Working capital management is one of the central approaches of value based management. The present objective is to reduce working capital to release liquidity associated with reduction of capital employed. Trade-offs with other company goals, especially of functional areas, are to date at the best marginally considered, although they exist for liabilities management, inventory management and receivables management. The identification and systematization of these objectives and trade-offs as well as the analyses of their interrelationships and effects on the performance of working capital management are core to the study. This study is based on a two-step approach, comprising qualitative expert interviews based on guidelines in a first step, and a quantitative cross-sectoral questionnaire survey in a second step. One central result shows: the more serious the trade-offs in liabilities management, inventory management and receivables management, the lower the performance of the processes.