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Working Capital Print
Topic Contents
Working Capital
Why Worry About Working Capital?
Inventory and Cash
Current Assets
Days of Working Capital
Current Assets

Now let's examine reducing Current Assets. Consider these cases:

Sales $100,000          
             
CASE 1            
ASSETS ($000)       LIABILITIES & OWNER'S EQUITY
Current Assets       Liabilities    
Cash $6,500     Accts Payable $6,000  
Accts Receivable $7,000     Current Debt $4,000  
Inventories $6,500     Current Liabilities   $10,000
Current Assets   $20,000        
Current Ratio 2.0     Days of Working Capital 36.5
             
CASE 2            
ASSETS ($000)       LIABILITIES & OWNER'S EQUITY
Current Assets       Liabilities    
Cash $2,500     Accts Payable $6,000  
Accts Receivable $7,000     Current Debt $0  
Inventories $2,500     Current Liabilities   $6,000
Current Assets   $12,000        
Current Ratio 2.0     Days of Working Capital 21.9

Case 1 and 2 both have Current Ratios of 2.0, but Case 2 is much more worrisome. If demand increases, you stock out after selling only $2.5 million of inventory. If demand falls, you run out of cash after building only $2.5 million of additional inventory. You have little room for error.