Capital de trabajo

THEMATIC UNIT III
WORKING CAPITAL

THE BALNCE SHEET: ASSETS

In accounting assets are generally divided in to fixed and current assets. Fixed assets and investments, such as buildings andequipment, will continue to be used by de business for a long time. Current assets are things that will probably be used by the business in the near future. They include cash – money available to spendimmediately, debtors- companies or people who owe money they will have to pay in the near future.

If a company thinks a debt will not be paid, it has to anticipate the loss- take action in preparationfor the loss happening, according to the conservatism principle. It will write off, or abandon, the sum as a bad debit, and make provisions by charging a corresponding amount against profits: that is,deducting the amount of the debt from the year´s profits.

Valuation

Manufacturing companies generally have a stock of raw materials, work-in-progress-partially manufactured products-andproducts ready for sale. There are various ways of valuing stock or inventory, but generally they are valued at the lower of cost or market, which means whichever figure is lower: their cost- the purchaseprice plus the value of any work done on the items-or the currents market price, this is another example of conservatism: even if the stock is expected to be sold al a profit, you should not anticipatedprofits.

Tangible and intangible assets

Assets can also be classified as tangible and intangible. Tangible assets are with a physical existence – things you can touch- such as property, plantant and equipment. Tangible assets are generally recorded at their historical cost less accumulated depreciation charges- the amount of their cost that has already been deducted from profits. Thisgives their net book value.

Intangible assets include brand names- legally protected names for a company`s products, patents- exclusive rights to produce a particular new product for a fixed period,...