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Comparative Cash Flow Template

A Comparative Cash Flow Template is a financial report that presents a company’s cash inflows and outflows for two or more periods side by side, typically categorized by operating, investing, and financing activities. This format allows stakeholders to analyze changes in how cash is generated and used over time, identify trends in liquidity, and assess the company’s ability to fund operations and growth.

See the comparative cash flow template in action.

Unlike a standard cash flow report that shows activity for a single period, a comparative cash flow report displays multiple periods (typically two consecutive fiscal years) in adjacent columns, along with variance calculations showing both absolute and percentage changes.

Utilizing the Comparative Cash Flow Template

  1. Select Standard Reports > Cash Flow > Comparative Cash Flow
  2. View the new sheet that has been created called Comparative Cash Flow
  3. Fill in all required parameters (asterisks by the names)
  4. Select the now activated button in the ribbon under Actions of Load Accounts. Finsyte will go to NetSuite to return the appropriate list of GL Account numbers and balances based on the identified Subsidiary input.
  5. Adjust parameters as needed. The balances update on their own.
  6. The Switch Signs operation has already been applied to corresponding account sections.

ComparativeCashFlowGIF

Remarks

  • Choose a Fiscal Year for both column D and column E; column E's Fiscal Year starts blank. Column E's other parameters follow column D until you change them, so you can also compare a different subsidiary, period number or other parameter. Variance is column D minus column E, and % Variance is that variance divided by column E (0% when column E is 0).
  • Column D's Period Range is limited to PTD and RTD, and column E follows it.
  • Review the GL Accounts list to understand what accounts will be available for the cash flow. Accounts are grouped by account type into Operating, Investing and Financing Activities, followed by Net Change in Cash for Period, Cash at Beginning of Period, Effect of Exchange Rate on Cash and Cash at End of Period. The Parent column in this table also helps to determine the tree structure seen in the template.
  • Review the Subsidiary column in the GL Accounts list to understand which accounts utilize which subsidiaries. The SubsidiariesHasAccess column generated by Finsyte can also be insightful for this.
  • For a consolidated report, or to compare subsidiaries, select the top-level (Consolidated) subsidiary in column D before you select Load Accounts so the sheet brings in every account. An account a subsidiary can't use returns 0 and can be ignored.
  • Once you've customized the template, don't select Load Accounts again. It rebuilds the account list in the template's own columns only, which undoes your layout.
  • Aggregate functions are utilized on the totals for groups in the financial statement to ensure proper totaling.
  • Every account except Cash at Beginning of Period has reversed signs for totaling purposes.