Profit is NOT cash flow. It is standard accounting practice to...

Profit is NOT cash flow. It is standard accounting practice to amortize (or depreciate) over a "life". For example the new laboratory will have cost say $3m but it's life is 3 years (in accounting terms - the periods are set out in accounting rules which are audited). In this example the laboratory is deducted from "profits" at $1m/yr, however all the $3m hit cash flow during the period it was spent - it's elementary accounting. So with the laboratory the ~$3m will have been deducted from the cash balance during the quarter last year i was spent but the "profit" (more likely loss) during that quarter would have been reduced by $3m/12= $250K and the same deduction made in each of the following quarters for the remaining 33 months.