Cash flow
Cash receipts and cash disbursements resulting from business activity. The term does not calculate or forecast cash.
Financial-accounting terminology glossary
Cash flow describes cash receipts and cash disbursements from business activity.
This definition distinguishes cash flow from cash inflows, cash outflows, and a statement of cash flows. It does not calculate, forecast, budget, manage, reconcile, analyze, recommend, approve, or decide any financial, accounting, tax, legal, operational, or business matter.
Cash flow describes cash receipts and cash disbursements resulting from business activity. OpenStax explains that a statement of cash flows lists cash inflows and outflows over a period. The term does not calculate a balance, forecast liquidity, create a budget, reconcile an account, determine a financial result, or decide an action. Read the accounting reference.
Three related terms
Related terms do not calculate or manage cash.
Cash-flow terminology may appear alongside cash inflows, cash outflows, and a statement of cash flows. These terms can clarify a discussion without calculating a balance, forecasting liquidity, preparing records, or deciding a financial action.
Cash inflows
Cash coming into an organization. The term does not identify, record, validate, or analyze a transaction.
Cash outflows
Cash going out of an organization. The term does not authorize, pay, reconcile, or decide an expenditure.
Why context matters
A cash-flow label does not establish a financial result.
The important distinction
A glossary defines the term. It does not manage cash.
The accounting definition provides vocabulary for discussing cash receipts and disbursements. It is not a cash-flow statement, balance, forecast, budget, reconciliation, transaction record, liquidity assessment, financial result, or decision for a specific organization.
Cash, timing, context
A term does not calculate a balance or forecast liquidity.
Cash discussions may involve transactions, accounts, statements, records, timing, budgets, forecasts, taxes, obligations, and policies. This page does not identify, calculate, forecast, budget, record, reconcile, validate, analyze, recommend, approve, decide, or manage any of them.
A source note
Shared terminology can help name a cash-flow question.
OpenStax describes cash flow as cash receipts and disbursements from business activity and explains that a statement of cash flows lists inflows and outflows over a period. That supports a plain-language definition; it does not resolve a financial or accounting question.
Keep the definition and a financial decision separate.
An educational source can explain the term. It cannot calculate cash, forecast liquidity, prepare a budget, reconcile an account, validate a transaction, determine a financial result, or decide an appropriate action.
Glossary boundary: This page does not identify, calculate, forecast, project, estimate, budget, model, analyze, monitor, compare, validate, record, reconcile, classify, manage, optimize, recommend, approve, decide, transact, invest, borrow, lend, pay, bill, collect, or manage any cash flow, financial statement, account, transaction, financial, tax, legal, accounting, operational, or business matter. It does not provide financial, accounting, tax, legal, or operational advice.
What this glossary does not decide
This educational definition does not determine any cash-flow, financial-statement, account, transaction, tax, accounting, financial, legal, regulatory, operational, or business status; identify, calculate, forecast, project, estimate, budget, model, analyze, monitor, compare, validate, record, reconcile, classify, manage, optimize, recommend, approve, decide, transact, invest, borrow, lend, pay, bill, collect, or manage any matter; or provide financial, accounting, tax, legal, or operational advice.
Source note
References for this definition
This source supports the terminology on this page. It is not a substitute for an organization’s own records, accounting policies, qualified advisers, applicable requirements, or decisions.
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