Chapter5 Exercises
Chapter5 Exercises
CHAPTER 5
CASH MANAGEMENT
BASIC
1. Calculating Float In a typical month, the Warren Corporation receives 140 check totaling
$113,500. These are delayed four days on average. What is the average daily float?
2. Calculating Net Float Each business day, on average, a company writes checks totaling $14,400
to pay its suppliers. The usual clearing time for the checks is four days. Meanwhile, the company is
receiving payments from its customers each day, in the form of checks, totaling $25,300. The cash
from the payments is available to the firm after two days.
a. Calculate the company’s disbursement float, collection float, and net float.
b. How would your answer to part (a) change if the collected funds were available in one day instead
of two?
3. Costs of Float Purple Feet Wine, Inc., receives an average of $13,800 in checks per day. The
delay in clearing is typically three days. The current interest rate is .018 percent per day.
a. What is the company’s float?
b. What is the most the company should be willing to pay today to eliminate its float entirely?
c. What is the highest daily fee the company should be willing to pay to eliminate its float entirely?
4. Float and Weighted Average Delay Your neighbor goes to the post office once a month and picks
up two checks, one for $9,700 and one for $2,600. The larger check takes four days to clear after it is
deposited; the smaller one takes five days.
a. What is the total float for the month?
b. What is the average daily float?
c. What are the average daily receipts and weighted average delay?
5. NPV and Collection Time Your firm has an average receipt size of $119. A bank has approached
you concerning a lockbox service that will decrease your total collection time by two days. You
typically receive 5,650 checks per day. The daily interest rate is .015 percent. If the bank charges a
fee of $160 per day, should the lockbox project be accepted? What would the net annual savings be if
the service were adopted?
6. Using Weighted Average Delay A mail-order firm processes 5,450 checks per month. Of these,
70 percent are for $55 and 30 percent are for $80. The $55 checks are delayed two days on average;
the $80 checks are delayed three days on average.
a. What is the average daily collection float? How do you interpret your answer?
b. What is the weighted average delay? Use the result to calculate the average daily float.
c. How much should the firm be willing to pay to eliminate the float?
Corporate Finance 11th edition by Ross, Westerfield, Jaffe, and Jordan 2
d. If the interest rate is 7 percent per year, calculate the daily cost of the float.
e. How much should the firm be willing to pay to reduce the weighted average float by 1.5 days?
7. Value of Lockboxes Paper Submarine Manufacturing is investigating a lockbox system to reduce
its collection time. It has determined the following:
The total collection time will be reduced by three days if the lockbox system is adopted.
a. What is the PV of adopting the system?
b. What is the NPV of adopting the system?
c. What is the net cash flow per day from adopting? Per check?
INTERMEDIATE
8. NPV and Reducing Float No More Books Corporation has an agreement with Floyd Bank,
whereby the bank handles $2.9 million in collections a day and requires a $350,000 compensating
balance. No More Books is contemplating canceling the agreement and dividing its eastern region so
that two other banks will handle its business. Banks A and B will each handle $1.45 million of
collections a day, and each requires a compensating balance of $190,000. No More Books’ financial
management expects that collections will be accelerated by one day if the eastern region is divided.
Should the company proceed with the new system? What will be the annual net savings? Assume
that the T-bill rate is 5 percent annually.
9. Lockboxes and Collection Time Bird’s Eye Treehouses, Inc., a Kentucky company, has
determined that a majority of its customers are located in the Pennsylvania area. It therefore is
considering using a lockbox system offered by a bank located in Pittsburgh. The bank has estimated
that use of the system will reduce collection time by two days. Based on the following information,
should the lockbox system be adopted?
How would your answer change if there were a fixed charge of $5,000 per year in addition to the
variable charge?
10. Lockboxes and Collections It takes Cookie Cutter Modular Homes, Inc., about five days to
receive and deposit checks from customers. Cookie Cutter’s management is considering a lockbox
system to reduce the firm’s collection times. It is expected that the lockbox system will reduce receipt
and deposit times to three days total. Average daily collections are $126,500, and the required rate of
return is 9 percent per year.
a. What is the reduction in outstanding cash balance as a result of implementing the lockbox system?
3 Questions and Exercises