LUCRĂRI ŞTIINŢIFICE, SERIA I, VOL. XX(3) 224 EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON THE CASH FLOW STATEMENT’S UTILITY IN AN ACCRUAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM CIOBOTARU NICOLETA 1 , MESZAROS ROBERTA PETRA 1 , GOMOI BOGDAN COSMIN 1, PANTEA MIOARA FLORINA* 1 1 ”Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Romania *Corresponding author’s e-mail: bogdan_gomoi@yahoo.com Abstract: The present paper aims to emphasize the differences that exist between the accrual accounting and the treasury accounting having as a main instrument the cash flow statement. The approach is not exhaustive, studies in this field being achieved by numerous researchers both in a national and an international context. Thus, the specialized literature offers various points of view about this issue. The study is based on a cumulus of research methods, such as: the analysis, the synthesis, the induction, the deduction, the brainstorming, the case study, the sounding or the mathematical and statistical modeling. The main objective of the paper is to demonstrate that accrual accounting respects much less the “accurate image” principle in comparison with the treasury accounting. Key words: financial statements, cash flow statement, accrual accounting, treasury/cash accounting, chi-squared test INTRODUCTION The cash flow statement is the component of the financial statements that highlights cash inflows and cash outflows between two successive periods, i.e. the beginning and the end of the financial year [4]. The importance of this financial statement is particularly distinct, and even more, for trade and industrial companies, the importance of the cash flow table is indisputable, since no other financial statement directly discloses information on how the treasury was formed [10]. The cash flow statement is an extremely important piece of work, especially in the context of an accrual accounting system, since it reflects much more accurately the reality and, implicitly, the actual performance. This is indicated in the table below [7]: Table 1. Accrual accounting versus Cash accounting Accrual accounting Discrepancy between the timing of the actual income / actual expense and the timing of cash collection / payment Cash accounting Synchronization between the timing of the actual income / actual expense and the timing of cash collection / payment Source: own elaboration The cash flow table is in full correlation with the business cycles of a comany, as described in the Table no. 2 [6]. Taking into consideration the above table, based on the Romanian balance sheet structure, three categories of cash flows are described, which correspond to the business cycles of a company, namely [9]:  operating cash flows;  investment cash flows;  financing cash flows.