现金流量表是反映某个企业在特定时期的现金收入和现金支出的财务报表。这里的“现金”不仅是我们通常意义上所说的纸币和硬币，还包括现金等价物。现金等价物是指具有极强流动性的短期投资，这些投资可以非常容易和迅速地转化为现金，通常是指到期在3个月或3个月以内的投资。

一个企业的现金流量主要来自经营活动产生的现金流量、投资活动产生的现金流量和筹资活动产生的现金流量。经营活动包括商品和服务的销售、购买或生产，这些活动涉及客户应对账款的回笼、对供应商或工人的支付及对诸如租赁费、税金和利息之类项目的支付。投资活动包括取得和出售长期资产和以长期投资为目的而持有的长期债券。筹资活动包括股权筹资和债券筹资以及对借债的偿还。

现金流量表的编制非常简单。首先，列出那些影响现金增加(即现金流入)和现金减少(即现金流出)的活动。其次，根据对上述活动的划分标准，将每一笔现金流入和流出分别填入相应的类别中。表10-6是WR公司的现金流量表。

表10-6

Reading Material

The Statement of Cash Flows

Both the balance sheet and the income statement have a limited information about the cash flows of an enterprise during a period.For instance，balance sheets might show what new assets have been acquired or disposed of and what liabilities have been incurred or liquidated.The income statement provides information about resources，but not exactly cash，provided by operations.None of these statements presents a detailed summary of all the cash inflows and outflows or the sources and uses of cash during the period.To fill this need，the statement of cash flows(also called the cash flow statement)is required.

The objective of a cash flow statement is to provide users of accounting statements with information about the inflows and outflows of cash and cash equivalents of an enterprise in an accounting period，in order to enable users of accounting statements to understand and evaluate the ability of the enterprise to generate cash and cash equivalents and，accordingly，to forecast the future cash flows of the enterprise.