Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Our first question today comes from Tobey Sommer with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. You may ask your question.
Tobey Sommer - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Thank you. You commented that orders had picked up nicely since January. And I was wondering if you could have any sense for passing out the potential late flu season effect versus a more durable trend in a pickup in demand?
Joe Boshart
Tobey, I am not sure I can do that. Clearly, the end of January represented a low point and I think, fairly the seasonal business that we would expect in Arizona and California was much weaker than we would normally expect. So, the customer doesn't tell us, it's a flu related opening, it's just that, clearly they are seeing some more patient volumes and they are trying to respond quickly to the pickup.
I would just caution that we're encouraged by the recent dynamics, and it really has been week-to-week where you see it building, if I had reported that pickup a week ago, it would have been in the low 20% increase. So we had a nice pickup in orders to the last week, and we are up year-over-year, probably for the first time in 16 months. Until those orders translate into bookings, I won't get too excited, and the fact that we really haven't seen a commensurate short-term pickup in bookings, leads me to believe that they may not be as durable as we would like.
Tobey Sommer - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Okay, thank you. And then, cash flow in the quarter was quite strong. Is there anything unusual in that or is it just good performance from all the businesses?
Emil Hensel
Nothing terribly unusual about it, Tobey. The major contributors to the cash flow in addition to net income was a reduction in receivables, we have a two day drop in our DSOs, which accounts for about $4 million of cash flow. We had an increase in deferred tax, which is always a factor due to the tax deductibility of goodwill.
When we look at the year as a whole which is probably a little more meaningful than to look at any one quarter, we had $36 million of cash flow which was about 9% higher than last year, but it's important to know that what impacted our cash flow 2007 was a $6.7 million pretax payment that we made in the first quarter to settle the California transaction losses. So, had it not been for this payment, our cash flow from operations in 2007 would have actually exceed the $40 million, and our year-over-year increase would have been around 22%.
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