.

CCourtesy & source acknowledgement www.infibeam.com

Monday, June 18, 2012

Are you not willing to drink water?

Water is more essential for the body and rarely some people are found to understand the benefits of purified drinking water. It can be seen that many workers, students and others simply skipping consumption of water for many hours. Ultimately they are suffering from several diseases. Anybody can just think of any food item. No food item can be prepared without water or any product like fruit, vegetable consisting of rich quantity of water.


Water is essential for health. While drinking less water is not good for health, drinking more water is in no way harmful to health and the person simply needs to visit the toilets more than the required number of times. 
Please look at the following diagram in order to understand the benefits by consumption of water.



Saturday, June 9, 2012

As a stakeholder, what are your rights and responsibilities ?



The investors who had invested some money in any company can be called as the stakeholders.
The main purpose of investing money in a company is to earn monetary gains by means of regular dividends and growth in the investment. However, during many situations, the investors are not able to derive the benefits as expected from the companies on account of many reasons.
As a stakeholder in a company, he is having the following rights:
·         To receive the share certificates on allotment or transfer as the case may be in due time. This procedure is applicable to the physical certificates. Nowadays, the investments details are made available to the investors electronically in dematerialization formats. Rarely some investors prefer to receive share certificates in physical form.
·         To receive the copies of the abridged annual reports, the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the auditor’s report.
·         To participate and vote in the general meetings either personally or through proxies.
·         To receive the dividends as and when approved in the annual general body meetings
·         To get the corporate benefits namely; the rights, bonus etc. once approved;
·         To make an application to the company law board towards directing the company to convene the annual general meetings as and when due;
·         To conduct inspection of the books of accounts of the general meetings and to receive copies thereof;
·         To proceed against the company by way of civil or criminal proceedings;
·         To apply for the winding up of the company and
·         To receive the residual proceeds.
Apart from the rights as mentioned above, the investor also enjoys as an individual shareholder the following rights as a group namely;
To call for an extra ordinary general meeting;
To demand a poll on any resolution;
To apply to the company law board towards investigating into the affairs of the company and apply to the company law board for getting appropriate relief in the case of oppression and/or mismanagement.
In the case of debenture holders, who had invested in the debt instruments, they have the following rights namely;
To receive the interest/redemption in due time;
To receive a copy of the trust deed on request;
To apply for winding up of the company in case the company fails to pay its debt and
To place before the debenture trustee his grievances, if any.
The stakeholder should also keep in mind that the abovementioned rights may not necessarily be absolute. For example, the rights available for the stakeholders for transferring the securities are subject to the company’s right to refuse transfer as per statutory provisions.
Despite the facts, that as stakeholders, apart from the various rights they have as mentioned above, they have certain responsibilities namely;
To remain informed; be vigilant; participate and vote in general meetings and to exercise the rights on their own or as a group keeping in mind their own interest and more specifically the interest on the growth of the company.


The risks a stakeholder face while investing in companies



Stakeholder is a person interested in the affairs of any firm or company. Normally this term is used when it comes to security markets. When a company is in a position to raise its capital, the company approaches the public for finance, by issue of equity shares and preference shares and once the public invest their money in the company, they become the shareholders or stakeholders of the company.
While many stakeholders forget their responsibilities and rights after making the investments, some evince much interest in keeping a watch over the performance of the company and in fact they are responsible for the growth of the company in many ways. They can be called as the active stakeholders and the former can be called as the sleeping stakeholders.
In order to monitor the functions of the listed companies, there are separate governing bodies in all countries  and such governing bodies  are called by different names.
The stakeholder should evince much interest in understanding his rights, responsibilities and risks he face as a stakeholder in a particular company.
He should be necessarily aware of the following namely:
·         The rights that he is  having a stakeholder
·         The responsibilities that are cast on the stakeholders
·         The risks that he has assumed
·         The rules and regulations relating to trading and transfer of the securities and
·         The remedies for problems, if any, that he may encounter at any point of time
The risks the stakeholders face:
The stakeholders normally invest in any company, keeping in mind the following expectations:
·         The performance of the company will be better in future;
·         The prospects of income are found to be better on account of capital growth of the securities that he hold at present and
·         There are certain corporate benefits that can accrue to him apart from the above etc.
It is the responsibility of the stakeholders, before taking any investment decision, should obviously take note of and duly evaluate the attendant risks that go with such expectations
The stakeholder should not forget that one such risk is that his expectations on income and/or growth may not materialize as expected.
However, in case of stakeholders who had invested in the debt instruments like debentures or bonds, they can have recourse against the company, besides the market for redeeming them. However, as an equity holder of a company, in order to realize the value of their investments, the stakeholders are in a position to have recourse only to the market.
Apart from the risks as mentioned above, he is in a position to face the risk of running into problems with the trading and transfer of the securities sometimes.

