WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES

Working capital is commonly understood as the fund needed to meet the day-to-day expenses of an enterprise. A finance manager finds that the funds for meeting these expenses get blocked in current assets. He therefore, looks for liquidity support in net working capital (NWC), which is equivalent to the excess of current assets over current liabilities. A banker also looks at the size of NWC as the long-term stake of the business in funding the current assets. But for a production manager, liquidity is synonymous to uninterrupted supply of material inputs to the production lines. Similarly for a marketing manager, if there is no production, his marketing outlets dry up despite demand in the market. While the finance manager discourages overstocking of inventory, the production manager and the marketing manager dread of being out of stock. In this conflict the goal of the organization often takes a back seat. This book aims at resolving these conflicts by adopting a techno-financial approach to working capital management. In the Third Edition a full chapter on Service Business: Risk Analysis and Working Capital Assessment has been incorporated, which is devoted to understand the nature of service business and the risks associated with it. It is followed by developing a model for assessment of working capital requirement of a service enterprise. Besides, the book is revised and updated extensively by incorporating the current researches in the field; particular mention can be made of Cash Pooling system, Bullwhip effect and newer approaches to inventory recording system. Throughout the book, every concept is presented with worked-out examples and case studies for easy comprehension of the subject. The book is primarily addressed to postgraduate students majoring in Finance and to those pursuing professional courses in Accounts (CA) and Cost Accounting (ICWA). The book will also be very useful to practising finance managers as well as to purchase/materials managers.