Cash is king, particularly at times of stress, yet it is a challenge to see the full picture in company reports, says Ian Wright.

As a boy I soon learned that the advent of pocket money was a key event in my life – I (rather than my parents) could decide what to buy. Of course, the pence in my pocket did not last very long and what became important was cashflow and how to manage it. My teenage years saw holiday jobs as a necessity to develop additional cash inflows to help meet the costs of cash-consuming hobbies – cars and sailing boats.