What is the role played by current ratio during any financial analysis?



Ratio analysis:
Ratio analysis helps in analyzing the financial statements of any firm namely; the balance sheet and profit and loss account.
In fact the credit analysts who are employed by the bankers and financial institutions are making use of the financial ratios for the purpose of comparing the risk and return of a firm.
Categories of ratios:
There are five broad ratio categories which are in use for the purpose of measuring the different aspects of risk and return relationships.
They are activity analysis; liquidity analysis; solvency analysis; profitability analysis and performance analysis.
The credit analyst’s primary focus should be the relationships indicated by the ratio and in case ratio needs to be disaggregated, it should be done by taking the different variables which are relevant to either of the basic indicators in the ratio.
Liquidity ratio:
The following ratios are called as liquidity ratios namely; current ratio and quick ratio or acid test ratio.
Current ratio:
It is the ratio between the current assets and current liabilities of any firm. Current assets comprise the following namely; cash balance, bank balance, sundry debtors, inventory, advance paid to the suppliers etc. Similarly, current liabilities consist of overdraft availed from the banks, sundry creditors, provisions for tax and others, advance payment received from the customers etc.
The formula for arriving current ratio is current assets/current liabilities.
This ratio offers an approximate measure of the company’s ability to pay its current maturing obligations on time. Generally, higher the current ratio, the greater the cushion a company has to work within meeting its current obligations. It is normally believed that a current ratio of 2 to 1(current assets:2 and current liabilities:1) is viewed as a sign that a company had done well. However, it is at present recognized that other factors such as the composition and quality of assets should be considered.
A current ratio of 4 to 1 cannot be acceptable if much of the company’s current assets comprise of inventory that is slow moving or obsolete. Alternatively, current ratio below the benchmark may be satisfactory for a company holding a high percentage of its current assets in cash, securities and non delinquent accounts receivable.
Current ratio measures the short term solvency of the company, shows the liquidity position of the enterprise or its ability to meet the current obligations. Even though higher ratio is considered to be good from the point of view of the creditors, in the long run, very high current ratio is found to affect the profitability of the firm to a large extent.
The current ratio does not provide the credit analyst the quality of the assets or the timing of the liabilities. From the current ratio, the period by which the sundry debtors are expected to be realized; or the sundry creditors are expected to be paid etc., cannot be calculated. It merely provides the comparative analysis between the current assets and current liabilities.
There is no definite bench mark for current ratio and it depends upon the perception of the credit analysts. Normally it is believed that the current ratio of 1.33: 1 is considered to be good for some borrowers and in certain cases, the current ratio of 1.25: 1 is also accepted.


What do you mean by ratio analysis?



