Calculate your Days Sales Outstanding in seconds. Benchmark against 17 industries. See exactly how much cash is trapped in your receivables. No signup, no data leaves your browser.
Updated as you type. Benchmark is the segment median.
How to read this: Your DSO is the number of days, on average, it takes for credit sales to convert to cash. Anything above the median for your segment means working capital is sitting in AR instead of in the bank. The trapped-cash figure is the dollar value of that gap.
Your selected segment is highlighted. Lower DSO is better.
| Industry segment | Median DSO | Gap vs you |
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Sources: Hackett Group 2024 S&P 1500 benchmark study, HFMA hospital metrics, PwC working-capital reports, OpenView SaaS benchmarks. All-industries top-quartile DSO is 28 days.
AR / Revenue x Period. The same equation auditors, CFOs, and lenders use to benchmark working capital.
Compare against your segment, not a generic average. Retail B2C of 55 days is a crisis; construction 55 is excellent.
Every day above benchmark equals revenue divided by 365 in cash sitting in AR instead of in your bank.
Days Sales Outstanding is the working-capital KPI CFOs watch most closely. A 10-day improvement on a $500M revenue book frees roughly $13.7M of cash, no debt required.
DSO is the single cleanest read on how efficiently you turn invoices into cash. Lenders, boards, and acquirers use it to gauge AR discipline. A creeping DSO is usually the first signal of dispute backlog, payment-term drift, or customer credit deterioration.
Use credit sales only for the denominator (exclude cash sales). Ending AR for simplicity, average AR for precision. Always compare against your industry median, not a cross-industry average. Track YoY and QoQ trends, not single snapshots.
Clear unmatched cash from the suspense account, work the deduction backlog, automate dunning so every overdue invoice gets actioned in 24 hours, enforce payment terms, and issue invoices the same day delivery completes.
DSO = (Accounts Receivable / Credit Sales) x Days in period. For annual DSO use 365; for monthly use the days in that month. Example: AR of $1.8M on $10M annual credit sales gives DSO = (1,800,000 / 10,000,000) x 365 = 66 days. Use ending AR for simplicity, average AR for precision, and always exclude cash sales from the denominator. Only count credit sales.
Hackett Group 2024 S&P 1500 data puts the all-industries median at 46 days, with top-quartile at 28. By segment: retail B2C card-settled 1 to 3 days; retail B2B wholesale 30 to 45; manufacturing industrial 45 to 60, automotive 75+; SaaS 38 to 52 depending on SMB vs enterprise; construction 80 to 100 due to retainage; healthcare hospital systems 47 (HFMA). Benchmark to your industry median minus 8 to 12 days if you are aiming at top-quartile.
DSO measures only the AR side, days from sale to cash. The Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) is the broader CFO view: CCC = DSO + DIO minus DPO, where DIO is days of inventory outstanding and DPO is days you take to pay suppliers. High DSO extends CCC and ties up working capital. Optimizing CCC usually means shortening DSO and extending DPO while right-sizing inventory.
Most common causes: unmatched cash sitting in the suspense account (often 3 to 5 days worth), deduction backlog blocking clearance on otherwise-paid invoices, lenient or poorly enforced payment terms, disputed invoices with no active follow-up, and slow invoice issuance after delivery. A DSO 15+ days above your industry median usually points to an AR execution gap. Customers pay when asked clearly and early, not when invoices arrive late or matching breaks.
Compare against your own trend (YoY, QoQ) and your specific industry median, not a generic benchmark. A DSO of 55 is great for construction and terrible for retail. Sustained increases signal dispute backlogs, payment-term creep, or customer credit deterioration. Every day of DSO reduction on a $500M revenue book frees roughly $1.37M from working capital, which is why finance teams treat DSO as a primary operational KPI.
The calculator tells you the gap. CollectPulse, ClearMatch, and ClaimIQ close it. Book a call to see how AR teams cut DSO by 8 to 12 days in a quarter.
