11/08/2020
Depreciation is one big truth undermined in financial reporting. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest and Tax, Depreciation and Amortization) is very much considered in the appraisal of business performance than EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Tax). Depreciation is money spent already (wear and tear in theory) but if not covered in full, the 2 key implications are:
1. It adversely affects your Return on Investment (ROI) meaning the
business is not utilizing its fixed assets profitably and
productively.
2. The business is not generating enough sales to cover its
operational or overhead costs resulting to a negative bottom
line i.e. Net loss.
Although when the Depreciation is higher than the EBITDA resulting to a Net loss, the business could still have healthy working capital or short term liquidity to fuel the business operations. This is a classic deception for any business manager to be aware of.
By disregarding the effect of depreciation in your operating statement, you just might be flushing your investments down the drain. You have paid heavily for the Fixed Asset, recover the investment cost.
It is responsible to pay attention to your payback period- when your cash inflows can cover the investment cost. An effective way is ensuring the asset has contributed more to the business before it reaches its scrap value or the expiration of its useful life.
Therefore, for every reporting period, the EBITDA must be strong enough to cover the Depreciation cost. By ensuring this,
1. You are sensibly recouping your investments,
2. You are ensuring the assets are used productively,
3. You are earning good Returns on Investment and
4. The business would record healthy profits and be in the Margin
of Safety.
This is being and as business managers.
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