Paper Keywords cash flow statement; Financial information; The cash flow statement has become one of the most important accounting statements in the world. The author discusses how to analyze the financial situation of enterprises according to the utilization rate of cash flow statement, so as to provide true and reliable information for financial decision-making and report users. At present, China has formed the Company Law, the Securities Law and the Provisional Regulations on Stock Issuance and Trading. The basic framework of information disclosure is based on the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Information Disclosure of Public Stock Companies (Trial) and the Guidelines for the Contents and Formats of Information Disclosure issued by China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the information disclosure content consists of three parts: initial disclosure (prospectus, listing announcement), periodic report (interim report, annual report) and interim report (major event report), which preliminarily regulates the information disclosure of listed companies. In recent years, investors' awareness of cash flow has been greatly improved, from focusing only on profits to paying attention to cash flow. Especially with the frequent exposure of fraud incidents in 200 1 listed companies, the cash flow statement has received more attention. 1 The function of cash flow statement can better reflect the purpose of financial reporting in improving the relevance, comparability and interpretability of financial statement information. The cash flow statement of 1. 1 can explain the reasons of cash inflow and outflow in a certain period. For example, an enterprise borrows 30 million yuan from a bank and pays 2 1 10,000 yuan in interest. The cash flow generated by fund-raising activities in the cash flow statement reflects the borrowing of 30 million yuan and the interest payment of 2 1 10,000 yuan respectively. This information cannot be provided by the balance sheet and income statement. 1.2 cash flow statement can explain the solvency and dividend payment ability of enterprises. In some cases, although the operating performance reflected in the profit statement of the enterprise is considerable, it is financially difficult to repay the debts due; There are also some enterprises that have sufficient solvency although the operating performance reflected in the income statement is not impressive. There are many reasons for this situation, among which accrual basis and matching principle adopted in accounting are also one of the main reasons. The cash flow statement is completely based on cash receipts and payments, excluding the profitability and ability to pay caused by the estimates used in accounting. 1.3 the cash flow statement can analyze the cash flow generated by operating activities in the future cash flow statement, which represents the ability of an enterprise to create cash flow by using its economic resources, and is convenient for analyzing the difference between the net profit generated in a certain period and the cash flow generated by operating activities; The cash flow generated by investment activities represents the ability of enterprises to use funds to generate cash flow; The cash flow generated by fund-raising activities represents the ability of enterprises to raise funds to obtain cash. Through the cash flow statement and other financial information, we can analyze the ability of enterprises to obtain or pay cash in the future. [BT (4+1* 2] [STFZ] [WTFZ]1.4 The cash flow statement can analyze the impact of investment and wealth management activities on the operating results and financial status of enterprises, and the balance sheet can provide the financial status of enterprises on a certain date, providing static financial information; Although the income statement reflects the operating results of an enterprise in a certain period, it provides dynamic financial information. The cash flow statement provides the dynamic financial information of cash inflow and outflow in a certain period, indicating the cash obtained by enterprises from business activities, investment and financing activities during the reporting period, and how the cash obtained by enterprises is used. It can explain the reasons for the changes of assets, liabilities and net assets, and plays a preliminary role in the balance sheet and income statement. Cash flow statement is the bridge between continuous balance sheet and income statement. 1.5 The cash flow statement can provide information about investment and financing activities that do not involve cash. The cash flow statement not only reflects the investment and financing activities related to cash, but also provides information on investment and financing activities that do not involve cash through notes, so that users of accounting statements can fully understand and analyze the investment and financing activities of enterprises. It is worth noting that although the analysis of cash flow statement can provide a lot of information about enterprise finance, especially about enterprise cash flow, it does not mean that the analysis of cash flow statement can replace the analysis of other accounting statements, and the analysis of cash flow statement is only one aspect of enterprise financial analysis. 2 Limitations of cash flow statement analysis 2. 1 Validity of report information The data reflected in the report is the result of the influence of past accounting events of the enterprise, and various analysis results calculated according to these historical data are only of reference value to predict the future cash flow of the enterprise, which is not completely effective. 2.2 Comparability of report information generally means that different enterprises, especially different enterprises in the same industry, should adopt similar accounting procedures and methods, and establish cash flow statements of different enterprises on the same accounting procedures and methods, so as to facilitate report users to compare and analyze the solvency and cash flow status of an enterprise in different periods and between enterprises. For the same enterprise, although the application of consistent accounting principles makes it possible to compare in different periods, if the accounting environment and the nature of the basic transaction of the enterprise change, the comparability of financial information of the same enterprise in different periods will be greatly weakened. For different enterprises, the comparability between them is more difficult to achieve than that of a single enterprise. Because different enterprises adopt different accounting treatment methods, such as inventory valuation, depreciation and amortization, income recognition, expenditure capitalization, expense treatment, etc., it is difficult to compare the cash situation of various enterprises with various analysis methods. 2.3 The reliability of reporting information refers to the financial information provided, which should be impartial, based on objective facts and not influenced by subjective will, and strive for accurate and reliable financial information. In fact, the reliability of all kinds of data used in compiling cash flow statement is often affected by many aspects, which makes the report analysis unreliable. Therefore, investors must not rely entirely on the results of report analysis, but should combine other relevant information for comprehensive evaluation. 3 Comprehensive evaluation is mainly manifested in (1) comprehensive, complete and sufficient grasp of information, not only to fully understand the information in the statements, but also to pay attention to the disclosure of major accounting matters of enterprises and the audit report of certified public accountants, in addition to considering the influence of national macro policies, international and domestic political climate and industry changes, to understand the industry situation and company-related background, and to understand other information about the company in the media. This can directly deepen the understanding of cash flow statement. For example, the cash in the investment activities of enterprises is negative. By reading other information disclosures other than the financial statements of listed companies, we can further investigate whether there are project investments, project progress and development prospects that bring good benefits, so as to further judge the overall management quality and management level of enterprises. (2) The combination of concrete analysis and comprehensive evaluation. On the basis of comprehensive evaluation, investors should choose specific projects for key analysis, such as the cash ratio (net cash flow in operating activities/current liabilities) reflecting the solvency of enterprises, and take care of the conclusions of comprehensive analysis and key analysis to ensure the effectiveness of the analysis results. (3) Read and analyze related items of cash flow statement in combination with other statements. Because the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement have internal logical cross-checking, we can find the essence of the increase or decrease of the company's operating cash flow from the changes in the other two statements. Therefore, investors should check the corresponding relationship between "cash received from selling goods" in the cash flow statement and income from main business in the income statement, as well as accounts receivable, notes receivable and accounts received in advance in the balance sheet; Check the correspondence between "cash paid for goods" in the cash flow statement and the main business cost in the income statement, inventory in the balance sheet, accounts payable, notes payable, prepayments and other items; Pay attention to the study of the corresponding relationship between "cash paid for the purchase and construction of fixed assets, intangible assets and other long-term assets" and "cash paid for investment" and fixed assets and long-term investment in the balance sheet. It is one-sided and narrow to obtain accounting information about cash flow only from the cash flow statement of listed companies.