Net working capital is total current assets minus total current liabilities. Anything that increases current assets or decreases current liabilities will increase net working capital, and vice versa. Therefore, both the increase to Mason Company's current assets and the decrease to its current liabilities would cause an increase in net working capital, not a decrease. Net working capital is total current assets minus total current liabilities. Anything that increases current assets or decreases current liabilities will increase net working capital, and vice versa. Therefore, both the increase to Mason Company's current assets and the decrease to its current liabilities would cause an increase in net working capital. However, since both caused an increase in net working capital, the amount of the total increase is the total of the two change amounts, not their net amount. Net working capital is total current assets minus total current liabilities. Anything that increases current assets or decreases current liabilities will increase net working capital, and vice versa. Therefore, both the increase to Mason Company's current assets and the decrease to its current liabilities would cause increases in net working capital. Since both the increase in current assets and the decrease in current liabilities will cause increases in net working capital, the easiest way to solve this is to simply add the two change amounts together to calculate the amount of the total increase. Another way to solve this is to create a simple example. Let us assume that now the company has current assets of $150 and current liabilities of $75. This gives it a working capital level of $75. If the current assets increase by $120 they will be $270. If current liabilities decrease by $50, they will be $25; this gives the company a working capital of $245. This is a $170 increase. Net working capital is total current assets minus total current liabilities. Anything that increases current assets or decreases current liabilities will increase net working capital, and vice versa. Therefore, both the increase to Mason Company's current assets and the decrease to its current liabilities would cause an increase in net working capital.
|