Cash flow statement reader
Read a company by the signs of its three cash flows — the fastest diagnostic in fundamental analysis, and one that is very hard to fake.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere. Educational only, and not investment advice.
How to use this calculator
Each step names a control you will find on screen above.
- Pick a company profile
Cycle through the presets. Each is a real, common pattern rather than an abstract example.
- Read the three signs together
Operating, investing, financing. It is the combination of pluses and minuses that identifies the company, not any single one.
- Compare operating cash flow against net profit
Where profit is large and operating cash flow is small or negative, ask why. That gap is where most accounting problems first show up.
Worked example: The four patterns worth recognising
Cycle through the presets and note the signs. Every listed company sits in one of these four boxes.
What to enter
- Preset
- Mature · Growth · Early-stage · Distressed
What it shows you
- Operating +, Investing −, Financing −
- Mature and healthy
- Operating +, Investing −, Financing +
- Growing
- Operating −, Investing −, Financing +
- Early-stage
- Operating −, Investing +, Financing −
- In trouble
funds its own growth, repays debt, pays dividends
reinvesting hard and raising money to do more
burning cash, entirely dependent on funding
selling assets to repay debt
Where this is taught
A calculator gives you a number. These explain what the number means and when it misleads you.
- Fundamental Analysis12 minAnalysing a company that tells you very littleSmallcaps disclose less, hold no concalls and have no analyst coverage. What you can still establish, and when the honest answer is to walk away.
- Fundamental Analysis14 minHow two identical businesses report different profitsDepreciation life, revenue recognition, capitalising versus expensing and lease treatment are all choices. Each is legal, disclosed, and can change reported profit by a third.
- Fundamental Analysis12 minInventory, depreciation and asset qualityTwo of the softest numbers on any balance sheet. Both depend on management judgement, and both tell you something before the profit line does.
- Fundamental Analysis12 minRelated party transactionsMoney moving between the company and people who control it. Most of it is routine, and almost every Indian governance failure has left its trace here first.
- Fundamental Analysis11 minThe cash flow statementThe hardest statement to manipulate, the three buckets that describe any company, and the one comparison that catches most accounting games.