Because of my emphasis on cash flow, you may get the impression that standard, accrual-based balance sheets and income statements are of little value, but that is not the case. We need both melody and harmony. There are actually some real limitations to looking only at cash-flow issues and cashflow statements. If cash flow were the only issue of significance, no one would bother with the other statements. You could manage solely by the company’s checkbook, in which cash is what it is at any given moment. This, of course, assumes that all receipts and disbursements are entered there on an accurate and timely basis just as with your personal checking account. Of course, few businesses run on such a cash in/cash out basis. Having the additional insights that come in the form of balance-sheet and income-statement data, though, readily offsets most of the cash-flow-only limitations.