In order to analyze the balance sheet and profit and loss account pertaining to any firm, ratio analysis serves as an important tool. Especially seasoned bankers and financial institutions are making use of different kinds of ratios so that they are able to arrive at effective solutions towards arriving at decisions in regard to sanction of loans and other credits to the firms who are in need of finance from such banks and financial institutions.
A ratio is an expression of linear direct relationship between two indicators; the one which forms as the broad indicator which will normally be the denominator; however, not mandatory. A ratio can be very well expressed as an integer or as percentage.
Financial ratios:
Financial ratios are used in order to compare the risk and return of a firm (or of different firms) over a period of time towards enabling the bankers and financial institutions, creditors and equity investors so as to equip them to formulate proper credit and investment decisions. Such decisions normally require an assessment of changes in the performance over time for a particular credit or investment and a comparison among all firms within a single industry at a specific point of time.
The informational needs and appropriate analytical methods utilized for these credit and investment decisions normally depend upon the decision makers’ time horizon. In reality, the short term bank and trade creditors are normally interested in the immediate liquidity of the firm.
However, when it comes to long term creditors namely; the term lenders and bond holders, they are interested in the long term solvency. Both the long term as well as short term creditors seek to minimize the risk and ensure that the resources are available for payment of interest and principal obligations to the most.
Why ratio analysis?
Ratios present a profile of the firm, its economic characteristics, competitive approach and its unique operative, financial and investment characteristics.
The following five broad ratio categories are found to measure the different aspects of risk and return relationships:
Activity analysis:
Activity analysis evaluates the revenue and output produced by the firm’s assets.
Liquidity analysis:
Liquidity analysis measures the adequacy of the firm’s cash resources to meet its near term cash obligations.
Solvency analysis:
Solvency analysis examines the firm’s capital structure, including the mix of its financing sources and the ability of the firm towards satisfying its long terms debt and investment obligations.
Profitability analysis:
Profitability analysis measures income of the firm relative to its revenues and invested capital.
Performance analysis: Performance analysis examine the revenues and expenses of the firm, either to look at cost structure or relate the sales performance to the amount of assets used in creating sales. Normally these ratios help in concentrating on the efficiency with which the assets are utilized.
The abovementioned categories are interrelated rather than independent. For example, profitability affects the liquidity and solvency and the efficiency with which the assets are utilized are found to impact the profitability to a certain degree. Thus financial analysis relies on an integrated use of many ratios and they are not confined to a selected few.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Lord Venkateshwara at Tirupathi in India



