INTRODUCCIÓN AL ANÁLISIS DEL CAPITAL DE TRABAJO. Un ensayo sobre su suficiencia.

Abstract

The companies are constituted to perform a set of operations that allow them to achieve their corporate purpose. For this, they invest in assets of a permanent nature and of a circulating nature; Among the latter are cash, items receivable and inventories, all forming working capital. The cycle of operations begins when cash and commercial credit are used for the acquisition of raw materials, merchandise and supplies. With these assets and the participation of direct labor, there is the presence of inventories of products in process and finished, in the case of industrial companies, or inventories of merchandise, in the case of purely commercial companies. If the mission is related to the provision of a service, inventory requirements are drastically reduced and limited to the few inventories of materials that could be used in its execution, given the special feature that the goods being traded are, fundamentally, the skill and knowledge. In any case, the process of making the sales occurs, a fact that takes place in the form of cash or credit operations, receiving cash or a promise of payment represented by an invoice or any other document granting the right. of collection within the term granted, a title that is later transformed into money. When this occurs, the investment is received in the inventories acquired or manufactured, as well as the profit implicit in the operation, and, finally, part of the cash is used to pay the commitments contracted with the suppliers. If the entire march of conversion of working capital to its most liquid expressions occurs appropriately, the company recovers in each cycle what is invested, realizes a profit and honors its commercial commitments. It would be, then, before an efficient, solvent and profitable mercantile society. But, unfortunately, sometimes there are slow outflows of inventories that result in overinvestments, or delays in collections, and cash does not flow as quickly as required to resolve debts, thus giving rise to the phenomenon of default or insolvency, with all the sequel of negative elements that it brings. This essay is dedicated to the determination of the sufficiency and quality of the working capital; it will be considered appropriate when the result of the proposed analysis indicates that the quotient between its conversion cycle and the average liability of the current liabilities is equal to or upper than the traditional solvency index.