How are cash flow statements different from profit and loss?
Profit and loss statements reflect all revenues and costs related to produce those revenues as well as costs of loans that support operations, depreciation of assets that enable the performance of the business and finally the taxes paid to the authorities. The profit and loss statement is an operating flows statement showing what happened to your business. Cash flows statement captures in part what profit and loss statement shows by way of cash flows from operations. But it also includes your investing in long term assets like CAPEX and intangible assets, as well as you bank/loan financing, payments of debt, issuance of new shares for cash and payments of dividends. These are the investing and financing sections. Another flows statement, it shows in essence where your money came from (operations whether profitable or not), investments (or disposals as the case maybe), and financing (borrowings and repayments, capital issues and dividends). Cash flow statement summarizes what caused your cash and equivalents to change between two reporting periods.