This document discusses short-term financial planning strategies. It examines how firms develop short-term financial plans to manage current assets and liabilities. Various strategies are presented, including relaxed, middle-of-the-road, and restrictive policies. Key aspects of short-term planning addressed include working capital, cash budgeting, sources of short-term financing such as bank loans and commercial paper. Ratios and examples are provided to illustrate short-term planning concepts.
2. Short-Term Financial Planning
Short-term financial planning focuses on
managing a firm’s current assets and liabilities.
This chapter examines a number of short-term
planning strategies and provides a greater
understanding of how firms develop short-term
financial plans.
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3. Short-Term Planning
Short-term financing needs are tied to the
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firm’s long-term decisions.
Total Capital Requirement
• The total cost of the assets that a firm needs to run
efficiently.
4. Short-Term Planning
As the business grows, it is likely to need additional
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fixed assets and current assets.
5. Planning Strategies
Three approaches:
a)Relaxed Strategy
-permanent cash
surplus
a)Middle-of-the-road Policy
a)Restrictive Policy
-permanent need for
short-term borrowing
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6. Planning Strategies
Managers typically list three considerations when determining
the “best” mix of short-term and long-term financing:
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Matching Maturities
Permanent Working Capital Requirements
The Advantages of Liquidity
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Liquidity
Some firms choose to hold more liquidity than others.
Why do many high-tech companies hold huge amounts of
short-term securities while many manufacturers (ex. steel)
hold much smaller reserves?
What are the costs associated with holding excess cash?
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Working Capital
Much of short-term financial planning focuses on
variations in working capital.
Components of Working Capital:
Current Assets
Current Liabilities
9. Working Capital: Example
What will be the change in net working capital if current assets
increase by $170,000 and current liabilities decrease by
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$60,000?
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Current Assets
Common current assets:
Accounts Receivable
• Trade Credit
• Consumer Credit
Inventory
Cash & Marketable Securities
• Demand Deposits
• Time Deposits
• Commercial Paper
• Treasury Bills
12. The Cash Conversion Cycle
Typically, most firms have positive net working
capital. But why do they need working capital at all?
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Simple Cycle of Operations
15. Cash Conversion Cycle: Example
What is the cash conversion cycle for a firm with $3 million average
inventories, $1.5 million average accounts payable, a receivables
period of 40 days, and an annual cost of goods sold of $18 million?
Cash
Conversion
Cycle (CCC)
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Inventory
Period
Receivables
Period
Accounts
= + - Payable Period
16. The Working Capital Trade-Off
Working capital can be actively managed; it is not set
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in stone.
Carrying Costs
Costs of maintaining current assets, including opportunity
cost of capital.
What are some carrying costs associated with holding
inventory?
Shortage Costs
Costs incurred from shortages in current assets.
17. Changes in Working Capital:
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Example
How would the following affect cash and net working capital?
The firm repurchases outstanding shares of stock.
Both cash and net working capital will decrease.
The firm uses cash on hand to buy raw materials.
Cash will decrease; net working capital will be unaffected.
The firm sells long-term bonds and puts the proceeds
in its bank account.
Both cash and net working capital will increase.
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Cash Budgeting
3 Steps to preparing a cash budget:
1. Forecast the sources of cash.
2. Forecast the uses of cash.
3. Calculate whether the firm is facing a cash
shortage or surplus.
The financial plan gives the strategy for investing
cash surpluses or financing any deficit.
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Sources of Cash
Ending Accounts
Receivable = Beginning Accounts
Receivable + Sales - Collections
Example:
What was the sales volume in the current quarter if beginning accounts receivable, at
$5,000, was $1,000 higher than ending, and $20,000 was collected?
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Uses of Cash
Uses of cash can be split into four broad categories:
Payments of Accounts Payable
Labor, Administrative, and Other Expenses
Capital Expenditures
Taxes, Interest, and Dividend Payments
21. The Cash Balance
Are large cash outflows in early periods
generally a sign of trouble for a firm?
Our calculations only give us a best guess
about future cash flows.
Undertake scenario analysis for better planning
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23. Sources of Short-Term Financing
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Bank loans
Lines of Credit
Secured Loans
Commercial Paper
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Bank Loans
The simplest and most common form of short-term
finance is a bank loan.
Line of Credit
• Agreement by a bank that a company may borrow at
any time up to an established limit.
Term Loans
• A loan that lasts for an extended period of time.
