Cash Flow Statement
The Cash Flow Statement explains where your company's cash came from and where it went during a period: how much you generated through normal operations, how much you invested in assets, and how much you moved through loans and equity. AdmCloud calculates it automatically using the indirect method, based on the accounts already posted in your Chart of Accounts, so you never have to build it by hand.
What is it and what is it for?
Unlike the Profit & Loss statement (which measures whether you made or lost money on paper) or the Balance Sheet (a financial snapshot at a point in time), the Cash Flow Statement focuses only on actual cash: the money that moved in and out of your cash and bank accounts. It's the right tool to answer questions like "why do I show a profit but have little cash on hand?" or "where is the cash my business generates actually going?"
The report organizes the cash movement into three groups:
- Operations: the cash your day-to-day business generated or consumed (sales, purchases, collections, payments, inventory, taxes).
- Investments: cash used to buy, or received from selling off, fixed assets and investments.
- Financing: cash related to loans, capital contributions or withdrawals, and long-term liabilities.
At the end, it reconciles those three groups against your actual cash at the start and end of the period, so the result always ties back to the balance of your cash and bank accounts.
Report variants
The row of links at the top of the screen lets you switch variants without re-entering your filters:
| Variant | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Summary Period (default) | The cash flow of the selected month, grouped by category (Operations, Investments, Financing). |
| Summary Year | The same summary, accumulated from the start of the fiscal year through the selected month, with a color comparison bar next to each amount. |
| Summary of the Period and Year | Combines the two previous columns (month and year) side by side. |
| Detailed Period | Same as Summary Period, but breaking down each individual ledger account within each category, with a direct link to its movements. |
| Detailed Year | The account-level detailed version, accumulated for the year. |
| Period and Year Detailed | The account-level detail, with both month and year columns. |
| All Periods Enterprise + Advanced Reporting | Shows all 12 months of the fiscal year in columns, with each account's detail month by month and drill-down links to its movements. |
| Comparative Period | Compares two different periods (month/year 1 vs. month/year 2) side by side, summarized by category. |
| Comparative Detailed Period | The same two-period comparison, but with the detail of each account. |
How to use it
- Choose the variant you need from the links at the top (summary, detailed, all periods or comparative).
- Enter the Year and Month of the period you want to analyze. If you picked a comparative variant, a second Year and Month also appear for the period you're comparing against.
- Apply the optional filters for Subsidiary, Location, Department, Business Line or Division, depending on which ones your company has enabled (see the filters section below).
- Click Refresh to calculate the report with the selected filters; it recalculates without reloading the whole page.
- Drill into an account (detailed variants and "All Periods"): click on the account's name or its amount to see its movements for the exact period you were viewing.
- Print using the print button to get a version ready for PDF or paper, with no filters or buttons on screen.
How it's calculated (indirect method)
AdmCloud starts from the period's Net Margin (revenue minus costs minus expenses, the same figure as on your Profit & Loss statement) and adjusts it until it reaches actual cash, with no extra entries required from you — everything is recalculated from your already-posted transactions.
| Section | How it's built |
|---|---|
| Cash Flow from Operations | Starts at Net Margin and adds/subtracts the adjustments that don't represent an actual cash movement: Depreciation (accounts classified as Depreciation Expense or Depreciation Cost), Increase/Decrease in Accounts Receivable, in Accounts Payable, in Inventory (if your chart has inventory accounts), in Taxes Payable (VAT, withholdings, etc.), and Other operating movements that don't fall under any of the categories above. |
| Cash Flow from Investments | Increase/Decrease in Property and Equipment (fixed assets, net of depreciation), Short-Term Investments, and, when applicable, Long-Term Assets and Other Assets. |
| Cash Flow for Financing | Increase/Decrease in Loans, Equity Changes, and, when applicable, Long-Term Accounts Payable, Other Long-Term Liabilities, and Prior-Period Results. |
| Final reconciliation | Adds the three sections to get the Net Change in Cash, adds it to the Cash from Period Start (the balance of your accounts classified as Cash or Bank at the beginning of the period) and arrives at the Cash to Period End, which should match the real balance of those same accounts as of the cutoff date. |
Available filters
| Filter | When it appears |
|---|---|
| Year | Always. Defaults to the current year. |
| Month | Always, except on the purely annual variants. Defaults to the current month. |
| Year 2 / Month 2 | Only on the Comparative variants; defines the second period being compared. |
| Subsidiary | If your plan has Subsidiaries enabled. Becomes required when your session mixes subsidiaries with different currencies. |
| Location | Only if your company has "Locations as Profit Center" enabled. |
| Department | Only if your company has "Departments as Profit Center" enabled. |
| Business Line | Only if you use Item Classes with "Business Lines as Profit Center" enabled. |
| Division | Only if your company uses Divisions with "Divisions as Profit Center" enabled. |
| Hide/Round Decimals | Always available; shows amounts as whole numbers, with no decimals. |
All filters are optional (except Subsidiary in the scenario noted above) and can be combined.
Required subsidiary selection in multi-currency sessions
If your subsidiary group mixes more than one currency and your session isn't pinned to a specific subsidiary (you're viewing the consolidated group), the report requires you to pick a Subsidiary before it will generate; otherwise it shows a notice instead of the report. This prevents adding amounts in different currencies as if they were the same. Just pick the subsidiary in the filter and the report will generate normally.
Requirements for an accurate report
The Cash Flow Statement is calculated entirely from how your ledger accounts are classified; it doesn't require any extra data entry, but it does depend on your chart of accounts being classified correctly:
- Cash or Bank accounts: your chart of accounts must have accounts classified as "Cash" or "Bank" — these define the opening and closing cash balance the report reconciles against.
- Depreciation accounts: depreciation expense/cost accounts must be classified as such for the "non-cash" adjustment to calculate correctly.
- Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Taxes, Loans, Equity and Fixed Assets: these must have their standard classification so each movement lands in the right section (Operations, Investments or Financing).
- Fiscal periods defined: the report uses your fiscal year/month calendar to calculate "year to date," so your Accounting Periods need to be configured.
- Non-voided transactions: the calculation automatically excludes voided transactions.
Availability and permissions
- Access is controlled by the "Journal Entries" permission of the user group: anyone who can view the general ledger journal can view this report.
- The "All Periods" variant only appears if your plan is Enterprise with the Advanced Reporting capability, and it also requires your company to have the corresponding feature turned on; if you don't see it available, contact AdmCloud support.
- The rest of the variants (Summary, Detailed and Comparative) are available on every plan that includes the Accounting module.
- The Location, Department, Business Line and Division filters only appear if your company has them enabled as a profit center in Preferences.
Tips and common mistakes
Profitable but short on cash? Check Operations. If your Net Margin is positive but the Net Cash Generated by the Operation is low or negative, it's almost always because your Accounts Receivable grew faster than your collections: you're selling, but not collecting on time.
A misclassified account distorts the whole report. If a cash, loan or fixed-asset account has the wrong classification in the Chart of Accounts, its movement will show up in the wrong section (for example, a loan appearing under Operations instead of Financing). Fix the account's classification and regenerate the report.
"Cash to Period End" should always match your cash and bank accounts. If it doesn't, it's a sign that a Cash or Bank account is missing the right classification, or that a subsidiary/currency was left out of the filter you applied.