Swiss Valley Veterinary Products distributes animal health care products to commercial live-stock producers throughout the United States and Europe. Its terms of sale require cash payment within 30 days, and most customers take full advantage of this payment option. Swiss Valley buys health care products on credit from multinational pharmaceutical companies. The credit purchase terms require cash payment within 60 days. Sales are somewhat seasonal.
The following table shows monthly activities for one of Swiss Valley€™s most important business segments€”swine health care products. Cash collections are from customers and cash payments are to suppliers of swine health care products. The figures shown for Accounts receivable, Inventories, and Accounts payable represent month-end amounts. Some December amounts have been omitted for brevity.

Required:
1. In March, customers purchased $800,000 of swine health care products. Of this amount, how much did March customers still owe at month-end?
2. Cash collections totaled $640,000 in March. Explain how this figure was determined.
3. What was the amount of swine health care products purchased in March from pharmaceutical suppliers?
4. March cash payments to suppliers totaled $525,000. Explain how this figure was determined.
5. Which accounting attribute€”current month€™s gross profits or current month€™s net cash flow€”does a better job of predicting future (i.e., the next month€™s) net cash flow? Why?
6. Briefly explain why current period accrual earnings may be a better predictor of future operating cash flow than is current period operating cashflow.

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Dolor amourns in thousands Sales Cost of goods sold Dec Feb Mar Apr May an une $620 650 S 800 880 940 S 850 680 170 830 660 1,130 1,315 410 ,370 1,113 945 760 130150 115 140 170 185 500 120 520 130 Gross profit Accounts receivable Inventories Accounts pavable 500 600 1,100 610 625 985 640 160 790 840 700 180 865 900 750 190 925 820 630 770 510 640 630 480 805 665 880 710 Cash collections 640 525 Cash payments Net cash flow