What is the purpose of the cash flow statement?

The purpose of the cash flow statement or statement of cash flows is to provide information about a company’s gross receipts and gross payments for a specified period of time.
The gross receipts and gross payments will be reported in the cash flow statement according to one of the following classifications: operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities.
The net change from these three classifications should equal the change in a company’s cash and cash equivalents during the reporting period.
For instance, the cash flow statement for the calendar year2013 will report the causes of the change in a company’s cash and cash equivalents between its balance sheets of December31,2012 and December31,2013.
In addition to the cash amounts being reported as operating, investing, and financing activities, the cash flow statement must disclose other information, including the amount of interest paid, the amount of income taxes paid, and any significant investing and financing activities which did not require the use of cash.
The statement of cash flows is to be distributed along with a company’s income statement and balance sheet.

cash flow i think it the most important statement for an expansion , fast growing business from cash flow u can see the amount of money the company generate from operations and the ability of company to pay its debts & the chance to make extra expansion for new business opportunity u can make daily or monthly cash flow statement to control cash position

cash is a blood of company...
as u may know that income statement and balance sheet are prepared  on accrual basis not on cash basis i.e you must recognize the expense in income statement even if you have not yet paid the expense in cash..
so how a lender or bank giving loan to the cmpany should assess the ability of the company of repaying the cash?????? statement of cash flow combining with other useful ratios helps them out in this situation as this statement show the true picture of company cash position..
also it is the requirement for a listed company(or by accounting standards) to produce statement of cash flows...

cash flow i think it the most important statement for an expansion , fast growing business from cash flow u can see the amount of money the company generate from operations and the ability of company to pay its debts & the chance to make extra expansion for new business opportunity

Statement of cash flows provide the user of financial statements a supplementary information in addition to profit & loss statement and balance sheet.
Its gives the user a better understanding of how funds were generated and utilized.
Like, Profit and loss statement gives you the profit/loss amount, but gives no idea about cash flows due to accrual basis accounting in general.
Similarly, balance sheet may not give you the exact idea of cash flows due to adjustments, estimates etc.
So, Cash flow statement summarizes the generation and utilization of funds with pure objective to explain cash flows.

Cash flow statement is the high important tool for any company to know its liquidity position.
No company can think to progress smoothly with out significant consideration on Month End Cash flow and Budget Cash flow.
Company should manage monthly cash flow to maintian its running business smooth with effectively and effeciently.
The purpose of the cash flow statement or statement of cash flows is to provide information about a company’s gross receipts and gross payments for a specified period of time.
In addition to the cash amounts being reported as operating, investing, and financing activities, the cash flow statement must disclose other information, including the amount of interest paid, the amount of income taxes paid, and any significant investing and financing activities which did not require the use of cash.

The purpose of the cash flow statement or statement of cash flows is to provide information about a company’s gross receipts and gross payments for a specified period of time.

The cash flow statement reflects a firm's liquidity The cash flow statement is intended to: - provide information on a firm's liquidity and solvency and its ability to change cash flows in future circumstances - provide additional information for evaluating changes in assets, liabilities and equity - improve the comparability of different firms' operating performance by eliminating the effects of different accounting methods - indicate the amount, timing and probability of future cash flows

To analyse the cash flows arising from activities of the company namely operating,investing and financing activity

Olden days too cash flow statement is prepared in a different way using cash book but it will give you the flow on the whole.
the present cash flow statement will give you the exact picture of the business.
The P&L will give you the profitability statement which might have some credit sale and transaction for which there is no money received.
we would have propably funded using other resources..
all these information can be easily extracted from the present cash flow staement which will show you the net cash generated from operating activity.
the company whose operating cash is positive and more, means it generating cash from its own operation and uses for its operation cycle rather looking for financing.
Then the second area such as Investment activity, this will show during the period how much money has come in through investing activity whether positive or negative.
third is the financing area.
Out of the above three operating activity should yield a positive and major portion for a Normal trading/manufacturing company.
Investment company & banking it differs.
the quality of the cash flow statement like the part by part analysis will varry from Trading, investment, banking industry.

Cash flow statement describes the detail of funds flow as received/disbursed during the period irrespective of their booking period in accounts i.e.
such payments/receipts may be related to previous/future accounting period.
Cash flow is one of the best tools to assess the liquidity/going concern of any organization.
Cash flow plays a vital role in budgeting/forecasting as well as decisions making of future projects