Self-liquidating Loans
• A loan that provides the cash to repay itself with the
sale of goods.
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Secured Loans
If a bank is concerned about credit risk, it will demand
that a firm provide collateral for the loan.
Accounts Receivable Financing
• The firm assigns its receivables to the bank.
Inventory Financing
• The bank accepts the firm’s inventory as collateral.
26. Commercial Paper
Large companies bypass the bank and issue
commercial paper directly to large investors.
Is commercial paper typically secured debt or
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unsecured debt?
Editor's Notes
Chapter 19 Learning Objectives
Understand why the firm needs to invest in net working capital.
Show how long-term financing policy affects short-term financing requirements.
Trace a firm’s sources and uses of cash and evaluate its need for short-term borrowing.
Develop a short-term financing plan that meets the firm’s need for cash.
Identify several major sources of short-term financing.
Chapter 19 Outline
Short Term Planning
3 Strategies
3 Considerations
The Importance of Liquidity
Net Working Capital
Current Assets
Current Liabilities
The Cash Conversion Cycle
The Working Capital Trade-off
Cash Budgeting
Sources of Cash
Uses of Cash
The Cash Balance
Sources of Short-Term Financing
Total capital requirement – The total cost of the assets that a firm needs to run efficiently.
Example: money invested in plant, machinery, inventories, accounts receivable, etc.
Note: The graph above illustrates the growth in the firm’s capital requirements. The line is upward-sloping, showing that as the business grows it is likely to need additional fixed assets and current assets.
Relaxed Strategy – The firm has a permanent short-term cash surplus.
This surplus will likely be invested in marketable securities.
Middle-of-the-road Policy – The firm has spare cash that it can lend out during the part of the year when capital requirements are low; the firm can borrow during the rest of the year when capital requirements are higher.
Restrictive Policy – The firm has a permanent need for short-term borrowing.
There are often costs to holding surplus cash.
Holdings of marketable securities are at best a zero-NPV investment for taxpaying firms.
Managers of firms with large cash surpluses may be careless with funds.
Remember: Net working capital = (current assets – current liabilities)
Accounts receivable - Arise because customers don’t usually pay for their purchases immediately.
Trade credit – Arise due to unpaid bills from sales to other companies.
Consumer credit – Arise due to unpaid bills from sales to the final consumer.
Inventory – Raw materials, works-in-process, or finished goods awaiting sale and shipment.
Cash and marketable securities:
Demand deposits – money in checking accounts that the firm can pay out immediately.
Time deposits – money in savings accounts that can be paid out only with a delay.
Commercial paper – short-term unsecured debt sold by other firms.
Treasury bills – short-term debts sold by the U.S. government.
Net Working Capital – Current assets minus current liabilities. Often called working capital.
Cash Conversion Cycle – Period between firm’s payment for materials and collection on its sales.
The longer the production process, the more cash the firm must keep tied up in inventories.
The longer it takes customers to pay their bills, the higher the value of accounts receivable.
If a firm can delay paying for its own materials, it may reduce the amount of cash it needs.
i.e. Accounts payable reduce net working capital.
Working capital can be managed; it is not set in stone.
Example: accounts receivable are affected by the terms of credit the firm offers to its customers.
Example: The cost of the firm’s investment in receivables is the interest that could have been earned if customers paid their bills earlier.
Carrying Costs – Costs of maintaining current assets, including opportunity cost of capital.
Shortage Costs – Costs incurred from shortages in current assets.
Line of credit – Agreement by a bank that a company may borrow at any time up to an established limit.
Commercial Paper – Short-term unsecured notes issued by firms.
Secured Debt – Debt that has first claim on specified collateral in the event of default.
Line of credit – Agreement by a bank that a company may borrow at any time up to an established limit.
Term loan – A loan that lasts for an extended period of time; typically a number of years.
Self-liquidating Loans – A loan that provides the cash to repay itself with the sale of goods.
Note: When borrowing short-term, the required collateral is generally restricted to liquid assets such as receivables, inventories, or securities.
Accounts Receivable Financing:
The firm assigns its receivables to the bank. If the firm fails to repay the loan, the bank can collect on the receivables and use the cash to repay the debt.
Inventory Financing:
Banks often use inventory as collateral, but they will only choose collateral inventories that can be easily resold.
Field Warehousing: An independent warehouse company hired by the bank supervises the inventory pledged as collateral for the loan.
Commercial Paper – Short-term unsecured notes issued by firms.