Short-term placements count as likvida medel only at a known amount, tiny risk

Likvida medel are cash, disposable bank balances and certain short-term placements. Under FAR's updated page, a short-term placement qualifies only if it can readily be converted into a known amount and carries an insignificant risk of value changesFAR. The same two conditions now appear both in the introduction and in the list item defining short-term investments, so the test applies however a reader enters the text.

Previously the page described short-term investments as placements easily converted to cash, "such as short-term securities"FAR. That example is gone, and ready convertibility alone is no longer enough: the payout must be known in amount and the value risk insignificant. A holding whose redemption value is uncertain, or whose market price can move materially, does not fit the updated description and belongs elsewhere. In a cash-flow statement prepared under K3, placements outside the likvida medel concept fall under investing activities rather than forming part of the reconciled cash balanceBFN.

The wording tracks the established standard. BFN's K3, chapter 7, defines likvida medel as kassamedel, disposable balances at banks and other credit institutions, and short-term liquid placements readily convertible to a known amount and subject to an insignificant risk of value fluctuationsBFN. K3 adds a purpose test and a maturity guideline: liquid funds are held to meet short-term commitments rather than for investment, so a placement normally qualifies only when its maturity from acquisition is short, usually three months or less.

Classification matters in two places. In the balance sheet, likvida medel must be reported separately from other assetsFAR so that investors, lenders and auditors can assess short-term payment capacity. In the cash-flow statement, the year's flows are allocated to operating, investing or financing activities and reconciled against the change in likvida medel; anything reclassified out of the perimeter moves into investing activities. The kassalikviditet ratio, computed as (likvida medel + kundfordringar) / kortfristiga skulder, also builds directly on the classification, so a narrower perimeter can move the reported ratio.

Legal basis: BFN K3 chapter 7 on kassaflödesanalys, which defines likvida medelBFN.