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Profi t ≠ Cash (and
You Need Both)
by Karen Berman and Joe Knight,
with John Case
Profi t, shown on the income statement, is not the same
as net cash, shown on the cash fl ow statement. Why
should this be? Some reasons are pretty obvious: Cash
may be coming in from loans or from investors, and that
isn’t going to show up on the income statement at all.
But even operating cash fl ow is not at all the same as
net profi t.
There are three essential reasons:
• Revenue is booked at sale. A sale is recorded
whenever a company delivers a product or service.
Ace Printing Company delivers $1,000 worth of
brochures to a customer; Ace Printing Company re-