Tirupathi is considered to be one among the several cities in the world where more number of visitors are paying a visit to have darshan of Lord Venkateshwara. Of course, people who are willing to visit the city should have pre hand knowledge about the city and important places in and around the city. The following are the some places which the pilgrims should know invariably:   
Tirupathi Railway station: More and more number of devotees arriving from different parts of the country namely; India and other countries are regarding the railway station as a temple. They can get into Tirupathi town through the main entrance.
Sri Govinda Raja Swami Temple: This is a great temple near Tirupathi Railway Station. Sri Govinda Raja Swami, who is said to be the elder brother of Venkatachalapathi, the Tirumalaswara, got tired of measuring and measuring the treasure his younger brother got through the offering box with a measure (a vessel measuring for paddy or rice). In this temple the idol of Sri Govinda Raja Swami can be found lying in a resting posture having his head put on the measure. According to the legend, the place which is called as Tirupathi at present was earlier known as Govinda Raja Town.
Devasthanam Administrative office: This is the administrative office of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasom Board where about twentyfive thousand officers are working and five thousand employees are employed in the office alone.
Maha Nandi: Devotees going to Tirumala circumambulate and salute Nandeeswara the vehicle of Kapileswara, wash themselves in the holy water in the temple and proceed after bowing down to Sri Kapileswara.
Kapila Theertham:
It is an ancient temple installed and consecrated by Kapila Muni. He performed poojas and vazhipad here and it is believed that great Rishis like Athri bathe in the temple tank and bow down to Lord Siva and then reach Tirumala and then reach Tirumala through the cave and awaken Sri Venkatachalapathi by singing suprabhatha. Kapila Theertha is situated on the way to Tirumala three kilometers from the bus stand.
Alipiri Bus Stand Guest House:
The devotees arriving from different parts of the country and other places to pay obeisance to Srhi Venkatachalapathi take rest at Alipiri Guest House and go to Tirumala by bus from the bus stand opposite to the guest house.
Garudan toll gate arch:
This gate way known as Alipiri is said to be under the leadership of Garuda who greets the devotees arriving in millions  with folded hands to bow down to Sri Mahavishnu, standing as the leader of Tirumala temple. Requesting Garuda the vehicle of Vishnu to permit them for Vishnu darshan the devotees proceed to Tirumala by vehicles remitting the toll fee here and the path to ascend the hill on feet also begins from this place. If the devotees who want to climb the hill on foot can entrust their luggage like suitcase, shoes etc. with the transport office free of charges and they can comfortably reach the top of the hill safely and securely.
Adivaram: The devotees who offered to climb up Tirumala on foot, mount the hill from Adivaram and the fixed time and date recorded by the computer for free darshan of Tirumala Bhagavan is given from here and the hand belt obtainable after payment of cash to worship the Lord is given from the Sudarsana ticket counter.
Ganapathi temple:
Devotees climbing upto Tirumala are blessed by Maha Ganapathi at Mala Vizhi temple. Devotees coming by the vehicles halt here, offer gifts and proceed after taking water required for their vehicles.
Tirumala Mukhadwara: This is the entrance to Tirumala, said to be the Kaliyuga Vaigunta of devotees by which the devotees who reach the hill top from Adivara by vehicles traversing several curves enter. The pious persons who get in proceed after bowing down to the Dwarapalakas Jaya and Vijaya who stand blessing them.
Geethopadesam: As soon as the devotees get in Tirumala they can see near the entrance the sight of Sree Krishna the incarnation of Mahavishnu exhorting and advising the Geetha to Arjuna in the battle field of Kurukshetra.
Enquiry Office/Reception office:
The enquiry office called as the Vicharna Kendra solves the doubts of the devotees arriving at Tirumala by lakhs by giving them necessary information.
This is the reception office which gives rented cottages and rent free rooms to the devotees for the purpose of staying.
Kalyanakkatta (place for shaving head):
This is the main centre, known as kalyanakkatta where the pilgrims can offer their hair which is considered to be one among the most important offerings at Tirumala. About 20000 devotees offer their hair here each day. It is said that there is no other temple in Asia where hair is given as offering each day like this. As there is not enough space for the devotees arriving here, the administration is constructing one more spacious building which is expected to be commenced shortly.
Dining hall: In Tirupathi, there is a dining hall which distributes apt food to the devotees coming after paying their obeisance to Sri Venkatachalapathi. About twenty five thousand devotees are given free food here from early morning till evening on daily basis. In the kitchen here, food is prepared in steam with the help of ultra modern gadgets which cannot be seen anywhere in Asia.
Vaikunta Thoranam: This is the main entrance through which the devotees get into the temple after giving their hair as offering and it is also known as Vaikunta Thoranam.
Vaikuntam Mukhadwaram:
Lakhs and lakhs of devotees arriving for the vision of Tirumala Bhagavan enter the temple by the Vaikunta gate and all those have come for the darshan of Bhagvan, whether they are very important persons or those who have got tickets, can get at the Sreekovil only by Vaikunta gate.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Where do you want to invest your hard earned money?


Everybody wants to possess money and in fact people are willing to have money in abundance without any upper limits.  However, when it comes to managing money acquired, rarely some people are found to be successful while many fail to protect their hard earned money.
Keeping idle money is a difficult job rather than the struggles put forth for acquiring such money; however, such idle money can be profitably deployed as  profitable investments and definitely any prudent investor takes sufficient time to take appropriate decisions in regard to selection of suitable schemes for the purpose of investments.
Money can be invested as detailed below:
01.            Bank deposits: Keeping the money in deposits with banks is considered to be the safest venture for every individual. On the one hand the money in banks is found to be safe and secure and on the other hand, the investor at any point of time can get back his money from the bank at his will. There are different kinds of bank deposits namely; savings bank, current account and term deposits. However, the interest available through bank deposits may not be much compared to investments made in any other schemes.
02.            People can invest in mutual funds which are found to offer better returns compared to investments made in banks. However, mutual funds are found to be highly risky and there is no guarantee that the money invested can be redeemed in full without any loss.
03.            Some people are interested in investing in gold and at present on account of the increase in the prices of gold, people started more in number towards either purchasing gold available in the form of gold biscuits, coins or jewelry or investing in gold bonds which are found to offer higher returns.
04.            When the person is found to have bulk money, he can very well invest the amount in buying plots, lands or houses which are found to yield good long term returns.
However, it is the responsibility of the investor to study the various investment schemes in detail before finalizing his investment decisions.
The investors should have some basic knowledge about the term called as inflation. A simple study can be conducted by linking inflation with returns available from the abovementioned investment schemes.
The effect of inflation can be understood through the following examples:
01.            An investor is having an amount of $1000 as on date. Using $1000 he has the option to buy a product. In case he purchases the same product after one year, the price may be around $1100 and in this case the inflation works out to $100.
02.            Instead the person wants to invest the amount in bank deposit and he is able to get interest at 6%(approximately) for one year and the effective return will be $60 and in such a case he loses $40 (the difference between inflation and effective interest)
03.            Let us imagine that the investor gets a return of $80 by investing the amount alternatively in one mutual fund scheme and in this connection he loses by $20
04.            Alternatively when he decides to purchase gold and the market price of gold after one year is found to be $1110 and in such case he earns a profit of $10
While comparing the different types of investments as mentioned above namely; deposit with bank, investment in a mutual fund scheme and gold, investment in  gold is found to offer reasonably a good return.
However, the examples quoted above are only for the purpose of understanding the intricacies involved in investing the amount in suitable schemes.
An intelligent investor invests the amount in diversified schemes and he decides to invest 30 percent in bank deposits; 30 percent in mutual fund schemes and the remaining 40 percent in gold etc. so that he is not much affected by inflation factor.
As such, it is very well understood that  the investors should  understand the different investment avenues in detail and in case of any difficulty they  can discuss the issues with a financial consultant who can offer better solutions when it comes to investment in various financial portfolios.

