

Some organizations call it days inventory outstanding or inventory days of supply. Example – Receivables days ratioįollowing are the extracts of XYZ Company’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021.Days in inventory is the average time a company keeps its inventory before they sell it. The same data will be used in all the posts related to various efficiency ratios. In addition, long outstanding receivables also pose the threat of bad debts, as the chances of customers defaulting increase with the age of receivables.įollowing is an example related to calculation of trade receivables days. If those receivables would have been collected timely, that money could have been spent on some profitable activity. Customers taking longer in paying their dues results in the business suffering from the opportunity cost. High value of trade receivables days suggests that credit customers are taking more time to pay their dues than what was expected, resulting in long outstanding balances of receivables, which is a sign of inefficient receivables management. You don’t want to lose customers but at the same time, you want to collect your receivables as soon as possible. Therefore, it is important to strike the proper balance in your policies while managing receivables. Had those receivables been collected timely, that money could have been spent on some profitable activity. If the business is not able to collect its receivables efficiently, it would be suffering the opportunity cost. This also means that there are fewer long outstanding receivables balances, which is a good thing for the business. It means that the credit control department of the business has done a good job in screening of customers resulting in sales being made to quality customers who pay their dues well in time. Low value of trade receivables days suggests that business is able to convert its credit sales into cash pretty swiftly, which is a sign of efficient trade receivables management.


Trade receivables days of a similar company operating in the same industry.Comparison can be made with either of the following: However, average collection time varies across different industries, so you should be careful while comparing trade receivables days. Generally speaking, relatively lesser trade receivables days is considered good as it indicates shorter average collection time of receivables. We have initially claimed that this ratio speaks about how efficiently a business has managed its trade receivables. Let’s go into the detail of trade receivables days ratio. If the prior year’s balance sheet ( comparative information) is not available, trade receivables days can then be calculated by using closing trade receivables instead of average trade receivables in the above formula. Information about opening and closing trade receivables can be obtained from the current and prior years’ balance sheets. Net sales is the amount of gross sales made on credit less any sales returns and trade discounts.
#DAYS SALES IN INVENTORY FORMULA TRIAL#
Net sales can be extracted from the trial balance or the ledger account of sales. Information for calculating the trade receivables days is extracted from the financial statements or the underlying accounting records. Trade receivables turnover tells us how many times on average, credit customers pay their due balances in an an accounting period.Trade receivables days tells us how many days on average are taken to collect payment from customers after credit sales have been made to them.Both ratios give information about how efficiently the management of a business has converted its credit sales into cash. In other words, this ratio is a measure of average credit period availed by the customers.īoth trade receivables turnover and trade receivables days are efficiency ratios that speak about the management of trade receivables, but from different angles. Receivables days, also known as “days sales outstanding (DSO)” or “”trade receivables days”, is a financial ratio showing the average time to collect cash from a customer after making credit sale.
