They consist of three main sections: operating, investing, and financing activities. There are two methods for preparing cash flow statements: direct and indirect. Analyzing cash flow statements ...

As a good rule of thumb, operating cash flow should be higher than the company's net income. There are two methods of calculating the cash flow of a business -- the direct and indirect methods.

This gives you the starting balance. The next step is to determine cash flow from operating activities. One way of assessing this, called the direct method, involves calculating the cash brought ...

For the direct approach, corporations determine cash flow by adding up the total cash payments and receipts. For the indirect method, corporations deduct non-operating activities from net income ...