What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Accenture (ACN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Accenture generated $13.2B of operating cash flow and $12.6B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 95.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Accenture (ACN) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Accenture's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Accenture (ACN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$13.2B

Capex

-$600M

Free Cash Flow

$12.6B

FCF Margin

+95.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Accenture (ACN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $12.6B

Cash flow breakdown for Accenture (ACN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$13.2B	$13.2B
Capital Expenditure	-$600M	$12.6B
Free Cash Flow	$12.6B	$12.6B
Acquisitions	-$3.66B	$8.92B
Other Investing	$39.6M	$8.96B
Share Buybacks	-$5.67B	$3.29B
Dividends Paid	-$3.94B	-$644M
Net Debt Change	-$932M	-$1.58B
Other Financing & FX	$2.11B	$534M
Net Cash Increase	$534M	$534M

Operating Cash Flow$13.2B
Capital Expenditure-$600M
Free Cash Flow$12.6B
Acquisitions-$3.66B
Other Investing$39.6M
Share Buybacks-$5.67B
Dividends Paid-$3.94B
Net Debt Change-$932M
Other Financing & FX$2.11B
Net Cash Increase$534M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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