Importance of cash outflows and cash inflows while arriving working capital


Importance of cash outflows and cash inflows while arriving working capital
Every business firm mobilizes the required capital for running the unit by issue of equity capital and preference share capital to the public and by availing long term borrowings from banks, financial institutions, friends and relatives.
However, they are deploying only some portion of the capital for the purpose of acquiring fixed assets comprising of land, buildings and machinery and such fixed assets are called as the operating assets for the firm. The remaining portion of the capital is utilized as working capital. Working capital in common parlance defines the funds required for the day to day working of the unit.
The unit may be engaged in some kinds of manufacturing activities or they may be trading the goods and services. Working capital includes the funds required for acquiring raw materials, consumables, funds blocked in work in process or semi finished goods or finished goods, stores and spares, receivables and debtors.
Normally the above items are collectively called as current assets and current assets normally consist of cash balance held with the firm, balance kept with the bankers, sundry debtors, inventory consisting of raw materials, work in process and finished goods etc.
Current assets are meant for meeting short term requirements and they are required for the following purposes namely; they provide liquid funds necessary to support realization of the expected returns from the firm’s long term investments. The long term investments namely; the land and building required for housing the factory and administrative units and machinery meant for running the units are bound to yield the returns provided they are put to use in an effective manner and for putting the fixed assets in use, current assets are required.
In fact, the cash flows associated with long term investments are found to be irregular and uncertain and it is the non synchronous nature of the cash flows that demands necessary working capital. Otherwise, the mismatch between the cash inflows and cash outflows tends to cause liquidity crisis.
This in return disrupts or reduces the long term returns expected from the firm’s investments in fixed assets. Current assets serve as a cushion or buffer in reducing the mismatch between the cash outflows for goods and services and cash inflows or receipts generated through revenue from sales.
There are certain differences between the cash outflows and cash inflows. Cash outflows can be easily predicted. The production manager knows the exact amount payable as wages, salaries and taxes and he can predict the probable date by which such payments are to be effected.
He is also very clear about the specific period by which payments are to be effected to the suppliers from whom materials were procured and to the bankers and financial institutions towards reducing the loans availed either through long term borrowings or short term working capital finance.
However, cash in flows are always uncertain and as such they are mostly unpredictable. Normally the sales depend upon demand and the demand in turn depends upon many factors namely; sale of finished goods, market trend, seasons and needs (real and perceived).
Thus demand being uncertain, the problem starts from the difficulty in forecasting the cash receipts from sales and ends in liquidity crunch for the unit at periodical intervals.
Under the circumstances as mentioned above, more investments in current assets representing the future cash inflows should be made towards meeting the more predictable (scheduled) payments for maturing liabilities.
People who are dealing with financial accounts should be in a position understand the nature of cash outflows and cash inflows and the working capital requirements of any firm purely depends upon the predictable cash outflows and unpredictable cash inflows.