Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Accruals on Variation of Liquid Capital in Circulation: a study in the steel and metalworking sector

The objective of this article is to show the impact of accruals in the variation of liquid capital in circulation in public companies operating in the steel and metalworking sector This article's intention is to improve the quality of accountancy information to statistically demonstrate that accruals cause alterations in results of the period which influences the financial flow of operational activities at distinct moments. For the findings empirical evidence was gathered from a target population of open public companies as listed as the 500 biggest and best Brazilian businesses according the criteria of the magazine Exame in 2003. The sample taken from this group was of the intentional, non-probabilistic type, with seven companies representing the steel and metalworking sector. The study is delineated as descriptive using the techniques of cluster and inter-percentile intervals to categorize the data necessary to draw inferences. The results demonstrate that the correlation coefficients between the accountancy result from the period adjusted by accruals and the variation of liquid capital in circulation do not present homogeny in the sector observed, but denote statistical significance. Evidence was shown that accruals cause alterations in the period of the accountancy results that don't simultaneously influence the financial flow of operational activities of companies.