where funds from operations net income depreciation depletion amortization deferred taxes investment tax credit other funds 
this format is used for reporting cash flow details by finance portals like marketwatch orcash flow from operating activities net income depreciation depletion amortization adjustments to net income changes in accounts receivables changes in liabilities changes in inventories changes in other operating activitiesthis format is used for reporting cash flow details by finance portals like yahoo finance all the above mentioned figures included above are available as standard line items in the cash flow statements of various companies the net income figure comes from the income statement since it is prepared on an accrual basis the noncash expenses recorded on the income statement such as depreciation and amortization are added back to the net income in addition any changes in balance sheet accounts are also added to or subtracted from the net income to account for the overall cash flow inventories tax assets accounts receivable and accrued revenue are common items of assets for which a change in value will be reflected in cash flow from operating activities accounts payable tax liabilities deferred revenue and accrued expenses are common examples of liabilities for which a change in value is reflected in cash flow from operations from one reporting period to the next any positive change in assets is backed out of the net income figure for cash flow calculations while a positive change in liabilities is added back into net income for cash flow calculations essentially an increase in an asset account such as accounts receivable means that revenue has been recorded that has not actually been received in cash on the other hand an increase in a liability account such as accounts payable means that an expense has been recorded for which cash has not yet been paid example of cash flow from operating activitieslet s look at the cash flow details of the leading technology company apple inc aapl for the fiscal year ended september 2018 the iphone maker had a net income of 59 53 billion depreciation depletion amortization of 10 9 billion deferred taxes investment tax credit of 32 59 billion and other funds of 4 9 billion following the first formula the summation of these numbers brings the value for fund from operations as 42 74 billion the net change in working capital for the same period was 34 69 billion adding it to fund from operations gives the cash flow from operating activities for apple as 77 43 billion for the second method summing up the available values from yahoo finance portal that reports apple s fy 2018 net income 59 531 billion depreciation 10 903 billion adjustments to net income 27 694 billion changes in accounts receivables 5 322 billion changes in liabilities 9 131 billion changes in inventories 828 billion and changes in other operating activities 30 057 billion gives the net cfo value as 77 434 billion both the methods yield the same value special considerationsone must note that working capital is an important component of cash flow from operations and companies can manipulate working capital by delaying the bill payments to suppliers accelerating the collection of bills from customers and delaying the purchase of inventory all these measures allow a company to retain cash companies also have the liberty to set their own capitalization thresholds which allow them to set the dollar amount at which a purchase qualifies as a capital expenditure investors should be aware of these considerations when comparing the cash flow of different companies due to such flexibility where managers are able to manipulate these figures to a certain extent the cash flow from operations is more commonly used for reviewing a single company s performance over two reporting periods rather than comparing one company to another even if the two belong in the same industry 