Financial variables like cash flow and cash stocks are important for understanding why companies invest in new projects. Some people think this is because of problems in the financial system, but it could also be because these variables give clues about how valuable new projects will be. By studying different types of companies, we found that both financial factors and basic business factors affect how much companies invest. Small companies and those without good credit ratings are most influenced by financial factors, while bigger companies with good credit ratings are less affected by them. Overall, financial factors increase the amount companies invest by about 25% when the economy is doing well.