Working Capital

Working capital is a calculation of the overall operating liquidity an organization has access to at a given moment, derived through a simple calculation from the balance sheet:

Working Capital = Current Assets - Current Liabilities

Current assets are items a business owns that are either current cash, or assets that can be rapidly converted to cash, such as accounts receivables, cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, and inventory. Current liabilities are debts owed in the short term, such as accounts payable, short-term debts, and other obligations within a short operational cycle.

When you subtract what is owed in the short term from what is available, an organization can project how much free working capital is on hand during the operating cycle. 

Long Term Planning

This free working capital can be utilized in a variety of ways. Working capital under-utilized incurs the opportunity costs associated with the time value of money, and organizations must use financial planning to ensure appropriate utilization of this capital over the longer term.

While short-term planning is predominately what is used in respect to working capital (due to the short term nature of the inputs and outputs involved), it is reasonable to set long-term polices and strategies for incorporating changes in working capital into financial strategy. The primary benefits of leveraging working capital are liquidity and profitability, each of which can be viewed through a longer term lens.

Liquidity

When discussing long-term objectives, the focal point is broader strategy (as opposed to tactics). From a strategic perspective, there is a certain amount of liquidity business would like to maintain at any given moment to ensure that they can capture external opportunities in the market. Having easily accessible working capital at any given moment enables organizations to minimize the opportunity cost of foregone opportunities, and careful regulation of working capital strategic criteria can ensure the appropriate amount is available.

Profitability

The other broader objective of working capital is how effectively it is utilized over a given time period. From the long-term perspective, this profitability metric will be quite a bit different than the short term. From a longer-term perspective, working capital profitability decisions revolve around how much should be available within any short-term time frame in order to maximize the return (on average) of existing working capital. By looking at differences in working capital availability over a long period of historical data, the organization can make rough estimations of the optimal amount of working capital availability that allows optimal growth.

Despite the potential advantages of longer-term planning in working capital, it is still largely a field of shorter term decision making. Generally, working capital should be considered within a one year or less time frame, making it more often a shorter term decision.