Cash flow hedge, example, advantage and disadvantage, oci, reserve, Accounting & journal entries

 


Hedge

To know what is cash flow hedge it is important to know about hedges. Now, what is a hedge? It is a type of financial instrument that businesses and investors use to mitigate risk or to prevent their assets and investments from financial issues. 

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Table of Contents



Should small businesses get into hedging?

Hedging can be beneficial for small businesses because it protects them against financial losses which can occur due to changes in the market. It can help business owners to remain their position in market volatility. But hedging can be a risky and complex process. So, before taking any steps you have to be clear about the risk involved in it.


What are the advantages and disadvantages of hedging?

Advantages of hedging

• it protects your business when volatility in the market occurs.

• it helps to diversify your investment which due to the risk of the overall portfolio reduced.


Disadvantages of hedging

• it can be time taking process and can be costly

• the hedging strategy can be complex 


What are the three types of hedging?

There are 3 types of hedging are:

1. Net investment Hedge

2. Fair Value Hedge

3. Cash Flow Hedge


1. Net investment Hedge 

 it is the Company's net investment which is used to protect their investment from the change in foreign exchange rates. This hedge is used by companies that invested in foreign countries and are afraid of currency risk. This allows the company to lock exchange rates from a specific period. 


What is a Net investment hedge Example 

 A company has an import-export business it carries products from the u.s. and supplies them to another country. If the dollar rate increases then the company has to pay an extra amount for the same product. But in a Net investment hedge, the exchange rates are fixed for a certain period. Which prevents a company from financial loose occur due to changes in foreign exchange. 


2. Fair Value hedge

 it is used to mitigate the risk of change which occur in the fair value of an asset or liability. In simple words, we can say that it is a way to protect business finances and non - finances items against changes in the market value of security and other assets.


What is a Fair Value hedge example 

when a company purchases a financial derivative, for instance, future contracts for purposes of hedge against market volatility. In this way, the company doesn't have to suffer from losses if their products or services' value decline due to market volatility.


3. Cash Flow hedge 

 this hedge prevents the company from losses that occur in a change in cash flow which is the total amount of cash that comes and goes from a company. In cash inflow conditions flow of cash in the inward company and cash outflow conditions flow of cash in the outward direction. 


What is a cash flow hedge example? 

when a company enters into a future contract and locks commodity prices for a certain period in this way company protects its commodity prices in the future and doesn't have to suffer from cash flow losses. But it has a negative side also you can not sell your commodity for the extra amount.

Must read to understand cash flow =

What is Cash flow, its head? importance of cash flow in small businesses


cash flow hedge vs fair value hedge

A cash flow hedge is used to mitigate the risk involved in variable exposure. Such as different costs, rates, prices, etc whereas the fair value hedge is used to mitigate the risk involved in the fixed exposure. Such as the same rate, cost, etc.


What does a cash flow hedge aim to protect?

A cash flow hedge aims to protect the company's cost from currency exchange and expected revenues from the future. Depending upon company circumstances degree of the forecast, pricing dynamics, etc various programs of cash flow hedging can be designed to protect their budget exposure. Such as balance sheet items hedging, static hedging, layered hedging, rolling hedging, etc.


the effective portion of the cash flow hedge

It is the portion that is effective in reducing the risk involved in the hedged items. It is calculated by subtracting the cash flow that you expected from the hedged item from the cash flow of the hedge instruments. After that effective portion is recorded on the company's financial statement, which allows the company to mitigate the risk of hedged items.

Effect portion = expected cash flow from hedge item - cash flow from hedge instrument


Advantages of the Cash flow hedge

There are various advantages of the Cash flow hedge:

1. It helps to mitigate the risk associated with various exposure.

2. It helps the company to better predict and maintain its future cash flow.


Disadvantages of the Cash flow hedge

1. The main disadvantage of a cash flow hedge is it can be more costly compared to other strategies.

2. The cash flow hedge may not be effective in hedging against market volatility.

3. The process to implement a cash flow hedge may be complex.


cash flow hedge oci

OCI means other comprehensive income and non-cash income or expense items this is recorded in the company financial statements but does not count in the net income of the company. In cash flow hedge oci conditions it is used to track losses or gains obtained by hedging instruments through the report ( financial statements). Which are not shown in the net income statement. This helps companies to manage the risk involved in hedging and maintain their finances.


cash flow hedge reserve

A cash flow hedge is a reserve that is set aside by a company to compensate for losses through a cash flow hedge. For instance: If the currency changes volatility may occur in the market for some time and in this condition to cover the company's financial losses company can use a cash flow hedge. It is calculated by subtracting the cash flow that you expected from the hedged item from the cash flow of the hedge instruments plus any amounts that are expected to be realized from the hedge instrument in the future.


How should a cash flow hedge be accounted for?

A cash flow hedge is accounted to record the effective portion of the cash flow hedge in financial statements. It is used to determine the effective portion gain or losses in other comprehensive income.


Cash flow hedge: Accounting & journal entries

In Accounting entries of Cash flow hedge fair value of the hedging instrument is recorded in the balance sheet and any changes in fair value are reported in other comprehensive income.

The journal entries of the Cash Flow hedge are:

Debit: Hedging Instrument – Fair Value 
Credit: Other Comprehensive Income 
Debit: Hedged Item – Adjusted Value 
Credit: Hedged Item – Original Value 
Debit: Income Statement – Gain/Loss from Hedge 
Credit: Other Comprehensive Income – Gain/Loss from Hedge


Related Searches 

How do hedges reduce risk?

A hedge is used to reduce the risk for small businesses and investors. For instance - there is a contract in which business sell their commodity on a fixed date and at rates that protects the business from financial loose in market volatility or change in currency.


What is the purpose of a hedging strategy?

The purpose of hedging strategy is used to mitigate risk which occurs due to changes in commodities prices,  currencies exchange rates, or prices of the stock. 


Cash flow interest rate swap

In a Cash flow interest rate swap a set of cash flow is exchanged for another set of cash flow. The reason for that is trade over the counter ( OTC ) and in this contract is done between two or more parties depending on their needs and in different ways it can be customized.

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