A company reports that to maintain good relations with its suppliers, it has entered into a financing arrangement with a bank whereby it will periodically have the bank pay its suppliers the amounts owed and it will then repay the bank in the following period. The motivation for the company’s behavior is most likely to:
The candidate should be able to analyze and discuss the following ways to manipulate the cash flow statement:
·stretching out payables;
·financing of payables;
·securitization of receivables; and
·using stock buybacks to offset dilution of earnings.
The company can choose when to enter into the short-term borrowing with the bank and reclassify its accounts payable into short-term financing. It will likely do so when cash flows are seasonally strong, thereby reducing operating cash flows but increasing financing cash flows. On repayment, the cash outflow is treated as a financing activity (loan repayment) not an operating cash flow. The result is that the company can manipulate the timing of reported cash flows since the timing and extent of vendor financing is at management’s discretion.