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Minimizing Working Capital

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MINIMIZING WORKING CAPITAL

Working capital is the key to a successful business. It is like their blood flow and the manager’s job is to help keep it flowing. Under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles working capital is simply the difference between a company’s Current Assets, which are cash, inventory, accounts receivable and prepaid items, and Current Liabilities, accounts payable and accrued expenses.
Working capital is of major importance to a business because it controls the current day-to-day operations including payment of salaries, wages, inventory, raw materials, other business expenses, purchase of stocks, buildings, land, fixed assets, etc.
A business firm must maintain an adequate level of working capital in …show more content…

Even though most of these expenses are not of big magnitude their value can add up and affect the company’s finances. Some of these items are accrued time for employees, bonuses, benefits, utilities, improvements and taxes. Some additional sources of working capital include; cash reserves, profits, equity loans, line of credit, and long term loans.
There are reasons that a company will have working capital problems. Some include;
1. Not enough sales to produce cash flow
2. Overdue accounts receivables increasing over time
3. Customer satisfaction is low
4. Increase in payroll
5. Inventory problems
6. Bad credit
7. Failing to pay on time and being able to claim discounts for prompt payment
8. Over purchasing and unnecessary spending
A manager must be on top of these problems and once found they must correct any of these issues as soon as possible. A simple monthly report should be able to show any problems with the working capital.
To avoid the shortage of working capital, an estimate should be made in advance. The factors that should be considered to estimate working capital should be; the credit period expected to be allowed by a vendor, costs of material and wages of a project, the length of time that a product remains in a business, the length of the production and the period of credit allowed to a customer.
The factors that a company needs to take into consideration to determine their

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