Keywords: Statement of cash flows, cash flow, cash forecast, cash flow projection, liquidity and ratio.
Research question: How and why do the four organizations use the statement of cash flows and cash flow forecasts internally?
Which differences are shown regarding the four organizations way of presenting and using the statement of cash flows and cash flow forecasts, and do these differences depend on the type of business?
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how the statement of cash flows and cash flow forecasts are used in the four large organizations ABB, Manpower, Gina Tricot and City of Västerås to identify if there are differences.
Method: This quantitative study was based on twelve interviews with eleven different persons. The frame of reference was written with secondary data as material. Then collected information was processed, the frame of reference and the empirics were put together and then all was analyzed.
Conclusion: There appears to be flaws in the method, in which the statement of cash flows is to be presented, because it is overall not used by organizations internally. Because the organizations are bound by law to do it a change in the method has to be made so it can be used more internally.
The research of liquidity planning needs to be focused on improving the methods of calculating forecasts because the majority of the organizations in this study use forecasts to plan liquidity instead of liquidity budgets.
The study shows that the use of plans of liquidity, analysis of cash flow, forecasts and ratios can depend on if the organization is private or public.