Using the Accounting Equation for Preparing the Statement of Cash Flows

This chapter advocates a teaching approach for the statement of cash flows (SCF) that includes introduction of the SCF early in the curriculum using the accounting equation format, which helps students visualize the cash and accrual activities. We then adapt this accounting equation format to a worksheet model that can be used later in the curriculum with more complex data sets. This approach provides several advantages: (1) it maintains a consistent, accounting equation approach throughout; (2) it can be used for both the direct and the indirect report format; (3) when used with Excel, the format is easier to explain, easier to use, and less prone to mechanical error than the worksheet approaches used in most textbooks; and (4) it is used by many professional accountants.