One of the fundamental components of travel agency accounting is the cash flow statement. The statement of cash flows tracks the cash outflows and cash inflows that your business has for a certain time period, giving tangible insight into how your money is being spent.
As a part of the basic financial statements, it’s important you not only understand how to create cash flow statements, but also know what the information is telling you about your travel agent business.
What is a Cash Flow Statement?
A cash flow statement is a financial statement that shows how much cash is coming into and going out of your business over a certain period of time. It helps to provide an understanding of how well a business is managing its cash and can be a valuable tool for forecasting future cash needs.
A positive cash flow indicates you are earning more money than you are spending, while a negative cash flow means you are spending more than you are earning. The ultimate goal of the cash flow statement is to reconcile the company’s cash at the beginning of the year to the cash balance at the end of the accounting period.
Creating Your Statement of Cash Flows
Creating a cash flow statement for a travel agency can be a bit different than creating one for other types of businesses, as travel agencies often have unique sources of income and expenses. However, the basic principles of creating a cash flow statement are the same.
The statement of cash flows has three different sections: cash flows from operations, cash flows from investing, and cash flows from financing. We’ll break down each section into more detail below.
Step #1: Gather Information
Start by identifying the time period for which you want to create the statement. This could be a month, a quarter, or a year. Gather all the relevant financial information for the time period, including income from ticket sales, commissions, and other sources, as well as expenses such as staff salaries, marketing costs, and other expenses.
These are the items that will be used to calculate your company’s net income, also known as net earnings, and should come from the income statement. The cash flow statement begins with net income and will go through the cash paid and non cash transactions.
Step #2: Operating Cash Flows
Operating activities include the day-to-day operations of the business, such as ticket sales, cruises, vacation packages, and expenses. The items found in this section generally come from your company’s balance sheet and can include notes payable, accounts payable, accounts receivable, taxes payable, and any other cash outflow or cash inflow found on that financial statement.
Operating expenses can also include non cash accounts, such as depreciation and amortization. General business operations will be found in the operating cash flow section.
Step #3: Investing Cash Flows
Next, your company’s cash flow statement will go through investing activities. These are items such as capital expenditures and cash received from asset sales. Investing activities can also include outside investments, such as a brokerage account.
Step #4: Financing Cash Flows
Finally, calculate the net cash flow from financing activities. To do this, add up any cash received from loans or other forms of financing, and subtract any cash spent on repaying loans or other debts. Interest payments may also be shown here along with dividend payments.
Step #5: Calculating Cash Flow
After you have laid out these three sections of cash flow activities, you will reconcile your bank accounts from the beginning of the year to the end. Add the net cash flow from operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities to get the overall net cash flow for the period.
If your cash inflows outweigh your cash outflows, you will have more cash at the end of the year. However, if your outgoing cash exceeds inflows, your net cash will be lower.
Once you have created your cash flow statement, review it to understand your business’s cash position, and use it to make decisions about future investments, borrowing, or other financial activities.
Your company’s financial health relies on bringing in more cash than you are spending. Remember, the actual cash flow you see throughout the year will not match the cash flow statement exactly as non cash items are added in, like depreciation.
The Importance of the Statement of Cash Flows
Keep in mind that the cash flow statement is important for any business, but it’s particularly important for a travel agency, as the cash flow can be affected by many factors such as seasonality, travel restrictions, etc.
As a travel agent, you often don’t get paid your commission until the client travels. This means that you need to understand when you can expect to receive the funds to accurately budget and plan your business operations.
By using a tool like QuickBooks, you can download the excel file of your cash flow statement, manipulate it and plug in future earnings. This gives you a realistic picture of the cash inflows you can expect to make more informed decisions.
If you don’t use software, you can utilize a manual spreadsheet to plug in expected future earnings to see how much cash you will be earning and when you will see these deposits.
Maybe you find that a customer isn’t traveling for another six months, meaning you need to defer purchasing a new computer or other piece of equipment until that month.
Seasonality also impacts the cash flow you can expect. If your customer base is mostly families who take summer vacations, you should prepare your budgets accordingly and prepare your cash flow statement using this knowledge.
If you prepare your budget for the entire year based on your highest earning month, you will most likely overspend and see low profitability.
Without utilizing the statement of cash flows for your travel agency, you have no clear picture of your business financial health and cash flow.
It’s essential to stay on top of your cash flow and manage it proactively to ensure the longevity of your business. By prioritizing the statement of cash flows in your travel agency, you will be able to make more informed decisions surrounding growth and income levels.
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