When analysts provide forecasts of both earnings and operating cash flow, they also
implicitly provide a forecast of total operating accruals. We posit that this increases the
transparency and the expected costs of accrual manipulations used to manage earnings.
As a consequence, we predict and find that accrual quality improves and firms’ propensity
to meet or beat earnings benchmarks declines following the provision of cash flow
forecasts. We also predict and find that firms turn to other benchmark-beating
mechanisms, such as real activities manipulation and earnings guidance in response
to the provision of cash flow forecasts