Despite conceptual differences, corporate finance textbooks often follow the SCF procedure by which the
flow of CL, or a significant portion thereof, is offset against the flow of CA to define the differential flow of Net
Working Capital (NWC). This procedure denies a reality in which short-term debt is the main source of
funding for most firms.
Direct consequences of the common FCF offset include distortions of the firm's size, debt and asset
compositions, financial leverage, and risk profile. Indirect consequences include wider opportunities to
manipulate the firm's FCF and estimated market value. The empirical analysis shows that the offset
makes the FCF systematically larger and more stable. An average sample of 1220 U.S. public corporations
studied over 22 years (1988–2009) reveals that the offset overstates the FCF mean by 33.7% and median
by 128.2%. This result is due to the typically large share of CL that represents on average 19.8% of firms'
size with a median of 24%.
U.S. firms are currently free to publish an unofficial FCF report subject to constraints of Regulation G
(2002). Since this study does not rely on data of those reports but on official, accounting based, filings of Income
Statement, Balance Sheet, and SCF, the analysis is limited to identifying opportunities for manipulating
a FCF through the use of an offset. Concern over such behavior is supported by evidence from financial statements
in general and recent cash flow statements in particular.1 The fact that investors often misinterpret
accounting numbers that rely on managerial discretion is also well established