Cash Is Truth, Or Is It? Adjusting Operating Cash Flow to Obtain an Improved Measure of Corporate Performance

Abstract

Operating cash flow in 2000 and 2001 for the S&P 100 was adjusted to remove items that may provide misleading signals of operating performance. Nine adjustments were made, separated into three categories - (1) where flexibility in GAAP for cash flow reporting was used to alter cash flow, (2) where the requirements of GAAP result in misleading operating cash flow amounts, and (3) where nonrecurring operating cash receipts and payments lead to operating cash flow that is non-sustainable. Adjustments resulted in an average reduction in operating cash flow in 2000 of 4% and an average increase in operating cash flow in 2001 of 9%. Certain individual company adjustments were quite significant, resulting in some cases in much more operating cash flow than actually reported, and in other cases, much less.